Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Pacific Home Furnishings Workshop


Wow! I am still coming off of the high from Saturday’s Shop with Focus event at Pacific Home Furnishings! We had a great time with the 30 RSVPstylers who came out and squeezed into the open floor space in the middle of the showroom.


Our main focus was on how to put fabrics together to add more interest and texture to rooms, with tips and pointers on how to get inspired and how to layer fabrics. There is nothing like having a class in a place like PHF! I could grab swatches right off the racks and show everybody EXACTLY why one combination worked and why another just didn’t. Makes such a difference when you can see it with your own eyes, right?

We also talked about the other benefits that PHF has to offer. I think by the end of the day everyone felt more comfortable and not as intimidated to utilize this great resource. I remember how overwhelmed I was the first time I walked into a showroom like PHF!


Being that everyone in attendance had our Deluxe Style Kit, this was something of an intermediate training session. And I was so thrilled to see most everyone prepared by putting their inspiration pictures in their organizers and bringing samples of elements from their rooms that they wanted to tie in with. It was fantastic to see everyone fully utilizing their style kits and workbooks! This is just what we made them for!




Then we went on and talked about area rugs which are one of my favorite focal points of a room and a great way to begin the inspiration process. PHF has a wide array of area rugs. We talked about how and why to select different styles for different rooms and did some great hands on examples with people who were there tying them into the elements they already had. We did some great examples with some people who were there, including Barbara Bahler, who is decorating a home in Arizona and in my opinion was the star of the day! She was so prepared, that one! She had her book SO well-organized, from her inspiration pictures, to her before pictures, to her furniture room layout, to the pictures of the sofa that she purchased. Everyone could see how her prep work made it so easy for us to select two area rugs that would work fabulously in her space.


And then we broke for lunch and I got to recognize some people. It just really tickled me that 16 out of the 30 people who attended—over half!—had attended three of the last three events we’ve had: our big workshop, our CS Wo Shop with Focus event, and now this PHF event. So we recognized them at lunch with a little house-shaped RSVPstyle cookie and took a picture with our sweet 16!

We started at nine and were supposed to end by three but kept working until about 5pm. It was a long day, but it was amazing. I loved every moment of it! And I SO appreciated the support of PHF and Ingrid Nelson and Robin Watanabe who were with us the entire day sharing their knowledge and their friendship with us. We will definitely be back again!

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