At Home With Marcy Blum And Destin Coleman

I have a fat file of hundreds of photos I took this past Summer in New York, and have resolved to get them posted.

The front door of the Brooklyn home of Marcy Blum and Destin Coleman

This weekend we had Marcy and Destin visit us from New York.
This past Summer we had a whirlwind two weeks there to celebrate my 60th, and to compete in the US Tango Salon Championship. We stayed with several friends over the two weeks, and Marcy and Destin opened their beautiful Brooklyn (Carroll Gardens) townhouse to us.

The garden of pots in front of the house

The neighborhood of Carroll Gardens is fabulous! Streets of row houses, many with front gardens, Smith Street for trendy boutique shopping and great restaurants, close subway access, all of this (and more) makes this an easy transition for ex Manhattanites. The neighborhood feels like Manhattan did 25 years ago.

Marcy Blum was trained at The Culinary Institute of America-
So she loves when the quaint knife truck pulls up in front of her house

Marcy and Destin's townhouse has a couple of levels, and a small oasis of a back garden. The furnishings are collected and casual. They have a couple of dogs and cats. Destin is studying to become a vet.

The spacious dining room in the Blum-Coleman Brooklyn townhouse

They love to entertain, which makes sense since Marcy is the premier event planner. One of the things they looked for when they chose a house to buy, was a dining room.

The table is set with an eclectic collection - notice the snow ball!
Marcy and I share the New Yorker's affection for this word!

The hallway has a set of original paintings (with very unique frames) depicting the seven deadly sins. Can you name them all ha ha?

This one, "lust", looks like a vignette at the cool and hip secret swimming hole just steps from Marcy and Destin's front door.

You had to be invited to swim HERE

The master bedroom is upstairs. It has a charming Juliet balcony overlooking the garden.

Marcy and Destin gave up their bed for us when we visited New York -
When we left we left them a note spelled out in rose petals

The more important room on the upper level is the walk-in room size closet Marcy designed.

Marcy Blum's legendary walk-in closet - so rare in New York!

The open iron work overlooks the living room below. It's a nod to Destin who is a Louisiana native.


Back on the main floor is a formal living room open to the kitchen and dining room, with a huge front window overlooking the street and the charming garden in front of the house.

Also on the main floor is a little spot for reading and watching television, a room just off the entrance to the back garden.

Marcy, Destin, the dogs, and the cats love the back garden.


Marcy was in New Orleans to speak at a convention for event planners who came from all over the world to hear her. Destin came along to see friends here, and get his New Orleans fix!

Marcy Blum literally wrote the book (and many major magazine articles). I think some of my work might be in this book!

Save the date for the weekend of March 5-7, 2010 for a terrific seminar given by Marcy Blum and Preston Bailey. It is a must for anyone in the event business, or doing a start up, or anyone who has web based event or wedding or floral business. It's called Bailey and Blum (what a dynamic duo!).

Marcy Blum and Preston Bailey giving a seminar together

More links to past posts of the New York City trip with pictures of private homes:

http://visualvamp.blogspot.com/2009/07/alfred-sheffer-lost-architect.html
http://visualvamp.blogspot.com/2009/07/pegs-living-room-at-beach.html
http://visualvamp.blogspot.com/2009/07/beachy-details-and-little-surpirse.html
http://visualvamp.blogspot.com/2009/08/in-city-part-1.html
http://visualvamp.blogspot.com/2009/08/in-country.html
http://visualvamp.blogspot.com/2009/08/in-city.html

The Secret Swimming Hole - Happy Labor Day!

Some months ago I read about a secret swimming hole HERE and HERE
Click on images for larger photos.

It is in Brooklyn, and it is amazing for two reasons: where and how it's constructed, and that people were actually keeping the location secret. You had to be invited to swim.


This past July Alberto and I went to New York. We stayed with different friends during the two week holiday, our last domicile in Brooklyn.
One afternoon my friend Marcy and I were walking around her neighborhood, yakking it up, and I asked her if she had read the article in the New York Times about the secret swimming hole in Brooklyn. We were walking on a a street at the edge of her neighborhood, and I told her I just felt the secret pool had to be around here somewhere.


Well, a few days later Marcy burst in her front door after working all day. She was all excited. Apparently her next door neighbor had a key to the secret pool, and she wanted to show it to Marcy. Marcy came to get me, and off we went.

It was mere steps away from Marcy's front door! The sun was going down, and the neighbor knew how to turn on the lights. What an amazing place!


We weren't prepared to swim at night, so we promised to come back the next day. The neighbor told us how to gain access (ask for Jimbo at the gate). Marcy had to go to work, but Alberto and I decided to take a dip.

Marcy poolside at night

The place is set up for partying. Lounge chairs, tables and chairs, and a row of grills promise good times for sure!


Little party tents are set up too. We pretty much had the place to ourselves. There was someone there taking photos for a magazine, and after we said polite hellos, we left each other alone.


The location is an actual working site, a sort of storage facility for construction materials and equipment.


RVs, trucks, and fork lifts are parked all around. But I spy a little stripe tent.

It's a cabana!

There's even a bathroom. Well it's just a port-a-potty, but some crazy soul decorated with a collage of magazine pictures of glam beach and pool scenes.


There are a couple of pools that are connected by decking. Sand bags are under a plastic lining, and it's very comfy on the feet.


It's all so artistic, the juxtaposition of the skyline, and the site, and the colors of the pool toys and furniture.

There's a boccie court too!

Alberto bowled a few!

It was a hot July morning and the water was beckoning.


Mmmmm that feels so good!


I just had to play with the pool toys!


The water temperature was perfect. I haven't owned a swim suit in a zillion years! So I went Victorian style in leggings and a tank top.


This is the exit: Marcy's home is on the left in a row of houses behind the row of trees.

Summer has flown by so very fast! I hope you all enjoyed yours as much as we enjoyed ours.
Coming soon: Marcy's house. In the meantime go to her blog HERE to see photos of her neighborhood. With all the clues, you should be able to find the secret swimming hole. I don't know how much longer they'll leave it up since summer unofficially ends today.

Would You Like To Spend Your Honeymoon Night On Top Of The World?

PR Director, Michelle Panzer of Brides Magazine, came up with the crazy cool idea to promote the 75th anniversary of Brides with a unique honeymoon suite. A partnership between the editorial and promotional departments supported the event. Genius Brides Wedding Style Director Maria McBride was responsible for designing the decor concept. Her job was to make a cozy nest, a glamorous rest for an urban princess.

Stock PR photo of Top of The Rock
before it was decorated for Brides 75th

With floor-to-ceiling windows soaring 25 feet, the Weather Room provides guests with the ultimate skyline experience. In addition to its magical atmosphere and unrivaled views, it offers access to two magnificent open-air terraces. This space accommodates as many as 300 guests for receptions and seated dinners for as many as 120.
Maria had nests on her mind since the success of her cool recent book Party Basics For New Nesters. She designed a giant fantasy bed high atop New York City in the fantastic Weather Room for the couple, and with the help of fellow designer Mark Musters, created a glam new nest for the newlyweds.

Ooh look at all the Lucite chairs for another party!
Brides actually used leather ottomans and lacquered bar tables

In a city where a couple can marry at a movie premiere and hundreds of wives-to-be scale a giant wedding cake for cash, the idea of putting a honeymoon suite inside a tourist attraction isn't all that unconventional. Commemorating its 75th year—and perhaps looking to edge out the competition with a creative ploy for publicity—Brides magazine built a bedroom inside Top of the Rock for a pair of newlyweds. They hired a concierge for the couple, who spent the end of a long evening on the town at Top of The Rock.

The deck at Top Of The Rock

Dubbed the Mile High Honeymoon Suite, the promotion opened to the public, and closed with a fabulous cocktail party.


On one night, however, Ryan and Kelley Pattee had the 67th-floor perch to themselves! Chosen by the Condé Nast publication as a couple deserving of a unique honeymoon—the bride's ailing parents prevented the two from taking a vacation after their wedding in August—the Pattees were left to their own devices in the romantic east-facing corner of Rockefeller Center's rooftop observatory.

What a view!
Even the stanchions have Swarovski crystals used as the ropes

Ryan and Kelley getting their honeymoon package to Bora Bora
Millie Martini editor of Brides is on the left

Companies like Ann Gish, Swarovski, and Veuve Cliquot provided products for the suite, while Air Tahiti Nui, Tahiti Tourisme North America, and the Four Seasons Bora Bora supplemented the promotion with a vacation package for the Pattees.


To construct the grand Dorothy Draper-inspired four-poster bed, the magazine utilized its own resources. Maria McBride, a designer and consultant with six books on bridal style to her name, headed up the project with production handled by Mark Musters, the veteran event producer and designer now working under the name Studio Mamu. "Working with a space open to the public has inherent challenges," said Maria. With only a six-hour window to load in and build the suite, Maria relied on Mark's production experience to tackle last-minute problems.


A plaster cast for a mold was used, then multiple copies were made in foam, then sectioned together, and painted in gesso and acrylic. The back and sides of bed are velvet upholstery with Swarovski crystals. The posts are wood columns, and the finials are zinc molds.

Maria makes the bed

The most beautiful luxury linens and pillows are by Ann Gish. Swarovski buttons were used for the quilting on the headboard.

Setting up the bed
Love the Draper influence!

The molds for the "plaster" portion of the bed were done by a company called Transit Culture, and then the fantastic bed was put together and constructed by the amazing Iziquerdo Studio (where Mark worked 100 years ago).

Setting up the bed

Back story and installation

Maria and the crew

I did many event at Rockefeller Center with uber wedding planner Marcy Blum, and many fun and creative projects with Maria McBride. Mark Musters was on my crew and roster of the most creative people I used, and often worked on my most important projects.
I hope you enjoyed a little back story of a major marketing and event production. We often just see the finished result, and not all the interesting machinations that it takes to create something so beautiful and ephemeral.
Maybe one day I'll pull some photos out of the vault to show some of the great projects my company did with the fabulous three "M's".
30 Rock has always been glam, but it really is so hip now too. When I worked there the place was decked out with the most gorgeous Art Deco furnishings. Now it's all lounge-y and cool.