Heather's piano room -- bold, happy color!

Friend Kara recently shot photos of Heather and Tom's piano/living room for my portfolio. I am preparing my Design Star application and I plan to include these photos.

So where is the piano? On the other side of the room, but the fantastic chandelier to go above it is not yet installed. This is just a preview of things to come.



My husband said, "I am impressed with your work, but even more impressed by Heather, that she would be so fearless."

There is NO fear in this interior. Heather has embraced color and pattern in her wardrobe for years. We just took her wardrobe and splashed it around the room...it says "Heather" all over it!

What about Tom? Well, let's just say this room is a monument to a husband's love for his wife.

Rate it on Rate My Space.

I am in love with Marimekko

I am having a hard time deciding which Marimekko bedding I want to inspire my bedroom.

Help me decide and tell me your favorite. I could take any of them. Bright, bold, graphic...it's me!

When given the full range of the crayon box and permission to let go...I can do wild and fun. It's just happy.

I have two places I want to visit in New York: Marimekko concept store and the MOMA.

Book me a ticket!

Studies in Color -- Jerry O. Wilkerson

I can't think of a better Mother's Day. I spent it doing what I love with whom I love. My son and I went to the St. Louis University Museum of Art.

Studying color and sharing it with a loved one, how rich and wonderful!

We saw the Jerry O. Wilkerson Retrospective, Discerning Palette. I met the artist's widow, Gail Wilkerson, at the Art of City Living Tour. Gail told me that she has spent this last year managing the estate of her prolific artist husband who sadly passed away last June.

I was excited to see Gail strolling the exhibit today with her mother. Gail said she would be happy to answer my questions and I had tons.

I asked what drew Jerry to express his work in pointillism.

Her answer: "Jerry loved color and light."

Jerry enjoyed seeing what he could do with color, even tiny dots of color, applied to paper, board, canvas, fabric, quilts or sculpture to produce recognizable images of everyday ordinary things, like pears and pizza and reflecting iconic images of popular ure like Fig Newtons.

My son liked all the works, and one of his favorite was of a lemon and Kentucky Fried Chicken in the fridge. Color can be found anywhere, and Jerry O. Wilkerson found it in the refrigerator.

Gail remembers well Jerry's fascination with how fridge light illuminated the colorful items inside. He spent hours viewing the contents, taking photos and observing from different angles.

Now here is a lesson we can learn from the artist. If you are struggling to select a color palette or wall color for your room, have you considered studying color even in ordinary surroundings? Many might stop and study a dazzling sunset, but the fridge?

There is beauty to be seen anywhere there is color and light. And anywhere there is color and light, we can learn.

I love how artists present us with a new perspective. They encourage us to think and react to our surroundings in ways we never imagined.

So when I open the fridge this week, you bet I'll be noticing the color and light.

Learn more about the exhibit -- click here And if you live outside of St. Louis stay tuned, I will share Jerry O. Wilkerson exhibits that are heading your way.

Haven of Grace

My, time flies when you haven't blogged. There are several excuses and several projects taking my time.

Topping the list: Haven of Grace.

Haven of Grace is a special organization to help young homeless mothers and is championed by Editor, Christy Marshall of St. Louis Magazine AT HOME. She invited eight designers to decorate eight apartments for Haven of Grace.

I am lucky to be one of the designers working on the project. I am especially fortunate to have enlisted designer and friend, Gina Adolphson, to work with me. She has taken the lead in collecting fabrics and brainstorming the design.


This is not your typical project. Our inspiration is limited by what donations come in. So our color palette is not inspired by our favorite fabric on the bolt, but rather by what is given to us by kind retailers.


Gina made the rounds collecting miscellaneous items. We selected a few to create our palette.

We were given a fabric panel of leaves and fruits in an unusual mix of chartreuse, plum, slate blue, turquoise, burnt orange and bright orange and rosy reds. We decided to pull a palette of mostly blues and oranges from this piece for the living and dining rooms.


Gina told me today that she has enjoyed the challenge of creating a design around a fabric that was not of her choosing. "It has made me consider other possibilities with color I never imagined", she says. "I really love this palette."


Gina also loves the idea of a graphic bird mural painted above the dining nook. She picked birds just because she likes the shape of the template she was given. She doesn't know why, but it just appeals to her.

I like it too.


Please tell us how you've found design inspiration by something that was given to you.

See related blog: Take a Chance on that Sofa

My Home - Inspired by the Freezer

Here is my husband, Dan. Now why is he pointing to the rainbow sherbet?

He wants our living room’s focal wall to be, you guessed it, orange sherbet.

Love that man!

Dan and I are soul mates when it comes to decorating our home.

I hesitate to divulge our style, because I don’t want you to think that “my” style will end up in “your” home, if you hire me to help you decorate. I just won’t do that, it’s your home.

We like any style that is well done. But we are drawn to contemporary styles that sing with clean-lines and vibrant colors. That is how we like to live: simple, clean and vibrant.

However, we also are purists. Our last home was a colonial style home. Well, what I call fake colonial, really. The façade, at least, was colonial, but the bones of the house were not. Regardless, it had a traditional feel, so the purists in us didn’t feel we could go as wild and modern as we would like.

We were driven by the desire to preserve the integrity of our home. And we felt the potential resale value would be greater if we kept our palette more subdued. So we leaned on the side of being practical.

But now we live in space with modern bones. And we are eager to follow our inner desires to go wild.

Orange, olive, brown and chartreuse wild!

We have lived with white walls for a year now, and I hope to paint at least one wall orange -- inspired by Dan -- before Thanksgiving. And more after that.

Dan found his inspiration in the freezer. Where have you found inspiration for your color palette?

My Color Bible - Exploring Dana's Design Library

Ok, I have scoured the bookstores for books on color. Many are cute, offer inspiration and ideas, but most are not very meaty.

In fact, some are very disappointing. I really don’t need a book that analyzes my mood swings or checks my horoscope to help me decide what color is right for my room. I don’t find the books offering predetermined color palettes – color swatches or ready-made palettes - very helpful either. And most people have told me they are frustrated by such books.

As I prepared for my Color Confidence class, I came across a truly substantive book by Jonathan Poore, with photography by Eric Roth. Their book - Interior Color by Design - offers practical instruction for applying color theory. I found the checklist in the back of the book especially helpful.

Jonathan Poore gave me permission to use his book’s outline and photos for my Color Confidence presentation. He told me that what inspired him to write the book is that he could not find a practical book on color theory. This surprised him, but he did what every good author should do: write the book you want to see.

I have only a few design books on my shelves. I just don’t like the clutter. So what goes on my shelves must be meaty. Poore’s book is my bible on color.

I have two other books on color, next to Poore’s, but that is it. More on those later.

What design books do you find helpful or inspiring?

If you would like to schedule the Color Confidence class based on the book, Interior Color by Design, please contact me at 314-652-1759. I will be giving my next class on November 6th at 7 p.m. Please call me for details.

Color First - becoming color confident

I was asked some years ago to teach a class on basic interior design. I focused on one aspect of design: color. Design does not get any more basic than in the use of color.

Why color first?

I tell people to select their color palette before their style. This is because very few people can plunk down a large sum of money at one time for furnishings of all one period or style. Most of us have a mix of furnishings inherited from grandma or found garage sales. Or our tastes have changed over the years and we have accumulated a variety of styles.

Color has the power to unite mixed-matched furnishings.

Photo Courtesy of Eric Roth

This room (above) has iron, wood and wicker furnishings. Walls, furnishings and fabrics in blues, greens and purples harmonize the look. Because the colors have similar attributes -they are cool colors and of the same value (intensity) and strength (saturation) - they bring continuity to the space.

Now imagine this room, same furnishings, but with white walls and mostly void of color. Would it have the same sense of continuity?

Or maybe continuity is not your goal? What color palette might you choose for this room and why?

We’ll continue to explore ways to harmonize our interiors by using color. Stay tuned for more on Color Confidence.

If you would like to book the popular Color Confidence class for your organization or neighborhood group, contact me at 314-652-1759.

Color, It's Personal - becoming color confident

Graphic designed by Angela Robinson (http://www.angelwingsdesign.com/) for Dana's Design Studio

I am launching yet another series: Color Confidence.

Nine out of ten calls for my services the person asks, “Can you help me select paint color for my walls?”

Color is the single most important design tool. Yet, most people lack the confidence to use it.

The Color Confidence series will draw upon my popular class by the same name. My hope is that the principles and hints and tips I share will make you brave enough to dip that brush into a can of paint and on to your white walls.

Color Confidence - defined - is knowing what colors you love and how to harmonize them.

Gaining Color Confidence is a lot like learning to ride a bike. You just have to experience it, fall a few times and get up again. Before you know it, selecting color will become intuitive.

To help you on your way, I will give you principles, hints and tips you can lean on - just as a person learning to ride a bike leans on someone to help balance until they gain confidence to ride on their own.

But once you are off and riding I want you to gain confidence to break the rules and experiment to find your own way.

This leads to the first principle:

1) Using Color is personal – it’s not a science.

It’s not what your neighbor likes, it’s what you like.

It’s not something you apply a formula to…it’s subjective, it’s creative, it’s art.

A woman in my class last week asked, “I heard a rule that every room should have a little red in it…is that true?”

Again, there is NO formula for choosing a color palette that appeals to YOU!

And here is my belief, or core value, that drives my thinking: We are creative beings capable of developing our own relationships to color and how it works in our lives.

Will we fall down in the process of building our relationship with color? Most likely.

I create a color palette for a room with a large degree of confidence. But I have developed that confidence after much experimentation – on my OWN home and art projects, thankfully for my clients! And each time I work with color I learn something new. I don’t think I will ever stop learning about color.

You can learn too. Lean on me as we develop your Color Confidence!

I offer my class - Color Confidence - to groups and organizations. Call me for more details: 314-652-1759