Weekly Mail Reporter
AN astonishing range of decorating workshops — from designs for low-cost housing to investments in Oriental carpets — will be on offer at the first ever Decorex (SA) exhibition starting on Wednesday August 10 at Gallagher’s Estate in Midrand.
Decorator Nicola Hadfield and the South African Guild of Interior Designers have arranged five days of exhibitions with local and international manufacturers of furniture, fabrics, ornaments, rugs, lighting fixtures and other products — like a new solar-powered lighting system from Australia which apparently gives rooms the same amount of light they could get from skylights (but not, of course, the same view of birds or clouds or rainstorms). Also on exhibit will be stands decorated by top decorators, including Julia Twigg, and Lionel Levin, best known for the Sandton Sun Towers and the Moretele Game Lodge.
In keeping with post-election optimism — plus the exhibition’s partial sponsorship by paint manufacturers Plascon — the theme of Decorex is Harmony in Colour. If you should want distressed or limewashed walls, trompe l’oeil or gilded finishes, there will be daily workshops on these techniques.
One could spend most of August 10 in workshops on arts, antiques and African art, run by Trent Read of Everard Read Contemporary, Stephan Welz of Sotheby’s and Ann Wanless of MuseumAfrica. Or one could put aside Friday August 12, for an entire series devoted to lighting, directed by people whose experience tends more towards palaces (architect Lyndsay Boutrous Ghali, whose jobs include the Saudi Arabian royal palace) and monuments (architect Frikkie Labuschagne and Santie Boonzaier, chief interior decorator for the Public Works department).
There will be workshops on landscaping, budget decorating, wall and floor coverings, carpets, even how to work with a decorator. James Ngubeni of the New South African Housing Association will offer guidelines on “Planning and designing aesthetically appealing low-cost housing” on Friday August 12, while the director of the Calder School of Interior Design will share with participants in a Saturday, August 13 workshop “The four essentials for a truly successful room”.
Fees for the workshops range from R95 to R145; for bookings and further information, phone (011) 884-3554 or page (011) 922-4000, code NH99. 940805b *******************************************
THE WEEKLY e-MAIL INTERNET SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE Issue dated August 5 1994
NEWS AND OPINION SECTION
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