With her husband’s hectic schedule, Erin Ravenstahl, wife of Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, says she doesn’t have much time for formal entertaining at home.

“Besides, I’m not a very good cook,” she adds.

But for her “dream” formal dining room, the city’s first lady chose some elegant furnishings and her favorite flower, Calla lily, for the table centerpiece. Helping her make the decorating decisions was Karolyn Spagnolo of Spagnolo Designs of Glenshaw, one of the featured designers in this year’s American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) Designer Showcase at the 26th annual Duquesne Light Pittsburgh Home and Garden Show.

This year’s Designer Showcase offers a “new twist” on the popular segment of the show, says executive director John DeSantis. Designers were asked to consult with some well-known personalities to create five Pittsburgh Celebrity Rooms. The rooms will be on display at the Home Show, which starts Friday at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center , Downtown, after being delayed a week because of structural problems at the facility.

“This is a way of showing how a designer works with clients to determine their likes and dislikes,” he says.

For the Ravenstahls, Spagnolo says she met with Erin to talk about her favorite furniture styles and colors, and then she selected some furnishings from which the mayor’s wife could choose.

The couple prefers hardwood floors, she says, over which the designer added an 8-by-10-foot silk-and wool-blend Pakistani rug from London Rug Co., at the Pittsburgh Design Center, Strip District. Furniture from Richard Lawrence Interiors, also in the design center, reflects a “neoclassical style with a contemporary twist.”

For the window treatment in the 12-by-18-foot vignette, Spagnolo created simple long panels of off-white silk with a Grecian flair that accented by wooden cornices and crown molding fabricated by Valeriano Contracting Services of Pittsburgh.

The dining-room table is set with gold chargers from Metropolitan and Haviland china in Tambour Bronze pattern from Contemporary Concepts in Alllison Park. One of Erin Ravenstahl’s favorite colors, sage, comes out in the floral accents and may be picked up in napkins at the place settings, she says. A dome-style chandelier from Cardillo Lighting of Cranberry and Canonsburg will hang over the table.

“She prefers gold but also likes pewter,” says the home show designer of her client. “The Ravenstahls are such a young couple. They are contemporary meets traditional.”

The mayor’s wife says she enjoyed working with Spagnolo to create a dining room designed especially to her decorating taste.

“I’m a very detailed person,” she says. “This was pretty neat.”

Another ASID designer, Nancy Drew of Drew Designs Ltd., Regent Square, was charged with styling a music room for Pittsburgh jazz artists Al Dowe and Etta Cox. Drew met the pair at Dowe’s on 9th jazz club, Downtown, to discuss their ideas.

“I talked to them in terms of what guests they would envision in their room,” says Drew. “Al and Etta both love people, so instead of a traditional sofa or loveseat, I went with more casual seating, some loungy occasional chairs.”

The room also features a fireplace at one end, a piano at the other, and black and white images of musical icons such as B.B. King and Bo Diddley Jr. on a gallery wall behind the piano. Since they both like the color purple, Drew found a purple carpet in a cut-and-loop pattern from a vendor in California and a complementary oriental rug with sage, khaki, black and purple accents at London Rugs.

ASID designer Joann Fullen, of Joann Fullen Interiors in Penn Hills, designed a home office for TV personality Jennifer Antkowiak, which she says reflects the needs of her five children and her at-home business; Sara Flesher of Sara Flesher Designs of Bellevue worked with Chris Fennimore, producer of QED Cooks and director of programming at WQED, on a casual dining area; and Lynn Staab-Fisher of Organized Spaces designed a custom master closet/dressing area for WDVE radio personality Michele Michaels.

Fullen says ASID designers also will offer their popular Ask-A-Designer booth, where visitors can bring photos, plans, and swatches for free advice on home projects.

source : www.pittsburghlive.com