If you had to guess what the house of an interior designer and consignment shop owner looked like, what would you guess? In a word: Fabulous. I can say this about Karan’s house because it’s true (no nepotism involved here.) She lives in a modest house, filled with beautiful things in a great neighborhood not too far from the shop. It was on the Virginia Home and Garden Tour for goodness sake!
But we all get stuck. And by stuck I mean boxed into our homes and spaces in a static way. It’s almost as if we can’t see our things anymore. And then someone who loves you comes in and gives you “tough love” and makes you change something. It could be as small as paint or furniture placement and all of the sudden, your eyes are open! Things are looking BLAH.
In our world, we go into strangers homes and do this all of the time (sometimes, we just do it mentally everywhere we go) People at the shop ask us all the time “Do you go home and change your house as often as you change the store?” The short answer: Heck no.
So what turns the tables on a decorator? Well, we got a visit from our good friend Gigi. You may remember reading about her here. Well, Giggi is an expert at doling out “Tough Love” when it comes to the home.
For instance, in Karan’s house there is “that coffee table” purchased from Green Front 18 years ago and has scratches, Lucy’s puppy teeth marks and every back issue of Traditional Home magazine piled on top of it. It needed to go, but Karan had been living with it for so long, she couldn’t really SEE it anymore.
So, there just so happened to be a coffee table at the shop that she had been “oohing and aaahhing” over for 3 months. Finally, with the help of a bottle of Pinot and Giggi and Dale, it ended up in Karan’s den.
Needless to say, she LOVED it. She kept saying – “Oh my, it looks so much better!” Uh yeah, Lady. It’s a grown up, sophisticated coffee table without 18 years of wear and tear all over it! All she needed was a little push!