No Place Like Home

How I clicked my heels and landed in Emerald City

Happy Sunday everyone and a warm welcome to all of the new faces who have signed on in the last few weeks.  Thank you.  Writing about design is my passion and I am so pleased that you have joined my journey.  If you are obsessed with interior design and home, yours and everyone else’s, you are in the right place. 

As some of you know, I typically craft my Emerald City dispatches more like a feature article on a design destination or object, and less like a chatty email to friends (don’t take that personally, I love you guys!). Posts are generally image rich with exclusive photographs that I take myself. I want you to feel like you’ve been there and seen that first hand.   With so many new subscribers, however, I decided to depart from my usual tone and introduce myself. 

I aim to entertain, not necessarily give decorating advice, although I am capable of doing that too (ask me anything, I adore comments and questions).  I have been educated at Parsons, ran my own design firm for 6 years, and two of my prior homes were published in national shelter magazines.  But I didn’t start life wanting to work in interior design.  I knew nothing about it.  Food, not decorating, was the focus in my childhood home, with both parents avid cooks.  I still raid my 89 year old mom’s old Bon Appetite magazines, stealthily ripping out recipes.  

It was my high school French teacher who first introduced me to beautiful objects, art and destinations, when she taught a unit on Impressionism and Paris. In college, I wanted to major in art history.  Since my generation was the first in my family to attend college, however, my parents urged me to pursue a career more familiar to them.  Ultimately, I graduated from New York University Law School and began work at a large Wall Street firm.  

Back then, my parents advised me to make art history a hobby.  Read books, go to museums, they said. I listened and soon added design and decorative arts to my enthusiasms. When presented with the opportunity to combine law with my personal interests, I abandoned Wall Street for the auction house Sotheby’s to serve as an in-house attorney.  There, I was surrounded by beautiful objects and worked daily with experts.  I was encouraged to look and learn, and I did.

After practicing law for 10 years,  I left to raise my 3 boys (the last 2 were unexpected twins) when the oldest was three.  Soon afterwards, my c.1900 Victorian burned down.  I rebuilt the 4000 square foot home and enrolled at Parsons to formally study interior design and decorative arts.  I was determined to build a period appropriate home subtly modified to accommodate modern lifestyles.  By the housewarming party, neighbors were asking me for design help and I formed my interiors firm, never looking back at the law.   The new “old” Victorian that marked my career change was featured on the cover of This Old House magazine.  That’s it in the photo above.

In 2009, I discovered that I could share my zeal with others by starting a design blog.  I quickly became rooted in the decorative arts and design history niche,  Within 6 months industry leaders took notice and began collaborating with me.  I was privileged to be sent to cover design and related product launches at a variety of trade shows like the London Design Fair, the West Edge Design Show in Los Angeles, Ambiente in Frankfurt, Germany and High Point Market in Greensboro, NC.  

In those early flush days, some companies would pay me a $1 per like on Instagram on top of covering all of my travel expenses to a trade event but never once did they exercise any editorial control over what I reported.  It was quite the ride and I was thrilled when my blog received a best writing award in 2015. I never got the memo that blogs weren’t cool and continued right up until I started Emerald City in August 2023.   So this Substack is really an evolution, not a new venture.  

 Along the way, I realized that writing about design was my true calling. It combines the analytical and creative sides of my brain which seems to be split down the middle.  My freelance efforts have found some decent traction writing for other design firms on the web with a few shelter magazine clips. I also have a side hustle managing social media. My dream is to increase my publication in traditional print outlets and maybe someday (fingers crossed) publish a book. 

Achieving those goals have been slow in part because these last 5 years I experienced mammoth change in my personal life.  For me the pandemic was an afterthought.  More catastrophically, my 33 year marriage buckled under the weight of the empty nest followed by the sudden and unexpected death of my husband. I moved in the heart of the pandemic to its epicenter, Jackson Heights, Queens. Why? I am a New Yorker. It is an incredible apartment that I bought for a great price and a low interest rate! Plus I had to get out of my large 3 bedroom rental in Tribeca. Why else?

Today I live by myself in a 1922 coop with a working fireplace, a large kitchen with (count ‘em) two windows and a bedroom and office/guest room that overlook a 33,000 square foot private garden. I plant a robust container garden each spring in our building’s personal patio that leads to the larger garden. The boys are on their own firmly “adulting” and I see them as much as I can. The complex and garden are listed on the National Register of Historic Places and landmarked by the city of New York.  It is a true hidden gem.  How fitting for someone who has amassed a huge design library and visited countless historic sites and museums.

Fortunately for me, life is settling down nicely.  The kids are alright (as we all say now). I love my neighborhood and have made many new friends, becoming president of that private garden.  After downsizing from 2 large houses and one 3 bedroom apartment, my little coop is my sanctuary.   My favorites from those old homes together with my travel treasures feather my girlie nest.  Happily, its affordability allows me to freely explore the world’s greatest cities, including the one in my own backyard.  With Emerald City, I hope to bring you with me.   And if you have any tips on getting me noticed by print outlets, please do share! 

Bon Voyage,

Lynn

A few places I have called home.

It me. Photo taken in my old 3 bedroom apartment in Tribeca by Ellen Mcdermott.

A couple of my favorites from that new “old” Victorian. Photos by Ellen McDermott.

Some from my old beach house in Montauk, NY. Ellen McDermott worked her magic here too.

This morning at The Chateau (literally its name), also known as my apartment. No styling. When I shoot my own home, it’s apparent I am similar to a doctor who shouldn’t treat herself. LOL. Now that my window treatments are installed, it is time to ring a professional! When that happens, I promise to share.

The cherry tree right outside my bedroom and office windows is starting to bloom. It feels like living in Love Shack Fancy when it is in full glory.

The view from my office window today.

Where I write this Substack.

My living room a few months ago.

Pink “snow” in the garden last year as seen from my patio and a broader view of the garden around the same time.

Further reading

A little bit of what it was like for me to move to the epicenter of the pandemic in the midst of lockdown.

If you want to dive deep into our house fire with all the shots: before, during and after.

And if you never want to see the light of day again, here is most of my blog archive.