Monthly Archive for May, 2010

World Renowned Interior Designer to Headline Local Antiques Show

Published on May 23, 2010 in Our Story. 0 Comments

The Christ Church Antiques Show celebrates its 26th year as one of the Midwest’s most prestigious collecting events, featuring more than 30 professional dealers who offer a vast range of inventories and price points on items in a variety of designs, periods, and regions in a fully vetted show. This renowned event raises funds to support Music and Outreach at Christ Church Grosse Pointe. It is an educational and collecting event where ideas, expertise, and passion for antiques, music, and culture can flourish.
The 2010 show opens on Thursday, June 3 with a Preview Party and Silent Auction attended by angel supporters. Archangel-level donors attend an additional pre-show party in a private home in May. They, along with Gold Angels enjoy a private meet-and-greet with our guest lecturer prior to the Preview Party in addition to Friday’s lecture and admittance to the entire show. Silver angels are also invited to attend the Preview Party and group pricing is available.

Renowned interior designer Barry Dixon is the featured lecturer. The recent launch of his Vervain fabric line has met with wide acclaim. His new book Barry Dixon Interiors is his first and will be signed immediately following the lecture which begins at 10:30 am on Friday, June 4. Books ($35) are available for presell through the Cloister Bookshop and will be sold during the signing as well.

An appraisal clinic on Saturday, June 5 at 10 am until 1 pm features Caroline Ashleigh of Antiques Roadshow along with Manya Basile and Stephen J. Till. All are experienced and well-known appraisers of decorative and fine arts. Also on Saturday, at 1 pm, a free docent-led tour of the historic church highlights the stained and leaded glass windows with an emphasis on the restoration being performed by Rohlfe Studio of Mount Vernon, New York.

The Angel Cafe will offer light fare on site for guests including sandwiches, salads, and desserts throughout the show weekend. A courtesy shuttle on Friday and Saturday will enable guests to visit some of the area’s most renowned restaurants through a partnership with Grosse Pointe’s Hill Association.

Since its inception, the Antiques Show has supported the overseas tours of the acclaimed choirs of Christ Church. Since 1929, the choirs have striven for musical excellence through the inspiration and joy of shared musical expression. Benefits resulting from a commitment such as is required of choristers are both far-reaching and long-lasting. These tremendous life lessons will be celebrated during the first annual alumni weekend which coincides with this year’s show. Former choristers from all over the country will return to share their stories and celebrate with a choral evensong on June 5 at 4:30 pm directed by former choirmaster Fred DeHaven and Scott Hanoian, current director of music and organist.

Tickets are available in the church office or at The League Shop on the Hill in Grosse Pointe Farms or Judy Frankell Antiques in Troy, or Dede and Jim Taylor Antiques in Birmingham.

Social Media-Ready Copy Excerpts:

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From @DetNews, Designer Barry Dixon will offer decor advice at Grosse Pointe Farms Show: http://xrl.in/5amm

One of the Midwest’s most prestigious antiques collecting events, June 4-6 in Grosse Pointe Farms http://xrl.in/4osh

Remembering our show’s humble beginnings….by Besty Creedon

Published on May 22, 2010 in Our Story. 0 Comments

In the basement of the Rectory before the Cobdens moved in, standing knee deep in old clothes and wooden skiies no one wanted any more, not to mention unmatched cutlery and broken appliances - we all knew “there had to be a better way.” And there was, the Christ Church Antiques Show. I’ve worked on every show – that’s pre choir mom, choir mom (both boys and girls, simultaneously), post choir mom and now post-post choir mom. Sold ads, been hospitable to dealers with my friend Lynn Bossler (the gazpacho was fantastic), put up posters, sat in booths, held Archangel parties (mostly elegant, but one in the construction site that is now Miller Hall) and co-chaired twice with my friend Karyn Weir. We bought Laura Ashley dresses for the girls and striped ties for the boys. We endured the heat of the South Gym, loading in after the ice cream social. We searched frantically to find a tarp to cover the entire newly refinished gym floor (it was done 2 weeks before the show – no one told us!) and we staple-gunned miles of green no-seam paper on temporary walls. Then, blissfully, we moved into the Christ Church Close.

Why? Because we had fun. We made friends. We supported our children and their wonderful gift of music to us. And, we got so good at it we were able to support an outreach project as well. We welcomed the community into our lives and they got to see us as one big family working hard together. There are many, many stories to share – and some to keep to ourselves. Good memories, good friends, good works. It doesn’t get much better.

Designer Barry Dixon will offer decor advice at Grosse Pointe Farms show

Published on May 8, 2010 in Our Story. 0 Comments

by Susan Pollack: The Detroit News [click here for full story]

As a child, Barry Dixon moved often with his parents, living in exotic locales such as India, Korea, South Africa and French Polynesia.

Today, as a renowned interior designer, many of the influences he absorbed as a global nomad are reflected in his work, which blends classical architecture and traditional inspirations with elements of modern design.

The result is a warm, elegant style that has been showcased in leading shelter magazines such as Metropolitan Home and House Beautiful, where he has been ranked among America’s top designers six times. He’s also featured in the May-June issue of Veranda, on newsstands now

Dixon once designed a suite for ABC news anchor Diane Sawyer in a Traditional Home magazine show house and has appeared several times on TV, including a week on “Good Morning America,” decorating a living room.

On June 4, Dixon will be guest speaker at the 26th Christ Church Grosse Pointe Antiques Show in Grosse Pointe Farms, and will sign copies of his book, “Barry Dixon Interiors,” by Brian D. Coleman (Gibbs Smith, $35 in The Cloister Bookshop).

Dixon, 51, paused this week from his busy schedule — he recently designed a home in Beijing for a Russian billionaire — to talk to Homestyle about design.

You’re a master of mixing old and new in fresh combinations. What’s the trick?

Find something in common and use that as a link, something that connects the aesthetic dots. Maybe all these things you’re collecting are carved wood with fluid organic forms, so you take carved Victorian pieces and mix them with clean modern elements. They’ll work together because they have a relationship stylistically.

Or, you find something that plays against the style on purpose. If one thing is modern — simple, minimal, angular and blocky — then put something effusive, carved and curvilinear next to it. Such juxtaposition highlights diversity, sort of like masculine and feminine. In a strange way, you’re showing off every nuance of each piece — you see all of its qualities. At the same time, you create an interesting balance. It’s almost like a good marriage — often people pick a mate who’s everything they’re not and together they’re successful.

The thing you can’t do is mindlessly throw things together and call it “eclectic.” That’s often a catchall phrase when things are paired without reason or purpose.

Describe your color philosophy.

It’s all about the psychology of a room — what you want that room to be. If it’s a chill-out room, you want colors that are calming: pale greens, grays, quiet blues — serene tones that you see in a spa. If you need to be awakened, in a kitchen, maybe you need orange and yellow, or red and white checks.

What inspires your palette?

I’m inspired by the colors of nature, and I love to bring the outside in — whatever I see through the window of a home. If I’m in the Caribbean, I’m seeing turquoise water and chartreuse banana leaves. In Manhattan, I’d use gray, black and silver in a penthouse, but I wouldn’t use those colors in my Virginia farmhouse.

Just as eyes are a window to the soul, you have to look through the eyes of the house, the windows, to … make it feel like it has an honest connection to the world. They’ll unite interior space to exterior and almost make the inside bigger. It really does happen — any time you blur a boundary you open a space.

Any tips to transition a home from winter to spring?

I just do furniture arrangement — a little less fireplace-centric, and a little more view. Put the big sofa so that it looks out at the view, angle the chairs so they look out at the flowers.

Bring fresh flowers inside to remind us of the season — don’t use spring daffodils and tulips in winter.

What one change gives the most bang for the buck?

Bring color to your life. Color changes everything. Change the color behind you on the wall, bring in some bright pillows. It’s always the quickest fix and people can do it themselves.

What’s a typical mistake and how can we avoid it?

People buy gigantic sets of things that all match; the entire room has such a specific look that it’s boring. You wouldn’t wear all denim. You’ve got to break it up and mix: mix the high and low, the old and new, the formal and informal and you’ve got something that feels modern. It’s the mixing of things that makes it personal — that’s how you put the “you” in your home.

Pick a chair from Pottery Barn and an antique console from the antiques show and mix them together. The expensive piece brings up the inexpensive piece, and the common piece makes the rarefied piece approachable. If everything in the living room is all treasured things, it feels stilted and on display, not relaxed. Mixing knocks it off the “don’t touch me” pedestal and makes it hospitable and approachable.

Are some of us hopeless?

I don’t think anyone is hopeless. You just need to look at everything with an open eye. Some people get too hung up on the way things have always been. Designers come in with a fresh eye — we’re not married to the fact that the buffet has to go in the dining room because it came with the table 20 years ago. Move the buffet to the big foyer in your big new house. Change the fabric on the two arm chairs and move them to the living room fireplace. Find a beautiful pair of antique chairs and use those in the dining room instead.

You’ve not only broken up the set, you’ve united three separate rooms — there’s a unifying aesthetic. People will think you got all new furniture and everything feels fresh.

An Excerpt from The Design Bistro Blog

Published on May 2, 2010 in Our Story. 0 Comments

…One of [Barry Dixon's] many signature design elements is masterfully blending the old and the new with an infusion of warmth and graciousness. Earth tones work magically in his color palettes of ocher, browns, terracotta, sage, coral and olive.

He has just introduced a fabulous fabric and trim collection with Vervain that echos his style of mixing time, culture and history. He said one of his inspirations was looking at his garden of cantaloupes and other fresh fruits and vegetables.

dcbydesignblog has some fabulous photos of a clients farmhouse near Charlottesville and several other homes designed by Barry. Barry and his partner Michael Schmidt actually live in a huge beautiful manor house near Warrenton, Va.

Let that be a lesson, inspiration can come from anywhere if you open your eyes and mind to receive it.

Click here to visit the Design Bistro.

Monthly Archive for May, 2010

World Renowned Interior Designer to Headline Local Antiques Show

Remembering our show’s humble beginnings….by Besty Creedon

Designer Barry Dixon will offer decor advice at Grosse Pointe Farms show

An Excerpt from The Design Bistro Blog

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