House & Post: TYLER TAYLOR In ELLE DECOR

   As a designer you always dream of being in Elle Decor. Not because of all the new clients you will get, not many lol, but because it's the go to magazine in the U.S for interior design. How I got in there was not how I imagined. It wasn't because of a room I had worked tireless on or for a product I had designed, but for a table scape I was asked to do by Christopher Spitzmiller for the charity event, Lenox Hill Neighborhood Gala.
   Founded in 1894 this wonderful organization aims to help numerous groups on the Upper East Side of Manhattan and Roosevelt Island. This year the gala raised more than 1 million dollars! Needless to say I was thrilled to be asked to design a table and even more thrilled with the response of Le Grande Revue.
   The event had a theme which was Cole Porter's song, You're The Top. After a little research I found the Cole Porter spent more than 10 years living in Paris, my favorite city, during the roaring 20's. The Eiffel Tower immediately was what I wanted as my center piece, BUT I wanted it to sparkle just like the real one. This was a fairly simple idea in my head, but turned out to be a big project. I found an erector set 4.5 foot tall from a company in Germany. Once it arrived my wonderful Romanian and I spent 6 days, 3-4 hours a night building this. Just to give you an idea, this set came with over 3000 metal pieces, bolts and screws. However, we did it!! Then we added robe lighting inside the tower to allow for it to be lit up. It was amazing!! The Romanian then built a gorgeous maple box I filled with sod for the tower to rest on and as the say the rest was history.

After dropping off 12 dozen flowers, dishes, an eiffel tower and other supplies to Cipriani's in mid-town during lunch rush hour, we got to work. NONE of this could have been done without The Romanian aka Cris Constanda (my love my love my love), Marianne Brenner (the calm during the storm and the best damn display gal in the east) and Kathleen Ho (who helped weeks before the event and manned the ship back at the store) Thank you all, I love you so much. Also, my wonderful sponsors Yves Delorme, who gave the best table gifts and Debauve Gallais Paris, for their amazing fine chocolates.