The time has come where we finally have launched our website and so all of our blog entries will now be posted under BLOG on our website. Please be sure to follow those posts from here on out!

XO~

Your favorite DAs 

Last week when I visited the gift show I saw a constant trend of gadgets that were technology savvy, and I was a sucker for each and every one of them since they were also appealing to the eye.

Johnathan Adler is known for his pottery and furniture but I’m loving his new gadgets. As a Design Assistant always on the go, I’m constantly using my iPhone. The problem though is that the battery is consistently dying on me. Instead of brining my charger everywhere, Johnathan has a stylish on the go charger! He also has the matching iPhone cover and ear buds!

Jonathan Adler Stylish On-the-Go Charger!

Jonathan Adler tech accessories

Another thing I found at the gift show was an iPhone cookie cutter! If you can’t get enough of your iPhone, now you can eat it! Watch out Christmas Cookies, I have a feeling these will be replacing gingerbread men soon!

Fun iPhone Cookie Cutter from The Sarut Group

Another fun Cookie Cutter! For those people who don’t know what this is – it’s a cassette tape, how you listened to music before iPods.

They also had a cute iPhone toy for your kids that they can write on with chalk! Very cute!

Cute iPhone Toys for kids!

What do you think? Has technology taken over our lives? And if you say “yes” then shouldn’t it look good too?

For those of you that don’t know what a walk-through is, here is a brief description: a designer and their assistant walk through a space noting all work that needs to be done to that space. Everything from electrical, to construction to decorating. So when doing a walk through, you have to see the space, listen to the work that needs to be done, (and all the back and forth between the client and the designer) and then eventually write it down.

Here are the steps to conquering all and still looking profesh

Step 1: Prior to the clients/designer giving the tour and explanation of work to be dealt with, give yourself the tour of the space. Familiarize yourself with the surroundings and try to scope out any issues that pop out to you first. Jot them down in list format and label them LR for “living room” or office #… etc. Then once you start walking around you will already have had an idea of what needs to be done AND if they miss something you can clue them in!

Step 2: Sometimes designers and clients do walk throughs together. Especially if it is a hands on type of client. If this is the case, the designer may point at something and say the blue rug from your previous home will go here. The client may disagree and they will go back and forth on this subject matter until (at least we hope) the designer wins with a great arguing point as to why he/she envisions the rug in that spot. While doing so, just LISTEN. In fact divvy up the rooms on your jot list, and listen before writing. Sometimes designers go back and forth too, you want to keep the crossing out as minimal as possible!

Step 4: Review your list by going through each room AGAIN and making sure you didn’t forget anything. While doing so TAKE PICTURES! This helps when you need to clarify something on your list later on.

Step 5: Type up your list and if you’d like put the photos that you took by room with the list.

VOILA! Finito! You have the perfect walk-through check list.

For more DA tips, stay tuned!

http://www.hbo.com/girls/index.html

In the latest episode of the amazing HBO series Girls, Hannah goes on an interview for a freelance writing position. I love how the scene captured the awkwardness of the interviewing process and how difficult it is to be fully prepared for an interview! Being in a free-lanced based business we are constantly interviewing new people and have to overcome some very awkward moments.

An awkward moment for me came when Brittany and I went to meet a potential designer in Connecticut. We drove up there early in the morning, so I wasn’t able to eat breakfast but thankfully I at least had time for a cup of coffee. As the designer was interviewing us and getting to know us, my stomach growled so loudly that the designer asked if I was ok! That was embarrassing to say the least, but we did get the job!

Back to the episode of Girls…while Hannah was getting interviewed, Hannah asked should she write about for the website? The editor answered how about having a threesome with some people she met on Craigslist, or doing drugs and then writing about it! Hannah was definitely not expecting that!

I guess in Hannah’s line of work, you need to write about things and experience moments you wouldn’t normally experience. That’s why during Hannah’s interview, she was reminded, “the magic happens” outside of her comfort zone!

I know my comfort zone is constantly being expanded, but there are definitely times you have to draw the line! Tell us about those awkward moments when you performed tasks for a job that were outside your comfort zone!

-Nicole

Recently I attended Janet Rice’s informative seminar and I was privileged to assist her while she was in New York for a few days! Since she is a Dallas-based designer, Designer Attaché is her New York office – we act as her support system during her time in NY.

When Janet decorates for a client, she goes by the motto “1+1=3″ – which means you don’t have to spend a million bucks to make it look like a million bucks! Janet started as a set stylist, and she definitely has a few tricks up her sleeve!

She likes to invest her money in the walls and fabric. By doing so you are able to bring an ordinary object or a plain room to the next level. It’s easy to buy an inexpensive piece of furniture at the flee market – look at the shape of the item because that is what will remain the same throughout the process, not the fabric or finish! Once you have the skeletons, you are able to personalize it with paint and fabric.

*Note: She loves designers-gild satins for upholstering since they are reasonably and look beautiful!

If you rent in New York, you probably don’t want to invest in the walls, so Janet suggests framing the wallpaper in Lucite frames from J.Pocker & Son. This gives it instant architectural detail. Another way is to buy pre-framed molding and insert the wallpaper inside.

An inexpensive way to spruce up a door is to get medallions and paint or lacquer them! This makes what would be an ordinary door, into something extraordinary!

 Above is Janet speaking in the Gracie showroom!

I can’t talk about Janet Rice and Gracie without reminiscing about Janet’s room in the Holiday House 2012 featuring the stunning Gracie Wallpaper!

View of Janet Rice’s Jewel Box

Since she put most of the money into the walls, she used sisal for the floor. This sisal carpet about is from Stark and is priced very well. The silver color is what makes this rug modern and elegant!

Decorating with both high and low priced items, it’s all about mixing it up and knowing what to put the money into! One of Janet’s little tricks is taking this inexpensive Global Views table and replacing the glass top with an antiqued mirror. This makes the table unique at a small price.

We definitely took a lot of useful and original ideas away from this seminar! Next time Janet is in town, I would recommend dropping by to see her!

Reblogged from designerattache:

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

It's been such a busy New Year we haven't even had time to write one single blog entry! Well the good news is, we are still SO busy, that instead of writing, we are going to show you how awesome the trip to Israel was and all of the beautiful architecture we got to experience and discover first hand!

Bauhaus city is what they call it....

Read more… 102 more words

Bauhaus city is what they call it….

Aerial View of Tel Aviv, Israel

Jaffo has the best nooks and crannies hiding in their streets, like this suspended tree!

Suspended Tree in Jaffo

View of Suspended Tree through the Archway

New Architecture in TLV

My cool family in Jaffo

Doorway in Neve Tzedek

Close up of the door

Pink doorways!

Doorway of a Mosque

Streets of the Old City

There is something to be said about historical cities, beauty never fades, only intensifies with age!

Show us some of your travel pictures!

Happy New Year!

Your favorite Design Assistants

~DA

Her apartment is VERY modern and tends to stay in a black and white color scheme, so I thought to add more earthy tones to her apartment as well as incorporate the only color she is not terrified of - purple.

When shopping large quantities of holiday decor, flowers, accessories etc. my first stop is ALWAYS the flower district here in NY. They have a large variety of EVERYTHING you need from silk flowers- to candle sticks-to holiday accessories, and LOTS of glitter. Jamali is always my first stop for accessories.  Here I purchased mercury candle sticks, silver ball ornaments, snowy branches, icicle and snowflake ornaments, christmas tree lights and other small items that I thought would be fun!

After going back and forth on the garland, I decided that artificial was the way to go, so she can use it in the future, and instead of buying an already strung garland, I decided to make my own! I purchased several pine, acorn, and pine and berry branches and piled them up one on top of the other on top of the mantel to make it appear as if it were a garland!

This was so much more fun and creative and unlike most garlands, I didn’t have difficulty making this one sit and hang properly on the mantel.

Although my girlfriend is Jewish, she did not want her holiday party to be affiliated with any religion. So, since the wreath hanging on the fireplace  mantel was going to be the centerpiece, I did not want to purchase her a pine needle wreath. I wanted to find her something different. While shopping, I stumbled upon the most beautiful, dry-flowered wreath that had brown and purple tones. It was perfect and even incorporated a bit of that purple that she loves!

Then last but not least I needed to add in that strong purple to make the black mantel POP! I went to CFD Flower and purchased these gorgeous wisteria deep purple-blue flowers to accent all the earthy tones. What is great about silk flowers is that they are on wire so you can bend them in any direction you like!

I also purchased some great red larkspur flowers figuring I’d use them somewhere…and I did!

Red Larkspur flowers in her vases

After I gathered all my supplies, it was time to start setting up…! VOILA! What do you think?

Up-close photo of the hand picked garland on the mantel…

In her entry the buffet was decorated with white-glittered branches and I hung the silver ornament balls on them. We used the balls also as a means to ground the branches….

It’s always important to put something personal on the mantel, after all that is what the holidays are about! I placed one of my friends favorite, ballerina robots on the other side! How cute!

What do you think of our holiday-non-religous mantel? Don’t forget designers, styling and accessorizing is one of our many services that we provide! Whether for photo shoots or last minute help, we are here!

Happy Holidays all!

DA

Rooms we worked on…

Kips Bay Room

Hamptons Showhouse

Holiday House

Holiday House

Why are we blabbing about showhouses again you ask? Well last night on Million Dollar Decorators, Mary McDonald, Martyn Bullard and Kathryn Ireland were asked by Luxe Magazine to participate in decorating the Greyston Showhouse. With one week of intensive: spending, designing and installing, comes a lot of drama, ESPECIALLY if you don’t have the proper staff to assist you!

Greystone Mansion

As design assistants that have participated in several of these show houses, we know ALL the problems that can go wrong.  Unlike client installs, you only have a few minutes-1 day to fix it because of the time crunch.

We have come across several of these issues before, but always fix them to perfecion. When DA, Brittany Marom, was working with Huntley & Co. on the Holiday House, the hired painter didn’t show up! At first you think, ok he will call or show, but after hours of not returning phone calls and e-mails, you have to take matters into your own hands. Brittany ran into all of the rooms in the house and asked the painters and wall hangers if they had extra men to do the job. After much last minute pleading, she found one. Of course this set the install back a few hours, but eventually every wall in Tricia Huntley’s room was painted in that fabulous midnight blue, and that moment of panic, became another day in the life of DA.

Brittany Marom, DA for Huntley & Co- happy the paint is done!

The design assistants to the MDD’s had a very prominent role this episode. They assisted in picking out the furnishings, wall and windows coverings and oversaw and assisted with the installs.

Since this episode was so fun and design assistant- loaded, we are going to pick out our favorite DA moments…!

Mary made reference to “design twister” in this episode, which we like to call the “design assistant juggle”. When trying to visualize how and where she would hang her modern art in her blue and white, lady-like classical hall way, she had her two DA’s Olga and Kenna line up and sprawl across the wall to do so. Yes, this IS normal.

Design Assistant Twister with Mary!

Kenna and Mary saving a mirror before it crashes!

Lot’s of Leura Fine sightings this episode! Leura assisted Martyn in his shopping spree, visit to the workshop where Martyn had his master bed custom made, and of course, the install.

Leura and Martyn shopping

The install day is the most tricky day because there are dozens of designers trying to furnish their rooms and only so much space in the drive way for their movers to park. Everyone wants their delivery truck to be the closest to the house because most of these furnishings cost thousands!

Leura and Laura Lee arranging the fabric for the upholstered walls

Leura and Laura Lee run into a bit of trouble when their truck is stuck in traffic. Both DA’s are on the phone with the movers to  get them there ASAP. Espescially because royal Martyn has the best spot reserved for his movers, while the other designers are lugging their furnishings miles up the driveway!  Three hours later the truck arrives…

Kathryn and her DA arranging the accessories. OINK!

But of course, at the last minute, it all comes together perfectly. Now for the reveal…

Kathryn Ireland’s Jane Austen Sitting Room

Kathryn Ireland’s Childrens Kitchen

Martyn’s Master Suite

Mary McDonald’s Classical Hallway

The MDD did a beautiful job on this Showhouse! Stressful times call for beautiful measures. We are happy to be taking a break from Showhouse season, but you will be hearing from us again soon!

~DA

For those of you who watched this weeks episode, you probably have an idea as to what the subject of the day is. For those of you who didn’t, lets give a little background to this weeks MDD.

The fabulous Stacey Dash!

Martyn’s client and close friend Stacey Dash, yes THE Stacey Dash, AKA Dionne from Clueless, needed major decorating for her home. Martyn and his design assistant Laura Lee went through the entire house making a checklist of what to buy in order to give the home EXTREME sex appeal. Stacey was so excited to have the sexy Martyn touch, she literally moaned and groaned at every suggestion he made!

Stacey enjoying one of the many fabulous suggestions made by Martyn!

Next Martyn took Stacey shopping and had Laura Lee right behind him assisting in their shopping spree. When Martyn came across three amazing antique mirrors that he just loved for Stacey’s dining room walls, he asked Laura Lee to do the design assistant juggle. For those who aren’t familiar with this – it is when a designer and a client cannot fully visualize how something will be arranged, or the way the light will hit a piece when it is up, or how something will look against a backdrop. So we take it upon our tiny selves to model and hold the pieces that need to be seen for visualization purposes, and hold them until we feel as though our arms are going to fall off.

Well unfortunately for Laura Lee’s sake, her arms got tired before she knew it and CRASH went the $2000 antique mirror. YIKES!

ACTION SHOT!

This could potentially be one of the WORST DA moments an assistant can experience: breaking an antique for a client, IN FRONT of the client!

Luckily, like most things in life (at least tangible things) the mirror can be easily replaced. Martyn and Laura Lee did an excellent job keeping their cool about the whole situation, instead of freaking out in front of their client, they purchased the frame and had the antique store make new mirror for it.  PROBLEM SOLVED!

Laura Lee was not fired people! In fact, she made up for it by  being very organized during the installation and making sure everything went perfect…and it did!

And we have a happy client ladies and gentlemen!

We also got a chance to see a little bit of NY in this episode! Mary McDonald made sure to attend the mothership of all design buildings, the D&D Building while on her trip to NY. While there, she made a stop in the lovely and gorgeous: Gracie Studio showroom.

Finally…Million Dollar Decorator’s has landed in NYC!!!

For those of you who are thinking Gracie Studio sounds familiar, well we had the pleasure of working with Gracie wallpaper during the Holiday House 2012 for Janet Rice’s jewel box of a hallway!

This room would have made Stacey Dash moan as well!

Last but not least, the installation for the home in La Jolla went amazingly. Ross and Jeffery did a beautiful job transitioning transitional style into a beach home.

Gorgeous!

Can’t wait for more drama next week! Stay tuned for our recap!

DA