The Chaise Lounge Podcast

Today in The Lounge, Nick catches up with Rich Schell of Rich Designs Home. Schell is located just a hop, skip, and a jump away from Nick, in Colorado Springs. There, he has one space for both his design firm and his high-end furniture consignment store, I Saw It First. Schell talks about the challenges and rewards of being your own boss.

On this Independence Day weekend episode of The Chaise Lounge, Nick visits with Erinn Valencich, a consummate entrepreneur who runs a full-service design firm, designs and sells furniture and is even behind an app that helps designers run their businesses. Valencich takes Nick through her journey growing up on a farm where her grandfather made custom cabinets to testing out of high school to dive into work to her vast career as it exists today.

Today in The Lounge, Nick catches up with Breegan Jane of Breegan Jane design. Based in Santa Monica, California, Jane not only runs her own business, but is also a mother of two boys. She pursues other creative endeavors as well, hosting a radio show, writing a blog, authoring children’s books, and exploring new opportunities in television.

Today in The Lounge, Nick speaks to Laurence Carr of Laurence Carr Design. She finds inspiration in everything from music to nature, from art to food, and she’s not afraid to bring her worldly influence to interior design.

Today in The Lounge, Nick talks to Carol Kurth of Carol Kurth Architecture + Interiors. Kurth is not your typical architect, marrying her passion for architecture with interior design, and maintaining a role in every single project that her firm works on.

Today in The Lounge, Nick talks to Beth Donner of Beth Donner Design based in Long Island, New York. Donner is busy balancing projects all over the country from residential to commercial to restaurants, not to mention, her ongoing ten year partnership with Ruth’s Chris Steak Houses. Donner tells Nick about how she got her start in interior design, and how she created her own successful business.

Welcome! Today in The Lounge, Nick chats with Laura Umanski of Laura U Interiors, a Houston Texas designer who runs her firm with her wonderful staff and comes home to her loving family. Laura has a vision that each client and space should get their own look, finding unique objects for her projects while mixing with the client's personal objects creating a story for their space. Laura calls her designs Classically Current, her spaces are bold, dramatic, colorful, and never the same from client to client.

Today in The Lounge, Nick catches up with Teddy Mayer, the Vice President of Design and Technical Services for Virgin Hotels. He oversees the design of each hotel from a creative and technical perspective, develops partnerships with owners and developers, and helps the ownership groups execute the vision for each hotel. Nick and Mayer are no strangers; they first met in Spain back when Virgin Hotels had only one hotel in Chicago. At the Virgin Hotels Corporate Headquarters in Miami, Mayer fills in Nick on what has happened since, including the grand opening of the San Francisco Hotel and 11 others in the making.

Today, Nick is Lounging with hospitality designer Lisa Haude of Paradigm Design Group. Haude grew up drawing floor plans using any and all resources at hand, her trajectory from design child to successful business owner was a straight line, but she tells Nick all about her ups and downs on that path and how she sees her own business.

Welcome back to the Chaise Lounge. This Friday, Nick invites Sarah Von Dreele into the lounge. Von Dreele is a graphic designer by training who wanted to try her hand at fine arts before choosing a different path that has taken her all the way back around to painting.

Welcome! Today in The Lounge, Nick sits down with Jimmy DeLaurentis of Jimmy DeLaurentis, a Philadelphia native with an Italian heritage. He has a big spot in his heart for his family, his dogs, and loves to go big or go home. Even when he goes big with his projects, he’s always looking to go bigger in the future. Jimmy not only envisions a sleek space for interior design but creates his own furniture for not only people but their four-legged companions as well.

Today in The Lounge, Nick joins Dallas native Ty Burks of William-Christopher Design, he is one of the co-founders of the design firm, along with his partner Christopher Ridolf. Come listen in as Nick and Ty discuss how he started his career from working in financial corporations in Boston to an antique store on Charles Street to moving back to Dallas, Texas creating his design firm of William-Christopher Design.

Welcome! Today in The Lounge, Nick sits down with Michelle Rohrer-Lauer of Michelle's Interior. Michelle has fabulous sophistication mixed with modern elements to gives that special magical feeling that fits you and your home.

Thanks for coming back to the Chaise Lounge where, today, Nick talks to Courtney McLeod, the New York-based principal of Right Meets Left Design, who chose design as a second career after moving on from corporate finance. She graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania with a business degree and was successful in that field, but she wasn’t in love with her work. Courtney drifted more and more toward the art and design side of life until she couldn’t help but make her move. She quit her job without setting anything up or planning and pursued her new craft.

Welcome to Friday and to the Chaise Lounge. Today, Nick talks to Architectural Digest’s executive director of digital Keith Pollock. Pollock espouses the virtues of living in Chicago as a young adult and details how he sees the best ways for companies to interact over social media in 2019. And he explains everything about Architectural Digest’s new service AD Pro.

This week, on the first regular Chaise Lounge episode of the season Nick chats with Michigan designer Jean Stoffer. Stoffer is another designer who found out about design as an adult. She grew up in a cozy home that was never intentionally designed, and got a business degree. She discovered the craft of design when she got a job as a business administrator at a design firm where the designers turned her interest into an informal apprenticeship, teaching her how to draft and why choices get made. And one day, a friend of her mother’s called looking specifically for her to help out with her house now that all her kids were off at school. And, through word of mouth, empty-nesters kept seeking her out.

Thank you for joining the Chaise Lounge on it’s spring High Point journey in 2019. Today is the last double episode of High Point coverage featuring the final Nick in the Lounge where Nick was joined by Jaye Mize of Fashion Snoops, Laura Umansky a.k.a. Laura U and Nina Magon who was the Universal Designer Lounge with her brand new line of Universal pieces. Part two of this episode is a more classic Chaise Lounge episode where Nick chats with President and CEO of John Richard Alan Galbraith about his company’s experience and market and what John Richard got out of it and what it will be doing in the future.

Welcome to day 2 of the Chaise Lounge’s coverage of High Point Market Spring 2019. Today, Nick hosts Bria Hammel, Jeremy Bauer, Jason Clifton, Rachel Moriarty and Bobby Berk in the lounge. And part two of this episode is Nick’s panel of traveling designers. He hosts Chad James, Susan Jamieson, Nina Magon and Benjamin Johnston as they discuss what it’s like to run design businesses with projects all over the world and how they handle the difficulties that come with that model and how they enjoy the benefits.

Welcome back to The Chaise Lounge with seaopn 22. This is the first of three episodes to be released this week all about High Point Market. Today, Nick hosts the first ever Nick in the Lounge with Catherine Heracher, Garrison Hullinger, Phyllis Harbinger and Jarret Yoshida. Then, this double length episode continues with Nick's Passion Sucks panel with Stacy Garcia, Sarah Willett, Lauren Clement, Libby Langdon and Theresa Dorlini. As always, these successful women talk about how they keep their heads in the business of running their business.

Welcome back from the wild world of High Point Market to the season finale of the Chaise Lounge. Today’s guest is a successful designer who didn’t start her company but built on it instead, Kate O’Hara of Martha O’Hara Interiors. O’Hara originally joined her mother Martha to fill in while an employee was taking time off for surgery. By the time she decided she wanted to make design her full-time career, she had been there doing a little bit of everything for months and months. Earlier this year, O’Hara took over as CEO and creative director. Nick asks her about how she came into the family business, all the marketing tricks she brings to the table and how their business relationship affects their personal relationship.