Inspiration: Behind the scenes at Kravet's NYC studio

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It was the best of days in New York City.

After a week of meeting top designers, home magazine editors, fellow design bloggers and touring fabulous Manhattan show homes, came the cherry on top of the sundae.

Photo of colorful Kravet fabricAs a southwest Florida interior decorator, I have long considered Kravet the Walt Disney of the fabric and home furnishing world. The level of quality and customer service results in a tremendous comfort level for designers. I often work with Amy Jimenez at the  Kravet showroom in the Miromar Design Center in Estero. Finding just the right pattern, palettes and textures for a room is the most exciting part of my job as an interior decorator. It is a good day for me when I have clients who want fabulous fabric for a new project or want to design a piece of furniture to fit their space. It is always a great collaboration between a decorator or designer and Kravet.

Currently, I am working with Kravet on a gorgeousBarbary Barry carpet collectionBarbara Barry's Indochine Collection for Kravet.  Barbara Barry Indochine rug for a vacation home for one of my Fort Myers decorating clients. Fabric for drapes, pillows and several other projects.

So, on this last day in NYC, I headed to the Flatiron district where Cary Kravet and the Kravet family opened their studio and welcomed 168 designers with open arms for breakfast and a studio tour. They made us feel like family and gave us a peek behind the scenes. Shared a few secrets that are soon to be announced, showed us the latest fabric designs, product development and merchandising for three of the industry's respected brands: Kravet, Lee Jofa and Brunschwig & Fils. In a word: Inspiring.

My heartfelt thanks to Gary, Lisa and Ellen Kravet. To Beth Greene, Ann Felstein and Jennifer Powell. You gave me my best day in NYC.

 

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Decorating for the soul: The comfort of a friend's porch

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In a time when we are all searching for comfort in some form, I think of porches. For me, porches help to make sense of a world that has gone off the charts.

A friend's porch.

I think about one of my closest friends who decided it was time to make an addition to her home. She wanted to add an L-shaped porch that wrapped around the entire back of the house.  A place that would extend the living area and add another dimension to this already charming, vintage home in Winter Park.  

I was happy to be asked to help because there is nothing more fun than coming up with a decorating plan for a friend whose taste you know. Hers: a combination of eclectic, cottage chic with very cool accessories collected from her travels and living abroad. It is much more than just a porch.

Today, it is a place where friends gather. Family celebrations take place. Important decisions are made. Friends have shared happy times on this porch. Solved world problems and a few of our own. Planned road trips. Shared dreams and concerns. It is always a place of comfort.

Big wicker chairs, candles, tables filled with beautiful orchids, comfy pillows, breezy fans. It is a place where you can get off the treadmill and enjoy the peace and quiet. Simple and uncomplicated.

It is one of my favorite places. My home away from home. They say the distance to a friend's house is very short. The same goes for the back porch.  

So, on a day where we still cannot make sense of it and the horror of 9/11 still lingers heavily, I think of the comfort of a friend's porch. 

Take it outside: Tips for affordable, fun and functional outdoor living space

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We are having a sizzling summer in southwest Florida and most of us are staying as close to the air conditioning as possible!  However, summer will not last forever and now is a good time to think about these tips from my article in ASID Professional Design Magazine. They will help you to enjoy your your outdoor spaces when the weather allows time on the lanai or porch!  
  
Special to ASID Professional Design magazine, Summer 2011Photo of cover of ASID Professional Design magazine
 
By Wrenda Goodwyn, ASID Industry Partner
As a decorator, I have always believed the outdoor space is as important as the  indoor space.  It extends your living area, adds an additional room to the home and can be a cozy retreat.  Whether designing a small patio in a condo or apartment, a huge lanai with pool or a screened porch, it can be the favorite part of a Florida home all year.  And it can be done affordably!
 
Come up with a plan. Do you want this to be an extension of the living area through open doors (use similar fabric and furnishings) or do you want it to be a separate nook apart from the living area (use wicker, antiques, eclectic collections).  How do you want the space to feel?  Tropical, beach cottage, contemporary, country, cozy, etc.   Be sure to work with the client to determine your direction and have a plan before they begin making purchases!
 
Furniture: Incorporate weather- resistant furniture: sofa, chairs, chaise lounges, dining table.  My favorites:  rattan sea grass, wicker, metal, mosaic table tops.  (Pottery Barn, West Elm, Aida Gray Home, Pier 1, Restoration Hardware).  Tip:  Think comfort. Source: West Elm.
 
Color: Tropical paint colors and fabric prints.  Tip:  This is a chance to do something a little different than anywhere else in the home.  Bright and tropical or more muted and subdued colors.  
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Lunch with Alexa Hampton: The Language of Interior Design

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When I had "Lunch with Alexa Hampton" and heard her presentation at the Miromar Design Center in Photo of cover of Alexa Hampton bookEstero this week, I was already a huge fan of her stunning designs. Her ideas about what makes a house not just pretty, but extraordinary, are inspiring.  And they remind me what I love about interior decorating.

Plus, the fact that she once sold her Volkswagon to purchase a damask club chair made by the famous New York upholsterer Guido De Angelis.  Maybe a little extreme but I think we can all relate.

And her secret for removing red wine from furniture (which she jokingly said that she has done a few times): One jigger of Ivory dish wash mixed with one jigger of hydrogen peroxide.  Information you can use.

Photo of Alex Hampton autograph for Wrenda GoodwynWhen I spelled my name for her to sign my book: W-R-E-N-D-A, she said "Sir Christopher Wren!"  I was amazed.  No one ever makes that connection. Wren was my father's middle name and my mother made it up from there. Being from the Williamsburg, Virginia area, it is a big name in historical architecture and I have spent years going to Wren's famous architectural masterpieces in Europe.  Of course she knew Wren.  She laughingly said that she would never forget my name with that connection. 

And I surely could not forget hers.

I already knew that Alexa was the daughter of the late interior design legend Mark Hampton.  And I knew from a previous seminar that she is one of America's most influential designers herself having been listed in Architectural Digest and House Beautiful as one of the country's top designers.  She designs the interiors of landmarks such as the Trowbridge House in Washington, DC, the official guesthouse for former visiting Presidents.  She served as senior design consultant for the 25th anniversary of the PBS series, This Old House.  She decorated a dressing room for Barbara Walters.

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Antique Market Find: Discovering a neglected treasure and bringing it back to life

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It was a very sad, shabby cabinet that had been propped up in the dirt.  Almost an afterthought.  Neglected, it looked like it had all but given up being noticed, much less purchased.   No one even stopped to think of the possibilities.  In all fairness, it had lots of competition in the acres of treasures at Renningers Antique Market in Mt. Dora this past weekend.  But this was its lucky day and mine.

The nice vendor said that it was a very old medicine cabinet that he had taken out of a farmhouse in Alabama that was facing demolition.  He was only asking $30.  We did not try to deal.  We knew we had something special.

My husband, a miracle worker at bringing old pieces back to life, could restore this primitive piece back to its earlier days.  Inside there were marks from medicine bottles. Upon cleaning off the layers and layers of dirt and taking it apart, a label on the back of the mirror revealed that it was over 100 years old.  After some minor repairs and cleaning up the original hardware, careful not to remove any of the remaining paint, it almost beamed with thanks for saving it.

It now hangs proudly on the cottage bathroom wall of a collector of all things shabby and primitive (me). Someone who appreciates its peeling paint, distressed wood and deep nooks for treasures.  It is a treasure itself.  Purchased from the nice vendor who did not recognize the gem that he brought from Alabama to Mt. Dora so we could take it home and give it a new life.