Warm and Cozy With Brown Velvet

This is the front door to our house
The Union Jack armoire is our coat closet
This room is our dance studio

I had another old ratty vintage chair reupholstered. I bought it for $20. eleven years ago, and it was in such good shape, it stayed the way I found it, gold velvet with brown wood arms and legs.
The chair has good classic lines, so I decided I would re-up it.

Leonels has done all the upholstery in our home, and we use them at perch. the high end home furnishings shop I work in. They are simply the best for workmanship, and they are fair with pricing.

Leonels is the upholsterer to Visual Vamp
View from the living room into the dance studio

I meant the chair for the dance studio, placed by a window, a nice spot to just sit and gaze, or an handy place to change into dance shoes, or sit and teach from the chair ha ha.

Uh, no. Too "Mr. and Mrs."
So I broke up the romance, & moved Mrs. Brown Velvet Chair

But I got seduced by the "newness" and moved the chair into the living room. It didn't quite fit, and paired with the lime green wing chair, it looked a little too much like "Mr. and Mrs. Chair", too granny even for this granny.

Mrs. Brown Velvet does a tango in the dance studio

So Back to the dance studio it went.

I painted the arms and legs of the chair white, and distressed the paint a bit. The new fabric is brown velvet, purchased from Fabric.com. The old chair had nail heads, but for the new version I chose self-piping. I have nail heads on the couch and French settee, and my breakfast room chairs, and just thought, "enough with the nail heads already."

A place to gaze or change into dance shoes

Then I moved it back to the living room, and moved it this way and that way. Fuss and fidget, fuss and fidget. Oh the silly restless illness of a decor addict. Don't judge/laugh. I know you do the same thing.

I moved the chair this way...

Then I moved the chair that way...

And then I finally moved it back to the studio where I wanted it to be in the first damn place! So now the chairs are all at rest for the moment, cozy on this winter day.

Striped doors in the dance studio adjoin the living room

Visual Vamp living room February 2011
Cozy - Do you see Cholo?

I have some exciting news. The Preservation Resource Center invited Alberto and I to be on the first Shotgun House Tour since Hurricane Katrina. We are so honored and excited. It's Saturday April 2 in case you are in New Orleans.

I needed to snap some photos, and I got a new camera from Alberto for Christmas, so I am experimenting with settings and exposures. I always shoot with natural light which is tricky, since even though our house doesn't feel gloomy, it's not exactly flooded with light.

So these photos are part of the learning curve, and since I had them I thought I'd share them, in hopes to give you something to look at during the MONSTER STORM OF THE CENTURY!

Visual Vamp living room looking into the dance studio - 2011

PS Thank you all for the great response to my project with the apricot silk drapes. Next week I will show you another room....

Case Study: A New Orleans Traditional Home Is Updated

The living room the day I came to have a look
Things that I could not change: recently painted walls, and floor color
Everything else could go

A customer walked into perch., the home furnishings store I work in (in New Orleans), and asks for me. She's heard I revitalize rooms with a certain New York, rock and roll glam edge. She asks me to pay a house call, telling me she needs to update her traditional French inspired look she did ten years ago. She told me we could throw everything out and start over.

While the rooms were a little lackluster and dated, there was still alot of good stuff there, and I tell her we are not throwing anything out. We will reupholster and move things around to other parts of the house, and add a some things from perch.

I am doing the 95% of the house, and today I am starting with showing you the front living room. It is a room used mainly for entertaining. There is a family room, a room the husband loves as -is, and in actuality it is very nice, and I decide to keep him happy and leave well enough alone.

The living room today
I gave it my signature New York, rock and roll glam

The first thing I did was edit the contents and rearrange the furniture. Already the client said she could breathe. The pieces I kept were the mirror, the antique settee, the couch, and a little stool. The arm chair is covered in a gorgeous discontinued Bergamo fabric and got moved to a guest room I call "the French woman's bedroom." In fact most of the furnishings moved to this room, including the investment drapes. I just removed the brush fringe to update them a little. The lamp with the half slip left too, but for the moment it was the only light source (other than the windows) in the room.

The furniture was rearranged and edited
The fabulous arm chair covered in Bergamo went upstairs
Note the color of the floor - it inspired the new drapery color
The sad lamp with the half slip was the only light in here
We moved the crystal chandelier from the dining room here
It is original to the house
The dining room is getting a Mouille chandelier

We moved quickly. The project started in the third week of September and the bulk of it was done by December 15th. I have a gift for instantly envisioning a room completely done, and make confident decisions quickly. The client was a dream, trusting me instantly, and able to move quickly as well. Three rooms were done, and a large bar area, and one son's bedroom got an instant update for his homecoming from college. I am now working on a another son's room and the guest bedroom, and some small things in the lady's office.

Furniture from perch. came in right away, and everyone there helped push the project as fast as we wanted to go.

As I said, the lady of the house has two children one aged 8 and one in college, just to give you her age range. She is stylish and very savvy. She loves mid-century modern, color, and metallic, and asked to use chrome somewhere, which I did in other rooms. I took the metallic cue and ran with. We purchased the zinc side tables from Restoration Hardware - they are actually garden pedestals. I placed a pair of gilded French antique lamps here that were moved from the dining room sideboard. I updated them by having the center pole raised and adding a modern shade.

Zinc "side table" is a garden pedestal

Two side chairs from perch.
I reupholstered the seats in vibrant turquoise, a color the client loves
The photograph is from perch. - "Jane Doe" by Lisa Conrad
I decided to keep the sea grass rug

I removed the over stuffed down cushion from the settee
It was reupholstered in white metallic ultra suede -
All fabrics I used come from perch.
Note when we do custom work like this
We "retire" the fabric in New Orleans - we cut it out of the sample book
New Orleans is a small city
perch. wants its customers to truly have one-of-a-kind work

A side table with a built-in lamp was added from Hazelnut
We loved it's mid century vibe
Check out the apricot silk swatch of the drapery fabric
No matter what, the girls in New Orleans want silk drapes from perch.


A metal sculpture was added from perch.
I thought about a sconce, but the scale had to be large
The oversize ottoman is also from perch.
I called Nicole Cohen to make us a large Lucite tray HERE
And the chandelier is in it's new home

A custom painting done by Jack Mayberry from perch.
The colors are inspired by the decor

Painting by Jack Mayberry

The Lucite tray designed by Nicole Cohen arrives!
Silver chrome studs give it rock star edge
A custom green silk pillow from perch. replaced the furry beasts


Detail of custom pillow
I chose this luscious fabric from perch.
The perch. fabric room has a half a million samples

The stairs are the first thing you see when you come in the front door
They had ten year old sea grass on them
I replaced that with an antelope pattern carpet runner
The window had a foofy balloon shade that had to go
I replaced it with an apricot silk Roman shade
Jack's painting hangs next to this window
There is no room for an entry table
The stairs, the shade, and the painting become an important focal point

Elegant antelope print carpet stair runner from perch.

Key elements include:
An infusion of color
Visual Vamp glam
Apricot silk drapes from perch.
Luxe fabrics and furnishings from perch.
(check out the little stool recovered in leopard raffia)
A mix of old and new
Interesting art work
Mixed metals

If you like, I'll show you another room from this house next week.

I am so blessed to have a stylish client seek me out with a project like this, and colleagues, Caroline Robert and Jack Mayberry at perch. I have never been happier!

Call us at perch.
There are three of us there doing the design chores, and you are bound to click with one of us!
504 899 2122

Please take a look at Susan's weekly feature Metamorphosis Monday HERE

Sneak Peak: Planet Tango Dance Studio

Planet Tango dance studio

The home studio of Alberto Paz and Valorie Hart

Alberto is feeling really good these days, and we are officially giving tango classes again. To celebrate, I did a little refurb on our dance studio at home for him. A few little things can really add freshness and energy to a room.

I added lime green silk drapes to replace black and tan check curtains. The same lime green drapes are in the living room, which adjoins the dance room, so the continuity of this luscious color is great.

I painted all the mirrors white, and filled an entire wall with them floor to ceiling. We actually use the ones at mid level to check our steps and posture. I also grouped all the tango art on another wall, floor to ceiling. These are vintage sheet music covers of famous Argentine tangos.

Another burst of color is introduced with the orange chandelier. It was our old dining room chandelier that I spray painted this wonderful color.

A bench for changing shoes is at the upholsterer. It's being covered in white patent leather. You know I'll show it to you when it's done.

We are teaching our first tango workshop of the new year this weekend, and the first after the incident in Canada. Wish you could be here for it!

The view from the living into the Planet Tango dance room

Lime green and orange and white in the living room
These colors are repeated in the dance room
The colors are soooo 2009 ha ha - Will I repaint this year???!!!!

Planet Tango dance studio then...

Planet Tango dance studio now...

Another view from the living room into the dance room

A little vignette in the Visual Vamp living room
I spy an Anne Harwell painting

Bryan Batt used lime green and an orange chandelier in is old house
He's moved onto the world of greige in a new home