Welcome! Today in The Lounge, special guest host Stacy Garcia meets long-time friend and collaborator, philanthropist and resort designer extraordinaire Jacki Arena.
Jacki has made a name for herself in designing high end resorts throughout the world, and for establishing her celebrated Florida based design house Jacki Arena Interiors (JAI).
Today is a special day in the Chaise Lounge. Your host, today, is not Nick May but rather Stacy Garcia of Stacy Garcia, Inc. Stacy is the first of many guest hosts on the Chaise Lounge this season. In this episode, she sits down with design icon Clodagh.
On this episode of The Chaise Lounge, Nick chats with Andy Pennington from Porcelanosa, a new sponsor for the podcast, and touches base with Stacy Garcia and Stefanie Zeldin to find out about some new products while at BDNY.
Stacy Garcia has attended BDNY since the beginning because it is a great show for boutique hotels. Vendors up their game for this upscale show, which include Stacy’s new launches too. This year, Stacy has taken more of an artistic approach with her 100% wool carpet. It is the first time she has used her personal paintings to influence a design.
Stacy is also working on a new, sleek furniture line for Bernhardt Hospitality. These pieces have up to five layers of finishing and rose gold or polished chrome hardware, marrying a rustic look and refined accents. Through lots of hustle and persistence, Stacy is also partnering with In2Green on a line of throws made from recycled content.
Stacy and her team design for fifteen different lines including furniture, wall coverings, lighting, textiles, and more. She is also interested in working in high end bedding with her love for patterns. Stacy surrounds herself with great people who are all successful together. She is humbled by every single person who has chosen to use her product in hospitality or residential settings.
Stefanie Zeldin, a co-founder of In2Green, has partnered with Stacy Garcia to develop a throw line for both residential and hospitality indoor and outdoor use. At this year’s BDNY, In2Green won two awards for booth design and innovation.
Through ten years of innovating, these knit throws and bed scarves transitioned from a sandpaper-like texture to actually feeling soft. They are made from either 75% recycled cotton and 25% polyester or 100% recycled polyester. Each 50” x 60” throw is made of 78 plastic bottles. In2Green’s goal is to recycle one million bottles.
Stefanie also mentioned the importance of moving away from acrylic materials. Acrylic woven materials are toxic substances for those working. In order to get eco-materials in homes and hotels, In2Green developed a new material and a new line of 30+ colors.
Please check out In2Green’s website for more information on the product offering and innovation.
Andy Pennington loves living in New York and has been in the US for ten years. He enjoys surrounding himself with creative people and appreciates the vibr
ant energy of the city. Andy started as a window merchandiser, and is now the Sales and Marketing Director for Porcelanosa.
Porcelanosa’s newest showroom is a 7 story building in the Flat Iron District. The building had previously been a Christmas tree decoration manufacturing facility, but at the time was out of use. The building originally featured carolers outside, which Porcelanosa was able to send to Spain to restore and now uses them as seasonal decor.
Porcelanosa makes more than just tile, though tile is the cornerstone of the business. With eight factories and four tile and four non-tile product lines, there is nothing in the kitchen or bath that Porcelanosa doesn’t manufacture.
Andy also mentioned the emphasis that Porcelanosa puts on building relationships and that a lot of marketing dollars are spent on taking people to visit factories. It’s an educational experience that Porcelanosa can provide, where these locations act as the best sales person. The International Interior Architecture Exhibition is coming up in February and visitors from all around the world will visit all eight factories. These attendees come in as strangers, but come out as friends and even do business together.
Do you want to go to Spain on our trip with Porcelanosa? Add #LetsToGoToSpain and @thechaiseloung ang @porcelanosa_grupo on social media…on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, etc and tell us about projects you have done or will do as well as talking about the podcast. Be creative. We will look at everything in the month of December and will pick a winner the 1st week in January, and announce a winner the 2nd week of January.
If you would like to hear more episodes, please visit us on iTunes or on our website at TheChaiseLoungePodcast.com. Lastly, find The Chaise Lounge on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter or post a review on iTunes, you may even hear your review read live on our next podcast. With that said keep dreaming big, and keep designing a great design business. See ya!
It’s Day 3 at High Point Spring Market, and Nick again has gathered some awesome talent from the interior design world to interview about their backgrounds and businesses. Nick has the privilege in today’s podcast to interview his guests from the Norwalk Furniture showroom, make sure to listen all the way through today’s podcast to hear a special interview with the President of the Norwalk Furniture company as she and Nick discuss why High Point is such an incredible opportunity for manufacturers and designers alike. As Caroline states, “Anyone who really wants to know what’s important in the home today,” needs to be at High Point Market!
Stacy Garcia
If you’ve been a long time listener of The Chaise Lounge you’ve probably realized that no two stories are alike when it comes to how each designer Nick interviews got into the interior design business, and today’s first guest is no different. The talented designer and business woman Stacy Garcia got her start in the design world as formally trained surface pattern designer. Tune in to today’s podcast to learn more about what that title entails. Through her training, Stacy was hired as an intern for Ralph Lauren, and soon was hired on as a freelance designer for the well-known design company. Stacy’s career progressed into other design jobs with mass retailers such as Bed, Bath and Beyond, JC Penney, etc. To add to her already extensive resume, Stacy has also worked in hospitality design, a position which she held for 
about 5 years. The design director was noted to have said the following about Stacy during her time in the position, “When we hired you, you were hired as my assistant but after two weeks it was very clear that you would be running the division!”
After an already extensive career in the textile design world, Stacy branched out on her own, eventually creating her own textile design company known as LebaTex, Inc. It wasn’t long before her new company was approached by the very successful Hunter Douglas window covering company for her first licensing deal. Listen in to learn more about the process behind licensing in the design world and what it can mean for a small business just starting out.
Nick and Stacy talk about her first clients, and how the “confidence of youth” helped her when she was first establishing her brand. Today, Stacy’s company has 15 full time employees, and the distribution of her products is in the hands of hundreds of talented sales representatives. LebaTex, Inc. is a global company with distribution all over the world; Stacy closes with the following statement regarding her vast success, “From a gal who went to art school, who thought she’d be painting for a living, sometimes life has different plans.”
You can learn more about Stacy and her design style through her blog or her website.
Denise McGaha
Next up in today’s show, Nick sits down with a 6 year veteran of the High Point Market, Denise McGaha. Based out of Dallas, Texas, Denise has been in business for 15 years. Nick and Denise start by talking about the importance of the High Point Market, in her words, “It’s a huge opportunity to see what’s new in the market, to get on the front end of the trends.”
Denise’s entry into the interior design world took a very windy route. Denise holds a degree in Agricultural Economics and grew up in a world based around agriculture and livestock. Out of college, Denise gained some experience in retail and eventually started a career as an assistant buyer for the jewelry department for the luxury retailer Neiman Marcus. Denise was lucky to gain some very useful experience as part of the team that launched Neiman Marcus website, which led to other jobs in E-commerce. It wasn’t until after 9/11 that Denise states she really took a look at the trajectory of her career and decided she had some other interests she wanted to pursue, and that included interior design.
Denise launched her own firm, Denise McGaha Interiors, and gained significant traction in the early 2000’s working with home builders in the construction of new residences. When the recession hit, Denise was in a great spot to transition out of the new construction realm and fully into interior design of existing homes. Nick and Denise talk about the importance her business background played in the building of her career and how important it is to be purposeful and have intentional in everything you do.
One of the things Denise is the most proud of and has had wonderful success is with her invention of “Designing with a Deadline.” This is a specialized way Denise organizes her design firm to design a project with full specifications within 90 days. This process has allowed her to complete projects in a very efficient and effective way, allowing her firm to ultimately take on more projects sooner. Listen in to hear more details on the software her firm uses to accomplish the designing with a deadline time frame and how she has used that as a consultant for other firms.
You can find her on Twitter and Instagram @denisemcgaha to learn more!
If you would like to hear more episodes, please visit us on iTunes or on our website at TheChaiseLoungePodcast.com. Lastly, find The Chaise Lounge on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter or post a review on iTunes, you may even hear your review read live on our next podcast. With that said keep dreaming big, and keep designing a great design business. See ya!