7 Southern Designers With the Best Pinterest Account

Lost in the endless inspiration scroll? Follow our favorites.

Zoë Gowen 

Reprinted from Southern Living

Pinterest is a pretty gigantic place to navigate. It only takes following a few overly zealous or off-target pinners to ruin your personal inspiration board. Hats off to these seven that never fail to deliver thoughtfully edited Southern decorating ideas.
Holly Phillips @TheEnglishRoom – This Charlotte, North Carolina-based designer and blogger has an eclectic eye for vintage, but she always pins rooms that are still squarely Southern. The colors combos alone in her staggering 73k pins are reason enough to follow her.
Alice Waters – Truth be told, I was looking for the famed chef Alice Waters in search of soulful and healthy recipe ideas. Turns out, I had the wrong Alice Waters, but this Alice who is based in Fort Worth, Texas is way more up my alley. I’m also unsure if she’s actually a designer, but I’m making an exception because her boards are always right on point to satisfy (or ignite) any home dream of mine. Her Architecture and Exterior boards are my favorites to ponder.
Valorie Hart – If you’re looking for New Orleans style to come alive via Pinterest, this is your account. From the kooky, to the colorful, to to-die-for antiques, Valorie’s pinterest is one exciting show not to be missed.
Gadabout – This Pinterest account is the inspiration playground for South Carolina-born, Louisville, Kentucky-based graphic designer Hanna Seabrook a well-known graphic designer behind the company, Gadabout. On her pinterest, you’ll find homes and interiors with a fresh, yet aged-look – quite possibly the ultimate compliment to give any Southerner about their home.
Parker Kennedy – Palm Beach preppy ideas galore are sourced throughout these boards from this Atlanta-based design duo. It’s nearly impossible not to follow an entire board with 1103 pins devoted to bamboo. More practical sounding boards like “Chic Appliances and Fixtures” and “Fences” are also seriously helpful.

Elly Poston – Our list wouldn’t be complete without mention of our own former Associate Decorating Editor. Her boards are fun for anyone to peruse, but in-the-trench decorators will appreciate her board “Decorating Details.” Non-decorators can think of this board as a free design service.
Helen Ballard – You may recognize the name. Yes, she’s the lady who founded Ballard Designs. As you’d expect, her Pinterest pages are filled with ethereal and European-rooted design ideas. If you love the natural look, follow her now.

Report From The 2017 NOLA Home Show

Home shows are so much fun for people who love to decorate, design, renovate, and build. The 2017 NOLA Home Show has some great vendors for you to check out. The show runs from January 27-29 at the New Orleans Morial Convention Center in Hall I. Hours are 10AM - 8PM on Saturday and 10AM - 6 PM on Sunday. There is free admission for Baton Rouge residents in light of the flooding they experienced this past August. I'll be a guest speaker at 1 PM on Sunday on The Williams Sonoma Stage and signing my book House Proud at booth 139 after my presentation. Hope to see you there!

Here are some of my favorites at the show...

The women from Spruce have a spiffy booth showing off beautiful wallpaper and fabrics

Canal Furniture Liquidators is one of my favorite places to shop in New Orleans

Valerie from Canal Furniture Liquidators-Go stop by and say hello-Tell her I sent you

I may have to pick up a pair of these sconces at Canal Furniture Liquidators

Cute patio furniture from At Home The Furniture Superstore

Some fab gem blingy handles from Legend Interiors

Williams Sonoma has a spiffy booth at the 2017 NOLA Home SHow

There are cooking demos all day with local New Orleans chefs at the 2017 NOLA Home Show

Furnish has some lovely handcrafted furniture

This lush garden was created by Four Seasons Groundworks

We love our gaslights in Louisiana and Flambeaux has a great exhibit

One exhibitor near the entrance is selling these beautiful wooden spoons

Custom Outdoor Concepts has an imrpressive exhibit

Even a home show needs some glam and Glitz Galore has some cute things

May Photography has some great art

The guys from The Factory were busy on their construction art

Only in New Orleans! A bar to provide you with an adult beverage while you check out the exhibits

The Williams Sonoma Home Stage - I'll be speaking here on Sunday January 29 at 1 PM

Come over to booth 139 where I will be signing my book House Proud on Sunday at 1:30

NOLA Home Show 2017

The NOLA Home Show is so much fun for anyone who loves design, decorating, and renovating. Tons of exhibitors show their stuff and offer a wealth of ideas. What a great way to spend a day to get inspired for your projects or just for fun. We visual vamps love to look at anything to do with design!

I will be a guest speaker on Friday, January 27th at 1 PM, and then again on Sunday, January 29 at 3 PM. I'll be signing my book House Proud too! So come on out and ask me anything!

Get $3. off online ticket price by entering promo code VHART

It's Been Awhile

I dropped off the blogging scene nearly three years ago. My husband Alberto Paz passed away then. It's been quite a ride on the wave of grief. Alberto was very much responsible for me creating this blog, and he was a constant supporter and cheerleader. With him gone, I felt there was no purpose for much of anything. Many of you have written to me, from that first awful day to the present, always checking in on me, and even asking me to start blogging on The Visual Vamp again. I appreciate your kindness more than you can imagine, and I thank you for it.

What have been doing for the last three years? Healing. Moving on. I've been working on decor and design and projects and styling jobs. I've kept writing for New Orleans Homes & Lifestyles magazine. I've kept teaching tango. I've traveled a bit, renewing old acquaintances. I had a wonderful job as one of the lead designers for Susan Holland Events (SHE) doing the decor for one of the last state dinners the Obamas hosted at The White House. It was wonderful to work with Susan again, and a thrill and an honor to be in the presence of the Obamas.

Friends and family have bolstered me up. Cholo and Kitty Bang Bang are still at my side. I've been on Facebook all along if you care to look in.

Anyway I'm back. And I hope to reconnect with many of you again. xo xo

India Hicks Island Style

With so much of the country having a long hard winter lasting into spring, I almost feel guilty about the warm weather in New Orleans. This is the perfect time of year when soft breezes from the gulf blow across the city fragrant with spring blossoms. It feels expansive and beach like, especially in the balmy early mornings.

Sipping coffee on my patio, I pour over the book "India Hicks Island Style". India Hicks with all her royal connections and accomplishments comes off as one of us. And by us I mean those who love to decorate and entertain and take pictures and love their life (and friends and family) and share the fruits of their labor.

There are so many lovely vignettes in the book. India and husband David have a myriad of interesting collections that are lovingly displayed throughout their Caribbean home. The party decor she creates for at home gatherings is fun and creative, and I think very inspirational (steal the look!) and something we could attempt.

This book reads like a visual family album. I keep going back to it, finding so many pieces of happiness. The press release says, "India Hicks Island Style offers a wondrous blend of her design philosophy and practical advice. Witty, inspirational, and beautifully photographed, this book will enchant and transport readers...". I agree! Add it to your summer reading list, or bring it as the perfect hostess gift.

India Hicks: Island Style by India Hicks, Rizzoli New York, 2015
Photography by one of my favorites, Miguel Flores Vianna (photos courtesy of Rizzoli)

Preservation Resource Center 2015 Shotgun House Tour

PRC 2015 Shotgun House Tour - 2 days - Saturday March 28 and Sunday March 29

You know Spring has arrived in New Orleans when the annual PRC Shotgun House Tour takes place. This year it's back in my neighborhood, The Irish Channel. The weather is going to be perfect and all the homes are unique and will give you plenty of great ideas about renovating and decorating. The tour benefits the Education Department at the PRC. Buy your tickets HERE or the day of the tour at Nadeau Funiture for the Soul on the corner of Magazine and Washington, the tour headquarters.

You can see a Sneak Peek of the PRC 2015 Shotgun House Tour in a nice video clip at WGNO.

Here is my sneak peek in photos (photos by Sara Essex Bradley). Please come and support the PRC, and come and see me too. My home is on the tour for the second time. The first time was several years ago, and some things remain the same, but so much has changed too.

You can read more about all the houses and homeowners in Preservation in Print magazine

The article starts on page 20

Jacques Dehornois

It's funny what and who influences you and leaves a life long impression. It was sometime in the 1980s when I was a girl flitting about town. A lovely friend named Carl George rang me up (yes we actually talked on telephones then) and asked if I wanted to take a jaunt to Brooklyn Heights to visit a friend of his. I always called Carl the man with two first names. He was a highly creative type without any visible means of looking so posh.

My love for the antique settee is a direct result of seeing this one in the apartment of Jacques Dehornois - ditto for striped flat weave rugs, and columns used as interior decoration

We arrived at the apartment of Jacques, a slim man with a sweet smile. He made me feel at ease. It was a large apartment decorated like nothing I had ever seen. After introductions, Carl and Jacques started looking at some drawings on a big table, and my eyes were left alone to wander a most incredible room. In fact it was the most beautiful and incredible apartment I had ever seen, and even after so many years of seeing so many incredible spaces, this one is still in a class by itself.

Carl George told me Jacques was a stylist and a decorator - This is a case study in great styling - I spy a Cy Twombley on the edge of the shot - genius

About an hour later, Carl and I subwayed back to Manhattan. I asked about Jacques, and Carl said he was a great friend, a major talent, and a great stylist and decorator. Mind you, this was before I started styling, and something about that word caught my fancy. Like all great ones Jacques was very humble in his demeanor. You would never know he was working with Anna Wintour an up and coming editor  and writer on homes and decorating, and fashion at New York Magazine. She wasn't Anna Wintour yet.

This daybed, and the striped sheets, especially the one hung on the wall made quite an impression on me - I have used fabric like this so many times like this thanks to seeing it in the apartment of Jacques Dehornois - and the gallery wall has inspired countless gallery walls of my own

I never forgot the mix of antique and modern and vintage things in Jacques apartment. He was so ahead of his time as a decorator. I had never seen an architectural fragment, a column just stuck in the middle of things just for the beauty of it. So many things I saw that day are things I still love and use in my work today.

A perfectly styled and decorated room by Jacques Dehornois - thank you for mentoring me, even if you didn't know you were doing so

The man with two first names moved to Los Angeles, and works as successful arbiter of style.
Jacques passed away five years ago. 
Anna Wintour became a fashion icon. She said that Jacques Dehornois was the best decorator she ever met. I agree.

These photos have been around for awhile, published in House and Garden with photos by Francois Halard.

Get the look...

Blue settee

Draper Sheets

Striped rug

Cy Twombley print

Architectural birdouse - maybe paint it black

Antique column - and check your local salvage stores

Vintage daybed

Round table

Vintage nude painting(s)

Desk lamp

Red coral

Jacques stacked books on two white antique chairs, but if you can't find something as fabulous I would use a pair of these vintage acrylic chairs

Carved wood console table

Carved wood console table

Candelabra