How do you like to label yourself as a designer?
As a Decorative Design Artist, my goal is to conceive and execute beautiful solutions. After a recent conversation with a client about their interests I fabricated a ceiling medallion for their wine room chandelier using gilded leather and the client’s own iridescent turkey feathers from a recent hunt. All of this was seated on a hand-painted night sky filled with constellations. It is this partnership with the individual client or design professional that brings joy.
How did you get your start in design?
It happened when I stumbled upon an old out-of-print book about painting faux bois & faux marbre’ (false wood & marble). At the time I began there were no products or tools available to create any of these effects. But because of my science background, I was able to formulate what I needed. That “Wild-West” beginning broke the rules and took the limits off creativity for me!
How was your transition to designing for New Orleans?
In short: Zero to a hundred in sixty seconds!! My introduction to New Orleans was a space in the New Orleans Junior League Showhouse in the French Quarter. I was six months pregnant on a ladder painting fourteen-foot-high walls in hot pink overalls. It was memorable! Soon after I was guest speaking at conferences and selling out venues. All these years later I still am overwhelmed at the kindness!
Where do you find your design inspiration?
Always my clients and their unique situations. Not long ago to visually expand a client’s long narrow Powder Room I created an ethereal wonderland of pale white trees arching up onto a sky ceiling. Weaving through the branches of the trees were luminous Luna moths. The space became visually unbound.
What is the value of a well-designed space?
My goal with the very practical beauty of Decorative Art is to lift people into a place of joyous rest. The best art can bypass our conscience mind and bring us into a spiritual experience.
What new arenas are you excited about?
I also work in Fine Art – Watercolors and Encaustic, which are pigments suspended in luscious, satiny beeswax. Lately, opportunities to sell my large-scale Fine Art paintings have opened up. This is an avenue I am very excited about.
sbhaydelltd@gmail.com // sherryhaydel.com // New Orleans
