Thom Felicia Style: Design Meets Generosity

Last week I had the fortune to attend a book-signing event featuring interior design powerhouse Thom Filicia. You might remember him from TV's Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. Held at the lovely Fingerlakes winery Anyela's Vineyeard, this event benefited local charity Positively Pink Packages—a great organization that provides vital resources to breast cancer patients. The amazingly designed cake for the event was created by my friend, sugar artist Jennifer Comfort of She Takes The Cake. It was stunning, complete with 3-tiers and a full-size, hand-painted cookie replica of Thom's book "Thom Filicia Style!"

Since meeting Thom (so fun!) and getting my book signed, I've had some time to flip through the pages and it's great. As a designer myself, but not one of the home decor ilk, I've found Thom's approach to interiors strangely similar to the way I design for print. Design maxims like "less is more" or "lose the matchy-matchiness" are things I subscribe to when working with paper, but often fail to apply to my own home. Thom's philosophy includes incorporating texture, unique surprise elements, and balance into the rooms he creates. Again, those are techniques I use when creating invitations, logos, and stationery, but they somehow manage to slip my mind when I'm trying to redecorate my living room. Well, no longer. I'm ready to unleash my personal design sense on my home (which is probably why I started ripping down wall-paper in my foyer), and do it with style, smarts, and OK...a little help from Thom Filicia's book (*wink*).