NSO Design Events Are Back

Camille Beers
Beers is planning a “Sensual Meditation” space that visually illustrates the physical regimen of bikram yoga. “I find it interesting how something so intense gives the result of restoration, detoxification, and tension relief,” she says. Therefore, she is planning a chaise covered with hot pink and fuchsia fabrics, vivid artwork, “and then you’re wrapped in a cocoon of white … It’s this intensity and the relief of what surrounds it that is able to create the balance.”

Luis Florendo
This Baltimore designer, who is of Filipino descent, is creating a “window space” that will represent “modern Filipino design within a traditional American space.” He will use fabrics such as silk made from pineapple leaves (“It is wonderful – it is so very soft,” he says.), and highlights will include carabao bone and mother of pearl. 

Liz Levin
Levin is creating a parlor/cocktail lounge that will boast aqua-colored walls with deep red and gold accents, with a wide black-and-white rug. She’s considering blackboard paint on one of the wall’s panels and Chinese photography that is blown up and stretched over a canvas.

An example of Liz Levin’s work

Karen Luria
Luria is having her new design assistant, Mary Beth Schepp, coordinate the dining room space they have for the show. The space will feature an Odegard rug, furniture from Berman Rosetti, and art from a local gallery. As for colors, Luria says, “I’ll only tell you warm and cool.”

Karen Luria’s work

Sandra Meyers
Meyers has a bedroom with no walls. Well, she has one wall, but it’s got 11-foot-wide window on it. “This window screamed at me, so I have to make it all work perfectly,” she says. Meyers will frame a McGuire platform bed with that window, along with a thick wool terracotta drapery. The space will be highlighted with gray accents. “It’s basically Asian flavored,” she says, rather than heavily Asian themed. “It’s simple and elegant.”

Sandra Meyers’ work

Janet Morais and Anna Bimba
Morais and Bimba are creating an altar to the religion of shoes in this dressing suite. “We’re the shoe girls,” Morais says. “It’s our obsession with shoes. It’s all about shoes.” The space will feature a black lacquer “pagoda shoe temple,” Morais adds, along with a red velvet chaise and highlights of gold.

Tracy Morris
Morris’ “restful reading space” is almost an extension of Meyers’ bedroom, so the two designers are working in tandem to feature colors that coordinate. Hence, Morris will use gray, like Meyers, but instead of Meyers’ terracotta, she will make the focal point a blue Asian cabinet, which she is borrowing from a friend.

Tracy Morris’ design

Shanon Munn
Shanon Munn is calling her space, featured at the top of this post, “Not Your Grandmother’s Drawing Room.” It’s a traditional space, she says, “but it’s not going to be rendered in a traditional way. It’s going to be Hermès meets Chinatown.” A geometrical Chinese armchair, for instance, will sit next to a classic Chesterfield sofa. “I’m showing how you can take a western room and throw pieces in there almost like jewelry.”

Shanon Munn’s design

Smith & Hawken
Ian Simpson, manager of Smith & Hawken’s Chevy Chase store, will be designing the outside space at the design show.

Sally Steponkus
Sally has a dining space that adjoins Levin’s parlor. She’ll pick up on Levin’s aqua walls by using that color in the space, paired with greens, beige and white. The highlight will be vintage Chinese Chippendale furniture with chinoiserie wallpaper by Brunschwig & Fils. Custom dining chairs will have Cowtan & Tout upholstery.

Sally Steponkus’ design