Pink Peonies on Alice Lane: The Design

I admire people that passionately do what they love and make a career out of it - and Rachel Parcell takes fashion seriously! When the opportunity came to design a closet for the famed Pink Peonies blogger, I enlisted Christy Cook, Senior Designer, to dream and scheme with me. We imagined the perfect place to put together an outfit, a space where Rachel could showcase her beautiful shopping finds, comfortably work at her desk, and talk about what she loves while being surrounded by it. An office, inside a dream closet! That’s what we’ll do!

The space could be anything we wanted it to be! Rachel and Drew had just sold their home and they were starting to build again. We had the square footage to make Rachel's dreams come true so we borrowed a little space to create a shoe room. A shoe room!! I can hear music playing…and see twirling dresses!!

Lucky for us at the first presentation Rachel was all yeses! We pitched custom millwork painted white with mirrors lining them. Adding sparkle to every wall in the closet would reflect light and all of the beautiful treasures layered in front of them. We drafted built-ins for hanging clothes and boxes above them for for purses, special shoe boxes, and beautiful shopping bags.

We left space in front of the picture window for a free-standing desk where Rachel could sit and write her blog. Flanking the windows with built-in shelving gave us more space to display fashion books, purses, and rows and rows of sunglasses. We envisioned tailored roman shades lined with pink silk layered with a sheer organza fabric with embroidered polka-dots. All would be set atop a leopard print wall to wall broadloom carpet. For the space in-between we drew up a free-standing island filled with pink velvet lined drawers where Rachel could house all of her statement necklaces, earrings, bracelets, and watches. We had the craftsman make the surface of the island with an inset glass top so all of her jewelry could be seen from above. And the cherry on top!? A glass chandelier made up of 3 rows of layered glass rods that looks like pink fringe hovering over the island. I don’t know who was more excited - us or Rachel!

Stay tuned to see the final reveal!

[photos from presentation by Heather Telford]