One of my favorite Dallas designers is Cynthia Collins, whose work we will be exploring today. In 1992, Cynthia founded Collins Interiors, a full-scale interior design firm that provides their clients a unique collaborative opportunity to be a part of the process every step of the way. Cynthia and her team travel to England and France throughout the year where they handpick antiques, lighting, and unique accessories for their latest projects. These one-of-a-kind items are then blended with contemporary original artwork, custom upholstery, and fine textiles. Many of these treasures can be found at Blue Print, which I highly recommend visiting the next time you are in Dallas. Cynthia is co-owner of Blue Print and Blue Print Gallery, along with Leslie Jenkins, whose work I featured last week. Let’s take a look at some of my favorite highlights from Collins Interiors’ portfolio… there are so many!
Such beautiful, elegant, and happy interiors! Each room makes me smile. 🙂 For more information, please visit Collins Interiors and follow @collins__interiors on Instagram. Also, for a special treat, I highly enjoyed the recent tour of Cynthia’s Highland Park home, conducted by fellow Dallas blogger Christina Dandar of The Potted Boxwood. You can click here to watch the 30-minute tour.
Yesterday the Inaugural Kips Bay Decorator Show House Dallas was open for media, and I was delighted to get a sneak peak! The first room I toured was the Lady’s Study, designed by one of my favorite designers, Jan Showers, who also happens to be co-chair of the event. She designed her room with Jackie Kennedy as her inspiration. “You know, Jackie was a great letter writer,” Jan told me. And like Jan, she enjoyed decorating with a mix of styles and periods. Highlights in the study include an 18th century German Neoclassical chandelier from Nick Brock Antiques, a contemporary Robert Jessup painting from Conduit Gallery, and a Karl Springer goatskin desk from Modern Epic Antiques in Miami. The lacquered paint is Benjamin Moore’s Wythe Blue.
One thing I love about Jan’s style is that it is completely unique to Jan Showers. When you see one of her rooms or homes, you know instantly it is hers. One of her clients described her style as “The interiors of Jan Showers & Associates are chic and timeless. They exude glamour and grace with an approachable and at ease feeling, much like Jan herself.” And I couldn’t agree more! Jan is warm, gracious, inviting, and incredibly chic and glamorous. Today we will take a tour of her Show Room library with pictures from my iPhone (or as noted).
I will also be sharing a preview of her latest book, Glamorous Living, which is a must have new book for fall!
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My apologies for the iPhone image quality… it was a rainy day, and I was not able to capture the vibrancy of the colors, but I did want to capture the fabulous details. 🙂
Jan’s third book, Glamorous Living, is available this month, and it is an absolute delight! Her first book, Glamorous Rooms, is one of my all time favorites, and her second, Glamorous Retreats, is not to be missed. Glamorous Living shares a room-by-room journey through some of the most luxurious and glamorous homes in America in addition to a personal glimpse inside Jan’s own glamorous life. “For me, glamorous living means engaging with the world in a certain way, bringing my own style and unique set of influences with me everywhere I go,” Jan explains in the introduction. “Glamorous living never means glittery, baroque ostentation. It’s about living with style and grace, creating environments for family and friends to be a part of your life while feeling their best,” she said.
Glamorous Living invites readers into 20 never-before-photographed homes in some of the world’s most idyllic locales, including a a glamorous New York apartment, a London townhouse in Belgravia, an architecturally significant house in Paradise Valley, Scottsdale, a historic residence in Austin, a country estate, a stunning home on Buffalo Bayou in Houston, a duplex apartment at The Mansion Residence in Dallas, and many more.
To learn more, please visit Jan Showers’ website and follow @janshowers on Instagram. For additional articles on Jan Showers by The Glam Pad, you may enjoy the links below…
There are so many talented interior designers in Dallas, and now that I’m home, I cannot wait to feature some of my favorites! Founded by Leslie Jenkins in 1998, Jenkins Interiors specializes in coupling custom and contemporary furnishings with rare artwork and European antiques, hand-selected during multiple yearly international buying trips. You can shop her finds online or the next time you are in Dallas at Blue Print and Blue Print Gallery, which she co-owns. Blue Print is a treasure trove boutique offering myriad one-of-a-kind antiques, modern light fixtures, art, and accessories. Below are some of my favorite images from the Jenkins Interiors portfolio!
And you may recall a few weeks ago, I featured Nicola Bathie McLaughlin, a fellow Texan who formerly worked as a design associate with Jenkins Interiors. If you love Jenkins Interiors, you will love Nicola’s style as well!
Fall has always been my favorite season, and I missed it desperately while living in Florida. The crispness in the air, beautiful colors, falling leaves, pumpkin lattes…. I love it all! In eager anticipation, I have compiled 80 fun finds for fall, broken into home decor, new book releases, and fashion. Let’s start with fall finds for the home…
And while we are on the subject of food, fall just isn’t fall without Brach’s Candy Pumpkins. I have been ordering so many pantry items and home supplies online during COVID, and Target has been wonderful.
How festive are these edible Sugar Maple Autumn Leaves?! Perfect for decorating cupcakes or decorating serving trays!
Staub’s Enameled Cast Iron Pumpkin Cocottes are great for decorating your kitchen during the fall… and they are perfect for pumpkin or butternut squash soups and comforting chili. The cocottes are available in orange, white, and black.
MacKenzie Childs has such adorable pumpkins for fall, and this bowl is perfect for handing out Halloween candy!
I always prefer sweet versus spooky when it comes to Halloween decor, and a few of my favorite retro inspired finds are below…
THE BEST NEW BOOK RELEASES THIS FALL
There are so many wonderful new books being released this fall, and I am currently working on a more comprehensive review of my favorites. But you can get a sneak peek of my recommendations below… Which ones are on your wish list?
FALL FLORAL FASHION
Grandmillennial style is not only taking over home decor, but it has also found its way into fashion. Florals are everywhere, along with ruffles, frills, and poufs! I grew up wearing dresses like these, and I had such fun putting together a list of lovely floral dresses for fall, at every price point.
For more fall inspiration, please click the links below to read more articles from The Glam Pad.
So many of us have been feathering our nests and looking online for design inspiration during these crazy COVID days… With travel on the back burner, Instagram and blogs have provided a wonderful escape. A friend recently found the most amazing vlogger to follow, and we have been binge watching her YouTube channel ever since… Stephanie Jarvis is the chatelaine of Chateau de la Lande, a 16th century chateau in the heart of France that she purchased in 2004 at the age of 29.
Stephanie, her family, and friends worked tirelessly over the years to restore the chateau, which had fallen into dereliction. The first three years they lived amidst constant construction as walls were torn down to rediscover the original proportions of the rooms and remove asbestos. They created a new sewage system, dug hundreds of metres of boreholes to install geothermal heating, and redid all of the plumbing and electrics. “And at the end of this mammoth task, we still hadn’t started decorating!” Stephanie explains. “My parents, Nic, Michael and I were all living in insane discomfort (-10 degrees in the house during our first winter), but I was loving every minute.”
Expenses were exorbitant, and they began running Chateau de la Lande as a Bed and Breakfast to make ends meet. Stephanie’s story was discovered and shared by a small production company in the UK with a program called Escape to the Chateau, and it was met with tremendous feedback. Stephanie then created an Instagram account for Chateau de Lalande and her vlog hoping to drive more business to the castle… She now has approximately 120,000 followers between the two.
You can follow Stephanie’s delightful vlog The Chateau Diaries and YouTube channel to watch 150+ videos she created to document life at the Chateau. I recommend starting at Episode 1 and working your way through. Below are a few pictures of the chateau… Enjoy! 🙂
There are so many wonderful new book releases this fall, and I cannot wait to share my favorites with you! One of my favorite designers, James Farmer, has released his ninth book — Arriving Home: A Gracious Southern Welcome — and I think it is his best yet. In the introduction, Farmer says, “I hope the common thread seen is not how well a room cleans up for a photograph, but how each room glows from within. The ability to host a family gathering, a cocktail party, or the reading of the Saturday-morning paper or a good book — all with a gracious dose of Southern charm, personality and style — is the task at hand for our designs.” Mission accomplished!
From a grand Connecticut country home to a stately St. Louis house or a columned antebellum Alabama home, Farmer’s style travels the country to set the tone for the lives of his clients. Homes in the city, the mountains, the country, and coastal locales are all reflected in this journey while being rooted in Southern design. James Farmer’s mantra is “traditional style stands the test of time,” and every beautiful home featured in this book is timeless in addition to being warm and welcoming.
Photograph by Jeff HerrPhotograph by Jeff HerrPhotograph by Jeff HerrPhotograph by Jeff HerrPhotograph by Jeff HerrPhotograph by Jeff HerrPhotograph by Jeff HerrPhotograph by Jeff HerrPhotograph by Jeff HerrPhotograph by Jeff HerrPhotograph by Emily FollowillPhotograph by Emily FollowillPhotograph by Emily FollowillPhotograph by Emily FollowillPhotograph by Jeff HerrPhotograph by Jeff HerrArriving Home: A Gracious Southern Welcome
