I know someone who is very good friends with Christopher Spitzmiller so we discussed setting up a profile and tour of his studio but New York Social Diary beat me to it so I figured I might as send you there to read it. It's a great look inside his home and what it takes to create his exquisite and expensive lamps. I hope it also serves as inspiration for anyone who is thinking about starting their own business. Enjoy! 
I, like many others, fell head over heels this week for the home of Lisa Borgnes Giramonti and her new blog, A Bloomsbury Life. There were only a few photos posted of the interiors but from what I could see, I knew this woman had talent and an interesting tale to tell and I wasn't wrong! The more I learn about her, the more I feel like she's a modern day Auntie Mame living life to the fullest. I was dying to see the rest of her home and she was kind enough to agree to let me post them for everyone to see. I just know you are going to love her and her home as much as me!
Lisa and her husband bought their home a year ago and have "slowly been turning it from a bland matronly 1930's Monterey Colonial into a somewhat eccentric little English manor house. Smack dab in the middle of Hollywood, California." I love that the house has a name plaque that was fabricated from a small company in Cornwall and a door knocker picked up on the side of the road in India!
As I mentioned earlier this week, you either have design sense or you don't and even though Lisa didn't study design, you can tell that she has a great eye and a flair for juxtaposing interesting patterns and objects. She also has a great sense of humor and doesn't take the whole thing too seriously as you can tell from the sheep in the foyer.
The bench was purchased from a local antiques store but was upholstered in fabric from a mens robe from Uzbekhistan that she bought on Ebay. I guarantee everyone's going to head straight to ebay now looking for mens robes from Uzbekhistan! It's beautiful!
This is the photo that made me let out a little gasp! What a fabulous dining room!
The wallpaper is hand tinted by Deb Bowness and adds to the English character of the home. There is a great shot of the dining room at night on her blog.
Also adding to the Englishness (is that a word?) is a door she had made that is padded and covered in faux leather (she said she would have liked to do in real leather, except that she has a seven year old son) and studded with nail heads. Lisa said, "I made it as an homage to all the baize doors of great English manors."
The detail of the door and doorplate are stunning!
When they bought the home, the living room was a big white blank slate so they had custom bookshelves installed along one whole wall. You can see some of Lisa's embroideries that I will discuss later on the shelves.
Another shot of the living room shows that she's not afraid of color!
I love that she bucked tradition and places a round glass and wood table in the bowed window instead of a traditional seating arrangement.
If I lived near Lisa, this would be the view I would have as I pressed my nose up against the glass for a closer look at her amazing living room!
I really love the old fashioned looking kitchen with wallpaper by Timorous Beasties, lamp by Circa Lighting and her beloved Aga stove in background.
One of the bathrooms upstairs has been completed and was papered in Cole & Son Egerton.
Another view of the beautiful bathroom.
One of Lisa's favorite stores is The Rug Company, which is where she found her beloved Matthew Williamson Vishnu needlepoint hanging. I told you she had a great mix!
Among the fabulous photos on her inspiration board is her adorable son!
One of the other things you must check out are Lisa's embroideries! I cannot get over how detailed and intricate they are and the best part is that she is self taught! My favorite is the view of her NYC apartment above. "My pieces consist of portraits of friends, vacations I've taken, places I've lived and important talismans in my life. I seek to illustrate my life through thread in the same way that the Bayeux Tapestry and 17th century stumpwork pieces provided a first-hand and immediate glimpse into the lives of the past."
"I also create postmodern samplers which reflect my point of view on society today and also offer an opportunity to explore feminist themes. For me, embroidery is a way to physically connect to traditional "women's work" of the past and at the same time create an intimate and slightly subversive look at modern life today."
I also appreciate the slowness of the craft. My more complicated pieces can take up to 3 or 4 months to finish and in a world which increasingly seems to value speed over content, this medium signifies my small rebellion against the "now" generation and my commitment to the merits of "slow art."
Those of us in the design field like to joke that "decorating is soooo glamorous!" (Meant to be read with sarcasm!) And installations are the least glamorous but most satisfying part of decorating! I spend the day at The Bachelorette Pad installing the new furnishings and moving other pieces around. Well, I didn't move the heavy stuff. The fabulous professionals at The Padded Wagon did the heavy lifting. I don't want to turn this into a commercial for them but I've used a lot of movers and they are the best for my needs. They are also handymen who will install draperies and chandeliers and even microwaves like they did today. If you ever need some professional help, they are your men."I was so excited to get home today cause I thought you were going to do a great job. But this is truly amazing. I am so beyond thrilled you have no idea. You made me so happy. The best way I can describe is to say that it finally after five years feels like "home." But only that home belongs to a stylish friend of mine. I was having such a crappy day that I thought I needed to go for a run to feel better but now I don't want to leave. This place is so great. You should be so proud of yourself. I can't get over the bedroom. Its amazing. But I agree it needs art. Art will be like the frosting on an amazing cake! Thank you is not enough!"
I can't decide if I love the living room or bedroom best but as you can see below, the living room really did get a dramatic makeover. We had discussed buying a new larger bookcase for this wall and looked at several options but budgetary concerns took precedence. I love working with pieces that a client already owns so I thought maybe I could make it work if we moved it out of the corner (nobody puts baby in the corner...couldn't resist!) and flanked it by a pair of the amazing vintage chairs that The Bachelorette bought from Jayson while on a trip to Chicago. She actually bought a set of four and I wasn't sure what I was going to do with the extra two so this seemed like just the place! I also rearranged the shelves so now all of her mementos have a special place.
I also move the plaid arm chair to near the window and paired it with a new reading lamp and a brown drum table that she inherited from one of her sisters. We have picked out a new fabric to have the chair reupholstered but since you know that upholstery is expensive, we're holding off on actually having the work done for a little while. While I was there, I also restyled the area under the television so that the picture frames hides the paraphernalia behind them.
I spent a lot of the day ironing linens and creating a dreamy bedroom. Anyone who wants to become an interior designer needs to realize that there is no job that is too big or too small. You will be ironing and cleaning and on your hands knees plugging things in and getting dirty. Be prepared. We still need to find lamps for the bedroom which is my weekend project but even without them, the room looks so much pulled together as you can see from the before photo below. I might also find a patterened fabric for a boudoir pillow to add a little more color to the bed.
Bedroom - Before
We already bought the draperies but I need to buy new hardware before they can be hung. I'm not going to ruin the surprise and tell you what they look like but the will pull the whole room together perfectly! Now I just have to find a chandelier!
I also had the men switch the placement of the large armoire and the dresser. It really does look much better and now the draperies will have more room to drape. The Bachelorette also had some things on the floor so I moved one of her old garden chairs into the bedroom and now she has the perfect place to sit her gym bag.
I read this quote from interior designer Veere Grenney in the November/December 2008 issue of Australian Vogue Living and it really resonated with me. "If I am doing a room for someone, I really care about them and not how it will look in a photograph. I want to make them feel safe, to make them feel important. I really want people to have a happy time when they're in that space Otherwise, what's the point?" I feel exactly the same way. Making people happy is the glamorous part even if the installations aren't!
Patience can be a virtue in the design world. Clients need patience to wait for furniture that takes months to complete and sometimes designers need patience to see the fruition of all their hard work. Such is the case with the new wallpaper line from Katie Ridder. She started the project two years ago as a summer project with her children and now her new baby, the wallpaper line is available through Holland & Sherry. 
I'm lucky to know Laurie Reynolds who works for Katie and I was very excited when she mentioned the new line a few months ago. She helped to work on the project along with Robin Goldman to whom Katie would bring back her ideas every September. The line consists of 7 patterns and an array of colorways that resulted in 40 different wallpapers.
Laurie was sweet enough to facilitate a phone interview between me and Katie and she couldn't have been nicer. I was wondering why she started with wallpaper and not fabric and I think she was much too modest when she answered that with so many different fabrics available on the market she didn't think she couldn't compete. But her love of stencils led her to wallpaper when developing a line of stencils proved too difficult.
Katie and I can both remember our mothers tackling do it yourself wallpaper projects growing up but for a while wallpaper fell out of favor so it's nice to see that it is definitely making a comeback. It may not be as easy as painting as Katie pointed out but it really does make a great impact. 
Since I am in the midst of going out on my own, I was anxious to hear how Katie started her own firm. She doesn't have a design degree either but she did say that she got the best training possible when she worked for House & Garden and House Beautiful. It took a lot of work and skill to take an empty house and create a story for a magazine. She then opened a store on the Upper East Side which led to customers asking her to help them out with their homes. And the rest as they say, is history! 
When I was looking through Katie's portfolio online, I noticed some new projects and some of the best designs I've seen in a while in the design world. I love her use of color and that her style is not cookie cutter. It really looks like she tailors the decor to the client and the space which lots of interesting details and patterns. I've posted many of my favorites here and I hope you enjoy them as much I did. I also want to thank Katie for taking time out of her busy day to inspire me! Hopefully with a little patience, I will have a portfolio like hers someday! 
