New South Design is Growing Threefold!

We are busting at the seams in my little home office these days based on the fact that New South Design is growing by leaps and bounds! Over the past year I have added not one, but two new members to my team and I am excited to share a bit about both of them.

Sandy Moore has been working with me for the past year and is our indispensable Office Manager. Her hard work behind the scenes keeps our orders going out, shipments coming in, and she also manages all the record keeping, filing, and receipts. She is an amazing asset to our team with her energy and her ability to do just about anything that needs to get done! Below is a bit about Sandy in her own words.

I am a native “Charlotteian” so I have really seen this city grow over the years! My husband comes from a long line of “Matthewsians” or Matthews natives from parents to grandparents. We have a beautiful 11 year old daughter named Nicki, born here in Charlotte.

I have always followed the latest fashion trends. I spent most of my career in retail, working at places like J.Crew, Gap, Chico’s and the Body Shop. I assisted my sister in law with her sport events company for 8 years and also spent time in a seamstress workroom.

I have really enjoyed learning the design end of the business from Melissa this past year! New South Design is a place that makes me excited to go to work everyday because I never know what new and exciting project will be next! Melissa has an amazing gift that gives her the ability to know what will work and what won't, from the color of a lamp to launching a new business “Home Couture,” an off-shoot of New South Design! I personally am drawn to a neutral pallet, but Melissa has shown me how easy it is to add pops of color!!  I think that if you find a “color story” that fits your personal style, that’s a great place to start!! I look forward to an exciting future with the New South Design and Home Couture teams!!!

The most recent addition to our team is our new Junior Designer, Taylor Schaap. Taylor brings an interior design degree with her that includes technical experience that allows her to create computer generated floor plans and 3D room renderings. You will be hearing more from Taylor via our blog as she will be heading up our social media campaign for both New South Design and New South Home Couture. She is already has proven that she's the perfect addition to our team with her design skills, dedication, and wonderful personality! Here is more info below about Taylor by Taylor!

I was born and raised in Syracuse, NY. I attended Cazenovia College in Cazenovia, NY, for interior design. After graduating with my bachelor’s degree, I landed a job in Rochester as a design assistant at a high-end design firm. During my time there I gained a lot of experience in the design process, working with clients, and how the business ran on a day-to-day business. 

My husband and I got married in 2013 and always had a dream to move down south one day to North Carolina. Throughout several trips down here we fell in love with the Charlotte area. The quality of life, career opportunities, and a whole of sunshine and warm weather that Charlotte has to offer was the perfect place we wanted to call home. In Fall of 2014 we took the leap of faith to make our dream a reality and moved down. Over the past few months we have enjoyed making Charlotte our home and look forward to the day when we can start our own family here.

1. What inspired you to become a designer?

When I first started college, I was majoring in business, but didn't enjoy what I was studying and couldn't see myself pursuing that career in the future. So I had to really reflect on what it was that I would enjoy doing for the rest of my life. I remember as a little girl I would always enjoy setting up the houses for my Barbie dolls more than actually playing with them. While growing up I would constantly be changing my room around, and preferred to watch HGTV over Nickelodeon.  

2. What is your favorite color story?

As long as a color palette has a shade of blue in it, it's my favorite!

3. How do you get inspired to design a room?

No matter where I am, I am always observing the environment I am in. You never know where you can find inspiration; at a restaurant, in a hotel, or in nature. Houzz and Pinterest are also my best friends. I could find myself getting lost in beautiful interiors all day long. And last but not least, clients inspire me. I love seeing them get excited and light up when the final stages of a design come together.

4. What do you love most about your job?

There are sooo many things I love about being a designer. I think my favorite part is working with people. I have always been a people person, and love getting to serve others so being a designer allows me to do both things I enjoy. 

5. How do you best get to understand your client and what type of design they want?

I get to understand a client’s vision best by listening to them. I try and listen to every detail they describe when explaining what their vision is for their home. This helps steer me as a designer in the right direction towards making their vision a reality in the best way possible.

6. What is you favorite place to travel to? 

I LOVE to travel! I love visiting new places and exploring what they have to offer. My favorite places to go to are around water, especially the ocean. The Outer Banks is definitely one of my favorites. I have a lot of memories there with my family and just absolutely love the scenic views and culture that is has to offer.

I am so excited to be supported by two wonderful women that are going to make what we do so well even better! I am looking forward to seeing what 2015 will bring for the three of us and am happy that we are officially an amazing TEAM that will accomplish great things!

-Melissa

I'm Blue.....are You?

Ok, I have a confession to make - I seriously LOVE the color blue. Some designers have a signature item, trick, or method that they use, and I'm beginning to think that my signature is the color blue.  In any shade, shape, pattern, fashion, texture, fabric or form.

I went through a phase in the early 90's where I fooled myself into thinking that I loved dark green instead, but quickly realized by 1995 that blue was truly my color.  I even wore royal blue eyeliner and mascara in high school to prove it.

Let's see, in my own home…..
My dining room walls are Valspar's Carolina Club Inn Aqua
My master bedroom is Sherwin Williams Halcyon Green (don't let the name fool you - it's a greeny blue)
My master bath is Restoration Hardware's Pale Silver
My kitchen is a Valspar Shark Loop walls with white cabinets and KitchenAid cobalt blue kitchen countertop appliances
My son's room is Sherwin William's Honest Blue
My daughter's bedroom is Sherwin William's Bubble
My guest bedroom is another Valspar Lighthouse Shadows
....and my bonus room has accent walls of Sherwin William's Refuge

My dining room I decorated 7 years ago and would still not change a thing about it! Carolina Club Inn Aqua paint.

I most recently heard that the color blue has the most pleasing and versatile variations to any other color under the rainbow. I think this might be why I have painted a version of it in almost 75% of my home. I've also realized that it is never a hard sell for me to convince my clients to love and embrace blue as a color in their home, in varying shades and tones.

That is, until a couple of months ago when I started a project with some new clients and the first thing she told me was that she hated the color blue. My initial reaction was 'holy crap, what am I supposed to do here....?!?', but I quickly regained composure and her husband and I convinced her that she actually really liked a navy blue and a leaf green color combo. Phew......all is right in the world.

You may have already seen this photo from my Facebook pages. Loving this new color combo!

I am actually really excited about adding green back in the the mix. It's been awhile since he made an appearance outside of being a hint in aqua blue, and I think it's a refreshing color to bring back. (Plus, it matches my kelly green purse and Converse All-Stars.) In fact, this is such a great color combo that another client of mine jumped right on board and we are also decorating her family room in this color story. I'm thrilled about creating two rooms with such a fun and fresh color statement!

Inspiration Room 1

Inspiration Room 2

The other side of this new color story is navy blue, which has been making a huge comeback in home decor since the October 2013 furniture market. I am excited that my kitchen (done in navy, slate blue, and white) is finally "back in style". The color navy is a classic color that looks great dressed up or dressed down, can be masculine or feminine, and can also be modern or traditional. I have painted 5 rooms in Ben Moore's Newburyport Blue just in the past year with pleasing results. Both the husbands and wives love it, and it's a fun and classic pop to all of the lightened gray walls that we are seeing out there these days.

My inspirational room that makes every guy want to have a navy blue home office. Bring on Newburyport Blue!

In my own home, I'm updating my kitchen window treatments (back when "country" was in I still had my navy and white checked valances) to this navy, blue, and white Suzani pattern from Thibaut's Enchantment collection. I absolutely love this pattern and collection. It's going to be a great way bring some new life into my newly popular navy blue and white kitchen!

Thibaut's Halie Circle in Navy Blue

More fun things to come with my current projects for both my clients and myself! Looking forward to posting pics of everything very soon!

-Melissa

Focus Group Findings, Take 2!

With the help of another one of my clients, Teeny Parks, we hosted our second focus group last week and had a great time meeting some new like-minded women who love home decor!  They were excited and full of ideas and we feel so energized with all of the feedback and suggestions we have gotten so far from both groups!

Meghan, Melissa, and me after Focus Group #2!!

After our first focus group, we updated our color stories and fabrics for a more sophisticated assortment and got a great reaction to the new additions.  Thank you, Focus Group 1!!  Here is a sneak peek at one of our favorite new color stories, Gold and Gray, behind me on the floor in the picture below.

Is it the 10 foot ceilings or my long shirttail that makes me look extremely short here??

Here are our major findings so far:
1) The majority of our focus group attendees are currently looking to update a room in their home. Yay!

2) Each individual item we sell needs to be special on its own. We want our customers to find that one special item that they love for their home! The added bonus we will sell is the ability to put a together a coordinated collection of these individually special items. A collection of "special" items, versus just  collection of "coordinated" items, will make the whole room even more amazing!

3) Our product assortment needs to be age appropriate and slightly ahead of the latest trends. Our goal is to introduce the newest trends to our customers before they see it advertised and sold by mass merchants.

4) Most everyone loves a monogram and it's a classic Southern statement! It's great accent for a room or a gift for a friend.

5) We need to offer an assortment of washable items for those who have children or pets in the home.

6) It's important for our sales reps to have some sort of experience and degree/certification to qualify them as an experienced decorator.

Oh, and here is the beautiful dining room where we hosted our meeting. It's been so wonderful of my clients to help me out - one of the added bonuses is that we have been able to host our focus groups in rooms that I have decorated!

We have one more focus group to go and look forward to sharing our ideas with another group of women and getting theirs in return!  Each group we host we get more ideas and suggestions to refine our concept to be in line with what our target customers are looking for. Can't wait to see what Saturday brings!!

-Melissa

Wallpaper Project: Powder Room

When we moved into our house 8 years ago, the VERY first project I was desperate to complete was removing the dated wallpaper from our powder room. I wish I had a picture of what this room looked like before - the wallpaper was dark green and gold "splatter paint" with shiny brass light and bathroom fixtures. Definitely a mid-90's designer's dream, and a late-2000's designer's nightmare!

After the painstaking process of removing the wallpaper, I painted the bathroom a simple beige, spray painted the brass fixtures "hammered bronze" from Rustoleum, and the room has been that way ever since.

My bathroom then and today - a simple "Pottery Barn Delight"

Fast forward 8 years and I'm ready to spruce up this little gem that was my first - and probably least expensive - project that I have tackled in this house. With all this talk about wallpaper, and the fact that I am now trying to sell this idea to my clients, I've decided to jump on board.

Take note - my husband is TOTALLY OPPOSED to this idea. We have torn down wallpaper in a total of SEVEN rooms between our two homes, and the thought that we are now putting it up (?!?!?) is completely frustrating/pissing him off. I'm taking the approach of just continuing to mention this idea of having the bathroom wallpapered so that by the time it happens, I have worn him down enough that he won't be ridiculously upset when he comes home to a freshly wallpapered bathroom. Fingers crossed.

So, fingers crossed, I have been combing through my new wallpaper books to find something that will work with my existing fixtures (cannot get away with an entire bathroom remodel here), will be fresh and fun, but will be something that I will still like in 5 years. Talk about potential divorce - "oh, honey…….let's take that wallpaper down that you told me never to put up in the first place"!?!

Right now I'm a huge fan of lattice/trellis prints, medallions, and oversized florals. I need something that will work with bronze fixtures, but looks updated, and also works back to the aquas and beiges I have in the rest of the house. I have pictures of my narrowed down choices below - I'm definitely looking for some weigh-ins here - so feel free to comment on your favorite to help me decide!

Medallion Print

This oversized medallion print below is from Seabrook Wallcoverings' Arabesque Collection. It comes in multiple colors, has a little bit of texture to it, an also has a little bit of metallic thread to give that hint of sparkle (check out my blog on Metallics here). The color ways that I have below are aqua, beige and grey. The grey version (#4) is this is definitely one of my front runners.

Oversized Metallic Floral
There is some whimsy to the oversized floral from York's Carey Lind Vibe Collection. If I had silver light and bathroom fixtures, the blue and silver would hands down be my first choice. It makes a cool statement without being too over the top on color, and would be a great way to perk up a tired bathroom.

Metallic silver or metallic gold……tough choice!!

Trellis Print

An easy to love print that is also a classic pattern is the trellis print. The warm grey version of this trellis print below from the Ashford Geometrics Collection from York is definitely in my top three. The metallic aqua trellis print below is also from Carey Lind Vibe Collection.

So, cast your votes by commenting on my blog below and let me know which is your favorite! I'll be posting pics of the finished product soon!!

-Melissa

Focus Group Findings: Metallic Home Decor

We hosted our first focus group this week for the new company and had some great insights and feedback from our attendees. They told us what trends that they were currently drawn to which included neutrals colors, textures, and metallics.  These are very similar to what we saw on our competitive shopping trip we went on a couple of weeks ago.

Melissa and I at our first focus group - lots of color and monograms!!

Our plan with this new company is to offer accessories in great color palettes that will update an existing neutral or tired decor.  What the focus group helped us see was that they were interested in layering neutrals on neutrals, and texture and pattern were key.  Strong color palettes can look too young if not balanced with sophisticated neutrals.  Armed with this new information, I am on a mission to determine which of these trends we can offer our customers in a reasonably priced, but still custom and special way.

The first one I'll discuss is METALLICS.  Metallic home decor has been emerging for the past few years, but with the neutral color palette being dominant, it has become a way to spice up grey and beige by adding something special.

Metallic Printed Pillow - SOLD OUT on Amazon

One of my first projects a few years back - the silver trellis wallpaper in her bookcases is from Schumacher

Yes, everyone, GOLD is making a comeback!!

This room has a great blend of grey and gold with modern and natural elements

More of that gold and grey here in a fun wallpaper!

I spoke with my Robert Allen rep today and scheduled a meeting with him to go over his best selling items and also review his well-priced offerings in this trend.  Here are two fabrics we are currently looking at adding to the line:

This metallic linen from Robert Allen is a hot seller right now

This color run of fabric is called "Glam Sheen" from Robert Allen

My girls and I are meeting tomorrow night to discuss our findings and rework our assortments.  We are headed to furniture market in High Point in a few weeks and I am excited to see all of the new trends in the showrooms!  I am guessing that there will be a ton of that gold and grey mix - it seems to be the new and next thing to pair with grey!  I look forward to sharing our findings then!

-Melissa

Competitive Shopping - Saturday Girl's Day Out

Saturday we all loaded up in my friend Melissa's Ford Escape and headed Uptown to The Southern Women's Show to check out any home decor items that may be selling there.  We made two conclusions upon arrival........

My friends Meghan and Melissa, co-conspirators on this new project, with me at the Southern Women's Show!

1) This is any husband's worst nightmare (as you can see from the amount of women milling around behind our heads in the picture above). Lucky for most, there were very few of them following around their wives as women fawned over free samples, got hair and make-up makeovers, and spent much of their hard-earned money on jewelry, purses, and other female "must-haves".
2) There were not many home decor booths set up and the few that were there did not have much interest. We can now cross the Southern Women's Show off our list for next year as a place to possibly exhibit our new line.

We did find a local candle company based out of Dilworth called Mallory's candles and talked to the owner, Michael, about carrying some of his line.  He gave us some samples of his best selling scents to get feedback from our focus groups at the end of the month.

Sample packs of three would be great hostess gifts!!

After feeling somewhat disappointed, we headed out towards Dilworth to check out Mrs. Howard / Max and Company. This place carries everything that is drool-worthy for a home. One of my seamstresses told me earlier this year that the fabric they use for their window treatments is "better than sex". If I am ever able to have a home that resembles anything like what their store looks like, I would consider myself a very lucky woman. However, none of their decor is "kid friendly", so it would need to wait about 15 years until after my children are grown and not smearing PB and J all over my house!

Meghan checking out the construction of window treatments to perfect her sewing skills!

This cabinet with the antique mirror front would make an awesome focal point in any room!

This is a ceiling in one of the showrooms. What a way to create some unexpected drama!

Pretty embroidered linen pillow at Mrs. Howard

Circa Interiors was another store that we stopped by on the way home and what we found between both high end stores was a lack of color. If there was any color, it was in a muted palette. Grays and neutrals have been the forefront of color palettes in high end homes for the past 5 years and I foresee a shift into more vibrant color stories mixed back to classic neutrals. 

In conclusion, we think our perfect spot to position ourselves is somewhere between the Southern Women's Show consumer and the high end consumer that Mrs. Howard and Max and Company appeal to. There is a lot of buzz about color finally coming back, and by being in the forefront of that will position us well to offer something that is new and exciting to our customers!

Home Decor Launching in 2015!!

It's been almost two years since I posted and the majority of it has to do with the fact that I have been too busy to write anything that I felt would be worth reading. I am beginning to find that by reading other blogs that sometimes just a daily inspirational picture is enough, so my hope is to begin doing something of the sort starting right now.

However, today I have more than just an inspirational picture to post.  I have a HUGE INSPIRATION to share, and wanted to officially do so today. It is a solemn day for most of us in the United States, a time to take a moment of reflection. I still remember sitting at my desk at my first job in the buying offices of the The Bon-Ton Department Stores in York, Pennsylvania, listening to Howard Stern on an official radio (not streaming through the Internet) with the rest of my team. On the show, they were talking through the actual events at the World Trade Center as they witnessed them from their window in the recording studio. I still remember hearing the disbelief in their voices as they said a plane had hit the tower, and then minutes later, that another plane had crashed into the second tower. Since that moment, the landscape of New York City would be forever changed, as would our Country.  So many things have changed, many for the better, some for the worst, in the past 13 years.

Since I sat at that desk 13 years ago, I have worked in the buying offices of three different department stores, merchandised back products for a small chain of stores, baked and sold special order cupcakes for parties and a dessert bar, and started my own interior design business. There are so many things I enjoyed in every single job I have held (and parts of each that I have not), but I have found over the years that my true passion falls somewhere in between decorating homes for others and merchandising and creating products to sell.

About a month ago, I off-handedly mentioned the idea of selling custom home decor items to two close friends of mine. A week later, one of them came back to me and told me that if I was serious, she would sell them for me. Since then, I have lost many hours of sleep turning over this idea in my head, looked through hundred of fabrics, competitive shopped, reached out to local business owners, and have held multiple strategy meetings with my two friends who are helping me start this new venture. Over the past few weeks, I have come to realize that all of the experience that I have gained in the past 13 years has brought me exactly to this perfect point. As of today, I think we have the concept just about right.

There are still many months of planning ahead of us - a website to build, focus groups to host, a product line to finesse, bloggers to contact, and a launch party to plan. My hope is to post the progress here as our excitement and plans for this new venture continue to grow. I am thrilled about expanding our reach and offering my vision of beautifully and affordably decorated homes outside of the Charlotte area!

MUCH more to come, so please follow me as we embark on this new journey!
Stay tuned!!