Interior Motives
From parties to awards to partings – our report on the latest happenings in the Dallas design and architecture industry.
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| THINK PINK: Nancy nests at Knight |
Is the economic slowdown for showrooms over? Ask Allan Knight, the new home of the Nancy Corzine line, which has lived in many, many mansions: John Edwards Hughes carried it in the late 1980s, followed by George Cameron Nash in the early 1990s, Boyd-Levinson in 1997, John Edward Hughes again in 1999, and Dorian Bahr in 2002. The principals at William & Wesley Company aren’t feeling pinched, where Bill Lawrence has picked up fistfuls of new lines, including John Prince hand-painted wallpapers, and Jacques Bouvet and Christopher Hyland pricey fabrics. Hyland’s on fire: Wilson & Associates designers are looking at it for the Presidential suite in the Vegas Venetian, and I hear that a well-oiled client spent $1 million on Hyland fabric alone for her vacation home in Aspen.
A few doors down, George Cameron Nash is expanding his Cameron Collection of upholstery and creating a new showroom space called Meyerland, named after the town near Houston where he grew up. (It’s a sweet story.) Over the summer he orchestrated the project like an investment banker would, via laptop and cell phone from his terrace in Provincetown. Plans for his new East Texas home also kept him on the line with designer Neal Stewart.
Given Martha Stewart’s recent, um, public appearances, I asked Marla Owen at Gabberts in Fort Worth how Stewart’s home furnishing lines are doing. The Skylands and Turkey Hill lines are selling well, but Lily Pond, which has a coastal hand-painted look, has not caught on in Big D. (Quel surprise!) Gabberts execs report that they plan to go forward with a commitment to the Martha Stewart products and brand, citing the line’s scale, value, and quality. Next to debut, a “lifestyle” line. No prison-stripes jokes, I promise.
Decorator and author Betty Lou Phillips promises to deliver the inside scoop on some fab French homes chez nous in her third and latest book, Secrets of French Design, which hits bookstores in October. Ah, voyeurism.
Richard Trimble & Associates has graduated some of the best talent in town. The newest alum to strike out on his own is designer Warren Wyatt. Wyatt grew up in Jefferson, Texas, where his family’s been planted since 1840. “I’m related to everyone in town,” he says. After a stint in journalism, Wyatt came to Dallas to study design, then went to work for Ron Guest, where projects included Mediterraneo at the Quadrangle. “I love designing restaurants,” he says. “They’re pure from the ground up, and you don’t have to deal with Great Aunt Martha’s paintings.”
But he does do residential design. When he was with Trimble, he cut his teeth on the 27,000-square-foot Park Lane estate of Trevor and Elaine Pearlman, whom he calls dream clients. And he’s continuing work that he began with Richard Trimble on a huge French-style house on Lobello. Architect Robbie Fusch designed it for Brad Phillips, son of Roxanne and Gene Phillips. Wyatt’s signature style is cleaned-up traditional, and he loves mixing antiques with acrylics. “But I hate the word ’eclectic,’” he says. Who doesn’t?
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HOTNOT
Joannie Wyll, ASID, interior designer
HOT
More tailored draperies on stainless rods with streamlined finials
NOT
Pinch-pleated, tied together draperies
