Dane called...Can I help with a set design for Alicia Keys...

This is the message I received Sunday around noon from Dane Caldwell of 2 Hounds Design (don't know how to link). By 2:00 I'm running around trying to source accessories for a couch described by Dane as "contemporary, rust coloured, clean lines". HAH, what she forgot to mention is it's by product of the 70's. The chairs, well she said they're olive green, funky and retro.

The set design for this group of wonderful ladies, Alicia Keys, Jennifer Hudson and Queen Latifah, was a challenge to say the least. Our starting point was the above mentioned sofa. Dane and I, at separate ends of the city, are both crazy with excitment trying to pull accessorie before the stores close on Sunday. We purchased everything we could find that might compliment rust and olive green. When I arrived at the lovely (not) Four Seasons hotel the producer immediately started running me from room to room to veiw alternate sofas. "OMG, Dane hurry and get here...this is not my project" Were my only thoughts. As I mentioned we purchased accessories to match this rust sofa. The producer now would like to go with an equally ugly baby blue one. Finally what seemed like hours (10 mins) Dane arrives to reassure the producer that this rust sofa will work just fine. Reluctantly, she agreed...Until 5:30am when she had me begging the staff of the hotel to take the ugly taupe sofa from the lobby! Once again our luck prevailed when the sofa wouldn't fit in the elevator.

Throughout the night Dane and I went through every restaurant, room(not guarded by security), storage closet and kitchen in the hotel hunting down furniture for this set. The olive green chairs had to go and we were lucky enought to find some simple leather club chairs in the night club, which were probably our best find of the evening. We tried unsuccessfully to pilfer flowers...we snatched lamps from a sitting room and a sofa table from the 30th floor.

Needless to say, the room turned out beautifully.  And that ugly orange sofa...well, Jennifer Hudson loved it!

Thanks Dane for a great day, evening, night, morning, afternoon...This was by far the most exciting, strange, long, kaotic, up in the air, what are we doing now, project.