How Designers See the World

We all see the world through the screen of who we are. It’s natural. It’s fitting. And sometimes, its funny. Recently, I spent some time in NYC with a very talented, very old school “grand dame” of custom lampshade fabrication. She had been making stunning lampshades for the design trade for more than 25 years. But my favorite moment with her was actually when she mentioned how much she “LOOOVED the movie “The Artist,” (pause, pause) because the lamp shades in the movie were absolutely stunning and completely historically accurate.”

Reminds me of the time my husband Steven walked into our sitting room to find me yet again watching the movie version of “Grey Gardens” with Jessica Lange. “Again??” he said, “How can you keep watching this, it’s so depressing!!” “Depressing? Look at the color of those dining room walls! I love watching the HOUSE. I’d give anything to find the client who’d let me paint a room the color of that dining room.”

Yes, we all experience the world through our own screen.

This is probably the reason that the strawberries and cream I was daintily nibbling on at that very moment, in that very neat little cafe in Manhattan’s NoHo district, taste all the sweeter – because I totally dug the wrought iron chandeliers hanging above my head. Lunch was ok…but the light fixtures…outstanding. Nice choice, too on the Scarlett O’Hara colored velvet drapes hanging in the windows. “Oh, waiter..may I please have a fabric swatch…I mean…fork?”