This is Westweek continued…
The Editor at Large panel on Design Revolution was also very informative. I got a chance to meet and talk to Ronda Carman editor of
Allthebestblog.com. She is one of the bloggers who inspired me to start Shoebox Décor. Ronda was very lively and amply willing to discuses the direction blogs are going in. We both feel they will never replace shelter magazines such as
Elle Décor but we do believe the content we post helps to give the magazines a boost. Considering her hectic travel schedule, Ronda was very inviting and personable which is how I thought she would be from reading her blog.
While waiting for the keynote to start I had the opportunity to reconnect with fellow Upward Bound House interior designer
Vanessa de Vargas. I was amazed that even though she has a laundry list of projects, she still finds time to blog. The rest of the Editor at Large panel included interior designer
Brad Ford, HGTV executive
Jillian St. Charles, editor of DécorDemon.com
Brian Patrick Flynn, and last but not least founder of 1stDibs.com
Michael Bruno. The thing I took away from the panel discussion is that they don’t make money from their blogs but they do make money because of their blogs. So if you’re looking to start a blog to supplement your income it may not be the best idea. Lucky for me Shoebox Décor is a passion and I don’t have to worry about it feeding my piggy bank.
My last tidbit of Westweek information is for all you HGTV lovers. Jillian St Charles informed me that they don’t have any small space shows planned for the near future but they do have a lot of small space content that will be add to their web site, so stay tune for that…Happy Blogging Everyone!
Ronda, Brad, Vanessa
Michael, Jillian, Brian
Eddie Ross, Jathian Kochar and Me at Elle Decor keynote
As most of you know I attended Westweek last week and had a wonderful time. There was three full days of informative events and discussions. I know I should start my recap with the first event I attended but I just can’t wait to tell you about hearing Barbara Barry speak and finally meeting her. She was at Westweek to talk about her new collection for Kravet and her inspiration behind its development. If you didn’t already know that Barbara is an icon in the design industry then you would have found out when they had to move the presentation to a bigger facility to accommodate a larger audience. Once she started to speak you could tell why she is a staple in the design world. The ease and elegance in which she discussed her trip to Asia and its influence on her new collection made me want to pack my bags and head to the Far East ASAP. The cherry blossom and trellis prints in the collection fully capture the essence of Asia as only Barbara Barry can. The feminine touch and presence of past Barry collections is still evident but a bit of the exotic has been added.
Now is where I explain to you why I didn’t get a picture of the collection and why you should forgive me. The Barbara Barry presentation started at 2:00 and went on until 3:00. The Christiane Lemieux at Robert Allen/Beacon Hill event, which I also wanted to attend started at 2:30 and was scheduled to end at 3:00. With these events slightly overlapping I had just enough time to run downstairs and buy Christiane’s new book “Undecorate” in hopes that I had enough time to actually have her sign it. Once I had a copy of the book in hand I ran back upstairs to Kravet to get in line (a long line) to talk to Barbara and to get my picture taken with her. Once that was finished I had just enough time to run back downstairs to get in line (another long line) to have Christiane sign my copy of her book. In all that haste I have two regrets. One is I didn’t get a picture (any photographers out there want to join me next year?) of the collection and two is I didn’t get to hear Christiane speak about building a design business in the modern landscape. The short time I did get to speak with Christiane was quite lovely. She signed copies of her book with ease and when she talked to you it was as though you were the only one in the room. I wanted to ask her why she never looked rushed or overwhelmed with everything she had going on. Guess I will have to save that question for another time. So that is my recap on two of the design worlds most exquisite ladies and I hope you will all forgive me for my two mini regrets…Happy Designing Everyone!
