FOCUS ATLANTA

On September 6, 2006, Celeste Alexander appeared on Focus Atlanta showing the audience ways she can help them transform their homes through interior design. 

October 2006 Celeste Alexander participated in Career Day at King Middle School. 

"This was so touching to me.  Although, I have always had a passion for design, I had no idea this choice was available to me, I discovered this path in my late twenties", says Celeste.

Celeste explained how African Americans came from slave cabins to living in mini mansions and even grand mansions. She shared with them what a dream it is for her to actually be decorating and designing for African American home owners. Since the class she was talking to was a math class, she related it to math, just how important math really is. Celeste showed them a picture of their Teachers house who invited her to Career Day. 

HOME-AND-FAMILY (ARTICLE)

10 Tips To Decorating On A Budget By Celeste Alexander

The first step in decorating your home and giving it personality is to know yourself your likes and dislikes. Know your lifestyle, habits, and desires. If you do not know yourself look in your closet. Your clothes will tell you a lot about your individual style, fabric choices, and color pallet.

1. Start by making a wish list then take the time to see the room finished and what you want the room to look like.

 2. Collect home decor magazine pictures and put them in an idea folder.

 3. Collect swathes and samples of fabric, paint chips, and photos of the rooms you like and staple them to a sheet of paper for your idea folder.

4. Take important measurements of the room. Draw a simple floor plan include windows, doorways and bookcases. This will help to avoid purchasing mistakes like an oversized sofa that swallows up the room.”

5. With your folder in hand shop discount stores, super centers, garage sales and thrift stores for items that look like those in your idea folder. Look for furniture pieces that have the similar line and shape. Remember the fabric can be reupholstered. An Old lamp base can be new again with a new shade, old art re-framed think of way to revamp used items.

6. Try color washing the walls. Mix 1 part paint 3 parts water and just wash the walls with the mixture in a circular motion. A quart of paint goes a long way.

7. Mix two bed in a bag sets a solid and a print for a designer look.

8. Replace old outlet covers with wall paper border, fabric, tissue paper and anything that can be hot glued on.

9. Repaint an old coffee table or recover a chair pad with the same fabric as the window treatment fabric.

10. No sew window treatments will add drama to your decor. Achieve this by wrapping yards of fabric over a pole, play with it to create a unique look. Add tassels and trim with a hot glue gun for the WOW factor.

Article published in Home-and-Family on April 2006.  For reprint request contact Celeste Alexander, Interior Designer of 7 Pillars, Windows & Interior decoratingsista@yahoo.com or visit www.decoratingsista.com 

A TALE OF TWO DOWNTOWNS

After Worst of Times, Building for the Best Print Single-Page Save By JOHN LELAND

The old warehouse on Auburn Avenue was long an eyesore, and Alton Evans, 40, can remember when it was worse. Just a few years ago, he said, the building sat gutted, a haven for transients and drug dealers. That was the mid-1990's in the central city neighborhood known as the Old Fourth Ward, and anything could happen. In those days, residents say, the area resembled the Wild Wild West. On a recent afternoon, Mr. Evans stood on the same site, at the center of a different sort of activity. He hunkered in his tidy metalwork studio, putting the final touches on an Adinkra symbol from West Africa . His neighbors, Ursallie Smith and Celeste Alexander, laid out swaths of bold-patterned fabric -- ''Ursace,'' Ms. Alexander calls it, to rhyme with Versace -- in their interior design showroom. Around them, in place of urban decay, a concrete honeycomb of lofts buzzed with painters, sculptors, Internet developers, glass blowers, designers of all disciplines. Mishele Lesser, 27, a graphic artist and painter, left her door unlocked so neighbors could visit her roomy loft. ''I always wanted to live in a loft,'' Ms. Lesser said, looking up from a computer. 

Published in the New York Times on October 12, 2000