Saturday, March 9, 2013

House Beautiful 4th Annual Chair Scavenger Hunt in LA

Last Week while in Los Angeles for Design Bloggers Conference, I had the pleasure to participate in House Beautiful's 4th Annual Chair Scavenger Hunt on the streets of LA. It was so much fun! The day started in the Kravet Showroom where we were dazzled by all the beautiful fabrics and furniture and enjoyed camaraderie with other designers. The morning was hosted by Kravet's very own Beth Greene, Jennifer Powell and the entire team at the LA Kravet show room. There were about thirty of us who were in attendance for the House Beautiful's "Black and White" Campaign kick off by Newell Turner, CEO, Editor in Chief and Kate Kelly Smith, VP, Publisher, and Chief Revenue Officer of Hearst Magazine. This years ambassador was Jenni Pulos, co-star of Bravo reality TV series Flipping Out .

Founder and CEO of The Kaleidoscope Partnership, Leslie Carothers

checks out one of the beautiful hot pink velvet Kravet sofas.

Designers/Bloggers getting pictures made with Jenni Pulos, Beth Greene

and Jennifer Powell of Kravet.

Jennifer Mehditash of DecaPorter, Leslie Carothers of The Kaleidoscope Partnership,

Kate Kelly Smith of Heart Magazine, Beth Greene of Kravet, and Jennifer Powell of Kravet.

Jenni Pulos, our chair ambassador with moi!

Kravet and House Beautiful gave Jenni her own two chairs for

serving as the ambassador for the day. Isn't she cute hugging her chair?

Like Goldilocks and The Three Bears, "this chair fit just right".

Newell Turner thanking Jenni for participating.

Of course we all wanted our picture made with Newell. Here is my fellow Charlottean and fun travel buddy, Holly Phillips of The English Room and I with Newell.

Newell with all the girls! He was a good sport and endued all the photo requests!

When It was time for the first chair giveaway we headed out to the street

There we found this beautiful Kravet wing chair in Ralph Lauren fabric holding court on the sidewalk, literally next to a busy street in front of the design center flanked by a couple of Caesarstone tables also part of the giveaway.

I couldn't help myself. I had to try the chair out and I must say it was very comfortable. Now I know what it feels like to have the paparazzi around. ( I'll bet they deleted those pics!) Not quite the 20 year old model type they typically are chasing.

The event gathered quite a crowd. I spy Kate Kelly Smith, Holly Phillips and Leslie Carothers in the crowd, snapping pictures. See the smiles on everyone's faces?

Jenni had written a rap song which was well received by the crowd. You will have to follow me on Vine to hear it! It's worth joining to just to hear Jenni's rap! Here is the lucky guy who won the first chair! He answered all the trivia questions correctly and claimed his prize.

He was claimed his throne and posed for photographs.

Newell, Jenni and Kate in front of the Pacific Design Center

And...drumroll please....our sweet friend Christy Davis of Life of a Modern Housewife won the Caesarstone tables!

Christy sharing a photo op with Jenni!

Jennifer Mehditash took a moment to honor our sponsors

when she sat in the chair.

Jen, Leslie and Me

Later a few of us left for lunch at The Ivy. (I share about our lunch later). While lunching at the Ivy, guess what was happening on the street....Yes! you guessed it.. I left my table and went to see what was going on! Quite a crowd had gathered!

The official contest questions being asked to those participating.

The Laurent Chair by Hickory Chair and the Devonshire Chair by Grace Home
were the two beauties being given away by The Ivy.

The Grace Home Devonshire Chair winner was so excited,
she couldn't wait to take her chair! She almost left without
getting her picture made by the paparazzi.

The winner of the Hickory Chair Laurent Chair decided to sit down and
try her chair out right there next to The Ivy! So cute!

Jenni Pulos deserves a star in my book! This was much later in the day and she was still smiling and hugging people. I let you in on a little secret! She is pregnant. I don't think I was that nice when I was pregnant, but then again I didn't look like Jenni either!

After lunch, Holly drove me to the Kodak theatre in search of the Lee Industries Chair

I had blogged about. I wanted to watch it being given away. Wouldn't you know, they were running ahead of schedule so the time they were giving "my" chair away had been moved up from what I had been told! As we approached the area, we saw the chair being carried away by the winners. Dang, it was over! I chased the couple down and asked if I could take a picture of "my" chair. Here it is in the back of a Range Rover on it's way to its new home! The winners were so nice to humor me by letting me snap photos of the Lee Industries chair 1603 chair!

This Lee Industries chair was even more beautiful in person!

The Mitchell Gold & Bob Williams Chair was being given away about the same time,

so I got a photo of it just before the new owner snatched it.

As you can tell by the photos, this was an incredibly fun event! It was awesome watching the new owners take away their prized chairs with big smiles on their faces! Wonder where the 5th Chair Scavenger Hunt will be? If it is in your city, make sure you play along, you just might win a beautiful chair! To read more about the chair chaise or see the two chairs that I blogged about click here and here