Part of the Designer Show House 2005 at 1329 Blanding Street

The Symphony League Designer Show House 2005 begins today.

The expansive rooms at Blanding Place were decorated earlier this year in time for the arrival of photographers and editors with South Carolina Homes and Gardens. The magic captured that day appeared in the magazine’s March edition.

When the tripods were folded down and packed back into the trunk, and the note pads tucked back into shoulder bags, the designers took one last longing look at their hard work. Then they began taking it all down.

1329 Blanding Street “Everything had to come back out, especially downstairs” explained Show House chair Pam Adkins. Heirs to the Blanding estate, now owners of the Victorian home listed on the National Register of Historic Places, rent the downstairs for special occasions. A wedding reception was on the books for a weekend only a few weeks prior to the April 8 opening, and the rooms upstairs, serving as architects’ offices, were also in use.

When it was time to move all the furnishings and window treatments back into the rooms, designers started all over. While they didn’t have to paint again or have lighting fixtures hung, they did have to reinstall everything else.

“It’s possible some of the rooms may look slightly different than they appear in the magazine layout,” said Adkins, picking up a corsage stickpin dropped by a member of the recent wedding party. “We have heard somebody already bought some of the pieces one designer used in his room. He’s had to make substitutions.”

Designers of the upstairs rooms had it slightly easier. Although they didn’t have to move things in, then out again, they got into their rooms only weeks before the deadline because the second story bedrooms currently serve as offices.

Holly Millikan, a designer new to the Symphony League, said, “When the magazine crew got here, I was still tucking fabric in around on one side of the bed, and we just propped a window treatment inside the window casing.” The middle bedroom Millikan chose to decorate was in service as an office until she arrived with toile and chinz.

All designers put their second finishing touches on the rooms they selected to decorate for this event, held every other year to fund the artistic works of the symphony.

Blanding Place at 1329 Blanding Street will be open through April 28. Times are 10 am–4 pm Monday through Saturday and 1:30–5 pm Sundays. The cost is $15. Each day there will be a different special event. For information visit www.scsymphony.com. Reprints of the South Carolina Homes and Gardens magazine article are serving as a program for the event.

The Designer Showhouse is staged entirely by the Symphony League, one of the SC Philharmonic’s support groups. A portion of the proceeds comes directly to the philharmonic, and the league designates how it would like the money used for specific needs. The rest of the money goes into the Symphony League Endowment Fund, which also funds seasonal expenses.

Designers for the Symphony League Designer Show House

Designers for the show house are Susanne Jordan and Mariellen Dennis with Dan–Rich Furniture; Bonnie Younginer, Angela Margle, and Melissa Kates, with Cobb/Younginer Group; Paul Sloan, Jackie Adams, and Marnie Teague with Paul D. Sloan Interiors; Linda Evans and Toni Hollingsworth with A Fresh Approach; Lorraine Hayen and Erin Galloway with Lorraine Hayen Interiors; Laurin Johnson of Laurin Johnson Interiors; Ginger Hart of G. Hart Interiors; Lorri Sutton of Lorri Sutton Interiors; Burt Hawkins, June Brown, Margie Tillotson, and Jay Takach of Burton–Brown Interiors; Holly Millikan of Millikan & Co. Interiors; Dottie Reynolds of Casual Living; and Diana Epps of Diana Interiors.