Million Dollar Decorators: My Take Episode 4

Has it really been 4 episodes? And is it just me, or are they getting better? I love it when we get to see the designers doing what they do best, and getting a peak at their inner workings and methods along the way. As you already know, Mary is hands down, my favorite designer on the series ... though Kathryn is quickly becoming a close second ... and we got to see Mary spend $50K on a home office for boutique clothing designer Jill Roberts.

Mary really does love herself a bold patterned floor. Take a look at these other painted and patterned floors from her portfolio:

But I mean, look at the before of the room above:

She had to do something! And after hearing that the floor in Jill's office cost $8,000(GASP!!) it's still cheaper than tile.

This magazine shot is actually from the house that we got to see in the first episode. You remember, the one that went up on the market after Mary did the guest house? Love this photo SO much more than the ones in the real estate photos I showed on my first post about the house.

Now, I hate to say this, but as sure as I do, someone will say I don't know what I'm talking about ... but I think that this whole room was fake, staged for the show. Hear me out ... I just find it interesting that the room isn't quite what you'd think of when you think of Mary ... and some of the furniture she used in the office looks exactly like furniture from her own rooms she designed years earlier in DIFFERENT homes ... take a look:

 Sure, she said she had an office chair just like that on the show ... but isn't that a little convenient?

Do those chairs look familiar to you? And for someone so well published to be completely without those pictures somewhere on the WWW, it's a little ... well, odd. For me, anyway. I'm going to give it some more thought, and if I find any truth to the story, I'll fork it over for sure!

Then Kathryn worked with her client, who quite honestly, is just a little too high maintenance for me. We don't really get the jist of the project from the tape, but 6 to 8 weeks, DOES seem unreasonable for the amount of work that they want to do for the space. It'll be interesting to see it come together - and to see if Kathryn doesn't reach across the table and pull Shannon's hair out!

JAM throws a party for Ross, and Kathryn says that her birthday present to Ross is in the driveway? What the hell!? I don't have anyone who leaves me birthday presents in the DRIVEWAY! Except for my dogs Abby and D ... but those aren't the kind of 'presents' I think she's talking about. All the lovey-dovey JAM/Ross interactions made me admire their relationship (UNTIL) they showed previews of next weeks episode and Ross feverishly throws his hair into a scrunchie after JAM essentially tells him he's more talented. Ah - a true gay relationship comes to the forefront! Ha-ha!

Oh, and how could I forget, Martyn. I'd die to work with the client list he has ... but I wonder if this is shameless promotion? It's becoming this " look at how many celebrities I know " thing, which if you watched and can remember 'Material World' he had the same sort of schtick. So, tonight we get to see him play with Jimmy Choo's (yes, we're all jealous) and next week, Daisy Fuentes? Ah, do you think the Obama's interviewed him before they chose Michael Smith?

If they did, I'm sure we'll hear about it at the reunion! See you FRIDAY with a few pics of the pergola. (It's finally finished!) Til' then - happy decorating. Oh, and a BIG BIG thank you to my friend, Joni of Cote de Texas who featured my trumeau project (tutorial coming soon) today on her blog. Run over and check it out: http://cotedetexas.blogspot.com/2011/06/addiction-to-mirrors-how-to-make.html

TUESDAY: Inspiring Spaces by Jane Moore



Who doesn't remember this magazine cover from Spring of 2008? The Dallas home of Wisteria's owners Shannon and Andrew Newsom, quite possibly interior design royalty. Andrew's mother is Lisa Newsom, founder and editor-in-chief of a little magazine called VERANDA. Shannon's mother is Houston interior designer, and shop owner, Jane Moore who is responsible for the gorgeous rooms in the Veranda feature of 2008. Jane, a Houston staple for years, is like a few other Tuesday Designer's and doesn't have a website! Can you believe it? So, without further ado:

Gorgeous, right? Hope you've found inspiration in these images, and on a slightly different topic, I'd like to congratulate two of my best bloggy friends for their upcoming magazine features. Brooke Giannetti of the amazing blog: Velvet & Linen has an 8-page feature on their Channel Islands home in the July-August issue of Veranda (coming soon!!) and Joan, who chronicles her stunning home renovation project on the uber-inspiring blog: for the love of a house just shot her whole-house feature for Renovation Style, which will be on stands (fingers-crossed!) soon.

Stop by and congratulate these two, and I'll see you tomorrow for my opinionated re-cap of the Million Dollar Decorators episode on Bravo!

My Other Tables at the Lewiston Tour of Kitchens

Thanks for all of your compliments to the table I showed you as a teaser to the tour here. I hope that anyone local was able to make the tour, and if you did, I'm sure you had a great time! The second house I was asked to set tablescapes for was a beautiful Victorian Mansion on the water, which is currently for sale and can be seen here: http://www.coldwellbankertalarico.com/real-estate/New-York-State-Alliance-MLS/Residential/property/B372320-976-River-Rd-Porter-NY-14174/

Beautiful, right? So I was inspired by the Victorian architecture to build a Victorian themed tablescape in their formal dining room:

I loved the idea of using ferns for the table (as they're tell-tell Victorian) as well as the antique bound books and aged brass candlesticks. Thanks to my blog sponsor: CREATIVE CANDLES for the beautiful 34" taper candles I was able to use on the table. Stay tuned for a giveaway to win a pair of these for yourself! Other fun things: Monogrammed napkins, miniature salt/pepper shakers (Christmas Tree Shoppe), Cross Bottles (on Buffet) made by Me! If you're interested, let me know!

The next space (in the same house) was the breakfast room which the family uses as their primary dining room. I wanted something less fussy than the formal dining room - but still relative to the theme and the architecture - so I chose a Victorian Farmhouse setting with beautiful Buffalo Pottery Blue Willow Dishes:

A special thanks to Novica, who provided me with the beautiful silk scarf, ate grass trays, and a few other goodies I've got tucked up my sleeve for another project. Fun things for this setting: The pottery of course (a steal at $30 from craigslist) the flower arrangement by Linda at Summertime Blooms and the Lewiston area wine glasses (homeowner).

I'm so happy to have shared these with all of you, and thanks to Susan at Between Naps on the Porch for letting me link up with her party. If you're interested in anything you see in these pictures, please email me as some items are for sale. See you Sunday with a garden update!

Million Dollar Decorators: My Take Episode 3

As a second reminder, this is clearly my opinion, and any other opinion stated on this blog in comments or by me are quoted as opinion, and not fact. I do not know these designers, nor the editors of BRAVO who are creating the story we are all enjoying.

So before the show aired tonight, I hopped on over to The Skirted Roundtable and listened to the ladies (Megan, Joni, and Linda) give their opinions on the series. It's a great session, so if you have 30-minutes, I hope you get over to listen. Until you do, here's what I found most interesting:

Beautiful Megan, who lives in LA, said she was in the studio of Nathan Turner, when his assistant said that the show had been so hectic, because they were juggling real clients, and the "clients" for the show. Interesting, right? She also said that she believed that Martyn's drama over Sharon Osbourne's apartment was completely fake (which I agree with) and that she also had been around my favorite on the show (Mary McDonald) and she said that Mary is funny, like humorous funny, and incredibly easy to warm up to - which is not really the way that she comes off on the show. Living in Los Angeles, Megan (who has PERFECT eyebrows BTW) Megan has some bright insight to these designers and their somewhat real-life persona's.

Given that post, and all of the comments around blogland, a lot of you are watching ... and a lot of you are talking! So onto my thoughts on tonight's episode:

Shannon Factor, wife of MaxFactor heir, hires Kathryn Ireland to design (or I should say rearrange) her home. Can you say hoarder? The house is quite beautiful, traditional, and quite a challenge for Ireland. As the furniture keeps coming in, you can see Kathryn's migraine swelling. But I have to say, given the client, the stuff, and the attitude: Ireland came through beautifully for the Factors. Especially given the befores from the prior owner ... check it out: http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/532-Spoleto-Dr-Pacific-Palisades-CA-90272/2138629318_zpid/#1

Martyn (who, really?? drinks wheat grass shakes in a robe every morning?) heads to Mexico to "train" the house staff of porno king Joe Francis just how the house should be kept. So off to Punta Mita Mr. Diva goes ... proclaiming "we are going to need a lot of mah-ga-rita's to get through this!" Given that he designed everything for Joe before Francis went to jail, 5-years ago, he probably had a good idea of how this was gonna go down. But before we get into that drama ... let's take a look at what is actually fantastic work by MLB:

These photos of Joe Francis's home have been online for quite a while - and show Bullard's design from more than 5-years ago. In fact, I remember when Discovery Channel chronicled Bullard's drama in designing the property on their unfortunately short-lived show: Material World.

Then beautiful Jeffrey and boyfriend Ross ask: "Who want's to hire a fatty? Really?" Well, JEFFREY! Let me point you to my clients! LOL! Anyway - hottie mc hottie pants is designing the shower of an LA gym, which he claimed he could do in 5-days ... with $20,000. Now weren't we just talking to him about doing something on a more realistic budget? Perhaps, we should have included, a realistic deadline. Course, he doesn't really "do" anything, except complain about the drain and fluff the towels.

Sweet, sweet Mary gets into her book (which she calls her first) in this episode. I actually own the book, and I absolutely love!

So, ultimately - lots of rooms this episode, so much better than last week. I was impressed with Kathryn's restyling, Martyn's way of teaching the Francis staff (well, they're not staff now - they've all been fired since the shoot in October), and JAM's gratuitous showing off. Good for you, fitty!

TUESDAY: Inspiring Spaces by Betty Burgess

Hi again blog friends! It's Tuesday, so you know what that means! Today I had to share the very few but ultra inspiring pictures of spaces created by Atlanta designer, Betty Burgess. One of the reasons I have so few inspiration photos is the same reason I don't have much information on anonymous Burgess: She doesn't have a website! I know - we're shaking our heads in amazement right? When everyone you know has a blog or a www. it's hard to believe that such a talented designer wouldn't want her portfolio available for everyone to drool over.

Still, we know she's from Atlanta, amazingly gifted, and responsible for creating beautiful spaces like these: (enjoy!)

Lewiston Tour of Kitchens: THIS WEEKEND!

The annual tour of kitchens is this weekend, and is sure to be a wonderful way to spend the day in Western New York. Six houses, with more than 15 tablescapes, and 8 wonderful restaurants/chefs with amazing and beautiful amuse bouche will be ready for you and your friends to enjoy! I was asked to be a part of the tour after helping with two houses on the Christmas Tour of Homes this past season. I have three tables in the tour, in two different homes, but wanted to share with you the one I finished today with the help of Linda O'Connor of Summertime Blooms. (Flowers). Hope you like it:

Tickets for the tour are only $25/person and are available at the website: http://www.tourofkitchens.net/ or at any of the homes on the tour. If you go, I'll see you there - and if you're not local - you can find pictures of my tablescapes on the blog this Sunday evening.

Oh, and if you are local, can I take a few extra lines to tell you that if you're looking for flowers - you needn't look any further than Linda O'Connor at Summertime Blooms. Linda donated her flowers and her services to all of the designers for the tour, and the flowers she has put together for all of my tables are better than any I've seen locally. You can contact her through her website: http://www.summertimeblooms.com/ or visit her during any of the Clarence or Williamsville Farmers Markets.

And a big hug and thank you to The Country Doctor in Lewiston who loaned me the beautiful wide gold rim wine glasses, wood and brass candlesticks, and the Moroccan inspired mirrors. These items will all be for sale at their store on Monday after the show.

Thank you to Susan at Between Naps on the Porch for letting me post this on her Tablescape Thursday post via inlinkz.com

Million Dollar Decorators: My Take on Episode 2

Jeffrey Alan Marks worked on his LaJolla install.  Furniture alone totalled $3-million, and that gave me pause. I'm not suggesting that he's not talented (we all know he's beautiful), but wouldn't we all be able to put a beautiful room together if we had $3-million to shop around the globe with? What's worse? They (perhaps through the creative drama building editing) had nothing done with just 72-hours until they turned the house over! Oh, and yes - they'd been shopping for 3-years!? Even down to the last minute they were missing furniture. So I nearly clapped when his partner Ross said: "You can't work on a house for three year's and not have a bed show up!" You're right, it would make you look like an idiot! But luckily it showed up, and the house really looked beautiful.

I'm sure that the 7-bedroom, 10-bathroom house had quite a bit of square footage to furnish - but $3-million?

Then, Nathan worked on a patio for his client Melissa. The house was in Laguna Beach with this fantastic view, and given the interior of her home, the space outside (I thought) was actually quite befitting. The antique terra cotta tile floor was stunning! But when he said that she probably spent $100,000 - I nearly spat diet coke across the room! It was beautiful, but that's a lot of buck ... for (I'm sorry Nathan, I love you) not a lotta bang. Perhaps it was the camera, the angle, the light - there's 1,000 factors! And I looked high and low for a portfolio image to see if I was wrong ... but, none to be found.

Martyn's a choc-o-holic! Go figure!

Mary worked on the guest house I showed you last week. But I lvoed that she hung out with Dan Marty at Maison Au Naturel ... course he watched her like a hawk! Did you notice? She's just like me (I can tell that because I've seen 2-hours of snippets of her edited personality) and she touches everything she sees! At prices like Dan's - I think I'd be ready to catch a falling Ostrich egg at any time!

Suffice it to say ... I don't know that I loved the show this week. The best part was Jeffrey pushing Ross into the pool. Your thoughts?