Grayson Enterprises Ltd. First NA Serial Rights Page 1 Copyright 1989 1,000 words A THOROUGHLY MODERN VICTORIAN DECORATOR PROFILE OF MARSHA FELPS NIHILL Written by June Grayson You can have a Victorian home even if you don't have a Victorian house to put it in. Good thing, too. Since there are not enough Victorian houses to go around, and everyone seems to want to be Victorian now. Many Victorian elements blend well into today's traditional and contemporary homes, according to Marsha Felps Nihill, rising young interior designer of Wheaton, Illinois. "Victorians enjoyed their homes and they believed in feathering their nests. We want that warmth and coziness today," Nihill says. "Today builders are incorporating Victorian elements such as nine or ten foot ceilings, hardwood floors, and wainscoting. We paint the woodwork ivory and accent the walls with emerald green and deep red touches, or we may use sponge painting - all borrowed from Victorian building," Nihill explains. "Pedastal sinks and clawfooted tubs have even returned to the bathrooms." "For Victorian fabrics, we use chintz, moire, and lace. We like Oriental rugs, botanical prints, silk lampshades, wicker, and Chines porcelains. "And, of course, the key tassels. The Victorians locked up everything - their secretaries and their sideboards. The color of the tassels identified the color of the key that unlocked that piece of furniture," explains Nihill. "For Victorian window treatments, we see the return to popularity of swags, jabots, rosettes, and fabric-shirred curtain rods. "Gold threads in both fabrics and wall coverings add Victorian elegance. Jewel colors are rreturning to popularity. Besides the ever popular Victorian use of rose, blues, and teals, we are going to see a lot more yellow and reds," Nihill continues. Nihill has only been fucntionning as a business for three years now, but already she has built a repurtation as knowing how to incorprate antiques into any home, and for her ability to decorate with elegance and whimsy. She has decorated her own new home with warmth and elegances and a Vcitorian feel overall. You can decorate Victorian even with a contemporary home according to Nihill. "On e huge stunning antique such as a ecretary, bookcase, or armoire, can be absolutely stunning in a contemporary home. It becomes the focal point of the room. In such a home, you can also use an Oriental rug. Perhaps you can use fabric shirred on the furtain rods and the fabric falling and puddled on the floor. The plants and pillars the Victorians liked are also wonderful in a contempoary home. You can ubuy the architectural pillars made out of plaster and use them to hold statues or ferns at accent points in your contemporary home," Nihill suggests. Nihill does not worry about promoting her business, which grows msotly by word of mouth. First among her friends, and then leirs she has worked with. "If you please people, they are oging to have you back or tell their friends." Some people are threatened with the idea of using a decorator. "They think I will try to change them, or criticize their tastes. That is not what I do at all, Nihill says. "I would never presume to tell them how to live their life or how they should want their home to be. I think I am sensitive enough to zone in on their concerns and desires. I only want to help them achieve what they want to achieve," explains Nihill. Nihill first sets up an initial consultation when she visits a client in the client's home. "I try to get a feel for how they live, how they use their rooms, if they have pets, how many children, and their budget. "I can bring out the individuality of each client by first studying what they have already accumulated in their home. Their furniture , their treasures, and what is important to them. Antiques are easy for me to incorporate in a home because I don't like everything to "match," explains Nihill. "It is not important to my eye that a coffee table and an end table are the same color. That is what makes a home interesting - mixing things up. Using a little of this and a little of that, creating your own look. Antiques are never a problem." However, I will decorate to a client's desires. If she wants things to match, i will do that. If they want reproductions or new furniture, we will do that. I might suggest, however, isntead of two amtching end tables, why don't we use a piecrust table here, and a rectangular one here." You want your home to be interesting, like it didnt' happen all at once. Like you didnt' just walk into a showroom and order it all in and pl1% it down in your home. Sometimes, if you do that, there is no life in the room, there is no personality. It doesn't reflect you," Nihill says. Nihill frequents antique shops, flea markets and even curbside throwaways. But what she likes best are estate sales. "If I see something, which I think will appeal to one of my clients, I buy it. I know I will always be able to use it somewhere. I can trust my instincts and my tastes. I can walk right by something and catch things out of the corner of my eye, it grabs me and I can flash back to where I need it. I think I have a good eye for scale, and an innate sense of pattern. She just did a bedroom for a young boy. Sea style. We found an old ship's wheel at a flea market. We made that into a lamp. You turned the light off and on by turning the wheel. They we deocrated with old maps and old clipper ship prints - also flea market finds," explains Nihill. Nihill thinks that blue will always be the most popular decorating color. It is for her personally. "I use lots of rose with blues, especially teal blues. Soemtimes I use hunter green and branch off into navy and burgundy. " Nihill started with blue treasures for her own home fifteen years ago. "I will always have blue. But different colors make different people happy. I have a client right now who likes pumpkin. It doesn't matter what you choose; it is who it appeals to you and how it makes you feel. What looks nice to me may not look nice to you. You ahve to follow your own isntincts and use what makes you happiest. Most people have tos tart with what they have, you can't just throw out everything and start over. "Usually the client will have some furniture she wants to keep." The thing that most clients want to change is the window treatments. And that is good, because window treatments can make the most difference in the easiest and chepaest ways. "When I step into a situation,, many times of th people have just mvoed into a new home and they need window treatments. We will coordinate the wallpaper and the walls to the windows. Sometimes we will change the carpet. When we try to pull toe room toegher, we pull the fabric from the window treamtnts over to the chairs and tables. The one thing that most epople seem to be stuck with are the u8pholstered furniture peices, like the chairs and sofa. The window treatments can make a difference right away. If you rmeember maybe fifteen eyars ago, we had one kind of window treatment, draw drapes and sheers. Not that there is anythign wrong with that, but now at least we combine those with a top treatment. When I first have a client, I will meet them at their home, I will lookat what they want to do, I will try to get a grasp of what they like. They will talk to me and tell me what they want, Imy job is to discern their desires and help them attain it because I have access to things that they don't. When I come back next time, I will bring them fabrics and wall apeprs, sampels of whatever they need. THE AVE average person can aoford oher. A lot of people are afraid, intimidating to have a decorator come into your home they think you will tell them soemthing they don't want to hear. I am a sensitive person, I can focus on what someone wants and what #she or he likes, it may not be what I want, but I am there to help them, not to impose my ideas on them. I can make something more fucntional, Just the other day, a women had me out, she said, I don't wknow whats wrong, I will say, well it is the color of your walls reacting with your floore, turning your beige into yellow, and things like that, I have an innate educated eye. Her first client, a store gave her my anme, she said that she udnerstood that I could do an elegant look mixed with antiques she had a new house, she emphasised to me she wanted elegant and NOT coutnry. My tastes are eclectic. elegant. My home is alwyas in process. antiques are easilya daptable. Is tared out with early amrriage pices, blended now with better pieces. we still ahve things we started out with, soemthing that we bought for $25.00 and nwo are worth undreeds. I feel my style creates a warm and comforable look. I am not conerned with matching, If I like them and if the scale is right, I will use them. I do a eprsonali3d business, I fit things to their room and their mood. I want a comfrotable home and to be surroudned with things that are improtant to me. This house is not important to me, it is the volving. I like to keep it lgiht and airy. things that are in it, the people that are in it, and what we use One of her perosnla touches is her use of artificial trees which wshe grows herself. tell how she arranges them. and al& of the memories associated with them. There are some things I will never part with, because they mean so much to me. Other things I can use for awhile, and then say - let someone else enjoy them for awhile. Like my quilt period. tastes always are