Seminar FAQs

Seminar Focus is on Applying Design Principles to All Styles, Not Just Southwestern

It is so exciting to hear from all of you across the country who are coming to join us. We will see lots of new friends, plus some we've met before, from as far away as California, Texas, Colorado, Oregon, Florida (and, of course, New Mexico) for this fabulous three-day event.

We love getting your calls and e-mails, and hearing about the trip you're planning to be with us. Here are some of your most Frequently Asked Questions.

Q. Will the seminar only cover Southwestern design? We would love to come and get some ideas for our remodel, but our house is more contemporary in style. I am familiar with your work from HGTV and your book and have seen you do a lot of different styles, but will I learn anything I can use in the seminar?

A. Yes, you will learn about design principles, and good design can be applied to any style. The seminar includes a tour of my Southwestern-style adobe home in Santa Fe, but my presentation will demonstrate specific design principles with photos and examples of many different homes, from Mediterranean to Contemporary to Traditional. For example, the above photo illustrates the dramatic effect of architectural elements in a contemporary seaside living room, where 12-inch square columns with heavy bases embellish a large passageway. The substantial columns were painted a deeper shade of the living room wall color to give them definition and strength. There are more photos on my website's Portfolio page and in my book, Architectural Interiors, and there will be many different styles in the seminar presentation.

Q. I am coming in from Texas for Linda's seminar, and wonder whether I should look for flights into Albuquerque Airport or Santa Fe Airport. Also, will I need to rent a car?

A. As far as we know, Santa Fe Airport is only serviced by one commercial airline at this time, Great Lakes Aviation, which provides flights from Denver, Colorado only. So, unless you are coming from Denver, you probably want to fly into Albuquerque (airport code ABQ). From ABQ, it's about a 60-75 minute drive to Santa Fe, and you will probably want to rent a car. Albuquerque Airport is a small, pretty and extremely user-friendly airport. Getting in and out is fast and easy, nothing like most big-city airports you may be used to. We recommend that first-time visitors take the scenic route called the Turquoise Trail from the airport instead of Highway 25 (click on link for maps and info). It's a beautiful drive through small towns such as Golden, Madrid and Cerrillos, and the mountain scenery is breathtaking. It's an additional 15-20 minutes, but worth every minute. If you prefer not to drive, the Sandia Shuttle has hourly pickups from the airport directly into downtown Santa Fe, and door-to-door service to many hotels. However you arrive, you will feel the spirit of the laid-back Southwest as soon as you land in this beautiful part of the country.

Q. My sister-in-law and I are so excited about coming to Santa Fe for your seminar, we have never been there before! You have fun activities planned for most of the weekend, but if you could recommend one thing we don't want to miss while we're there, what would it be?

A. That's a tough one - it depends on what you like to do. If you like art and fashion, don't miss a stroll along Canyon Road. You will be visiting one of the galleries with Linda on Friday evening, but there is so much to see that it's worth a separate trip on your own. Wear comfortable walking shoes, stop in cafes for coffee or wine, and soak up the local color. If you love wine and food, come in a few days early for the Santa Fe Wine and Chile Fiesta, which starts on Wednesday and goes through the weekend, with wonderful events every day. We recommend spending as many days as you can in magical Santa Fe!

Design In The Desert

September 28, 29 and 30, 2007

Santa Fe, New Mexico

Friday, September 28

5:30 - 7:30 p.m.

Jane Sauer has invited Linda's guests to a private reception at her Thirteen Moons Gallery to kick off the weekend of Southwestern design. We'll enjoy wine and cheese among the gallery's collection of innovative works of art in a variety of media by internationally recognized artists. Each artist heavily explores the potential of his or her material, creating pieces not only in traditional materials such as wood, glass, bronze, ceramic and fiber, but also in adventuresome and interesting media such as agave leaves, citrus peel, cedar bark, and woven newspaper. That night, the gallery will be highlighting the work of Kay Khan, whose stitched narratives are constructed from cotton, silk, felt, wire and grid into elegant quilted vessel forms that have become known as some of the most innovative sculpture of today.

Saturday, September 29

Daytime

Linda will lead a tour of Santa Fe's Design Center, home of such wonderful stores as Diseños (pictured), which carries exceptional Spanish Colonial art and antiques; Sparrow Antiques, which offers vintage textiles and crafts from across the U.S.; and Gloria List Gallery, home to an amazing array of ethnographic or sacred art from throughout the world. These are just a few of the many shops and showrooms located in Santa Fe's Design Center.

Evening

Linda will take seminar guests on a private tour of her recently remodeled 1930s adobe home on Santa Fe's historic east side. We will tour the old adobe, which Linda has remodeled using many of the concepts demonstrated in her new book, "Linda Applewhite's Architectural Interiors," while we sip margaritas and savor New Mexican specialties.

(Exact times for Saturday's events to be announced shortly.)

Sunday, September 30

9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. - Presentation and lunch

4:00 p.m. - Cocktails

La Posada Hotel, Santa Fe, New Mexico

The seminar will be held at La Posada de Santa Fe near the city’s historic downtown Plaza. Guests will learn about creating "good bones" or architectural character in their rooms, whatever their home's style.

Linda's slide presentation will include before and after photos of her home's transformation, showing step by step how she updated the floor plan and function of the living spaces, while respecting the original architecture and retaining the character of the old structure. The presentation will focus on the principles of good design, and illustrate application of these principles to a range of styles including Contemporary, Traditional, Mediterranean and European Country, among others. Her discussion will include:

Uncovering your home's "character potential" and good bones
Connecting all the rooms, both indoors and out
Finding your way through the "F" maze: selecting and combining fixtures and finishes
Identifying and executing your personal color palette
Furnishing from the floor up - where to start, how to layer textures, fabrics and colors
Secrets for selecting and placing accessories for a "wow" finish
Transforming your life through beauty - both inside and out

A delicious New Mexican buffet lunch will be served in La Posada's garden, and we'll end the day with cocktails at 4:00 p.m.

Seminar Registration

The registration fee is $250 per person and includes ALL of the above events. To register, please visit our website's Seminar page. You can register online via PayPal or credit card, or print the registration form and mail it to us with a check. If you have any questions, please call us at 415.331.2040. We will be happy to answer them!

Hotels

PLEASE NOTE: Hotel rooms and reservations are not included in the seminar registration fee. Please make your hotel reservations as soon as possible, as we will be there during Santa Fe's popular Wine and Chile Fiesta, and the city's hotels will sell out quickly.

Rooms are available for our group at La Posada de Santa Fe and the Eldorado Hotel and Spa. For details, please visit the Seminar page on our website or call the hotels directly, and tell them you are with our seminar. The Eldorado is offering deeply discounted rates to our seminar guests on a first-come, first-served basis.

People Are Talking...

about Linda's book, Architectural Interiors

...and here is what they're saying. These are just a few comments Linda has received from readers of her new book. She reads and appreciates every one personally, so please e-mail Linda if you have the book and would like to send your comments.

"...your language was clear and bottom line--just the way I like things. The photos sent my imagination soaring, as I am enchanted with the images of warm-colored rooms, light spaces, and the notion that someone is gifted and talented enough to be able to "see" something in spaces that have yet to be created."

"Your book is on my coffee table and I read it daily for design inspiration!"

"I am the proud owner of your new book. You [have] given me the courage to "go for it" mixing colors and designs to create the home I've always wanted. Seeing decorating through your eyes has opened a new world for me. Your talent has trickled down to my everyday life, and I thank you for that."

"Received your book and love, love, love it! Absolutely fabulous. I want my home to look exactly the way you decorate!! That's why I dream through your book."

"I just wanted to offer appreciation for your book. I think it has more chance to be useful to the majority of homeowners than most decorating books, in that it wasn't just for mansion owners. Most of us don't live in grand architectural houses in this country. I can't afford a major renovation which would cost $3-500,000 in my area. So I look for books to unify and give charm to the space as best I can. Your book is very useful in giving tips on how to repeat design elements, how to add pillars, etc. to create "art" where it was lacking in the first place."

SAVE THE DATES

for Linda's Upcoming Book Signings

Tuesday,

August 21 Warwick's in La Jolla, California

7:30 p.m.

7812 Girard Ave., La Jolla, CA 92037

858-454-0347

More info: click here

Press Clippings for Linda Applewhite's Architectural Interiors

July 19, 2007

Architectural Interiors

Transforming Your Home With Decorative Structural Elements

by Linda Applewhite
Gibbs Smith, $29.95

How many times have you looked at homes in glossy magazines and realized that those beautifully furnished rooms aren't beautiful because of the furniture? It's because they have what Applewhite calls good bones: high beamed ceilings, walls of elegant windows, crown moldings, niches and artistic arches leading from one open area to the next. They have everything your tacky bare-bones tract house doesn't have. Or so you might think.

That's why Applewhite wrote this book. She wants to show owners of more modest homes how to get that high-end effect without a total tear-down. Subtitled "Transforming Your Home With Decorative Structural Elements," this book could be an eye-opener for those willing to explore the fascinating possibilities she presents. What it amounts to is adding character and elegance that looks as if it were built in.

From suggesting raising your ceiling without removing your roof to providing interesting uses of decorative beams, columns, pediments and pilasters, the author proves that creativity and tasteful illusion can be excellent stand-ins for opulence of structural design.

Frame a boring skylight with painted wood and add painted wood slats across the glass, and you suddenly have a custom look that could have been created by a master. Your Ugly Betty window becomes très Angelina Jolie.

Applewhite, a designer in Northern California, perfected her theories while transforming her Bay Area home from what she calls a characterless 1950s tract house to a European country cottage. And she offers photos to prove it.

-- Bettijane Levine

Seattle Post-Intelligencer

July 20, 2007

Home Book: 'Linda Applewhite's Architectural Interiors: Transforming Your Home With Decorative Structural Elements'

By Linda Applewhite (Gibbs Smith, 160 pages, $29.95)

So it came to pass that the only house Linda Applewhite and her husband, Marshall, could afford was a 1950s piece of housing-tract effluvia on a Bay Area street named Clorinda. It wasn't a pretty picture. But with a little concentration and some hard-earned dollars, they turned it into a European-style country cottage.

The tale of that transformation is the back story of this book, in which Applewhite tells about a structure's "good bones" and how, with assistance from the temporal side of life, its "soul" can be revealed.

"By 'bones,' " she writes, "I mean architectural details such as beams, arches, niches, pitched ceilings, interesting windows and doors, beautiful moldings, distinctive fireplaces, columns or cabinetry." In short, a place with architectural characteristics that distinguish it from all others.

In Applewhite's case, however, these were the missing ingredients, and yet ... The couple plunged in to create what had not been, while also living in the home's basement, without a kitchen or a bath. And when they were finished, she says, "we had exposed her bones, making good use of her multiple peaks and hidden angles by pitching ceilings in the living room, dining room, master bedroom and new family room. We had added beams and lintels, a fat wall and arch, and niches in the kitchen. We had opened her up to the garden with wonderful old windows and doors and brought in light with six new skylights."

An antique mantel also was added. There was even a castaway column placed -- exclamation-pointlike -- where a wall once stood. Indeed by the end of the exercise they had managed to anthropomorphize a soulful little creation to the point where they felt it necessary to christen it, and did -- "Clorinda."

Applewhite's book, however, is not just about Clorinda but aims to boost the possibilities available to readers hoping to etherealize all those other Ugly Ducklings.

"You say you don't have a big budget? Adding architectural interest can be as simple and inexpensive as buying a can of paint and using your imagination," she says.

For Applewhite, trained as she is in interior design, the Clorinda experience proved to be an epiphany that led her to what she came to define as "true interior design."

"The ability to pitch ceilings, knock down walls and create new openings for windows and doors was thrilling and had so much more impact than picking ball fringe for pillows," she says. "I was hooked."'

-- Gordy Holt

See you in September

in Santa Fe, and thanks

for all your wonderful

e-mails about my Pal Joey!

Linda, husband Marshall Miller,

pals Joey and Biff