Sara Ruffin Costello New Orleans Style

A couple of weeks ago Sara Ruffin Costello introduced her BFF Miles Redd when he gave a talk at his book signing at the Ogden Museum in New Orleans. My thought bubble was "Oh that chick". Sara was wearing a matching top and pants, slim silhouette. It was black, with a small print that made her outfit look like chic grown-up PJs. And her introduction was genuine, funny, and perfect.

Sara Ruffin Costello and Miles Redd in New York

I remember another blogger/stylist/artist and I talking on the phone one day (quite awhile ago) when SRC's name came up. The BSA asked me if I knew SRC who had just landed in New Orleans from New York, another New New among our ranks. I was told SRC and her husband Paul are the coolest couple and they would be great to know. I kind of said yeah sure.............................(sound of crickets).

I noticed a few pics of the couple in the company of the design and social glitterati here in NOLA, and a wisp of a memory of them came into focus. She is a kind of famous as one of the Domino Magazine (and book) team, and as a writer for the NY Times and Wall Street Journal, writing great style pieces. He is a well known photographer for the NY Times and many many other major outlets (his work is also beautiful).

New Orleans living room of Sara and Paul Costello, recent New News

The West Village home they left behind for the Garden District in New Orleans - I love to compare what they kept and changed - There's a nice mix of old and new here, but I think it gets better in NOLA

There's definitely more color and stuff, something that takes you over when you live in New Orleans

I checked out their West Village house on Curbed, and another light bulb popped off. Oh that girl! Oh that couple! I realized "I knew" them all along, just not putting names with spaces and work I already loved. In fact their bedroom wallpaper inspired a wall treatment in my house.

The master bedroom in the West Village House - This wallpaper inspired me

SRC inspired me before I knew who she was! You can see we both like to rock a good print and some PJ style -  photo by Sara Essex Bradley for Rue Magazine

And of course I "knew" the couple from Domino and Domino The Book, and all their work at large that I have been looking at and enjoying over the past few years. Duh. I finally connected some dots.

This is the West Village again, but the room changed - It already has some New Orleans flava - I think the more simple room might have been done when they put the house up for sale

Here's a composite of the real estate photos of the West Village house from Curbed

So here they are now living in New Orleans! We are so happy in New Orleans for the influx of a cadre of young smart stylish people choosing to make New Orleans their home (or at least their home base).

I love this quote - so true, so true - And  when you first come to New Orleans you cannot believe that a door like the one in this photo is standard issue in many houses - It can make you do a happy dance

Detail of the living room in New Orleans - Tip: Paint your trim the same color as your walls

They know what Alberto and I discovered 13 years ago: This is a nice little cosmopolitan city with affordable real estate, so staggeringly great in comparison to New York. When you first start house hunting you almost do a happy dance when the real estate agent isn't looking. The space and the style in New Orleans seems like a steal. In fact it is. More than a steal, it is almost a gift.

Everything we love - Color, books, art

And if you have jobs that you can do from any home base, New Orleans is so perfect. We chose it for just that reason, and because it is the most beautiful Bohemian place with no winter, great food, wonderful shopping, fantastic music and art, lots to do (or not do), and terrific people who thrive on joie de vivre.

So it's good to have Sara and Paul and family here in New Orleans. They will give alot to the city, and it will give alot to them.

Good to have you in New Orleans - Paul Costello and Sara Costello (she is on the right at the end) hosting a party in their new New Orleans home

Their house was on The PRC Holiday Home Tour 2012

All photos of the New Orleans house from a great blog called Domaine. Photos of the West Village house from Curbed.


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Would You Use A Colored Sofa?

Color sofas and couches have made a huge comeback in the past few years. What color is your couch?

Here are a few familiar images to remind you how great colored couches are.

Nicole Cohen designed this room using a fabulous green couch

Miles Redd rocked the camel back in blue

Emily Henderson put colored couches on TV big time

Miles Redd does orange

Miles Miles Miles

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Marvelous Miles Redd

It was a Marvelous Miles Redd evening darlings! A veritable bold face who's who of the New Orleans design world turned up to see Miles Redd at The Ogden. He was introduced by his long time friend, Sara Ruffin Costello, who thought the crowd was very "chicerly". It's true, there were some good dressers in the audience, starting with the grand dame of New Orleans interior design Mrs. Bremermann in the front row, who wore a pair of chartreuse trousers as an homage to Miles being the king of color.

Miles Redd and Valorie Hart in New Orleans at the Ogden

Miles gave a great talk showing slides of things that have influenced his work, touchstones from art and fashion, and classic designers Jansen, Billy Baldwin, and David Hicks. He showed his own work, explaining his thought bubbles behind each project. He is now a New Yorker, though Southern born, so it was a cool stretch for the Ogden to include him in their nod to Southern Style.

He endeared himself, not only with his conversational speaking manner and his spiffy Nantucket style garb, red trousers, no socks, and a sharp blue blazer, but also with his humor and honesty. He coughed a bit and told us not to worry, that he always coughed when he's nervous. Someone brought him a cocktail to sip and soothe. He also quipped that, "if the writing wasn't already on the wall", as a ten year old he had asked his mother for a birthday gift of book called "Hats in Vogue". He also begged her to add just a touch of chinchilla to her wardrobe.

The room was swell, set with a bar and munchies. The only glitch was that no one knew where the light switch was to turn out the lights for the slide presentation. No one could see the colors Miles was enthusing about, though his descriptions made you "see" them anyway.

He was preaching to the choir of youngish decorators in the crowd. I don't know if the Uptown ladies who were present are ready to give up what he called "their tea stained pale walls" for taxi cab yellow, but they loved him nonetheless.

Miles Redd and Valorie Hart

Who I saw: Shaun Smith, Mario Villa, Chad Graci. Evie and Phillip Clinton, Pam Dupuy, Linda Merrill (visiting NOLA on a sponsored junket for some bloggers). Mitchell Settoon, Taylor Eichenwald, Linda Flynn, Kathleen Sanchez, Heidi Shirrmann, Sue Strachan, Sabina Lewis, and many, many others.

Miles Redd signing books in New Orleans

Miles sold out of all of his hefty books, The Big Book of Chic, and signed every copy with a smile and gratitude.

Here are 5 tips from his talk:

1. It is okay to be a “maximalist.”  
2. Don’t be afraid to use color, including on the floor.
3. A bar can be very welcoming.
4. Don’t forget about antiques.
5. You can always make a boring piece a chic one.    

You can read the whole recap in an article at My New Orleans.

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Miles Redd Winners

See you tomorrow night at the Ogden!

Linda
Kathleen
Heidi
Mitchell

Pick up your ticket at the Will Call, tell them The Visual Vamp sent you.

At the Ogden Museum, Wednesday, April 16, 5:30 - 7:30

Miles Redd Giveaway!!!

Miles Redd is coming to New Orleans!!!! Ta Da!!!! All you decor mavens put it on your calendar: Wednesday April 17, 5:30 PM at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art. The event is called Southern Style: Miles Redd.

Get free tickets to see Miles Redd on Wednesday when he gives a chat and signs books at the Ogden - Just leave a comment

Hey You! Come and hang out with Miles Redd! This is Miles taking a ride in a planter being taken up to his rooftop garden by a crane! Amazing! You can ask him about it when you see him in New Orleans on Wednesday!

Miles Redd in his garden

Miles is a nice guy, very friendly and forthcoming.  He even answered my email when I was painting my bedroom Miles Redd Green. You can listen to a great interview with him and the ladies of the Skirted Roundtable.  There is a great article on Miles with an interview and some great styling tips in the Wall Street Journal that I think you will also enjoy.

My bedroom inspired by Miles Redd Green - Art work by Anne Harwell of Annechovie - photo by Sara Essex Bradley

We all have folders and Pinterest boards stuffed with his images, and I think it would be great to meet him and thank him for sharing his talent and inspiring us.

Blue padded and nail head studded doors - just one of many inspiring ideas from Miles Redd

Miles Redd brought back the lambrequin and made it hip!

Miles Redd loves color

The ultimate padded headboard in the bedroom of Miles Redd

His front door launched thousands of blogger comments on the color blue he mixed himself

Pink walls and a red couch got us all going

Miles Red is the mix master of furnishings and color

Extraordinary repetition

Black and lacquer oh my!

So come on out to the Ogden when Miles gives a cozy talk and signs his book The Big Book of Chic. You can buy tickets in advance from the Ogden.

Miles Redd will be signing his book on Wednesday April 17 at the Ogden

Which Miles Redd room to you love the most?

The cover that launched thousands of green rooms

OR you can just leave a comment because I am a lucky girl with FOUR tickets to giveaway. I will randomly choose the winners this weekend and announce them on TUESDAY. So enter often!!! 

I heart the Ogden. It is a great museum, that often offers fun personal events like this one with Miles Redd. I thank them for the tickets that I can pass onto to you.  See you on the 17th!!!!!


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Plaster Mania

Decorators have been obsessed with plaster objects for many years, and they are once again an accessory du jour.

Plaster dipped chandelier from Trove in Los Angeles - I am thinking of doing a DIY project

I remember an episode on Million Dollar Decorators where JAM and Ross were at the San Francisco Antiques show, making a bee line for a perfect coffee table that turned out to be a small vintage plaster table by John Dickinson. I think it the price tag was ten thousand dollars.

Ross and Jeffrey on the hunt for the perfect coffee table

They coveted this John Dickinson table that sold for $30K

Since then I noticed more and more John Dickinson pieces being featured in designer rooms.

A treasure trove of John Dickinson pieces

Plaster tables are popping up everywhere in designer rooms

John Dickinson lamps are also very popular

Room designed by the legendary John Dickinson

Syrie Maugham was famous for using white plaster objects.

Syrie Maugham with a white plaster palm tree lamp - Love the chevron rug too - This is 1930 people!

"The story behind this literally off-the-wall use of plaster actually began in the '30s. Serge Roche, a second-generation antiques dealer, began making ornate Rococo plaster tables, mirror frames and palm-frond torchiers during the Great Depression to bolster the stock of his Paris shop. Business was bad, so in order to keep going, he decided to design furniture. Not everything was done in plaster, but most of it was. Along with fellow Parisian Jean-Michel Frank—who sold the work of Emilio Terry and sculptors Alberto and Diego Giacometti—Roche became the go-to plaster resource for the decoratrixes of the day, such as Elsie de Wolfe, Frances Elkins and particularly Syrie Maugham, who snapped up pieces for her signature all-white rooms."

Syrie Maugham lobster phone

"In that era, plaster had a touch of whimsy and the surreal—Maugham collaborated with Salvador Dali on a plaster lobster phone—but it was still mostly focused on traditions past. It's no surprise that as the forward-looking '60s rolled in, plaster took a backseat to steel and glass. San Francisco decorator John Dickinson was part of its revival in the '70s with his almost cartoony animal-footed stools and tables."
from The Wall Street Journal

Frances Elkins with her plaster treasures

Here in New Orleans chandelier designer Julie Neill has been experimenting with plaster. She's made a couple of chandeliers. It's not as easy as my DIY idea of dipping a chandelier. She has worked hard in  finding a way to actually make a chandelier in plaster.

Julie Neill chandelier in the restaurant Oak in New Orleans

One of the first Julie Neill plaster chandeliers

Julie said this is the one that inspired her that she saw in a room done by Gerrie Bremermann

There are many other ways to incorporate plaster accents into your decor. A simple one is to use plaster brackets to display smaller objects. The little shelves are relatively easy to find and inexpensive.

Miles Redd uses plaster brackets

Steven Gambrel uses plaster brackets

You can also just place a few plaster objects around your home. I have a plaster lamp purchased at Ballard Designs over fifteen years ago.

I love this photo, an outtake for the book Undecorate taken by Melanie Acevedo - So much has changed since that photo shoot, but I still have and use  the plaster lamp

Plaster walls inherent to architecture are amazing

I love the plaster objects used in this table setting designed by Dwayne Clark and Bob Gaynor for DIFFA

Shells mix well with plaster - Detail of DIFFA table

Of course here in New Orleans many old homes have plaster mouldings and medallions

I'll let you know what happens if I dip an old chandelier in plaster! Has anyone out there tried this yet? Or made plaster furniture?

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