We recently visited Steele Mansion in Painesville, Ohio, and asked the proprietor, Carol Shamakian, to describe how she and her family came to own this place. She told us that her husband went to the grocery store one day and came home to say, “Honey, I bought a mansion.” Unfortunately this once grand home, built in the 1860’s, had been deemed unsalvageable and was slated for demolition. Only the vision of this plucky family could see the possibilities in restoring the home. Listen as we learn how they brought Steele Mansion back to life, and created the gracious inn that it is today. #interio ..read more

We recently sat down with Ron Nandor, who owns Eastwood Furniture. This company has three locations in Ohio and works very closely with local Amish craftspeople. Over the past twenty years, he has seen furniture adapt from very basic designs, with limited choices in wood and finishes, to highly customized pieces, which now offer various wood species, a wide variety of stain and paint colors, and highly customized designs. Eastwood Furniture also fabricates custom cabinetry and furniture created from reclaimed barn wood. Please join us as we discover a new source for local custom furniture that ..read more

With a background in fine art, Ann Monroe is the owner of a showroom at the Ohio Design Centre in Beachwood, Ohio. Ann represents various manufacturers and displays samples of their products. In her showroom, one can sit in a chair, feel the texture of a fabric or see the finish on a custom table. In this episode, you will discover how she works with designers and clients tocreate a personalized custom design, as well as the changes she has seen in the industry, and how she gets energized at the Furniture Market in High Point, North Carolina. Originally, Ann had no specific plans for a career ..read more

Art consultation, framing and installation are very specialized professions, as we discovered when we spoke with Eileen Roth and Bebe Boyle. During her 40 years of experience as an art consultant to large corporations, as well as interior designers and their clients, Eileen has developed relationships with national and international artists. Working in close collaboration with Eileen, Bebe brings her own 30 years of experience in custom framing and art installation. This project-driven pair work closely with clients, making suggestions while respecting the overall vision for the space. In this ..read more

In Episode 16, Mark Goode introduced us to the basics of smart lighting for the home. Now in Episode 18, he goes further into the use of smart technology, cautioning that is more complex to set up than the manufacturers would have us believe. Mark leads us through a history of the development of this technology, offering a visual graph that is available on my blog (kimcarrollinteriors.com, Episode 18, blog entry dated 21 February, 2022). In his discussion, he explains how manufacturers have used Zigbee, wi-fi and bluetooth to enable consumers to control devices in their homes. He describes the ..read more

Phillip Jeffries is an innovative wall covering company. Utilizing many different organic materials, such as grasscloth, water hyacinth, banana leaves, and wood veneers, the design team at Phillip Jeffries creates beautiful paperbacked coverings for walls. Sales representative Crystal Brown takes us through the beginnings of this leading-edge company, describing how the two brothers (Phillip and Jeffrey) have focused on working with in-house artists, as well as artisans all over the world, to create their unique wall coverings. In addition to hundreds of standard designs, they hand screen cust ..read more

When arriving home on a dark evening, it is reassuring to be able to turn on the lights before you even open the door. Technology built into our cellphones and smart light bulbs enables us to control the lighting in our homes. We can turn lights off and on, vary the intensity and even change the color of the light! In this episode we discuss the beginnings of home automation, the convergence of technologies that allow the human voice to interact with computers and how to “put your toes in the water” with smart lighting. Kim can be reached at kimcarroll13@gmail.com. Mark can be contacted at mar ..read more

In our first podcast show recorded “on the road,” we sit down with Thom Capretta, manager of Atelier Lapchi, a custom rug company with a showroom in the Ohio Design Centre and its factory in Nepal. We learn how, in this day of technology and automation, Atelier Lapchi weavers use Tibetian wool and silk to create custom rugs in both traditional and contemporary styles. Each hand-woven rug is a unique work of art. Because they own the factory, dye their own wool, employ the weavers (no child labor), and ship in their company containers, Atelier Lapchi avoids most supply chain issues. Their proce ..read more

In this episode, Kim Carroll discusses three lighting options: ambient, task, and accent lighting. She discusses the the many different fixtures available to us, as well as a few “Lighting Atrocities” that can make our lives really uncomfortable. The human eye has evolved in natural daylight since the humans first lived on earth. We are finely tuned to the ways that it comes into our homes, from a bright summer afternoon to the soft grey of a winter morning. But we all need artificial light to make our way through a dark house, prepare supper, read a book, write a report, or find a lost toy. W ..read more

In Episode 13, Kim discusses window treatments, why they are needed, and the many options you can choose from. Did you know that the word “window” comes from the Old Norse words for “eye” and “wind,” or “the eye of the house through which the wind comes through”? What happens to this romantic notion when too much wind comes in, or too much rain or hot sunlight? Over the centuries, people have created many different ways to control light and heat, as well as prying eyes. As Kim discusses in this episode, in addition to being purely practical, window treatments become an integral part of the des ..read more