BlogTourNOLA ~ Day 3 ~ An Exclusive World of Art and Antiques

Walking through the Garden District yesterday, as part of the tour with Shaun Smith that I shared yesterday, one of our stops was at the office and design shop of the one of New Orleans' most iconic interior designers..  the very stylish and extremely talented Gerrie Bremermann.

This is where the magic happens! Gerrie Bremermann office and studio, fabric sample library
with some *vintage* fabrics that come back to life when needed!

The eclectic and absolutely timeless mix and match of old and new, once again is ever present in Gerrie's design as well as throughout the selection and placement of every piece of art and furniture throughout her store on Magazine Street.
It was such an incredible honor to hear more about Gerrie's desing, and how "she is busier than ever at age when most are at least 20 years into retirement (a lady never tells her age!)

Modern Bed and Bedside table - Designed by Gerrie and relaunched again now, available from her site on 1stDibs.

Listening to Gerrie speak about how she finds her pieces not only in travels, but in auctions, I couldn't help but have her design style and the homes in the Garden District fresh in my mind when I accidentally meet the CEO Ashton Thomas of the New Orleans Auction Galleries as he is opening the preview cocktail party in the Warehouse District before tomorrow's auction.

As auctions are always very much at my roots, I thought I would share some of the absolutely stunning pieces that stood out to me, but I encourage you all to visit the catalogue online to see which you may want to buy for yourself or your next design project!

Can't you just imagine any one of these pieces as Gerrie uses them in her interior design?

Look at some of these images of Gerrie Bremermann interior design over the many years she has been perfecting the art of classical elegance.

Please visit the Auction in New Orleans or Online, and be quick! The auction starts tomorrow and ends on April 21st. You won't want to miss it!

This last image with the pair of trumeaus on each side of the fireplace is by Ann Holden and architect, Ken Tate. Ann is Gerrie's daughter. Apparently design genius runs in the family!

You can visit Gerrie Bremermann and her lovely team, on Magazine Street as the office and shop is open to the public and really an amazing treat.
3943 Magazine Street, New Orleans  70115  504-891-7763

Thanks so much to all at Modenus, and the team with me on #BlogTourNOLA. Much more still to come.

Make sure to follow along on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook so that you get to see all the fun events as many I will not have the chance to share on the blog.

BlogTourNOLA ~ Day 2 ~ Walking Tour with Shaun Smith in New Orleans

Hi Friends.. I am so happy to be able to continue to share my pictures from New Orleans one of my new favorite cities as I discover each district with the team at BlogTourNOLA and Modenus.

We took a street car from our hotel to the Garden District - a must for anyone visiting and made me miss my "honorary hometown" of Lisbon.

We walked through the very opulent Garden District, where every home was more meticulously cared for and elegant gardens beautifully landscaped, and then walked through the Lafayette Cemetery. Cemeteries in New Orleans, are very similar to many Portuguese with family crypts are all above ground as they cannot be buried within the earth, and the state in which the cemetery stands is a very dramatic shift especially as we are in such an affluent community. Even still, there is a really calm beauty as you walk through ..

and the contrast of old and new, bright and somber, is very real .. especially as you look through from the cemetery out to the bright blue and white stripes of this restaurant. If you want to help - Save Our Cemeteries  can make a difference.

Then we made it to the very popular, Magazine Street, where the very sweet and UBER stylish Shaun Smith welcomed us to take us on a very curated walking tour through a few key stores. 

Shaun Smith, welcomes us to his *home* - his atelier and
showroom on Magazine Street, New Orleans

His store, carefully laid out showcases a clean mix of old and new, which was most evident in every stop throughout the street but an item that stood out was the use of selectively placed religious inspired artifacts as objet d'art.

I encourage you to visit his site, and get to know Shaun a little more. Tell him I said hi!

Much more on this walking tour and all the great shops tomorrow...now I am rushing out to meet the team for an early start on another special day.

Thanks again to all the sponsors, and to Modenus for making this trip possible.

BlogTourNOLA ~ In Love with New Orleans

So for those of you following me here and on Twitter and Facebook, you will have seen that I have arrived to New Orleans with the great group of bloggers on BlogTourNOLA with Modenus.

We are here, in part to showcase the beauty of this special 'melange' of a city as well as to attend KBIS later on this week. Today, as I arrived a little early I decided to let my feet guide me as I explored the city without any real agenda or destination in mind - and ended up in the French Quarter.

I am mesmerized by the amazing mixtures of colors and how they change from street to street. I have wanted to see these homes for myself, always finding images on Pinterest and the like as a great source of inspiration but was worried about what I would see as the city is still recovering from Hurricane Katrina.

I feel so much at home here as I walked around just taking in the strong European roots in the architecture and styles of homes .. where the fusion of cultures, and the tensions that is created with the lack of that fusion between old and new, is truly invigorating.

No, not Lisbon! 

The scars of a town ravaged by the force of Nature are still evident, and make me wonder on the comparisons to what we are feeling still back home in New York as so many still recover from Sandy.. and it is humbling to think that less than 8 years on, and still the city is in such need of help. While this is true, the energy and buzz from below the city streets, are very much a part behind the resilient force reestablishing s strong footing on the world of art, antiques and most of all music.

More to come in the next few days, as I explore New Orleans.. so make sure to follow along on all fronts!


Thanks as always to the amazing sponsors that are supporting Modenus make this trip possible.









*All images are by me, from New Orleans. Feel free to share them (everywhere!) but please don't forget to link back to this post! Thanks.

Veranda Magazine & Lenox Hill Neighborhood House Gala ~ "High Society"- Part 2

Loved the tabletop designs from this weekend's post.... Well, feast your eyes on a few more of the great table designs that a very talented group of 45 fabulous creatives helped put together  ~ all in aid of the Lenox Hill Neighborhood House Gala with Veranda Magazine as it's media sponsor.

Color, Pattern and grand statements were made with stunning flatware, creative centerpieces and a some magic fairy dust that brought these tables to life.

From the bright and bold, Scalamandre table (above) which is sold at Bloomingdales and not playing favorites but happen to love this pattern!! and love how my fellow Bartow Pell Mansion designer, Bryant Keller, used it in his Kips Bay Showhouse design as well.

via Scalamandre

Brooke Gomez for Gomez Associates, creates a fresh spring look with a mixture in metal tones, and soft pastels..

ARDEN (above) and Sam Allen (below) brought pattern and fresh warm color tones with corals, salmons and hints of strong blues and grays to contrast them.. 

as did Dennis Rolland, with a darker set of tones and more elaborate metal combinations..

Christopher Maya took the Spring inspiration one step further with a boxwood tree covered in lemons, and feathers with Ostrich eggs as the table centerpiece .. but I especially loved the treatment of the seat coverings where no small detail has been left unattended..

Black and White contrasts with spicy green tones played a part in both Michael Aram (above) and Keith Carrol (below)

while John Todd Bishop strong blues and a sartorial twist to the High Society themed event.

Since 1894, the Lenox Hill Neighborhood House began as the Community’s First Free Kindergarten until today where it continues to serve those in need who live, work or attend school on the East Side of Manhattan. 

2013 Gala Designers: 

Alberto Villalobos & Mercedes Desio; Allison Hennessy; Andrea Stark + (LMD) Lewis Miller Design; Andrew Raquet, LLC; ARDEN; Ashley Whittaker Design; Brooke Gomez, Gomez Associates; Byron C. James; Christopher Maya; Christopher Spitzmiller, Inc.; Creel and Gow; David Duncan Antiques; David Kleinberg Design Associates; Dekar Design; Dennis Rolland; E. Braun & Co. New York/Design by Susan Orsini; Harry Heissmann, Inc.; Hilary Pereira; Joel Woodard; John Todd Bishop Interior Design; Julia B. Linens; Kathy Abbott Interiors; Katie Ridder Inc.; Keith Carroll; Leontine Linens Ltd.; Lindsey Coral Harper Interior Design ; McMillen Inc.; Michael Aram Inc.; MR CALL DESIGNS for STARK; Nicole Gibbons Studio; Plaza Flowers; Richard Keith Langham, Incorporated; Roric Tobin for Geoffrey Bradfield, Inc.; Rottet Studio; Sallie Giordano for Leta Austin Foster & Associates, Inc.; Sam Allen Interiors; Steven Stolman for Scalamandré; Thomas Burak Interiors & Michael Devine; Timothy BrownStudio 

All images of tabletop decor are courtesy of Lenox Hill Neighborhood House.