Designing My Life

Hello, I’m Donna Bezio. I’m excited to be working with Barbara on all of her endeavors!  I will also occasionally be contributing to Barbara’s Blog. So let me introduce myself.  I have one daughter, age 9, one son, age 7, and one husband, age undisclosed!  Someday, we hope to add one dog to the family but that is a whole different story.

My degree is in architecture and my career background includes a lot of space planning.  I have a broad range of interests varying from playing drums to art education for children.  My life experiences before kids range from skydiving to framing houses to patrolling skiers on Mt. Hood.  I still enjoy time outdoors, but now that I’m a mom, I don’t walk on two-story walls or jump out of planes anymore!  Now my excitement comes from everything about my kids (which this year included being a stage mom for the Portland Opera, the Classic Greek Theater of Oregon and numerous children’s theater productions; as well as being a cheerleader for scouts, baseball, soccer and mini hoopers!)

As we start a new year, I have resolutions on my mind.  This year, I have more than ever – a real “bucket list” if you will!  Probably due to the fact that I have a relatively big birthday coming up, I can’t help thinking about how I can improve my home, my community, my finances, my mental and physical health…

So, I am taking one step at a time. You know the old adage, “There’s a place for everything and everything in its place.” Keeping an organized home helps me focus and concentrate on other areas of my life. So I’m going to keep that motto in mind with everything I do this year. It helps my family too. This journaling experience could be just what I need to keep me on track.  I’ll share with you any home improvement ideas that I myself am trying. I’m a do-it-yourselfer on a tight budget. This year I look forward to doing many things, and I’m anxious to share some of those things with you!

My first project of this new year was recovering my kitchen chairs.  I designed the whole kitchen last summer and we are implementing the project one small step at a time.  Recovering the fabric on my chair cushions was an easy thing to do – I just needed to schedule a few hours to get it done!  I simply unscrewed the seat, wrapped the seat with a new fabric (right over the old fabric), stapled the edges and then screwed the seat back down.  Ta-da!  New seats!  And this time, because I have two cookie-monster kids, they are easier to wipe clean with a nice leather-looking fabric!  Other family friendly options would be to use an outdoor fabric or choose most any fabric that you like and have it plastic coated.  Ask your fabric store for details.  This small improvement was less than $20, and it looks and feels like I have four new chairs!

There is nothing I love more than my family; they are at the center of who I am and everything I do. The last couple of years has been a journey, melding my passion for my children and our life with my design work. This exploration led to the formulation of YES! Spaces – a design philosophy that helps families create homes that honor every family members interests and integrate them into still beautiful and comfortable rooms. Each child and every family is unique – they are a gift and deserve to be given a voice and a place in their own home. An expensive remodel or redesign is not required to achieve this, it is a matter of assessing what is there, listening, prioritizing and reorganizing with a plan. I have been sharing this philosophy with parents this fall and have had the honor of seeing changes in families homes and lives as a result.

All of this has led to an amazing development, two days before Christmas I signed a contract with Arnica Creative who want to make YES! Spaces a book. I have been blessed that they see the value and soul in what these spaces can be and how they help to make a difference in people’s lives. They are as excited as I am to bring this project to fruition so work begins at a frenzied pace to bring YES! Spaces to bookstores in October of 2010. Their plans for this project exceed my wildest dreams and I am thrilled, scared and grateful (all at the same time!)

I wish for all of you the chance this year to find your joy and share it with the world! Whatever you do with love and passion will bring you rewards beyond your wildest imagination. Happy New Year!

Shirley first telephoned me only a couple of weeks after we had moved into our new home to “invite” me to be part of her elementary school carnival committee. The day I visited her home to attend my first meeting was the first time I met Shirley and I was charmed. She ran the meeting with so much warmth and humor that her iron clad rulings seemed merely to be helpful suggestions. Over the years Shirley took me under her wing and included my husband and me in many of her wonderful parties and adventures. She was always a perfect hostess, lady and friend who had that unique gift of making you feel like you were the most important person in the room. Shirley treated every friend as a gift and every day as a holiday.

One Christmas in particular, however, I got to see an even more generous and thoughtful side to my friend.  After my daughter Weston was born, our fifth child in 11 years, I received a call from Shirley in late November.  She had decided she needed my babies for her Christmas celebration. Her own children were old enough that even though they made a good effort a visit from Santa just wasn’t the same as it used to be: she needed some true believers!  Shirley wanted to recapture that time when little eyes lit up as Santa entered the room and hoped our family would join them for his annual visit on Christmas Eve.It was a lovely invitation but we were already committed to family and guests ourselves and even though Shirley tried to “negotiate” a schedule it just wasn’t going to work out.

One week before Christmas I received a call from Shirley with instructions that I was to purchase and wrap one present for each of my children from Santa and to hide them outside in a predetermined location.  Even though we were unable to give Shirley the gift of witnessing for herself the excitement caused by a visit from Santa, she had to be sure they experienced the magic none the less. Santa did deliver presents to my children that year, in our own living room.

Tragically, her loving family and hundreds of friends lost Shirley this year. I know I will always remember a woman who unselfishly spread joy and happiness to every life she touched. We are so blessed that she touched ours.

May your holiday season be blessed as well.

When you are decorating any room for the holidays your goal is to enhance the existing style not impose a predetermined holiday palette where it doesn’t belong. The breakfast room at Portland’s historic Pittock Mansion is a perfect example of a room that would not work with a traditional holiday color scheme.  The wall paper carefully restored to it’s original pattern is purple, teal, brown and mauve.  How do you combine those colors, an antique gold mirror, blue velvet curtains and a purple rug with a holiday theme?  Literally tie them all together.

Given our color palette it became clear to me that a wintery white theme with dusty blue greenery would be the only thing that worked.  So we decided to use a beautiful blue ribbon, a silvery white ribbon and a rich gold ribbon and use them all in every bow to unite all of the elements in the room.  These bows were then introduced in every part of the decor: on top of the trees flanking the entrace to the room, on the rose garland over the buffet, on the table top, on the backs of the chairs and even in the built-in sideboard.

Another trick for uniting the space is to incorporate the same greens and accents into every part of the decor.  The frosty white trees, the white roses (which were historically relevant to Mrs. Pittock’s work with the current Portland Rose Festival), and the other accent florals can all be found duplicated wherever you look in the room.

When you are decorating your own rooms for the holidays don’t let the current decor limit your options. Take what you already have and look at it differently. Holiday colors don’t have to be traditional they just have to be festive and should enhance your current space. And if you are in doubt – just take a couple of different colors that already exist add something fun and tie them all together!

Want to add a dramatic focal point with out spending more than a few dollars?  This year we decorated the breakfast room of the Pittock Mansion a historic home in Portland Oregon.  This built-in sideboard is part of the original wood work in the home.  We wanted to use the feature to create a simple focal point.  Because we had chosen Gingerbread houses as our focal point (see our previous blog “Visions of Gingerbread Danced in My Head”) we wanted to continue to use the house theme in the room.  One twenty minute trip to Goodwill filled our cart with ceramic houses and house shaped teapots.

Because the houses were a bit of a motley crew we needed to unify them.

We did that with a can of ivory spray paint and some fine “Martha Stewart” brand clear glitter.  We lightly sprayed the houses coating them enough to be translucent, you can still see some of the detailing but enough that they all have the same frosty appearance and then we sprinkled them liberally with the extra fine glitter which is not even visible except that it makes them sparkle.

Knowing that we were placing these frosty houses into an off-white cupboard we created contrast by using simple blue art paper and tearing it (no visible cut edges) and using it as the backdrop.  My associate Donna came up with the brilliant idea of adding the icy trees while we were installing the display.  We further unified the display by using snow dusted greens on the lower ledge all together giving you a bright, cheerful winter scene for minimal effort and a minimum investment.

You could use this same technique on a collections of Santas, Angels any thing that catches your eye.  And believe me with the glitter it will catch your eye!

If you live in the Pacific Northwest you have undoubtedly heard of the Pittock Mansion.  Each year designers are invited to decorate rooms in the mansion during the holiday season.  I was honored to be invited and in August when I was first considering the theme “Holiday Traditions” gingerbread came instantly to mind.  Building gingerbread houses, villages, castles, etc. has been a family tradition for three generations.  I cavalierly said “I think it would be great to build a version of the mansion in gingerbread!” And at that time I truly believed it.

It wasn’t until November when it was time to put dough and icing together that the extent of my insanity hit home.  First we needed a pattern.  A very helpful Twitter follower kindly sent me a link to his “to scale” model of the Pittock mansion he had done with his wife a couple of years ago. This made me feel worse – new shoes were required to help with the recovery process.  Once we got past that hurdle I began to construct a not to scale, slightly truncated version of the mansion out of poster board.

My kids were impressed with the poster board version and asked if I were done – oh, how I wished that were true!  The next step was to take the pieces apart and use each posterboard section as a pattern.  The turrets were built by covering an oatmeal box with tinfoil and baking the gingerbread draped over the box.  My nine year old daughter was given the job of standing at the oven and watching through the window to make sure the cardboard box did not catch fire. She looked at me quizzically and inquired “what do I do if it catches fire?” “Uhm…run?” This response did not give her the greatest confidence in me as a leader.

We g0t through the baking process without help from emergency services and now had 70 pieces of gingerbread.  I iced the inside of each piece for added strength and to reduce the amount of moisture the gingerbread absorbs from the air. Then we began to assemble the perimeter.

When you are building any gingerbread creation it is best to assemble the walls and let them dry (preferably overnight) before adding the weight and pressure of the roof.

Days and at least 25 hours after we began we got to the fun part – the decorating.  My daughter never hesitated to lend a critical eye and give styling and candy selection advice.  She also was a small but sturdy shoulder to cry on when the porch railing threatened to do me in!

In the end it was worth all the effort.  The night I completed the house I kept sneaking back into the kitchen to turn on the lights and peek at it one more time.  I’m afraid building a project of this size is a bit like childbirth: once it’s done you are so caught up in the end result that you forget the trauma of the building process.  I’m truly afraid of what I might be tempted to build next year!

Next Tuesday we will post some of the other ideas we used in our room at the historic Pittock Mansion and if you are in the Portland area stop by and see all of the beautiful rooms created by local designers.

At this time of year I am always searching for creative, inexpensive projects that I can use as gifts for my children or their classroom.  This author’s chairs is one of my favorites.  My daughter and I created it together as a gift for her classroom.  In her third grade class developing stories through revisions and proofreading, adding artwork and creating a quality “book” that represents your best efforts is emphasized and honored.  Her teacher had always wanted to have a special chair where the child who was sharing their finished book with the class could sit to mark this sharing time as a special occasion.

Her teacher had actually owned a director’s chair she wanted to transform for this purpose for several years. When I shared with her that as the mom of five and a small business owner I was better able to do one project for the classroom than weekly copying or other tasks she immediately thought of her author’s chair.

My daughter and I began the transformation at Goodwill.  We found a half dozen inexpensive children’s picture books.  We looked for books with lots of colorful images and especially those with vivid blues and night skies.

We then proceeded to tear all of those pictures out – no cutting, no sharp edges – we wanted all torn edges on all sides.  This looked like so much fun we were even able to attract a few brothers for this part of the process.

We attacked the chair by removing the fabric and giving it a quick undercoating of dark blue, this would not be visible in the final project so it was just meant to cover any gaps between our book illustrations.

Once this was done the kitchen table was covered with garbage bags, the rubber gloves came out and the mod podging began.  We layered and glued, layered and glued for hours until we had covered most of the wooden areas with our book illustrations.  We then returned to do a better job of finishing the exposed wooden dowels with teal paint, dry brushed with the dark blue to create an antiqued look.

The fabric we transformed by using spray pump fabric dye.  We stuck on some foam stars, sprayed the fabric and later removed the stars to create the pattern you see.  We finished the fabric by ironing on the word “AUTHOR” onto the back.

The final finishing touch was the striped finials that I just couldn’t resist.  Every project needs that one over the top fun and unexpected element!

We made great memories together creating this chair.  The “Author’s Chair” will outlast her tenure in that class and maybe even in that grade school and we helped to honor the voices of those children who feel celebrated when they read their stories aloud in that chair.

One of the great things about this particular project is that it can be adapted to so many different themes and uses.  You could use words and phrases on desk legs or a chair for an older “author.”  You could use anime drawings for a developing cartoonist, wherever your child’s interests lie you can find a way to use this concept.

Happy decoupaging!

As designers and humans I believe it is important to continually stretch ourselves to view the world from different perspectives. Last week in High Point Market I was fortunate enough to hear internationally renowned designer Karim Rashid share some of his thoughts about innovation, creativity and our lives.
On Innovation
Karim Rashid believes that in today’s world companies and designers must innovate or die. This philosophy is translated into the way he designs spaces and products for humans, how he integrates technology and the materials he selects.
Karim sees a strong connection between humans and their designed environment going so far as to say that design shapes our evolution by moving us forward and shaping the future. He wants his designs to create an emotional experience that is not just about the object or the space but about the unique way that object or space impacts the user and their life.
On Technology
Technology is a tool that empowers more people than ever before to be creative: technology facilitates a creative world. It is possible to write and publish your own work, photograph, edit, embellish and print images, produce and make available to the public music and movies. Karim believes all children are born innately creative, the minute they are given a pencil they begin to draw, each with a unique perspective of the world around them. But we lose that ability to express ourselves as adults and the digital world is opening up that creativity again.
On Collaboration
Karim believes the key to doing good work is collaboration; no one person ever has all the answers. If you have a good idea gather the best people you can find and develop it together. Collaboration does not equal compromise.
On Today’s World
A disposable world currently shapes many of Karim’s designs. People are using items for shorter periods of time and then replacing them with the next great thing. This movement toward disposability has focused him on the materials he selects for his designs. His current self-described obsession being bio-plastics made of sugar cane, corn or other natural and more quickly bio-degradable materials.
He also sees America’s “casual age” spreading around the world. The casual age started in the 80’s by Microsoft’s “casual Fridays” has led to a significant change in the way we live, the way we work, even the way we sit in a chair.

Karim Rashid was presented by WithIT: The Premier International Organization Dedicated to the Support and Development of Female Professionals in the Home Industries. www.withit.org

When decorating for any holiday or special occasion there is one simple trick that never fails to make an opulent display while still being budget friendly. Decide on one big impact item, in this case Halloween spider webs, but it could be fall leaves, branches sprayed to appear lightly dusted with snow, holiday candy canes, snowflakes, whatever you can dream up that is appropriate to the event. And then take that one item to the extreme.

Multiples of any one item make a much more cohesive and dramatic impact than a little bit of this and a little bit of that. In this Halloween example you can see that we have taken less than $20 worth of spider webs to make a bold statement. I see many homes that invest in expensive items and have many of them here and there but they do not make the same impact.

When you want drama, go simple but go big!

Over the last couple of weeks two interviews were posted that included questions I answered about what’s happening now in design and what happens in the business of interior design.

I think you will find some interesting views from some very different perspectives!

To read my answers and the answers of four other interior designers visit:

Designer Coffee House: Current Design

Designer Coffee House: Behind the Curtain