THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 5, 1995 TAG: 9511020179
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 20 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY JEWEL BOND
LENGTH: Long : 180 lines
IN DECORATING, you have free rein to exercise your whims and fantasies - be they a search for the soothing, the restful, the bold or the romantic.
But decorating is much more than pushing furniture around or hanging a print. Even with a clear goal in mind, there's no guarantee of success.
Along the way there are a lot of choices and compromises to make. When you are afflicted with terminal indecision, where do you go?
Because even those who know almost exactly what they want need a little push, most everyone starts decorating by gathering free advice from family and friends. But making the right choices requires patience and, sometimes, professional help.
Many people don't know that there is a wealth of qualified designers and decorators on the Outer Banks who will offer free consultations to novice decorators.
These professionals can help put a perspective on preferences, priorities and budget, and they can help establish a clearer vision of the environment you want.
Interior designer Lynn O'Neill works from her home under the name of Kaleidoscope Interiors. On any given day, you will find newly upholstered furniture, window treatments and assortments of pillows ready to be delivered, placed or hung.
O'Neill says designers and decorators offer an invaluable service. ``We are no different than a paint store or a carpet store,'' she says. ``We provide assistance.''
Interior designers, O'Neill says, are qualified people who identify, research and creatively solve problems in the function and quality of homes' interiors. In short, they can be the saints that save your sanity.
An informative packet designed and written by O'Neill is presented to each customer seeking advice. The packet contains information on selecting paint, tips on beginning projects and hints like this:
Before beginning a decorating project, open your clothes closet. Chances are, the colors you enjoy wearing are the ones you would like to live with, too.
With the electronic revolution upon us, it is now possible in some paint stores to feed in a swatch of your favorite color fabric, a desired paint color, or a photographed color and watch the computer automatically break down the pigment elements to formulate an exact match.
To make her packet complete, O'Neill has included information on fabric selection and 36 different styles of window treatments. The packet can help you organize, assemble or discard the three notebooks of room-by-room ideas you've been clipping for years.
Another quick decorating tip from O'Neill: Spray a group of inexpensive baskets in a cheerful color and use them for open shelf storage.
Carolyn Gunn wasn't looking for a designer the day she walked into Phelps Interiors. She was looking for fabric.
Gunn has an eye for color and is talented enough that friends ask her advice in decorating their homes. Her friend Ed Kavanaugh had asked Gunn, who was living in Pennsylvania at the time, to come help with his new Martin's Point home last year.
``When I started decorating Ed's home, I selected things I felt would appeal to a man,'' Gunn says. ``I worried he would hate it.''
Not so, said Kavanaugh. He was pleased. ``Carolyn's touch is everywhere,'' he said.
Gunn, planning to work solo on Kavanaugh's home, changed her mind after talking to Frank Gudac, designer and owner of Phelps.
``There was instant rapport,'' she says. ``We knew we could work together after the first consultation.''
Gudac and Gunn shared ideas and realized their thinking was on the same wavelength. It's difficult now, they say, to know who suggested what.
But it was Gudac's idea to put full-length Gothic Arch mirrors on an expansive bare wall that faced the connecting TV room, where large windows let in the morning sunlight. More than decorative, the mirrors capture the sunlight, bringing the outside in and giving the entire area a glowing natural light.
``You have to find the decorator you're compatible with,'' Gunn says, adding that she's impressed with Gudac ``because he always goes that extra measure.''
Gudac says creativity is not a 9-to-5 job, and he doesn't keep a schedule. Sometimes solutions come to him at 2 a.m. He keeps a tape recorder and paper and pen nearby.
People can feel intimidated by decorators, Gudac says.
``Decorating is not just for the wealthy,'' he says. ``We are house doctors. We help eliminate costly errors.''
He tells his customers to bring him their rock-bottom price, and ``we proceed from there.''
Designers can't copyright ideas. So to protect customers, they try to be equally creative with everyone and avoid duplication.
``People don't want a copycat,'' Gudac says. ``They want a decorating DNA that identifies them as an individual.''
Of course, when a couple owns a home, the DNA must be a combination of their tastes. And Gudac says that husbands, traditionally left out of the interior decorating process, are getting more involved. That's why you see an evolution from the pastel colors to the bold jewel tones, deep blues, deep greens.
``When a couple shows joint interest,'' Gudac says, ``it makes the job easier.''
It takes talent to be a good designer or decorator, Gudac says.
``They can go to school until Gabriel blows his horn,'' he says, ``and they will never be a decorator unless they have inborn talent.''
A quick decorating tip from Gudac: Texture sponge or rag paint a room to give it new life.
Dorathea Clouser, owner of Designer's Cottage in the Marketplace, does floral arrangements and wreaths from silk and dried flowers.
``I'm really an artist working as a designer,'' says Clouser, who holds a degree in applied art and approaches a room as if it's a painting. ``I don't just see a sofa or chair. I see it completed.'' Gifted in every phase of decorating, Clouser gives a different perspective on color and visual presentation. The visual perspective is evident upon entering her shop.
Flowers in a sea of color fill the mini-showroom. Her handpainted, handmade angel pillows line the sofa like toy soldiers on display. Four connecting rooms are decorated to completion, with accessories placed at random perfection.
Clauser, who says she tries to make it affordable for everyone to decorate, does custom-design packages in a style called ``turnkey.'' She designs the layout, custom-orders furniture and attends to every detail so the new owner can simply turn the key and walk into a finished cottage.
The message Clauser likes to give her customers: Windows are the soul of the room; sometimes simple is better.
Many designers come as package deals with other services. Architects, for instance, often partner with designers in planning homes. Other decorators are employed by the home furnishings industry, which covers carpet, bedding and furniture stores.
Laurie Andel has been a decorator for Manteo Furniture Co., which provides its customers free decorating service, for eight years.
Occasionally, she has requests for a complete service. She says her most memorable experience was a house in Duck she decorated for a man from Saudi Arabia. For two months, she worked by satellite, by fax and by airmail.
``It takes patience, no matter how long it takes,'' Andel says. ``With my clients, I never try to convince. I try to assist, to get them through their confusion.''
Manteo Furniture and Andel decorate mostly for new construction homes. Most of their clients are looking for an investment, and a good portion of Andel's decorating is done from a blueprint. Working by scale, she places furniture and works out window treatments even before the building is completed.
Andel's quick decorating tip: Use greenery or silk plants.
Dare Designs owner Karen Frey and her partner, Vicky Broadus, say they offer a different type of interior design service: structural design. These designers start earlier in the process to make the home fit owners' design preferences.
While we moderns are more accustomed to mass-produced than custom-made, customers can be comforted to know the dedication to quality details that Frey and Broadus create to make a home more functional.
In addition to developing lighting plans, millwork details and finishes, they'll do whatever else the customer asks.
If a homeowner wants, they'll build-in a theater, or pool tables, or an area for collectibles.
``Nothing is too odd, or cannot be done,'' Broadus says. ``We see that the homeowner gets what they want. That's what we're here for.
``We do interior design, but our fixtures are permanent.''
Dare Designs offers a wide range of services, including original home designs for primary residence, vacation, rental or investment property and a file of home plans that can be modified to the customer's needs or desires.
Remodeling, renovations and additions are handled with the same quality of design as the custom home plans. For these projects, Broadus and Frey use a high-tech method of developing detailed drawings of existing buildings - allowing for a smoother integration of new and old.
These designers are just a few of the people who can help new homeowners choose the decorations to fit their lifestyle. But no matter how much input you get, the choice will always be yours.
``I'm not going to sell my customers something they don't need,'' Andel says. ``I hear what they are saying.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by DREW C. WILSON
The arched mirrors suggested by a decorator and Carolyn Gunn add
light to the living room in Ed Kavanaugh's Martin's Point Home.
Staff photo by DREW C. WILSON
Carolyn Gunn said she selected things that would appeal to a man,
like bold colors, when decorating Ed Kavanaugh's home.
Carolyn Gunn admires the valances recently installed in a bay window
in a bedroom of a friend's home. The mini blinds allow the user to
control the amount of light and privacy.
by CNB