MILIEU Fall 2020

Our beloved Jim Lewis, our longtime Publishing Consultant, passed away this past spring. And we are missing him. He was our rock and guiding force through our early years when we first launched MILIEU. Lisa Newsom, who had been the founding editor-in-chief of Veranda, tried to dissuade me from starting MILIEU at a time when so many shelter publications were closing. She said to me, “If you choose to follow this path, then you need to bring Jim Lewis with you.” Jim had retired after dedicating his life to magazines, helping start Southern Accents, with Lisa, and then moving on to help her get Veranda up and running. Back in 2012, when I first conceived of MILIEU, I remember flying to Atlanta to meet with Jim about helping us and just express…

Darryl Carter Twenty years ago, Darryl Carter left a law practice to embark on a career in design. He has since achieved many professional milestones, including the opening of his eponymous Washington, D.C., studio and the publication of two books. Eleanor Cummings Eleanor Cummings is known for her range of design sensibilities, always mindful of the needs of the client and the architectural aspects of the space. Her use of reclaimed materials and unexpected touches delight the senses while maintaining an emphasis on comfort. Pamela Pierce Pamela Pierce is MILIEU’s Founder and Editor-in-Chief. For more than thirty years as a visionary interior designer, she has been known for creating timeless homes. Her design approach is simple: always a fine study in light, scale, texture, and color. Kathryn Ireland Interior designer Kathryn M. Ireland grew up in London…

ON THE SURFACE Perhaps it’s appropriate that Assemblage, a wallcovering manufacturer, is located in a former Arkansas seed mill, for the enterprise reflects a metaphorical reseeding of American craftsmanship. The husband-wife team of Heidi and Christian Batteau, who trained as set designers and decorative painters, decided to use some of those same methods to fashion handcrafted wall coverings, some twenty-nine patterns to date. They make their papers using marble plaster, ground mica, metal leaf, and various inks that are then finished with wax or resin. They and their team of workers apply those natural finishes to non-woven cellulose paper. And in keeping with the Batteaus’ penchant for embracing age-old techniques and craftsmanship, the water used in the process is rainwater collected on the premises. The resulting papers are fireproof, usable in…

I am one of “those” people with a travel bucket list. After my kids became adults and I retired from the company I founded, Ballard Designs, I focused on my travel goals. In the past three years, I have ventured to Rwanda to gorilla trek in the footsteps of Dian Fossey, to Jordan for a visit to Petra, to Iceland, Egypt, and Croatia. I spent weeks on a ship in Antarctica, and I photographed members of the Himba tribe of Namibia. I had just returned from a journey through Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam when the pandemic hit and all foreign travel ceased. Having been quarantined for months, I felt my pent-up wanderlust bubbling up—and I began to yearn for a good road trip. My dear friend, Ric, and I started pondering…