Cookies, cards and everything shaped like hearts. Beautiful bouquets of fresh roses and velvet boxes filled with decadent chocolates! Everything you love… packaged, tinted or printed in the color RED! Red is the visual theme of this lovey-dovey holiday. (Happy Valentine’s Day by the way!)

Obviously, red is indicative of the heart – the ultimate color of romance and love. But it’s also associated with life-giving blood and fire. It’s an intense shade that’s symbolic of war, danger, strength, power… not to mention passion and desire. Seeing red can even speed up metabolism and increase blood pressure.

So, how could this be applied to your home’s décor? Well, because reds are so powerful and increase vitality, they’re best left out of the bedroom… or not. Red is energetic, so it’s not the best choice for the nursery – if you want to get sleep at night. But the dining room is a perfect spot because red stimulates conversation. And, if your room has northern or eastern exposures (ie: cool lighting), the warmth of red complements and creates balance.

The amount of red you use is totally a personal preference. I tend to use red judiciously, creating small pops on accents like pillows and vases as opposed to large statements like rugs or draperies. For a strong effect, use this luscious hue next to much weaker colors or with crisp white – think claret walls with white mouldings. Want more red? Use a ruby toned paint to gift-wrap your room in vibrancy. Then incorporate variations of it, like crimson and fuchsia for rugs and upholstery. Throw in splashes of orange or purple for art and accessories. Sensational, when done just right!

Are you passionate about red? A little? Or a lot? Red… it’s not just for Valentine’s Day.

Your Guide to Design,
Cynthia

Everyday… all day long, I have oodles of great ideas generating on the designer side of my brain. They’re just waiting to be crafted into reality. But it’s like I’ve been cursed with a disease that blocks the creative process beyond the idea stage. What’s that disease? T-I-M-E!

In the past, I’ve refinished antique furniture like a champ, created some pretty detailed cross stitch pieces and, back in school, even won an award or two for my pastel paintings. But today (and I’m being really honest here) a thing called “life” just seems to get in the way. Although I have an overabundance of ideas for artfully embellished pieces, I feel like they’re trapped inside my head due to lack of time.

I’m in awe of people like my sister, who take time working for hours masterly creating hand-adorned greeting cards or throwing pottery into exquisite shapes.  It’s so important to make time. Think about it. What if Mozart was too busy to sit down at a piano? Or Monet never took the time to pick up a paintbrush? Or Shakespeare had too many distractions to create his scripts? Think of how different our world would be!

My world would be different too, were it not for my team of wonderfully talented and patient artisans. I thank God for these creatives who work with their hands. They never disappoint as they venture to look at design the way I do and bring my ideas to reality. Case in point – the beautiful, one-of-a-kind draperies pictured above.

So, what creative project have you been oodling on lately?  It’s a new year and your resolution could be to make time to bring your own imagination to life. Who knows what you could accomplish! It could touch a life… or change the world. Take the time. Be a Mozart.

Your Guide to Design,
Cynthia

You’re seated in a darkened amphitheater listening to an amazing solo vocalist. Every eye and ear is tuned to the artist. Now, think about it. Where is the light? It’s not on the audience. It’s dark out here. So where is it? It’s focused solely on the performer. Dramatic. Theatrical. You can do the same thing at home… except now you’re highlighting a “something” not a “someone”. That’s the beauty of accent lighting.

As its name suggests, accent lighting is an accent in the room, not the main light source. Accent lighting’s one and only purpose is to give visual emphasis to something. Accent lighting accentuates. Get it?

There are several types of accent lights including eyeballs, wall washers and art lights. Eyeballs and wall washers are most often installed in the ceiling as cans or on the ceiling as tracks and adjusted to direct light somewhere in particular. They can be installed either at the time of construction or at a later date. If you’re installing later, you’ll need to hire an electrician as these are hard wired into place. Art lights can be added anytime as they simply attach to a piece of art and then plug into an electrical outlet… just like a lamp.

So now you know the what and the how. But are you still wondering why in the world would you use accent lighting? Use it to accent a favored piece of artwork, a treasured object or a unique architectural feature. Illuminate hallways, stairwells and foyers – like where your family photos are displayed. Create a little ambiance by add lighting over a fireplace, sofa or credenza.

Since accent lighting is directed only on the “something”, wonderful dark shadows are created in the surrounding space. A deliciously theatrical effect happens… just like in the darkened amphitheater.

Pick something you want to highlight and add some drama baby!

Your Guide to Design,
Cynthia

His name is Benjamin Rollins Caldwell and he’s getting a lot of press from all over, including right here in the Upstate. Our own TOWN magazine did a wonderful editorial about him in their September issue. (Check it out!) I started following his work a couple of years ago… and yes, I know he’s very photogenic, but that’s not what caught my eye. It was his unusual handcrafted furniture pieces. They’re really intriguing.

Benjamin is the creative mind behind BRC Designs. He refers to himself as the “re-inventor”, and rightly so. He creates the most unusual, modern pieces in imaginative ways using raw materials and components that you wouldn’t think could ever be used to make furniture. His magic is in reinventing things like zippers, silk ties and playing cards, shaping a new story for each one. And I love that these one-of-a-kind creations are made out of recycled and reclaimed materials. With artistic vision, he handpicks and turns commonly found thingamajigs into functional works of art… like a chair out of more than 350 decks of retired playing cards… and a cocktail table base from PVC pipes. He even repurposed old leather jean labels by hand-nailing them, creating a cool table structure. Fabulousness! My personal fave, pictured above, is a chair with an acrylic shell completely filled with single-serving bottles of Southern Comfort. The bottles are full (in case you were wondering)… woohoo!

One might think this young, hip artist might reside somewhere glamorous like New York or LA, but he’s actually from right here in South Carolina! Sparkle City, no less! He did leave to study in California, but came back to stay, bringing with him dual degrees in fine art and business. He became brand manager at his family’s candle and home-fragrance business, but has since re-invented his career through BRC Designs. I can’t wait to see how the rest of his story unfolds and what new furnishings he brings to life.

If you were to reinvent yourself, who would you be? What would you make?

Your Guide to Design,
Cynthia

A few years after coining the name Panageries, I was privileged to meet Sandy Edwards, a woman who just oozed style. Everything about her was an ode to fabulousness. Three other people had referred Sandy to me as she was looking for an expert opinion about a mudroom floor. I was fortunate to be able to help her with that and a whole lot more. Sandy “got” the Panageries aesthetic at a time when others just didn’t. Understated… tonal… textural… and layering with global inspiration was foreign to some. But Sandy was up for the adventure – and we had a great time along the way! She sought inspiration through her travels all over, but had a particular fondness for Africa and the African people. “Let’s make this room look like my cabin in Africa,” she’d say, “and do something awesome with it!” She pushed the creative envelope with me… and I just loved that about her! Some fourteen years later, knowing each other both professionally and personally, we had designed interiors full of yumminess and traded much inspiration.

Sandy Edwards lived seventeen years with a rare blood disease without complaint as we worked on both her residences. She loved the whole process and lived to see both of them come to fruition. I was privileged to be with her in her last minutes on this earth and was able to tell her what an inspiration she had been to me. I’m so thankful to have known Sandy. I will miss her greatly.

In memory of Sandy,

Cynthia