an interior designer of note, winner of numerous awards, author, photographer, collector, lecturer, blogger, bibliophile, philanthropist, and a child of the South.  She has designed numerous product collections for fabric, framed art, furniture, china, jewellery, lamps, rugs and much more.  She’s an entrepreneur and a risk taker.  Charlotte is witty, articulate and bright as a penny.  She began her career in design following eight successful years on Wall Street.  She wrote her own business plan and drew her design ideas for her design firm.  All of this plus the energy of the Energizer Bunny!  Alright, granted that she’s more than a dozen years my junior, but still, I don’t know where the woman gets all her energy!  Just reading her April 5th post for Tete-a-Tete of  how she spent her week is exhausting enough to send me to a spa for R & R.

The information from the About Page of Charlotte’s web site would provide enough material alone for a blog post, but I have selected just one paragraph.  Charlotte’s most important work is her community service and philanthropic interests. Charlotte serves on several boards of important charities, including The Thomas Jefferson Foundation-Monticello, the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, the New York School of Interior Design, Bard Center for Graduate Studies, the Bone Marrow Foundation, and has been the co-chair for the UNICEF Snowflake Gala for the past five years.

Being interviewed last year by Anna Millman for HGTV’s Design Happens, when asked if she uses her own photography in work for her clients, she replied, “No, I never do! …Never my own art. I’d feel so insecure! I know my limits, but I have fun with my photography. I’m always refining my eyes. My husband allows me to stop and take photos when we are out. He brings a book, so I don’t bore him.”  (Did I mention that she has a divine sense of humor?)

Megan Buerger, for the Washington Post’s Lifestyle, asked where do people go wrong in decorating.  Moss said, ” This can be summed up in two words: bad lampshades. Don’t build this big house, do all this decorating, write all these checks and then put a bad lampshade on a beautiful nightstand.”  Moss collects books.  “I’ve got three libraries and my greatest fantasy is to be locked inside with just my dogs and enough food and wine to keep me alive.”

Charlotte's library-New York Social Diary

Charlotte Moss at her desk in the study- New York Social Diary

David Patrick Columbia’s New York Social Diary elicited one of the most revealing interviews.  When asked what she was currently reading, she said she loves biographies, especially about women.  “I named all my furniture and all my fabric after women.  I have a whole photography and drawing collection of women: woman as muse.”

Responding to whether or not there was an object in her own home that was special-”The older I get, the less I connect to things.  Things tie you down.  I do love being here but I don’t ever want to be a prisoner to things.”  How wise a lesson we should all learn!

Asked what she enjoyed about the practical aspect of design and if she liked getting paint under her fingernails, the retort was a practical one.  “I guess it really depends on where I’m going that night and do I have time for a manicure in between!“  And how well does she tolerate mess?  Again, a logical response. “Well, I have a messy husband, and you know something, I’d rather have it that way than the other way around.”  She may tolerate messiness in others, but judging from the pictures of her dressing room and her shoe closet, I’d say she demands order and neatness of herself.

Dressing room with selection for the evening

Charlotte's shoe closet

Charlotte will be speaking at the Washington Design Center of April 17th.  Here’s the photo from the invitation which incorporates Charlotte’s Break The Rules ad for Fabricut.

Charlotte Moss "breaking the rules"

So, summing up, Charlotte is one savvy, sophisticated, successful, southern lady with a delicious sense of humor!

-  Lorre Lei

I was lucky enough to attend a wonderful lecture by Joyce Romanoff, President of Maya Romanoff handmade wallcoverings in March. I’ve been admiring this exceptional wallcovering company’s products since I first saw their three dimensional Beadazzled™ wallcovering back in the late 80′s, when I attended one of the Design Houses at the Washington DC Design Center. They have since expanded this line to include Bauble, Geode, Leaf, Leaf Rain, Bijou and Marquetry. In fact, any image can be “bedazzled” with hand applying glass beads over the surface. It’s quite stunning and looks like a beautiful, beaded ball gown.

Maya Romanoff Bedazzled™ wallcovering

Bedazzled wallpaper from Design House 2008

All of their wallcoverings are handmade in some way — by fabrication and or applying a decorative finish. We watched one of the Maya Romanoff artisans show us a step-by-step demonstration of two different treatments. Many of the Maya Romanoff workers have been with the company for generations and the business is family run. I was surprised how similar the techniques were to what I and other decorative painters use for wall treatments. The difference is everyone has their own “special” ingredients for their paint wash and the substrates may be different. In this case, the first finish, not unlike a brushed-on, sponged-off treatment with highlights, was applied over a clay-coated, crumpled, vinyl wallpaper.

I can put all my cardboard mailing tubes to good use as a special tool used for sealing the finish.

The final result glistens. It looks wet but dries quickly with the clay treatment. It is installed flat but the crinkles and pockets of pooled pigment give the impression of a marble-like appearance.

The second finish was applied over hand applied wood veneer panels, tiled as wallcovering, which almost seemed too beautiful to retouch.

This beautiful wallpaper can also be installed as ceiling tiles and with that little extra glint of crystal. Get the super glue. Yes, Swarovski crystals can be applied.

Maya Romanoff has quite a progressive history — having been around since 1969, when Maya, the company’s founder, reproduced his tie dyes as wallcovering. He is quite a successful hippie. Since then, they have led the way for producing the largest amount of handmade wallcovering, which requires a  traditional and professionally installation. They also have helped to employ and bring work to help several impoverished countries’ economies and have been given a lifetime humanitarian achievement award for their efforts.

Besides admiring their gorgeous wallcoverings and this company’s ethics, I can completely resonate with their philosophy:

• They encourage creativity and risk taking while remaining true to business guiding principals.

• With wall décor trends becoming more luxurious for residential and hospitality, they want their wallcoverings to have fine attention to detail without taking over a room but becoming organic with its surroundings and beautifully blend in.

• They encourage their artisan creations to have the spontaneity and energy of a work of art.

• They promote hand painted vinyl and realize wallcovering is not just for walls anymore and can be used on a multitude of surfaces.

• Wallcoverings can be “green” with sustainable materials, longevity, and low VOC. Many of their wallcoverings will long outlive paint.

• Their goal is to put the handcrafted back into value and balance handcrafted techniques with machine and technological production.

Although Casart coverings does not have or could not afford to have this type of handcrafted production, we have designs that have been originally handcrafted. Our wallcovering materials, however, are not handmade and require machines and technology but the two do marry to create our final product. And of course, our wallcovering is removable and reusable and like Maya Romanoff’s can also be customized. We like this personalization part of our business. It keeps us close with our customers and helps us make an even more exceptional product to suit their needs. At present, we are really the only reusable wallcovering company offering such extensive custom services.

All those who attended the lecture received a personal email from Joyce afterwards thanking us for coming and extending the invitation to visit their Chicago production facility. Next time I am there, I certainly will. My fascination and admiration continues and even more so, after sadly learning that Maya now has advanced stage Parkinson’s Disease, so many of their charitable efforts go toward this funding.

Take a look at the Maya Romanoff website; they continue to be a source of inspiration. They have so many more incredibly wondrous wallcoverings using stitched leather, capiz shell, copper, gold leaf, even an hand painted vinyl called Raw Silk, (like we do but ours is hand painted and then printed) that it will make you ask, “How did they do that?”

– Ashley

We don’t do this sort of thing often, but today’s post will be a departure.  This will be about water.  Specifically, potable water.  That is one of the many things we take for granite.  Living in New Orleans, which is below sea level, water is very important for a different reason.  We know the suffering of having too much water.  On the other hand, there are many in the world who don’t have access to any water or have to walk great distances to get water from dirty streams.

Yesterday, I received a post from Scout and Nimble that really struck a nerve.  It is about an effort to provide funding to give 500 people in two villages access to clean drinking water.  It’s about one blogger’s determination to succeed.  It’s about caring and generosity.  Jesse tells her story beautifully so please take a moment to read it http://scoutandnimble.com/2012/02/29/funny-thing-called-fear/

I’ve been to Africa 4 times.  I’ve seen the conditions in which many people there live.  Casart supports a wonderful organization, Bicycles for Humanity, which provides bicycles to villages and trains villagers to repair them.  The bicycles enable AIDS nurses to reach their patients quicker as well as provide the village with a revenue producing project.

So I wanted to do something more than just make a donation to help Jesse reach her goal.  I thought that if I wrote about it I could help spread the word.  The organization Jesse is raising funds for is Charity: Water and 100% of public donations directly fund water projects in developing countries.  Just think about how your life would change if you couldn’t turn on a faucet for clean water to brush your teeth, take a shower, or fill a glass with water to drink.  How many friends do you have in your email address book that you could forward this information to?  Then, before you brush your teeth, take a shower, or take a drink of water, won’t you make a donation?

Thank you.

-  Lorre Lei