Navy Yard
Sports Lounge
Debbie Wiener
Designing Solutions
2124 Edgewater Parkway
Silver Spring, MD 20903
301.445.6336 (t)
301.445.6115 (f)
designingsolutions@comcast.net

Learn about the room inspiration >>

A designer who’s a slob? Sure, it can happen. But I started out life in Boston, with a family in the furniture and design business. Being close to my dad, I spent most weekends with him in the factory, playing with down feathers and learning how furniture is made. When I was young and romantic, travel was cheap, so I studied art and architecture all over Europe and Israel. I’m still traveling, still studying and I’m still romantic. Hey, did you know the checkerboard design we associate with Purina Dog Chow can be found in Egypt’s ancient temple hieroglyphics? Same with blue painted ceilings and herringbone floors- today’s styles have ancient roots. But I digress.

I was raised in a formal and overly styled home where the silk curtains and cream colored sofas were more important than our comfort- so I rarely felt at home in my own family house. I can count on one hand how many times I walked into our living room- and then- only with my mother’s permission. Wouldn’t you know, when I first designed my own home- I did exactly the same thing and filled it with white, chintz and delicate objects that were meant to be seen but not touched.

As fate would have it though, I married a slob and then we had two boys and they learned to be slobs and very shortly after, my home was destroyed by the ones I love most. The white sofa- ruined. The puddling curtains- pulled down. The walls- dinged and dented. I can’t even mention what our dog did to the dining room rug. It took a while, but I figured out, through trial and error, that my home had to work for me and my family and not vice versa. As I re-did the window treatments and re-furnished the family room, I tested each fabric and finish to make sure I could clean it up and that it would hold up to my real life. Lo and behold, I discovered that my clients need this too- furnishings that can hold up to their real lives. No matter who you are- and I’ve done the homes of a White House Chief of Staff, two Washington Post reporters and my neighbor down the street- we need sanity in our busy lives! Designing a home should be affordable; furniture should be cleanable and durable and we should prize comfort and value above all else. Save for your future, not for your furniture.

I still love to look at white rooms with low, white sofas and white walls and creamy silk curtains next to tables filled with humungous books. It’s art- but it’s not real life. Great to look at but not to live in. Like falling in love with the wrong man- a white room looks so good; you love it; you want it, but you know deep down inside, you can’t live with it!

Real Life design isn’t art- it’s smart. At the end of a long and busy day, be comfortable. Put your feet up, eat pizza on the sofa and leave the dirty dishes on the coffee table. If I designed your home, it will all clean up like new tomorrow.

I live in Silver Spring with the slobs- Jim, Jacob and Sam- and our dog Daisy. I wrote my first book, “Slob Proof! Real Life Design Solutions” just last year and my new furniture line, “Slob Proof! with Crypton” is here in my sports lounge. And you can see three of my slob-proof projects featured in the fall 2009 Design Issue of the Washington Post Sunday Magazine. I’m the style editor for Dog Fancy Magazine and I answer listeners' “designing dilemmas” on Martha Stewart Living for Sirius Radio. I’ll answer your designing dilemmas for free too, if you send them to me via my website www.slobproof.com.