Recycled Designs: Designing your Home with Character

The world lost a very special person today - Elizabeth Taylor. She always handled herself with grace and dignity, and was a wonderful role model for all of us who were fortunate enough to grow up watching her on the silver screen. As a board member of the USA Film Festival , I've learned never to form an opinion about someone until I meet them in person, and sadly Ms. Taylor is one that I would have given anything to meet but it wasn't meant to be. Denise Vivaldo - who is one of my favorite writers as well as being my role model in the styling world just posted a story in the Huffington Post about her encounter with Ms. Taylor. It makes me love Denise and Ms. Taylor even more. The title of the story is Elizabeth Taylor: Good Manners Never Go Out of Style and I couldn't agree more. This weekend I was working with photographer Lisa Stewart LifeStyling Savor Dallas - a special food and wine event that I enjoy attending every year. To make the shots Lifestylist® D...

I always like to say where there is a will there is a way, and even with the recent tightening of budgets, there is just no substitution for a well merchandised model. The difference now though is we have to get creative like we never have before, and discover ways to make our models outshine the competition while spending less. As a Lifestylist® , I look for ways to highlight the community their new home will be built in, and show what makes the lifestyle they will experience there so special. An example is a home that we merchandised with @home Builders in Rochester, NY as a Homearama house. The home was only going to be open for a short amount of time so we had to spend our merchandising dollars wisely. We teamed up with The Ronald McDonald House in Rochester and took advantage of their Household and Antique Sale. I dug through donations for the sale and was able to furnish the entire home using donated items, then the builder hosted an online auction where everythi...