I’m Josh Cooperman and this is Convo By Design exploring the work of Philadelphia interior designer Glenna Stone. A very talented creative who said this, “I think of design as a magical process where something that didn’t exist suddenly does…and that’s what I love about what I do. I love developing a complete design, a 360 vision that considers the intentions of the client, the architecture of the space, and all the while artfully combining scale, balance, proportion, texture, and hue in a way that marries beauty and lifestyle. Great design is about walking into a space, and every single time feeling one thing: this is as it should be.”
Designer Resources
ThermaSol – Redefining the modern shower experience. Episode 271 featuring Mitch Altman
Design Hardware – A stunning and vast collection of jewelry for the home!
Glenna’s bio reads like this; Inspired by her mother, an artist and teacher, Glenna developed her sense of color and composition at a young age. She has always had a passion for combining color, materials and textures in an artful manner. Paralleling her creative side, Glenna embraced her strong technical skills and received a degree in engineering from Lehigh University. Upon graduation she worked for Fortune 500 companies as a consultant and project manager in the consumer products industry.
While achieving much success in this previous career, she felt the need to embrace her more creative side and began taking interior design courses at the Boston Architectural College and the Rhode Island School of Design. After much consideration, Glenna decided to combine her technical and creative skills and pursue a graduate degree in interior design. Glenna graduated from Drexel University with a Masters degree in Interior Architecture and Design. This specialized background and balance of left and right brain not only contributes to the success of Glenna Stone Interior Design, but also sets the firm apart within the industry.
Glenna prides herself on being an original thinker, a good listener with impeccable attention to detail, and someone who sees each project phase through to completion. As a cofounder of The Sustainability Nexus, sustainable design and giving back to the local community is of high importance. She finds her work as an interior designer exceptionally rewarding because it allows her to enhance the quality of others’ lives through design. (end of bio)
Thank you Glenna, loved our chat and truly appreciate the time. Thank you to Convo By Design partners and sponsors, ThermaSol, Moya Living and Design Hardware. You make this show possible and I truly appreciate you. Speaking of appreciation, thank you for listening, subscribing and downloading the show. Without you, what’s the point. Please keep sharing this little podcast, entering our 11th year with some truly fun things in store over the coming weeks and months. Did you catch our first episode of Drinking About Design? We’re drinking and telling design stories! More on the way. Thanks for listening, until next week, be well and take today first. -CXD
I’m Josh Cooperman and this is Convo By Design. Today on the show, you are going to hear from Roberta Mantenuto, CEO of Fittes, formerly Aria Vent and sometimes the biggest changes from changing the smallest details. This is one of those occasions, to me at least. Fittes Co. is the Canadian company revolutionizing the vent and register business. They created a modular air vent and you know what I love most about this? For the longest time, we just used what we had available, contractor grade from the big box or perhaps a boutique brand that made the same thing, but with nicer finishes. Fittes now has a full line of framed and flush mount covers, vents, outlets and drains.It’s just such a simple idea and that is what I love most about this story. I sit down with Roberta, CEO and co-founder of Fittes and daughter of company co-founder and inventor, Paolo. One part of this story is in the simplicity of the idea, another is the elegant execution of the concept. The third idea is the scaling up and recent name change to stay current. The final piece for me, is the story of a father-daughter duo making something happen and executing on this simple idea in a very big way.You are going to hear my conversation with Roberta Mantenuto, right after this.
Thank you Roberta for the time. Love the idea, love the company and as a girl dad, love the family partnership dynamic. Thank you to my partners and sponsors ThermaSol, Moya Living, Design Hardware. I truly appreciate the partnership. And thank you for listening, downloading and subscribing to the podcast. Please make sure you are subscribed so you get every episode of the show the moment its published. Please email me with suggestions and show ideas, love the input. Email is convobydesign@outlook dot com and on Instagram @convoxdesign with and “x”. Thanks for listening. Until next week, be well and take today first. -CXD
I’m Josh Cooperman and this is Convo By Design with Charles Pavarini III.Pavarini has reinterpreted the legacy of the Pavarini Construction Company, known for creating historic landmarks including the Seagram Tower, the United Nations, the State Theater at Lincoln Center, and numerous other landmark buildings in New York City and throughout the world. All of his projects hinge around a powerful central design theme and maintain a certain ‘vision’ which is always dramatically executed given Charles’ keen sense of color, style, and use of lighting as a ‘design tool’. Having sat on the board of directors of the Designer’s Lighting Forum of New York for twenty-five years, he has a refined approach to interior design always staged with strong focal points and exacting lighting technique to harness the artistic and architectural vernacular of the spaces he designs. His extensive experience in the Performing Arts as performer, costume designer and set designer qualify him to conceive projects of any scale and proportion with great dignity and an unmatched passion for mood. While that is the bio, it should also be noted that Pavarini co-authored a book that was featured on BookLook. His offering, Lighting Beyond Edison: Brilliant Residential Lighting Techniques in the Age of LED’s is truly a transformative look at what is possible in modern lighting and how it works to elevate the design and increase functionality.We are going to cover this and a great deal more.
Designer Resources
ThermaSol – Redefining the modern shower experience. Episode 271 featuring Mitch Altman
ICAA Southern California – SoCal is Southern California’s preeminent resource on classical architecture and the allied arts.
Thank you Charles for the time. Thank you to my partners and sponsors ThermaSol, Moya Living, Design Hardware. I truly appreciate the partnership. And thank you for listening, downloading and subscribing to the podcast. Please make sure you are subscribed so you get every episode of the show the moment its published. Please email me with suggestions and show ideas, love the input. Email is convobydesign@outlook dot com and on Instagram @convoxdesign with and “x”. Thanks for listening. Until next week, be well and take today first. -CXD
I’m Josh Cooperman and this is Convo By Design with another installment of the Design Leadership Series and this week, I am going to share with you. This group was recorded live from the Design Hardware showroom on Third Street in LA. This was an amazing group and with 12 creatives there, it was the biggest event we recorded to date.Keep listening, you’re going to enjoy this.
Designer Resources
ThermaSol – Redefining the modern shower experience. Episode 271 featuring Mitch Altman
ICAA Southern California – SoCal is Southern California’s preeminent resource on classical architecture and the allied arts.
I started hosting these events in 2017. I realized after a design festival, that the panel conversations, while interesting, did not contain the same power as the conversations that followed. Groups of creatives getting down to the brass tacks, sharing what they really think without the audience. These gatherings are more “happening” than anything else. It places the creatives in a safe space with colleagues free to discuss what is really happening, get a little commiserating in and then getting to the challenge of addressing these issues. These events are powerful and I’m really proud to share them with you. This conversation has also aired on Doctoring Up Design, the Design Hardware podcast. You are about to listen in on a real workgroup discussing the issues designers, architects and builders face today. The following conversation is between 12 creatives and at times, it gets complicated, just like conversations in the real world.
This conversation was not intended for you to blow through while multi-tasking. There is a great deal of material here and it is intended to be listened to over time and re-listened as well. It is worthy of saving and added to your resource library.
This is kicked off by Michele Solomons with Design Hardware asking about the experience designers have with their showroom partners. It’s an important question and one on just about every designers mind. From there, this chat takes on a life of its own and if you follow closely, there are nuggets of design business gold to be found.
Before we listen in, I thought you would like to meet the participants:
So those are the participants. This is the full conversation. Enjoy listening in.
That was a fun and incredibly talented group. Great job, designers! Thank you for your time. Thank you to my partners and sponsors, ThermaSol, Moya Living, Design Hardware, The Oasis Alliance and the ICAA SoCal chapter. And a special thanks to you. Thank you for downloading, streaming and supporting the show. If you have anything to suggest for a future episode of the show or a guest from whom you would like to hear, email me Convo By Design at Outlook dot com or on Instagram @ConvoX Design with an “x”.Thanks again for listening. Until next week, be well and take today first. -CXD
I’m Josh Cooperman and this is Convo By Design with a conversation about transformation, both in interior spaces and individuals themselves. Meghan Basinger of Stevie Interiors spent the first part of her career in public relations before launching her firm in 2020. Great timing right? But it worked, and here’s why.
Designer Resources
ThermaSol – Redefining the modern shower experience. Episode 271 featuring Mitch Altman
ICAA Southern California – SoCal is Southern California’s preeminent resource on classical architecture and the allied arts.
Meghan Basinger launched Stevie Interiors in the summer of 2020. Do you remember the summer of 2020? I do. Not the best time to launch a new design business, or was it? You are going to hear all about it. Pay close attention to the ideas that embody the idea of blazing your own trail, making your own path and rushing towards something as everyone else is running away. The early months following the beginning of the pandemic, many designers thought they were going to go out of business. Then came the design revolution as everyone realized at the same time that their home was dysfunctional and needed the services of professional designers to fix it. This is a good place to leave it and let Megan take it from there. Enjoy this episode of Convo By Design featuring Milton, GA. designer, Meghan Basinger of Stevie Interiors.
Thank you, Meghan for the time. Thank you for listening, downloading and subscribing to the show. If not already, please make sure you are subscribing to the show. You can find Convo By Design everywhere you find your favorite podcasts.
Thank you to my wonderful partners and sponsors, ThermaSol, Moya Living and Design Hardware. Without you, I would not be able to do this and for that, thank you. Thanks again for listening. Be well and until next week, take today first. -CXD
I’m Josh Cooperman and this is Convo By Design. Following is another installment of the Wellness & Design Thought Leadership Series presented by ThermaSol.
In May, 2023, a special gathering took place at the Friedman’s Home Experience showroom in Long Beach, California. This gathering presented an opportunity to get some of Southern California’s most dynamic and creative designers together for a conversation about kitchen design. Our group engages in an open forum about how the kitchen has changed in form and function since the pandemic began in 2020. This idea started as an exploratory look at what has changed, but developed into an overarching dialogue about what it means to be a designer today. Further, how the design community has learned to lean in on each other for support, direction, inspiration and in the case of showrooms like Friedman’s Home Experience, how to provide designers and architects with opportunities to discover new product and specify with confidence to best serve the client.
Designer Resources
ThermaSol – Redefining the modern shower experience. Episode 271 featuring Mitch Altman
ICAA Southern California – SoCal is Southern California’s preeminent resource on classical architecture and the allied arts.
You are about to listen in on a real workgroup discussing the issues designers, architects and builders face today. The following conversation is between 7 creatives and at times, it gets complicated, just like conversations in the real world. The conversation was not intended for you to blow through while multi-tasking. There is a great deal of material here and it is intended to be listened to over time and re-listened as well. It is worthy of saving and. added to your resource library.
Before we listen in, I thought you would like to meet the participants:
Luxury kitchen design is more about form and function, but feel
Accessorizing in the kitchen is moreimportant than ever before and in more ways than is seen. Dividers and separators for sectioning the functions
The feel of the space is based on treating the kitchen as another living room with a different skill set
The return of the “triangle”? To this designer, it never left
Now that you have met the players, let me share the conversation that ensued. They were talking about materials. Brass, brushed gold and chrome.Understated glamour. Stamped wood, wood islands with nautical finishes.We are talking about custom organics. Luxury and organic.
Dust is a big issue with open shelving in kitchens now, as is clutter.
Thicknesses and finishes. Technical design details. Products for outdoor uses.
The art of sales and how designers can engage more efficiently with trades and showrooms.
Working with educated clients and the “Amazon Effect”, training customers to just buy and return if they don’t like it as opposed to buying right the first time.
Evaluating new lines and products.
Induction, new tech and new ideas, but what does that mean by way of new upgrades like the electrical panel? Government regulations, utility company specifications…How does this affect the design.
Steel cabinetry is becoming more of a standard in lieu of wood, stone and cement board outdoors and indoors. Durability is becoming more important as temperatures increase.
You are going to hear an honest conversation about supply chain, lead generation for products and materials.
I started hosting these conversations in 2017 following an event at a design festival. What I found was the moment the mics were off, the conversations started to be real. These real conversations have led to actionable steps and techniques designers can use in a real world scenario because at the end of the day, we are all dealing with the same issues. Some better than others. Enjoy this conversation from Friedman’s Home Experience in Long Beach, California on a sunny day in May, 2023.
I’m Josh Cooperman and this is Convo By Design with the third installment from a live event at the Soho House studio in West Hollywood, California. Candace Hickman of Soho House Design has has followed a really interesting path along the way to a 15+ year career in hospitality design, from boutique restaurants in Hong Kong, to flagship properties for Soho House & Co.
Designer Resources
ThermaSol – Redefining the modern shower experience. Episode 271 featuring Mitch Altman
ICAA Southern California – SoCal is Southern California’s preeminent resource on classical architecture and the allied arts.
I met Candace in the living room of the Soho House – Melrose studio, a building that has some serious design history after serving as home base for Rose Tarlow in the West Hollywood Design District. The building itself deserves mention for a few reasons. It is the only showroom of its kind that I know of in the design districts of Los Angeles with an A-Frame built into the architecture placing windows in want is similar to a central atrium allowing for natural light to flood the space. This makes the showroom bright during the day and moody at night allowing designers and clients alike to see the furnishings in different types of light and space. The Soho House line is create, unique and designed to foster conversation and silent enjoyment alike. Candace and I sat to talk about this and other topics on an afternoon in May when Soho House so generously offered to host the Convo By Design 10th anniversary party. An event for a small, incredible group of industry insiders, designers and architects, most of which who have appeared on the show. The event was also sponsored by SoCal Design Magazine, Southern California’s premier design publication.
In 2005 Candace was approached by Soho House to lead design for the Soho House Hong Kong development, given her established prominence in the Hong Kong interior design world. Relocating to Soho House’s New York design studio, she became established as the Design Director for North America, soon completing her first project at Little Beach House, in Malibu.
Candace has since led interior design for seven Soho House properties, each project noteworthy for its crafted references to locale. Significant examples include Dumbo House – a club space perched above the historic Empire Stores building in Brooklyn, NY – and Soho Warehouse at the Arts District of Downtown Los Angeles – an adaptive reuse of a former warehouse, to a 40-bedroom hotel compound. As Lead Designer, Candace has liaised directly with high-profile private clients, bringing Soho House design nuance to their personal residences. Her work has been featured in Architectural Digest, The New York Times and Elle Décor as well as others. We talk about this and so much more, right after this.
I cannot tell you how thankful I am to Soho Home for hosting this event, thank you Candace for making the time to speak with me. Thank you to all the amazing designers, architects, insiders and publicists who came out to celebrate with me. Thank you to my sponsor partners, ThermaSol, Moya Living, Design Hardwarefor your continued support, I greatly appreciate you. And thank you for listening, subscribing and downloading the show. My goal is continue bringing you the stories behind sublime design as well as a podcast that allows those in the industry to up your design game through inspiration, information and opportunity. Until next week, be well and take today first. -CXD
Martyn and I first spoke in 2019. We spoke at his showroom in the West Hollywood Design District and we spoke about set design, of which Martyn and I are both very fond. We talked about Tony Duquette and how the art of stagecraft allows Martyn to transcend the design with ideas and strategies for feel and emotional spaces. Use of non-traditional materials in unusual ways to create now objects. That is quintessential set decoration, masterfully employed. In this episode, Martyn and I have more time to really explore the ideas, history and experience behind his work.
We recorded this conversation live from the brand new Soho Home Studio on Melrose Blvd. in West Hollywood. They are actually Martyn’s showroom neighbor in an iconic space serving formerly as the Rose Tarlow showroom. Just an exquisite space that made for the perfect setting for our chat. Enjoy this edition of The Showroom, a one on one with Martyn Lawrence Bullard.
Thank you Martyn for your time, I loved this. Thank you Soho Home Studio for hosting this conversation and our tenth anniversary party. Thank you for listening, downloading and subscribing to the show. If not already, please make sure you are subscribing to the show. You can find Convo By Design everywhere you find your favorite podcasts.
Thank you to my wonderful partners and sponsors, ThermaSol, Moya Living and Design Hardware. Without you, I would not be able to do this and for that, thank you. Thanks again for listening. Be well and until next week, take today first. -CXD
I’m Josh Cooperman and this is Convo By Design with a look at the modern American kitchen and what the design community is doing in response to changing tastes and new opportunities to create unique functional spaces transforming the heart of the home.
Designer Resources
ThermaSol – Redefining the modern shower experience. Episode 271 featuring Mitch Altman
ICAA Southern California – SoCal is Southern California’s preeminent resource on classical architecture and the allied arts.
In May, 2023, a special gathering took place in Long Beach, California. This gatheringfeatured a diverse group of design talent and presented an opportunity to get some of Southern California’s most dynamic and creative designers together for a conversation about kitchen design. Our group engages in an open forum about how the kitchen has changed in form and function since the pandemic began in 2020. This idea started as an exploratory look at what has changed, but developed into an overarching dialogue about what it means to be a designer today. Further, how the design community has learned to lean in on each other for support, direction, inspiration and in the case of showrooms like Friedman’s Home Experience, how to provide designers and architects with opportunities to discover new product and specify with confidence to best serve the client.
You are about to listen in on a real workgroup discussing the issues designers, architects and builders face today. The following conversation is between 7 creatives and at times, it gets complicated, just like conversations in the real world. The conversation was not intended for you to blow through while multi-tasking. There is a great deal of material here and it is intended to be listened to over time and re-listened as well. It is worthy of saving and. added to your resource library.
Before we listen in, I thought you would like to meet the participants. We are going to get to that, right after this.
Luxury kitchen design is more about form and function, but feel
Accessorizing in the kitchen is moreimportant than ever before and in more ways than is seen. Dividers and separators for sectioning the functions
The feel of the space is based on treating the kitchen as another living room with a different skill set
The return of the “triangle”? To this designer, it never left
Now that you have met the players, let me share the conversation that ensued. They were talking about materials. Brass, brushed gold and chrome.Understated glamour. Stamped wood, wood islands with nautical finishes.We are talking about custom organics. Luxury and organic.
NEW – Countertops as the full cooking surface with embedded induction elements
You are going to hear an honest conversation about supply chain, lead generation for products and materials.
I started hosting these conversations in 2017 following an event at a design festival. What I found was the moment the mics were off, the conversations started to be real. These real conversations have led to actionable steps and techniques designers can use in a real world scenario because at the end of the day, we are all dealing with the same issues. Some better than others. Enjoy this conversation from Friedman’s Home Experience in Long Beach, California on a sunny day in May, 2023.
Panel ConversationTake Aways:
Just some thoughts and ideas that emerged from this:
Dust is a big issue with open shelving in kitchens now, as is clutter.
Thicknesses and finishes. Technical design details. Products for outdoor uses.
The art of sales and how designers can engage more efficiently with trades and showrooms.
Working with educated clients and the “Amazon Effect”, training customers to just buy and return if they don’t like it as opposed to buying right the first time.
Evaluating new lines and products.
Induction, new tech and new ideas, but what does that mean by way of new upgrades like the electrical panel? Government regulations, utility company specifications…How does this affect the design.
Steel cabinetry is becoming more of a standard in lieu of wood, stone and cement board outdoors and indoors. Durability is becoming more important as temperatures increase.
What I love about these conversations and that I hope you do as well are the real world data points that emerge. These are not preprepared glossy ideas about how wonderful great design is. While that is important, I find it even more important to get past the hurdles that impede the design process. If you are a working designer today, at any level, you are encountering some, many or all of these issues in your own work and I hope hearing that others deal with the same issues and how many are approaching the work helps you in yours.
Thank you Lea, Pam, Donna, Paul, Cheryl, Long and John for your input and for participating in this event. Thank you Freidman’s Home Experience for hosting and thank you for listening, downloading and subscribing to the show. If not already, please make sure you are subscribing to the show. You can find Convo By Design everywhere you find your favorite podcasts.
Thank you to my wonderful partners and sponsors, ThermaSol, Moya Living and Design Hardware. Without you, I would not be able to do this and for that, thank you. Thanks again for listening. Be well and until next week, take today first. -CXD
I’m Josh Cooperman and this is Convo By Design with a different perspective today. We’re hopping across the pond to hear from one of my new favorite design firms. From London, this is the mother and daughter team, Sarah and Rosie Ward from the Chelsea, London design firm, Ward & Co.
You will notice a few things about the following conversation. Strong design is universal. Good design relies talent, skill and a willingness to divorce oneself from their own personal style in favor of understanding what lies at the center of a client’s desires. Sarah and Rosie do that and it’s evident in their work. It’s also fun to have a conversation that spans international boundaries because while as humans we have similarities in needs and desires, the differences geographically are significant. I hope you enjoy this conversation with Sarah and Rosie of Ward & Co.
Thank you, Sarah and Rosie.I appreciate the time and insights. Thank you CXD partners, sponsors and friends ThermaSol, Moya Living, Design Hardware, the ICAA SoCal Chapter and The Oasis Alliance.
Thank you for taking the time out of your day to listen to the show. I hope you enjoy the show because that’s why I do this. I would also like to hear from you. I love the guest submissions and show ideas so keep them coming, email me convobydesign@outlook.com or message me on Instagram @convoxdesign, with an x.
Remember why you do what you do and for whom you do it. Let that be the thing that drives you to push the boundaries and let’s keep moving our industry forward. Be well, and until next week… Take today first. CXD
