Always love an opportunity to see talented Twin Cities women doing their thing. For the next week, Wit & Delight founder Kate Arends Peters, Canary Grey photographer Wing Ta, designer Martha McQuade and pastry chef/cookbook author Zoe Francois are offering free lifestyle seminars in a glass house they helped design for Air Wick as part of a "Home is in the Air" marketing experience.
Peters will offer tips on creating a gallery wall and decorating with greenery. Ta will talk about shelving arrangements. McQuade, an architect turned clothing and textile designer, will offer simple home styling tips. And Francois will demonstrate quick bread making and cake decorating. (Air Wick hasn't published a schedule of sessions, but here are the Wit & Delight dates and times.)
But about that glass house. It's located in the Mall of America Sears Court, where the Deb going out of business sale is currently underway. I had to see for myself how these social media influencers who have established huge audiences for their impeccably curated images with tons of white space and natural light could make the mall Instagram-worthy.
They pulled it off. (Provided one can look past the doubt that any of these women would actually have an Air Wick air freshener in their homes.) Peters, Ta, and McQuade were given a design budget and tasked with creating rooms inspired by Air Wick scents. Ta found the ocean in a "Turquoise Oasis" frangrance, using drift wood as the focal point on an all white and khaki dining table. Peters incorporated pink, deep green and cream into her living room space with a peony print on the wall. She showed off her inspiration and some of the objects from the room on her blog.
In the kitchen, white subway tiles and red pots create a space worthy of Francois' artistry. That Cinnabon is within sniffing distance only serves to make her buttercream flowers look that much lovelier.
The Air Wick house will be open at MOA through March 29, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Get more event info.
