Young Designer to Watch: Elizabeth Bauer

One of things that makes me happy are all the wonderful comments and emails that I receive from my readers everyday. A lovely note came on December 31st from one of my readers in France who said, "I love the way you write about other designers without any jealousy, au contraire, you are always so enthusiastic about other peoples work." As we all know, there aren't that many magazines left for designers to have their work published so I consider myself lucky to have a public forum to tell another designer how much I appreciated their hard work or to give a young designer some much needed publicity. I also love giving my design friends a shout out on their accomplishments!

Today I am especially happy to announce that my friend Elizabeth Bauer was named one of Traditional Home's 20 Young Designers to watch! That's a bedroom she designed above! Elizabeth is one of those great people that you meet for the first time, in my case at last year's Design on a Dime, and feel like you've known forever! She started out working for a designer on Nantucket and now has her own successful design firm in New York as well as a fabulous shop in the West Village.

I told Elizabeth that I like to describe her shop as Paris meets Palm Beach which she loved since those are two of her favorite cities! The shop combines her vintage finds with lots of bold patterns and bright colors that look fresh and fun!

Elizabeth is also a member of one of my design groups that we have nicknamed "Decorator's Anonymous." (Hello my name is Heather and it's been four days since my last visit to the D&D!) It's wonderful to come together with other young designers who also work mostly alone. We share great vendors, business advice on things like contracts and billing, and sometimes just vent about our frustrations! As one of the other members joked, it's like AA but even better because we can drink! I encourage everyone to create a design support group in your area!

As you can see from some of the photos of Elizabeth's shop, she has lots of great artwork and accessories that work for design projects or for your own apartment! I hope you'll stop by the next time in you're in the village and if you want to be really nice, you can vote for Elizabeth for the Traditional Home Readers Choice Award! Merci!

Elizabeth Bauer Design

43 Greenwich Avenue

New York, NY 10014

212-255-8625

www.elizabethbauerdesign.com

Better Late than Never!

One of my absolute favorite rooms at the Traditional Home Hampton Designer Showhouse last summer was the masculine bedroom suite designed by Bradley Thiergartner Interiors that I never actually posted! Sometimes as a blogger you get sidetracked or another event happens soon after one you are covering or you have paying clients that require your attention! So I'm going back through my files to bring you some of stories that I never got to post. Hope you enjoy them!

When I first heard the name Bradley Thiergartner I thought it was one person but the firm is actually made up of Benjamin Bradley and David Thiergartner. They describer their style as Tailored Traditional and that could also describe their room at the Hampton Designer Showhouse.

Clearly the man who inspired the room design is a world traveler who's collected items from around the globe including globes!

The room was filled with great art that was hung in unexpected places like beside the bedside table.

There are certain pieces in the space like the zebra on the wall and animal print pillow that add that feeling that the room has traveled to Africa and make me think of Hemingway.

The gallery wall mixes styles and mediums to reflect a very personal collection of art.

One of the things that I really loved about the room was the great attention to detail. I appreciate when designers of Show House rooms take the time to add in items that are used by the mysterious owner like the Mrs. John L. Strong stationery and pencils seen on the desk.

Wouldn't you love sitting at the desk writing letters while you gazed at the beautiful landscape painting hung at sitting eye level?!

The seating area at the end of the bed works for reading a book or watching the television that is housed in the shelving across from it. I also love that the two chairs don't match and the casual feeling of the straw trunk.

Yes, we all know that smoking is bad but I am sure the world traveler who owns this room doesn't care. The carefully places cigar and ashtray make it feel like he just stepped out of the room!

I loved the little Chinoiserie box sitting on the trunk and when I took a closer look, I realized that it held little treasures such as a bunny and a love note! Not sure if this was taken from one of the designer's homes directly with the contents or if was created purposely for the room but again, the little details were what made me fall in love with this room!

Not sure if you can tell in this photo but the chair has a wonderful ring and ribbon trim from Samuel & Sons. You can also see how the beautiful antique rug sits over a sisal rug from Stark.

I also loved the contrast of the warm wood and metal on the shelving unit with the ticking stripe covering. The rope and wall that it rolls up reminds me of a tent and how the owner probably stayed in tents during his travels around the world.

Many of the objects displayed look like they could have picked up around the world as well!

And what man's room could be complete without a bar, even if it consists of whiskey and Coca-Cola!

Even the vintage metal hand weights are a perfect touch!

Bradley Thiergartner also designed the small adjoining bathroom which was an added bonus!

The warm slate grey color warms up the white bathroom and continues the masculine feel.

The natural elements also relate back to the natural elements in the bedroom.

There is nothing I love more than hanging art in bathrooms. Of course, you need a good fan and even then, you may not want to hang anything too expensive that will get ruined by the steam!

The lamp cords on the sink make me a little nervous but the lighting here look much chicer than your standard chrome or nickel fixtures! Even the shower stall was accessories perfectly! I really loved this room and as I mentioned, all the thoughtful details that really do make it seem like a real person lives in this room and it wasn't just another show house room!

Photos by Heather Clawson for Habitually Chic

Hampton Designer Showhouse: Basement Bedroom by Elizabeth Bailey

Instead of continuing on to the second floor of the Hampton Designer Showhouse presented by Traditional Home, I've decided to take you down to the basement. Usually, basements are an after thought or never decorated at all but in a showhouse every available space is an opportunity for greatness. Such is the case with the basement bedroom designed by Elizabeth Bailey.

My friends and I really liked this room and recognized some of the artwork and fabric in it but didn't realize we knew the designer until we got home and read through the accompanying catalog. Only we know her as Lizzie Bailey! Lizzie used to work for interior designer Amanda Nisbet and now works for antique dealer Gerald Bland which is where I met her. She actually won a contest sponsored by Traditional Home to design this room and was kind enough to share with me the entire story of her beautiful room.

According to Lizzie, this all came about last year when Traditional Home was sponsoring the Ocean’s 3 Showhouse in Montauk. They paired each of the designers (Eric Cohler, Philip Gorrivan, and Amanda Nisbet) with a recent graduate who would be their "protege" and help with the project. Lizzie, who graduated from Parsons, was paired with Amanda and Eric and Philip worked with two recent grads from New York School of Interior Design. Lizzie said, "At the end of that project Ann Maine, the editor of Traditional Home, announced they were going to have the three of us compete for a feature in the magazine as well as a cash prize." That was in November and in February they had to present their ideas for an eco-friendly master bedroom. "At that point it didn’t have anything to do with the Hamptons showhouse," she went on to say. "We were given carte blanche in terms of design – it just had to be 300 square feet but we could use our imagination in terms of architectural details, etc."

"ABC Carpet and Home was to be our primary source for furnishings but we were allowed to supplement with other materials as long as they were "green" so I set about designing a room that would be first and foremost chic. Something people would see and be surprised to find out was sustainable. The first thing I knew was that I wanted color because I tend to stereotype green design with being very neutral in color - lots of beige linen and hemp. While that can be very good looking, I wanted to go in another direction. "

"In addition to color, I wanted to incorporate a sophisticated range of textures and finishes. I think contrast or interplay between rough and smooth, dull and shiny, soft and hard, is so important to a successful room."

"So with all this in mind, I started visiting ABC Carpet and Home almost everyday for a few months picking out antique pieces, organic bedding, upholstery from Cisco Brothers, and some recycled good. I had taken a course on sustainability at Parsons and was already interested in the subject so I was aware of some other sources too. I went online to Rubie Green and Mod Green Pod for fabrics, to the D&D showrooms Q Collection, Maharam, Edward Farrell, and Lewis Mittman who I knew had some lines I might be able to work in. from there, I started to put together a scheme really based on materials I found that stood out to me."

"The original design was quite different from what you see in the showhouse but the basic arrangement is the same. From the beginning, I wanted bed hangings to add warmth, a sense of privacy and seclusion within the room, as well as a little drama. The overall mix of new, sustainable pieces and antiques was always a key element." Luckily, Lizzie works for Gerald Bland and was able to pull many of the antique pieces from him.

" A month or so after I found out that I won the challenge, they told me that instead of building a set and just photographing it for the magazine, they were giving me an entire room in the Hampton Designer Showhouse where the entire room would actually be installed." Needless to say, Lizzie was beyond excited but had to get to work since this new development meant a lot of changes to the design. "Since it was originally created without any real space constraints, and a showhouse imposes its own set of limitations, I had to rework a lot of the elements. "

"The Farrow & Ball paint which makes the room and is one of my favorite elements, was plan B. I'd first specified a Venetian plaster-like wall treatment from American Clay that would have been costly to install and impractical given that we have to return the walls to the original condition after the showhouse is over. It's not very eco-friendly to put something up that you're going to have to remove almost immediately! So paint it was!" I have to say that the Farrow & Ball Eco Full Gloss paint in Skylight is really fabulous in person! I am using this product in another color for a media room in one of my projects and can't wait until it's finished! I loved that Lizzie painted out the doors and moldings in the same color too. I think it works well in the high gloss finish and helps make the room look larger.

"Since my room is on the lower level and has low ceilings, a glamorous antique chandelier from ABC Carpet and Home that I had selected was no longer an option. In other case, items that I had selected back in January, like a pair of stunning cream lacquered vintage Paul Frankl, dresser from Las Venus at ABC Carpet and Home, were no longer available so I had to come up with alternatives that worked within the existing scheme." I think everything worked out perfectly! The room is beautiful and romantic without being girly or off putting to men and was very serene and soothing in person! My friends and I loved it and I think it's even better that we loved it before we knew who designed it!

The Edward Farrell Sylvan Slipper Chair from their Pure Sustainable line is one of my favorite elements of the room. As is the cute blue vintage phone! What's even better is that I couldn't even tell that the wall to wall carpet was really made up of Flats & Cords carpet tiles from Flor! Of course, who could see past the divine antique Turkish rug from Doris Leslie Blau!

Much of the artwork was borrowed from Gerald Bland and Time Frame in New York and really add to the wonderful collected feel of the room.

I think Lizze Bailey obviously deserved to win the Traditional Home contest! I hope that other showhouses will give young designers a chance to participate through contests or sponsorships. It's clearly a great idea and just goes to show what you can do with a little basement bedroom!

Photos by Heather Clawson

A Tale of Two Homes

I had never heard of Stephen Elrod, the Creative Director of Lee Jofa, until recently but then he seemed to be popping up everywhere! His beach house was featured in the June/July 2008 issue of Domino and then his New York apartment was published in the September 2008 issue of Traditional Home. I have been buying and enjoying Traditional Home lately since there aren't that many shelter magazines left! Anyway, as I've stated before, I love to see how people decorate multiple homes and it seems that Mr. Elrod has done a lovely job with both!

I'll fill in the details later but I am off to The Bachelor Pad to work on some things and then to prepare for an installation on work project on Thursday. Ciao for now!