It is not too late to enter California Home+Design’s Achievement Awards! The deadline for entries is this Friday, Nov 21. If you are a design professional and you have completed a project worthy of some bragging rights, submit it!

The full scoop with submission requirements: http://www.chdmag.com/chd-awards-submission-guidelines

I never thought I would say this, but thanks to designers like Susie Mendive of SUM I am actually ecstatic wallpaper has made such a solid comeback. This is gen-u-ine excitement. My parents coated our home with wallpaper in the early 80’s, and it wasn’t pretty. It was so bad I remember as a little girl trying to peel it off to hint to my parents that they needed to do something with the walls. Now, times are different and I want to paper my walls myself!

Wallpaper actually gets me all riled up so I apologize in advice for my lengthy list of questions with Susie Mendive. Enjoy!

I know a bit about your background…a graphic designer with a graduate degree from North Carolina then to LA then to NY as art director with stila cosmetics…but I think there are some holes, especially in how you transitioned from branding cosmetics to designing modern wallpaper. Tell us more! How did SUM come together?

It happened very organically. I very much wanted to design and produce my own product and call all the shots. It just made sense at that point in my career. There is a lot of hard work involved and it can be consuming but I like taking it one step at the time.

Tell us about the name, SUM. How did you come up with this?

My husband and I were in Tokyo and it just hit me, Su is from Susie and M from Mendive but more than that it was the idea of a total home concept…SUM of all parts. A total approach to design and living.

The female silhouettes of your Floral Femme Fatale prints are an amazing graphic. They have a significant presence let alone bring Read the rest of this entry »