Hello, Color!

I actually cut my teeth in the financial services industry, selling municipal bonds to institutional investors in the 1980’s. After working in both the institutional side at a small boutique firm, and with "retail" clients at Merrill Lynch, I took a nearly twenty-year hiatus to raise four kids and bounce around the country with ‘Mr. I’ve Been Moved.’ During that time, we bought and renovated twelve homes, with a five-year stretch finding us in five different homes in three different states. I wrote about some of the lessons learned in my first book, ROCKET MOM! Since then, I have written more than two-hundred original articles, stories and anthologies, which have been published and syndicated by roughly 60,000 unique online sites, blogs and newsletters. I've been quoted in Parenting, Good Housekeeping, Redbook, Nickelodeon, NewsDay, BottomLine Personal, Advertising Age, Florida Design and Palm Beach Illustrated, among others; I have been a guest on the FOX Business News program Your World with Neil Cavuto, Martha Stewart Living Radio, NPR, and interviewed on dozens of radio and TV programs nationwide. Re-entering Wall Street just before the Great Recession, I served a clientele of art and entertainment professionals in the metro New York City area.* I left the industry in January 2013. As a full-time working designer and artist, I "paint fearless" using big, bold strokes of bright color in floral paintings, which are privately collected, and which appear on my apparel and accessories  line at VIDA. My second book, Country French Kitchens, was inspired by my passion for design as well as by my desire for an authentic Country French kitchen of my own. After purchasing our first Florida vacation home, I became intrigued with the unique design in and around Palm Beach. In November of 2015, my third book, PALM BEACH PANACHE, was released. We sold that home in the summer of 2016, and recently bought a circa 1923 home in an historic neighborhood in West Palm Beach, near the water. It was this house, and the many lessons learned through design and renovation and in making art, that particularly called me to create a "happy house."   

I am a member of the New York City chapter of the Interior Design Society. 

* While working as a Financial Advisor, I held the following licenses and certifications: Series 7; Series 63 and Series 65 (66); Life, Accident & Health Insurance; Long Term Care Certification; Alternative Investments Certification; Guided Portfolio Management Certification; and Financial Planning Specialist Certification.  

My interest in design began while I was working at Merrill Lynch. A newlywed with our first home freshly purchased, I realized that every decision I made about its design and decoration was, ultimately, a financial decision. Let's face it: furniture and home decor items are not inexpensive! I wanted to make as few costly mistakes as possible, and so that meant boning up on the subject. I knew very little; I grew up in a family of performers--singers and instrumentalists. I sang competitively throughout high school and professionally in college. My mom enrolled me in a private art school when I was nine years old, because I begged her; costly, it was a short-lived stint. As an adult, I studied for many years with my mentor at Silvermine Art School in New Canaan, Connecticut. I began basic research on design after that first home purchase, buying books and subscribing to a wide variety of home design magazines. During the years--and the dozen homes to follow--my tastes became honed by new environments, new mentors, and by world travel. There are few things that open one's eyes to visual stimuli more than international travel! And each new home offered many lessons, and opportunities for experimentation. Along the way, friends asked for my help; some projects were small and some were larger. I never hung a shingle; I just offered free help to those who asked for it. One girlfriend told me that my passion for design  was too outrageously obvious to ignore. That was my "Aha! moment." That's when I hung the proverbial shingle. Working in metro New York City , Palm Beach and Miami geographies, I still prefer word-of-mouth design opportunities. 

I'm a painter. And a colorist. I prefer pure white  backgrounds on which to apply bright, vivid color.  I love applying color on color, and pattern on pattern. I prefer designing in the "Palm Beach palette" whether the home is coastal or not, if the home and environment can take it. These colors: turquoise, orange, yellow, bright pink, and eggplant, work beautifully against pure white walls and trim. In our Happy House in Palm Beach, original knotty pine-paneled walls were white-washed by the seller; they emulate a driftwood 'greige' tone, against which pure white, and this palette, look absolutely divine.  

Our cottage in the woods of Connecticut could never handle this mix. It is decorated in modern French farmhouse style, where beige meets a lot of white. And where French country antiques and accessories are abundant.  

My personal aesthetic relies heavily on modern furniture mixed with a few very good French Country antiques. I almost never work with strictly modern design, nor do I fill an entire home with French furniture; all modern usually leaves me cold, and all French is just too fussy. Rather, I mix them together in ways that strike a pleasing aesthetic, one that allows the eyes to rest comfortably and that leaves one's heart and soul satisfied. I love a home filled with just enough good antiques which I can buy around to fill in the gaps. I am always on the hunt for gently-used pieces with great bones, and I do virtually all re-furbishing work myself, including making my own paints. This design mix--set against this palette--defines my style, which tends to evolve with each new design project.