Today was a great day to be in New Orleans!

It was a day to raise a toast to our city.

Mardi Gras in the Who Dat Nation!!

Today was the culmination of a long and intense season of celebration in a city that has made celebrating an art form.  We've been double-dipping lately, reveling in our historic, first-ever, long-awaited, and prayed for Superbowl championship running  concurrently with Mardi Gras.

We showed the world how proud we are of our team, and how much pride in our city our Superbowl Saints have brought us, and that we are championship partyers! We showed that we really know how to  stage a parade, with many Mardi Gras krewes lending floats to the Superbowl parade, and having team members throw beads in true New Orleans tradition.

 

We've been combining our love of our Saints with our love of Mardi Gras, with Drew Brees reigning as Bacchus.

But mostly, we've been feeling good about living in New Orleans.

Our city, which was under water not too long ago, is now on top of the world.

Mardi Gras is truly a day to have fun, and since the weather cooperated, that is exactly what we did!

We celebrated life in a unique place.

A place that is a feast for the eyes.

With many traditions.

A city which is optimistically looking at its future.

Which lately, many have been very proud and happy to call home.

Happy Mardi Gras!!!!

All photos are from flickr or nola.com

I can't begin to tell you how thrilled I am to be included in the latest issue of Art Galleries and Artists of the South.

The lighting I design has always been an outgrowth of my fine arts background.

Form, line, composition, rhythm, color and pattern, as well as classical proportions form the basis of my work.

My finishes come from years of working with paints and other media to create beautiful pieces which I see as jewelry for the rooms they inhabit.

 

The interior shot which is included  in the article comes from an absolutely gorgeous New Orleans home owned by Tom, a good friend and client. The house is located in the Garden District and I think he told me it was built around 1830. I had created several pieces for the more informal rooms in his house and now he was ready to get some pieces for his living and dining rooms.

The two rooms line up along the right hand side of the house and are separated by a cased opening, so the two chandeliers needed to relate to each other as well as to the grand proportions of the rooms.

 

Each would hang from an ornate plaster medallion which was original to the house.

We decided to place a custom sized "Sheldon" chandelier in the living room because the Tom wanted something open and airy, gilded and with crystals. He especially liked the beaded fronds which are featured on the central band.

As soon as it was hung, we knew it was perfect for the room!

Next, it was time to hang the one in the dining room. Working closely with Tom, I created a piece that would be a good partner for the one in the living room. It is also gilded with crystals, but more ornate and festive.

We made sure to hang it at just the right height for the table as well as for the mirror we wanted to reflect it.

It has twelve lights which hang in pairs from six places around the band. There are leaves on each arm as well as spokes which radiate out from the center which form a relationship with the medallion above.

 

The mirror placed over the mantel reflects both the living and dining room chandeliers, doubling the effect of each.

 

I love the spare and uncluttered look of these rooms which create the perfect backdrop for these two over the top chandeliers. Since these pictures were shot, the addition of some great pieces of art has made these rooms complete.

As everyone knows, the city of New Orleans is in the deepest throes of the Saints going to the Superbowl! There is nowhere that this is more true than at Julie Neill Designs! We can barely contain ourselves, wearing our black and gold garb, sporting our Who Dat t-shirts, and talking about nothing else. This morning we took time before going to the studio to have a "WhoDat" breakfast at Slim Goodies, a wonderful diner down the street from our shop, which has been painted with the
Black and Gold and emblazoned with "Go Saints"  painted on their front window.

Caught up as we are in the Saints excitement, we couldn't help but coming up with a couple of chandeliers dedicated to our team! We're gonna light their way to winning the Superbowl!

The first one we made was all New Orleans, and all out! It has a crown of fleur de lis, and a heaping of Saints beads with the black and  gold fleur de lis as well as some pearls and crystal  strands thrown in.

We created it in true Who Dat style, with nothing held back and an exuberant appreciation for the black and gold, it's all -out New Orleans fun.

Mary and Jennifer, the two biggest Who Dats in our group are so proud of their handiwork! Aren't they the cutest Saints fans?

Of course we had to hang it in the window of the shop...Because we're lighting up the way to a big win for our Saints!!

So many of our neighbors have put out the Black and Gold in support of our team.

Here's what jewelry designer Mignon Faget's shop looks like these days.

Peggy Stafford had this gorgeous tile mural made to decorate the front of her fabulous Stafford Tile and Stone.

Katy Beh flies the flags of the Who Dat nation at her jewelry shop.

 

Even Our Lady of Good Counsel church can't help but display its team "spirit"!

Julie Ponze, our Sales Director has made dressing "Who Dat" a fashion statement.

I'm "wearing" the next chandelier we came up with. It's black crystal with gilded fleur de lis and gold crystals and some Saints fleur de lis thrown in for fun.

It seems that all we can do in New Orleans this week is eat,

(there's Mary with a "Saints in the Superbowl" cake.

drink and party till it's all over.

This photo from nola.com shows that Who Dat's know how to party New Orleans Style.

We will be closed on Monday as a recovery day because partying will be epic! I hear many businesses will do the same.

There will be a day of rest in the Who Dat Nation because New Orleanians will be celebrating all night long, and we're so proud of our team!

 

No city loves their football team more than we do!

Geaux Saints!

Read all about it here.

From the WISH section of the Times-Picayune.

By Susan Langenhennig

photo by RUSTY COSTANZA / THE TIMES-PICAYUNE

Lighting designer Julie Neill, right, and interior designer Shawn O'Brien  teamed up to open N+O design studio on Magazine Street.

N+O - Neill and O’Brien

3822 Magazine St., 504.309.4462

"Lighting designer Julie Neill and interior designer Shawn O’Brien should have named their new endeavor yin and yang. That’s the feel of the place — natural dualities coalescing into a chic, inimitable whole. Neill is known for her custom chandeliers, sconces, coffee tables and consoles. O’Brien is known for her fresh interiors and for amassing a library-sized collection of gorgeous, to-the-trade-only fabrics. Their new combined studio is a double-parlor-sized space filled with metal and hand-blown glass lighting, furniture and art. Upstairs features an amazingly organized room bursting with an estimated 50,000 fabric swatches, available by appointment to retail customers as well as other designers. Since everything here springs from the minds of these crafty women, expect to see some whimsical and wonderful experiments. Their latest? Slender metal wall sconces embellished with jewelry made by local artist Madilynn Nelson. "

It all began when my good friend, the very talented interior designer Shawn O'Brien commissioned me to create a coffee table for one of her clients.

The project was a total renovation of a New Orleans "shotgun" house in the Garden District. Shawn's client, an avid art collector had worked closely with her to create a sophisticated yet fun, modern interpretation of  this traditional New Orleans style home.

They needed a coffee table that would be completely unique. It would need to express the personality of the owner and sit comfortably among the other art pieces in the room. It would need to be a focal point but be light and in keeping with the easy-going feel of the space.

Lightness and whiteness are the backdrop for the art and furnishings and I needed to address this.

Amazing art is everywhere, so the coffee table had to carry it's own weight, and be a welcome part of the greater whole. And as you can see, it needed to be sophisticated as well as fun.

Working closely with Shawn, I developed a design for a rectangular table with a steel base and a top made of 3/4" glass. Within the base of the table is an oval frame which holds a glass shelf containing 4 blown glass nude acrobatic figures. At the bottom of each leg is a crystal ball which gives the impression that the table is floating above the ground.

It is playful and beautiful and the client was thrilled!

Shawn and I had so much fun working together that we decided to create a new business together. We opened a small showroom in front of Julie Neill Designs production shop at 3822 Magazine Street. It is our studio where we offer full service interior design services as well as custom furniture and lighting design.

We are developing some products which are clean, modern, sophisticated and a little bit unexpected. So stop by if you're in the neighborhood. Or call us at 504-309-4462 to make an appointment. We're working on a website and I'll let you know when it goes up.