Alexander Interiors

07/21/2025

I HEREBY DECLARE THAT I DO NOT GIVE MY PERMISSION FOR FACEBOOK OR META TO USE ANY OF MY PERSONAL DATA.

11/30/2017

Rocky Mountain High Design

09/30/2017

The Magic is in the Detail

Kathy Alexander is a leading Interior Designer who focuses on High End Custom Homes and Home Theaters. With over 25 years of Interior Design experience and she is known for her collaborative approach to interior design with individual homeowners and builders alike, melding her sophisticated design s...

11/15/2015

I travel a fair amount. With two locations for Alexander Interiors, I drive between Westlake, Ohio and McLean, Virginia meeting clients in my interior design business. One of the things that helps pass the time is listening to audio books in the car. I enjoy listening to novels, classics, and all things with a spiritual bent. Along those lines I’ve become a big fan of Eckhart Tolle.

I have listened to A New Earth a couple times and discovered a world wide internet event in 2009 that Eckhart and Oprah had done together called A New Earth based on Eckhart’s book. I have listened to this program numerous times. The premise of the book is living one’s life with consciousness. That means everything you do — being fully conscious in each moment. Eckart has said that the goal is to have your inner purpose align with your outer purpose. Everyone has the same inner purpose: to be fully conscious in each moment. The outer purpose will be different for each person. When you live life fully conscious in each moment, each moment becomes sacred.

It’s not easy being fully conscious with all the mind chatter that goes on in one’s head. Most people go through life thinking about not what they are currently doing but what they had done in the past or will do in the future. The startling thing you see everyday is people looking like Zombies attached to their electronic devices surfing the web or texting — not being with the person they are with and certainly not being conscious.

But every now and then I meet someone special who personifies the ideal of being present in the moment. I met him at one of my pit stops, Breezewood, PA. Breezewood is a major truck stop and about the four-hour mark in my trek between Ohio and Virginia or 2 1/2 hours in reverse. I stop at Starbucks to get my Passion ice tea and right next door is a new sub shop, Subplicity, where I get a sandwich for the road. What sets this sub shop apart from the rest is that everything is made fresh on the spot. I don’t eat meat so I appreciate my cheese being sliced fresh each time and they offer many more varieties of cheese than most places. That’s where I met Joe Park.

Joe greets everyone with a wide smile, eager to please. The first time I ordered my sub, the cheese was rolled before being assembled on the sandwich and I could see great care was being taken to make the sub special. On a subsequent visit, Joe was training a new employee, Mike, who was to be the manager of the store, and I could see that Mike had adopted Joe’s care in doing his job. I complimented Joe that he makes the best sandwiches. Big smile. Joe told me that it was an honor working with Mike, that he does a great job. Joe lifts up everyone with whom he comes in contact. That’s an art and a gift to all who know him.

As I walk to my car, I’m smiling because it’s those small moments in life that can brighten one’s day. I look forward to my stop at Subplicity and am disappointed when Joe is not there, but I get the same delicious sub every time because Joe had trained everyone in the store. What Joe has cannot be trained or a dollar value put upon it. I see Joe being very successful with Subplicity and in life. People love being around his type of energy.

A second location for Subplicity is going up somewhere in Maryland. If you see a big guy with a red shirt, tell him Kathy sent you.

10/22/2015

Another Man, Another Wrong Design
I hate when this happens -- being called in at the end of project when it's too late. I was working with a single guy, I'll call Joe, who went down the wrong path and called me in to "finish" his condo. Joe had most of his furniture already and just needed a few things: draperies, carpets, a builtin, etc. He was definitely a modern guy — at least his taste in furniture was.

Lurking in the corner of his living room was a suit of armor — an interesting juxtaposition between the Middle Ages and Modern times.

I actually love to mix periods and I didn’t have a problem with the armor. Unfortunately, Joe had hired an artist to do a wall treatment throughout the living/dining rooms. The artist, I think in an effort to bring more Middle Ages into the mix, slathered thick plaster all over the walls in big globs. It destroyed the modern feel he had throughout his condo. To help tie things together, Joe had hung a small traditional painting of a landscape in his foyer. That painting only helped to confuse things.

When mixing styles, you must carefully plan exactly what you are doing and where you are doing it. Adding an item here and another item there does not lend itself to balancing the interior in a proper way. It would have been so much better if he had not hired the artist to do the wall treatment. He would have saved thousands of dollars, while maintaining his cool modern vibe.

When Joe bought his beach house, he called me in right away. It was actually a very traditional home that we turned very modern inside. We made it into an open plan design. His architect was on site to verify what I wanted to do was appropriate structurally.

We knocked out a wall between the small kitchen and dining room and opened up the ceiling of the dining room. The former small kitchen and dining room became one large space. That's where the new kitchen and large island with a vaulted ceiling occupied the space. The results were stunning.

I worked with Joe about 15 years ago. He could see the value the right interior designer brings to the project and has spent many happy times at the beach house. For the best results, call in a professional before you start your design.

NOTE: Photo of the below contemporary family room is from a custom home project that won First Prize in the Finest for Family Living Competition. Interior Design by Kathy Alexander, Alexander Interiors, LLC.

10/16/2015

Right Man, Wrong Design
Don't you just hate it when you spend time and money on a decorating project and it turns out to be totally wrong for you?Having had my interior design business for over 25 years, I've met many lovely people along the way. At the start of their home design project, some of them will inevitably go down the wrong path; usually in an effort to save money.

Whether they do so willingly or are led unknowingly, such a mis-start can sometimes be corrected, and sometimes not. Wherever it makes sense, I try to make simple adjustments to tweak the project closer to what works best for that particular client.

A young man, let's call him Tom, called me because he had acquired all his furniture from a furniture warehouse. He said he wanted me to "pull everything together." As I walked into his townhouse, I glanced at the furniture and then I looked at him. I felt a disconnect immediately.

There was nothing wrong with the living room and dining room. Everything was nicely coordinated. The furniture was a little big for his space, but it was that South Beach heavily carved look that had been popular for a while. Unfortunately, it was actually on its way out of style. But, that wasn't the problem.

I asked Tom to show me the rest of his home. When he showed me his master bedroom, his face lit up. The room was sleek and modern. He had picked it out himself and said he really liked it.

I told Tom that this was his personal design style, not what he had just acquired from North Carolina. A bit soulfully, he nodded in agreement.

Yes, he saved money on the furniture purchase, but it was all the wrong furniture for him. I finished the rooms for him by adding draperies, lamps and art that would go with the new furniture. But, the added items also had a cleaner look to them to tone down the overall South Beach feeling.

When you hire contractors w***y nilly, a coordinated look will be, at best, hard to achieve.

When you hire a seasoned interior design pro, you get the practiced vision of a single pair of experienced eyes.

If you do hire an interior designer, get help at the beginning of the project. That way you won't waste time and money on things that will not work. Make sure the person you hire takes the time to get to know you and determine what your personal design style is from the beginning.

By taking the proper steps one at a time, especially when guided by an experienced, sensitive, collaborative interior designer, you too can create your perfect space.

09/30/2015

As of today September 28, 2015 at 5:19 I officially reject Facebook to use my pictures, posts etc to be sharedNow it's official! It has been published in the media. Facebook has just released the entry price: $5.99 to keep the subscription of your status to be set to "private". If you paste this message on your page, it will be offered free (I said paste not share) if not tomorrow, all your posts can become public. Even the messages that have been deleted or the photos not allowed.

06/26/2015

The Huntington http://conta.cc/1CwmbPh

Kathy Alexander is a leading Interior Designer who focuses on High End Custom Homes and Home Theaters. With over 25 years of Interior Design experience and she is known for her collaborative approach to interior design with individual homeowners and builders alike, melding her sophisticated design s…

06/01/2015

The Most Important Room in Your Home http://conta.cc/1BACZo0

05/02/2015

New Introductions from Osborne & Little
I attended a Meet & Greet sponsored by Gregory Alonso Showroom from the Ohio Design Center. National Sales Manager Bret T. Van Tiem unveiled the latest introductions by Osborne & Little. Here is a variety of fabrics and wall coverings:

04/23/2015

After a lovely lunch at Gaylord’s at Kilohana Plantation, Kauai, my friend Sandy and I toured the plantation home. It’s a lovely example of island design. The architecture was definitely Hawaiian with wide plank wood floors, oriental rugs, plaster walls, and palm trees. The furnishings were 18th C English. It sounds a bit incongruous but it all looked perfect.