DesignSTL July/August 2021

IF YOU, LIKE ME, spent your fair share of waking hours last year in the kitchen-preparing meals, sanitizing counters, unloading the dishwasher only to fill it back up again a few hours later-you’ve undoubtedly grown to appreciate the essential role of a well-designed kitchen in your life. Maybe you’ve taken stock of what really works for you. A large single-bowl basin? That last-minute beverage fridge splurge, transformed into a catch-all for grocery shopping overflow? On the other hand, maybe all that time in the kitchen-shuttling from refrigerator to stove to sink-made you question the wisdom of past design choices, prompting you to update your space or embark on a whole kitchen renovation. Whatever your kitchen story may be, inspiration is here. In this issue, we take you behind the scenes…

What’s your favorite home in St. Louis? Design STL’s September/October issue will highlight some of the area’s most beautiful homes, and we want to hear from you! Upload a picture of your favorite head-turning home, and then return to vote for your top pick. The winning home will be featured in the next issue of Design STL. Last year’s Most Beautiful Homes contest winner featured in Design STL. VISIT STLMAG.COM/CONTESTS TO SUBMIT & VOTE…

Artist Quinn Antonio Briceno’s most recent painting, La Cortadora de Cafe, depicts a scene from ordinary life in the mountains of Nicaragua. The artist captures a young woman, basket in hand, harvesting coffee beans for sale. In his work, Briceno employs a mix of materials, such as “Made in the USA” stickers that form the underlayer of the subject’s pale-blue jacket and the expired Missouri Lottery tickets that are shaped into a pink bandana covering her dark hair. Like much of the 28-year-old’s artwork, the painting is steeped in personal experience. It underscores the dichotomy of growing up between two cultures, which Briceno did as the American-born son of a Nicaraguan father and Irish-American mother. “La Cortadora de Cafe reflects the duality of my heritage both through imagery and materials,”…

FOR JULIE RODDIER-FORTNEY and John-Paul Fortney, bringing natural, organic French wines to St. Louis is as much a calling as it is a career path. The couple behind F & R Wine Imports has une passion for wines made with minimal chemical and technological intervention-essentially, wines made with grapes grown, harvested, and vinified without modern manipulation. “Natural wine is going back to the definition of what wine is: just fermented grape juice,” says Fortney. It’s a reflection of the climate and soil, adds Roddier-Fortney. Long before founding F & R, the couple spent years immersed in the French wine industry and culture. “Everything started in Paris,” Roddier-Fortney recalls. Fortney had been in town for two weeks when he was introduced to his future wife. “We fell in love, and the…

Last summer, Abbey Eilermann added a composite deck and a stone paver patio to the backyard of her dream home on The Hill. This summer, she was looking for a step up from the kiddie pool she’d been using when a resurgence in popularity of stock tank swimming pools caught her attention. As she so often does, Eilermann dug deep, gained inspiration from bloggers and tapped into the vibe of her own pink-and-white-striped patio umbrella. When a friend mentioned that a nearby town’s Tractor Supply store carried the tanks, Eilermann thought about it for a day before taking the plunge. Once she got the tank home, she brushed four coats of primer onto the galvanized steel, taped off 10-inch-wide sections, and painted the stripes pink. She ordered a pool filter…

ONE COULD ARGUE that good design sense, crucial for any interior designer, is intuitive. Natural talent certainly is a factor, but other equally important areas of the design business are not innate and aren’t easily learned from a book or a class-they need to be taught. In such a hands-on industry, real-world experience under the eye of a seasoned designer is invaluable. Many designers begin their careers under the mentorship of another designer. “Having a mentor in the design business is one of the most important things to seek out,” says Amy Herman, president of the American Society of Interior Designers’ Missouri East chapter. “A positive mentor relationship can give you confidence and build you up for success in any stage of your career.” Earlier in her career, designer Emily…