Opening at Anne Neilson fine art in Charlotte, NC

If you read my blog often you likely know that I was selected as one of over 30 artists to be represented by the new Anne Neilson fine art gallery in Charlotte, North Carolina. On May 1st, I drove to Charlotte for the grand opening reception.

I was in contact with the artist Ellen Levine Dodd beforehand and we spent a good bit of time together that day along with her husband, Joe. Ellen is an amazing artist with and impressive list of talents and is a darling friend.

The gallery is in an old warehouse building with an antique architectural dealer and studios above.

Anne's talented staff was all in attendance.

Karen Cappotto, Kerry Steele, Ellen Levine Dodd

I was able to speak with all but one of the artists in attendance. It gave me a clear picture of the varied viewpoints represented. It was an impressive group that I am honored to be a part of.

The event carried a lot of buzz around Charlotte and it was a packed house.

Anne Neilson (center) with Ken Abraham (NYT bestselling author) and his wife, Lisa

"Watery" by Kerry Steele

Check out the Anne Neilson Website for more about the artists represented by her fine gallery.

ORC- DIY storage makeover

 Linda, from Calling it Home is the brainchild of this endeavor.
 Oh Linda! what a 5 weeks it has been! Thank you for hosting and giving everyone a chance to delve into the fun of the ORC.
As you are reading this I am whisking my artsy self to Charlotte, NC for the grand opening of Anne Neilson Fine Art. My commenting ability will be greatly reduced but I promise to read all of the fantastic ORC goodies over the weekend.
Onward.

In order to corral my daughter's crap lotions and potions in an attractive way I tried to find an attractive solution. *sigh* After, much searching I decided that a cheapy storage cube was the answer since A.) I know she'll likely ruin it and B.) I could easily find the same fabric as the Etsy pillow I ordered and redo them. The girl likes matchy-matchy.

I purchased two of these from from the wonders of Wal-mart *double sigh* They took freakin' forever to arrive!

I marked out what I needed on the wrong side.

 

 The pattern was helpful to line up each edge.

Electric staple guns are highly recommended.

Bottom portion took about 30 minutes on each.

The top was not tough either.

Styling has not happened yet but I got rid of a giant bunch of clutter with these.
In other news, she had a birthday.
This is what a 17 year-old looks like when you sing "Happy Birthday" and try to take a video.

Smile! You're on mommy's blog!
That was cruel but I feel better now. Here is a sneak peek at the desk situation that the birthday girl has been using to create new work for her Etsy shop.

 
Just a few things to wrap up before next week's reveal.

• Desk and chair situation resolved
• Implement new color scheme
• Find storage for records
• Find storage for cosmetics
• Create gallery wall
• Accessorize within new color scheme

Head on back to Calling it Home to see all of the cool stuff going on in the other linking participant's rooms.

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Design on a dime event

The Design on a Dime event to benefit Housingworks kicked off last night in NYC.

My painting was a part of co-chair George Oliphant's vignette.

Lots of design bloggers and top-designers attended and Instagram has had plenty of sneak peeks.

I am excited to see photos of all of the rooms.

ORC-week four-Etsy score!

Linda at Calling it Home has created this fabulous One Room Challenge on Wednesdays and its crazy lil' sister the ORC linking event on Thursdays. Check 'em out!

This is week 4, aka "holy shit!" week. The week where participants say to their significant other in a shrill tone, "You HAVE TO help me_________ NOW!"  The week of no dinners and perhaps a bit more wine than is good.

If you missed them here are my  week one, week two and week three.

Actually, I learned from the last time to tell ask Mr. Designdumonde to attend to a few things early on and they have been accomplished. So no screaming over here.

 But! Shipping folks don't care about my ORC problems, therefore, the DIY

I was going to show you ain't happening right now because FedEX and a certain store have delayed and delayed the ship date of the item to be DIYed. 

Drat! (I actually said something much worse)
So here is the plan once again.

So I will show you my how my Etsy cart and a local store helped me in this room refresh.
 She already has the yellow chevron curtains and some blue and white porcelain that I scored at a local consignment store so my job was to find more blue and yellow items to complete the look.

I saw these darlings on Etsy and it took me about a tenth of a second to start checkout. Yay team yellow!

This pillow in John Robshaw fabric came from the Etsy shop Sierra Pillows

This one is from Festive Home Decor on Etsy. 2 points for team blue!
Blue is kind of winning because I bought 2 of these also but who cares because its blue, right?

Pillow from Royal Furnish

My favorite piece was not found on Etsy at all but in another local consignment store. I just couldn't wait any longer to show you.

 Could you die!!? Well, this dummy looked at it and walked out of the store thinking, "I don't need a mirror" and didn't go back for like 5 days! One night lying in bed I started to think about the mirror, which was only $50 BTW, and thought to myself, "You are crazy stupid, Kerry. You can't get a good mirror at a big box store for that price!" The next day I crossed fingers and headed back, sure it was gone. In a matter of minutes it was mine. Yay!!

The idea was to mix preppy, boho, and modern while accommodating her fickle ways and and budding art business and I think I am getting there with the mix of accessories I have so far.

 I would not spill all of my secrets on week 4 so stop by next week to see more of my plan unfold.

Like Design du Monde on Facebook for blog updates

Like Kerry Steele Art on Facebook to see my latest artwork

Follow me on Instagram to see paintings in progress

Spring Break

"Love's alchemy" 36 x 48 oil on canvas by Kerry Steele

Pardon the brief radio silence. 

The kids are on Spring break but painting, college visits and the ORC are not. Today I will be touring several lovely Virginia colleges but I will be back here on Thursday for the ORC.

ORC- Gallery wall and a curtain trick

This is such a fun party, Linda! If you aren't sure what I mean check out Calling it Home to see the past two week's One Room Challenge on Wednesday and the linking party on Thursdays.
You can also recap my week one and week two.
Be sure to check out all of the great work going on in other people's houses.
I am trying to visit them all!

First I have to show you the curtain trick. I think I have a sign on my back that only drapery workrooms can see and it says "Make the rod pocket whatever $#%%^& size you want. She won't send it back"

Mr. Designdumonde came up with this trick after I spent $1000 on curtains in the family room and the rod pockets were too big. You'd think I would stop using an out of state workroom. Nope, it happened in my daughter's room too. Here is the fix.

 Start with a zip tie.

Loop it around the rod. Slide the curtain back to the position you want the panel and tighten the zip tie. Cut off all but 1/2 inch.

You absolutely can't see this when its done and your curtains don't flop down the rod.

That man is a genius.

My daughter had several strings hung on her wall like clothes line and she use clothes pins to hang her artwork. This was over about five nail holes from things I had hung and she removed. I was really sick of the weekly change on the walls so I bought something designed to change often.

This hanging system from Stas was only $65 for all of the components. Its ala carte so you can really customize it for your needs. I chose the lightweight clear cords because that was all that was needed. There are heavy duty cords and hooks available too.

The idea was to hang framed items that she wants to keep ( I use the term "keep" loosely because it could disappear at her whim) coupled with her Etsy shop artwork hung with bulldog clips.

This isn't the final gallery wall setup. Its going to require a bit of trial and error to get everything how I  how she wants it.

Make sure to stop by next Thursday. I hope to have a cool DIY for week four, plus its Spring break so I am pretty sure week five is going to be tricky pull something out of my hat to show you.

 

Like Design du Monde on Facebook for blog updates

Like Kerry Steele Art on Facebook to see my latest artwork

Follow me on Instagram to see paintings in progress

Room of the week

 I have no opinion, just envy this week. I envy weather so warm that one must dine under cover during the day.

Its really freakin' cold here in Virginia today. 

How's the weather where you are?