Ding Dong! Here's Your Flower Delivery

Hello everyone!
Here's a virtual flower delivery for you to wish you a Happy Easter.

All flowers and photos by Valorie Hart the Visual Vamp

I arranged the flowers in the photos for a recent photo shoot for a certain house you may recognize.

Silver ice bucket with white hydrangea

I have shopped fabulous wholesale flower markets all over the world: New York, New Orleans, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Madrid, Paris, Amsterdam...


But really the "super market" flower shops have changed how everyone can get great flowers very close to wholesale choices and prices.

When I had my event design business in New York, I would visually shop the great displays on the sidewalks of the Korean markets, and say "I could do a high end event using these flowers".



For this shoot I shopped a favorite we all use: Whole Foods. Usually tried and true, there was a glitch. Their flower delivery was out of whack because the delivery truck had an accident enroute. I said a silent prayer for the driver, and then considered the limited choices.



I do not like over the top florals in the home. I like flowers to be natural and simple. And I like to style them this way for photo shoots. The home should be the focus, not the flowers. Lots of stylists like to show off, but really, it's not about the stylist ha ha. I can make towering fabulous arrangements using every flower you can think of. It takes more effort to show restraint.

Perfect orange French tulips in a Newcomb pottery style vase

Simple bouquet of apricot color roses
Studded Lucite tray by Nicole Cohen of Sketch42

Two simple tulips let the furnishings be the star

I hope you are making pretty flower arrangements for your home for Easter and everyday.
Alberto and I send our very best wishes to all of you.

Visual Vamp Style File - Secrets From A Stylist

private residence
Visual Vamp Stylist

Recently I had to pull together some images of my work for an architect looking for a stylist.

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Visual Vamp Stylist

I chose a few from images I had on hand. I have boxes of photos from my New York design days, but no time or will to scan them. Digital photography has changed the way we present a portfolio.

perch. shop display
Visual Vamp Stylist

What part do I have as a stylist in the finished product?

perch. shop display
Visual Vamp Stylist

Most times the room has been designed, and I am called in to give it life.

Art In Bloom
Visual Vamp Concept and Styling

Other times the concept is mine.

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Visual Vamp Stylist

Photo styling is one type of work I do. I also style a finished project for interior designers and architects for their final reveal to the client. I also do private residential styling, where a person calls me in to look at their rooms, and pull them together by using what they have and choosing new pieces as well. I am starting to get opportunities to do movie work, which is pretty awesome. And of course, I do store displays regularly.

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Visual Vamp Stylist
This bedding had to go

I choose all the objects, rearrange furniture, and hang art. I also work with the budgets for rentals, purchases, loans, deliveries, etc.

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Visual Vamp Stylist

I meet with editors and designers to see what they have in mind, and then I liason with shop owners to borrow things. I pack it and arrange for delivery to a location.

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Visual Vamp Stylist

At the site I organize the merchandise, and work with the photographer on the number of shots needed and the order they need to be done in, and also the time frame we have do them in.

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Visual Vamp Stylist

Then I pack it all up and get it back to the places I borrowed it all from, and make sure the space we worked in is put back as it was, and left clean.

perch. shop display
Visual Vamp Stylist

In the case of a an architect or designer using me for finishing touches, I do a walk through with them at the beginning at the end of a job. If a client is keeping the things I pull, I invoice them and make sure the shops are promptly paid for both purchases and rentals.

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Visual Vamp Stylist

After everything as been returned or purchased, I follow-up with a thank you note to my vendors, and those who hired me.

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Visual Vamp Stylist

I also make sure the editors and the writers have all the details needed for proper photo caption credit, or editorial mention.

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Visual Vamp Stylist

I love stylist work, because it is the cherry on the sundae of a design project. It is hard work, but it is so fun to do so many diverse projects, and I am good at being able to see a room, a set, a display, or whole house, and know exactly what it needs and where to get it.

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Visual Vamp Stylist

I also have an excellent sense of composing things for the camera. Seeing a room through the lens is a different experience than seeing it in real life.

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Visual Vamp Stylist

I am so happy for Emily Henderson, a stylist and a blogger, getting her own HGTV show "Secrets From A Stylist" starting this Sunday August 29. Let's give her some fierce blogger love and support and get the word out about her show, and help make it a huge success! Read her heartfelt post about winning HERE


In this day and age of cutting budgets more editors are called upon to style photo shoots themselves. I'm hoping the importance of going the extra mile to hire a stylist is enhanced by Emily making a large audience aware of what it takes to be a stylist. That and a better economy.

Magazine cover mock up
Visual Vamp Stylist HERE

As a home owner, hire a stylist to come and look at your space. You will be amazed at how they will be able to freshen it up.

And designers and architects do add a stylist to your team to bring life to your projects.

Stylists are a bridge to interior design, architecture, photography, and merchandising.

Confessions Of A Stylist

We have all seen something in a magazine that inspires us so much that we want to try to replicate it our own homes. My imagination went on a pleasant journey courtesy of House Beautiful and Jill Brinson. Jill is an uber stylist now segueing into interior design.
I am a stylist as well. Most of my work takes place in the shop I work in. I style the displays, as well photograph merchandise for the web site, and for the shop blog I write and manage. Occasionally I do a free lance project too.

I decided to play, to create a Brinson-like vignette. Of course I don't have the same house or colors or the same things she has. I don't have the resources to go out and buy things to replicate the Brinson magic. And I don't have the talented Rob Brinson to do the photography. But I do have imagination and talent. And my trusty digital camera ha ha.

So I got together some things, begged and borrowed and bought on a budget, and spent a few days playing.

Valorie Hart Designs a fun FAUX House Beautiful Cover
You can make one f0r yourself too HERE

I looked for visual elements that had a similar feeling, not literal. For example, the circle of the clock filled in for the circles of the candle sconces. My little Saarinen stool filled in for Jill's ethnic one. I borrowed a higher coffee table. It's not as cool as Jill's metal one, but the scale was right. I added the antique French metal folding chair for my metal accent.

I picked up my rug, and added my white cow hide to the floor.


I purchased some very inexpensive paisley print pillows in the same vein as Jill's , but certainly not the quality of what looked to be Les Indiennes textiles.

I had a pink throw, so I thought I'd work off that color for the flower color choice. Jill's throw and flowers looked more fuchsia. Instead of a large vessel for the flowers, I used three antique mercury glass bottles I already own. I tried to use the same scale of objects that were on Jill's coffee table, although again it was not a literal copy. For instance I chose my Cara Croninger heart pendant in place of the white shell necklace.

I didn't have a small tray, so I used a framed photo, and an oyster shell instead of a rock. I also took the white cowhide off the floor and out of the picture all together. I traded it for the brown one - I mean I literally traded my white one for the brown one. My couch is a totally different shape and size than Jill's, but I think the general idea is conveyed.

Next I switched to lavender accents. Again I had the throw. I switched out the pink roses for purple stock. I don't have a table lamp like the one Jill has, but my old tin floor lamp and black shade have a nice gestalt in front of the side table stacked with books. My art work above the side table is about the same scale as Jill's. The lamp and table is on the opposite side as in the HB photo, but I didn't feel the need to switch them to the other side of the couch. Again, I was not trying to copy the look directly.

I switched out a neutral pillow for a lavender Ikat. The couch is longer than Jill's so I had to use more pillows to get the scale better. The brown pillows behind the paisley are my Ikat pillows turned to the back side.

Jill had an apple on her table. It was brown and mine is white. My stack of books is a set of small reference books I covered with white paper and tied with twine.

All the elements are there, but different.

Cholo keeps me company whenever I do anything. After I styled this all up I decided that the bare floors don't work visually for the room. I also am getting back my white Saarinen coffee table! I am a cottage lady from way back so I thought this antique tea table would make me swoon, but after living with for a few days, I'm bringing back my modern edge ha ha.

This is the room after the fantasy shoot. I put my original rug back, and my original pillows.

I like the brown cowhide on the couch. I thought that the two cowhides would feel like Rancho Vamp, but actually they work very well together.



Things never turn out like they look in the magazine. Still it's fun to play. I think the key is not to copy literally, but to use your own things and personality in conjunction with what inspires you.

Hope you enjoyed my little my flight of fancy.