The Chaise Lounge Podcast

Today on the Chaise Lounge, Nick welcomes Lisa Davenport to the show. Davenport is the principal of Lisa Davenport Designs. After realizing she wasn’t cut out to work a graphic design job in a cubicle, she took a job at a paint store where one client appreciated her color recommendation to heart and wanted more even more interior design from Davenport who was only just realizing she might have the knack. Then, when her daughter was 9-months-old, she went back to school to learn interior design.

Today on the Chaise Lounge, Nick talks to Kate Lester of Kate Lester Interiors about growing up in Southern California, wanting to grow up to be rich and evolving into a designer and how fun it is to tell people “No.”

Today on the Chaise Lounge, Nick talks to designer, retail entrepreneur and “Queen of Eclecticism” Anne Rainey Rokahr. Rokahr is a native of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and after a career as a film producer, she returned to her roots and bought the then-34-year-old Snob Shop consignment store before also establishing Trouvaille Home which serves as a retail option for antique and custom pieces. 

Rokahr found design as a second-and-a-half career. She spent time away from film to work as a publicist for a few years before returning to show business and then transforming her life into what it is today, where she curates unique and beautiful pieces of in both fashion and interiors.

If you’re ever in North Carolina, maybe twice a year for some event, you can visit Anne Rainey Rokahr at the Snob Shop and Trouvaille Home, and scout them out at their websites TheSnobShops.com and TrouvailleHome.com. And follow Trouvaille Home on Instagram @TrouvailleHome to catch inspiration from Rokahr’s ever-changing collection. 

This episode of the Chaise Lounge was sponsored by Benjamin Moore. Consider specifying their Scuff-X for its longevity, especially in high-traffic spaces. And this episode was also brought  to you with the help of Design Manager, the business software for interior designers that handles project management, order tracking and accounting.

If you have to go to school for six years to do something, you're in the wrong business

Anne Rainey Rokahr

Chaise Lounge Updates

We'll be covering Fall High Point Market 2019! Stay in the loop on our Instagram and Facebook pages and keep an eye our for our upcoming market events!

Our new podcast Coast to Coast Design is live! Give it a listen to learn about just how many ways there are to run a design business.

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Upcoming Markets

High Point Market – Oct. 19-23 2019

BDNY – Nov. 10-11, 2019

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Wrap Up

If you would like to hear more episodes, please visit us on iTunes, Spotify or your favorite podcasting app! We'd love it if you post a review, you may even hear your review read live on our next podcast. Also, find The Chaise Lounge on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. With that said, keep dreaming big, and keep designing a great design business. See ya!

For this season's coverage of Las Vegas Market, the Chaise Lounge presents a panel where Nick chats with Polywood's design ambassadors Shayla Copas, Farah Merhi and Angelo Adamo.

The panel covers one of your host's favorite topics: Branding. The panel discusses how they built their brands, how they leveraged their talents and situations and how they turn their branding into marketing into work.

This show and panel are sponsored by Polywood, which makes outdoor furniture from recycled milk jugs.

Today in The Lounge, Nick chats with Jaime Blomquist of Jaime Blomquist Interiors. Based in her hometown of Fort Lauderdale, Blomquist’s business has seen both highs and lows. She talks to Nick about how she got her start and how she overcame the hard times.

Today in The Lounge, Nick talks to Kenneth Boyer of Atelier K, based in Los Angeles. Boyer runs the interior design firm with his business partner, Kristin Gunnette. Together, they design high-end residential homes along with custom furniture and lighting for their California clients.

Today in The Lounge, Nick kicks off this season with Sally Williams of Colorful Concepts Interior Design. Based in North Carolina, Williams built her business from scratch after falling in love with interior design. She talks about trying new things, the hardest part about running her business, and the importance of investing in your work.

On the season finale of the Chaise Lounge, Nick sits down with Belinda O’Kelly and David Kasprak the two architect-designers who founded O’Kelly + Kasprak in 2010 together after the firm hospitality firm they had both worked at dissolved. Nine years later, they run a company that can design from the ground up, manage projects as they go and even offer services as specific as acoustic engineering.

Today in The Lounge, Nick catches up with Rich Schell of Rich Designs Home. Schell is located just a hop, skip, and a jump away from Nick, in Colorado Springs. There, he has one space for both his design firm and his high-end furniture consignment store, I Saw It First. Schell talks about the challenges and rewards of being your own boss.

On this Independence Day weekend episode of The Chaise Lounge, Nick visits with Erinn Valencich, a consummate entrepreneur who runs a full-service design firm, designs and sells furniture and is even behind an app that helps designers run their businesses. Valencich takes Nick through her journey growing up on a farm where her grandfather made custom cabinets to testing out of high school to dive into work to her vast career as it exists today.