Texas Design Week Day One

We called it day one of Texas Design Week, but TXDW actually kicked off the evening before, Sunday night, with an informal talk and book signing with Mark D. Sikes at Meredith O’Donnell Fine Furniture. O’Donnell had just received the shipment of Sikes’ first collection of furniture for Henredon and organized it into a delightful blue-and-white room.

It was an early-evening affair, so we were bright and shiny Monday morning as we arrived at Chateau Domingue, Ruth Gay‘s repository of architectural artifacts on West Alabama. lA designer Martyn Lawrence Bullard arrived, dapper and British, and immediately began tagging pieces to purchase for upcoming design projects.

Gay had arranged the imposing space into individual rooms, with ancient stone floors, fountains, and mantels. In the front rooms were morning mimosas, coffee, servers with trays of delicious mini quiches and yogurt parfaits from Swift + Company, and masses of gorgeous hydrangeas… a very pretty backdrop for late-spring selfies.

Bullard, as he always does, charmed the crowd with stories of adventures in design with a multitude of Kardashians, Cher, and Ellen Pompeo.

Taking notes: Elnaz Irby, Karen Pulaski, Windi Grimes, Courtney Tartt Elias, Dennis Brackeen, Jenna McPhail, Carol LaMadrid, Kathy Dimmitt, Bailey Miller, LeTricia Wilbanks, Jenna McPhail, Jennifer Barron, Suzanne Coppola, Kristen Weikel, Kandice Eiskant, Gabriela Fenton, and Shannon Mann.