Why I Should Be The Designhound Of The Year: I'm Not Afraid to Color Outside of the Lines
Our State Fair of Texas Award Winning Entry Made with Ceramic Tiles
What a month it has been! When we found out that we were a finalist for the Designhounds we decided to go all in, and share why we were worthy of this very special honor. Of course, while we were doing this we were getting ready for Design and Construction Week, and have a waiting list of model homes to install. Sleep is overrated!
I wanted to finish this campaign with why I should be worthy of the honor of being the Design Influencer of The Year, and I thought this shoe said it best: I’m not afraid to color outside of the lines.
The Lifestylist Brands came to be because what I was didn’t fit in one of the typical boxes. I didn’t want to be known as just a designer, or cook, or marketing person - life is about so much more. Every challenge that I get, I try to approach in a unique way and to listen to the client and to figure out what they want, even if they don’t know what that is themselves.
When I lived in Tucson, an architect came to me and asked if I would help a small, family-run café update their interior. He ate there every morning so he designed the building as a labor of love, but the interior didn’t reflect how special the food and the family were.
The name of the restaurant is Teresa’s Mosaic Cafe, so using mosaics seemed to be logical. But when I tried to find colors and shapes that I wanted to incorporate into my design, I came up empty. Overachiever that I am, I decided since I had enjoyed making ceramics my entire life, I would just make my own. And they all had to be different shapes. And since it was a working restaurant, they had to be easy to clean.
We started out rolling the clay out with a rolling pin (you can find some of those in my rolling pin installation at the Signature Kitchen Suite Experience and Design Center) and decided that we would never get done this way, so I invested in a slab roller and a ceramic kiln.
Bless the incredibly talented Lisa Stewart of Lisa Stewart Photography, her family, and my friends and neighbors. Each tile was cut out by hand using cookie cutters, we then embossed them, did a bisque fire, glazed each tile, then fired again.
But that’s not all! I decided that each table (27) would have a different theme, and we would have a chef’s table that would honor the family. We found a great local furniture maker that roughed out the tabletops, we would do the mosaic pattern, then we would return to them and they would make teh tables and put a glass top on them so they would be easy to keep clean.
We stopped counting after 20,000 tiles, but we got it done. After almost 20 years, the design still looks fresh, and the tables still get comments and raved about in reviews. If you get to Tucson, you should check out this great restaurant -the food is fantastic, and the tables are pretty cool as well.
They were even shown on The Food Network when the family faced off with Bobby Flay!
I still have tiles leftover and decided to use some of them as a memory. The shoe underneath was one that I wore at my daughters wedding, and I entered this in the State Fair of Texas Creative Arts competitions and if I remember, won a blue ribbon. I still get calls from people wanting me to make them tables, but I’ll just stick with the memories from the originals.
We would love to win this award, but what is even more important is that you like what I do and how I do it. That will keep me going the next time that I decide that I can do anything - with your support, I can!
January 17, 2020