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I had the pleasure of experiencing the magical world of Julie Neill Designs while in New Orleans over the past two weeks installing the Southern Style now Showhouse and attending the festivities.
Julie is a lighting designer with a beautiful showroom located on Magazine Street in New Orleans or Nola as the locals call it. I have been a fan of her work for many years. Julie is known for creating beautiful traditional beaded chandeliers similar to what you see above. However, my visit proved this designer is much more than a one-trick pony. Julie can design lighting your heart desires. One visit to her website reveals some of the many styles of lighting she designs and creates, but when it comes to Julie, the sky is the limit as far as design goes. She has created lighting for the famous Brennan’s Restaurant in New Orleans, as well as many other places that would surprise you. Her latest venture into plaster has my design wheels spinning. Here is the Diego Chandelier she created for Melanie Turner, designer the foyer in the Atlanta Home and Lifestyles “Southeastern Showhouse” in Atlanta, Georgia in May where I was also a designer.
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This photo was taken before the room was finished but even then the Julie Neill “Diego” chandelier was the star of the show.
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Julie also worked with several designers in the Southern Style Now showhouse which is currently on tour in New Orleans. Check out the beautiful plaster sconces Julie designed for the bathroom of Betsey Hazard, senior designer, at Shaun Smith Home. She used the Diego sconce and elongated it for a bit of drama in this tiny
jewel box bathroom Betsey so artfully designed.
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Laura Burleson Interiors had creative fun with Julie in
her bathroom as well. Laura collaborated with Julie to
design flowers as sconces and overhead lighting,
but also sprinkled them across the ceiling so creatively
it was hard to differentiate between the ones that were
actual lighting and those that were sculptures.
Just beautiful! Here is a photo showing a tiny bit the
beautiful trail of sculpted flowers that lined the ceiling
of this bathroom. The outcome of this custom designed
lighting was simply exquisite!
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Laura creatively used the flower sconces as the overhead
lighting as well in the bathroom.
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She also used it as the wall sconce on either side of the mirror.
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New Orleans Designer, Shaun Smith, collaborated with Julie to custom design a “Mississippi Magnolia” Sconce for the front door of the showhouse.
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Here is the Magnolia Sconce illuminated at the front door of the home. Doesn’t this make a statement at the entry of this southern home? I cannot wait to create something special with Julie for my home or a client’s home. She is truly an artisan.
My dear friend, Lance Jackson of Parker Kennedy Living was asked to design Julie’s window for the Southern Style Now festivities. Robert Leleux, the producer of the event, asked designers to design windows depicting the seven deadly sins. Parker Kennedy was asked to design a window which represented gluttony. The result was nothing short of brilliant! They chose to use Marie Antionette as their muse and her famous saying “Let them eat cake” as the theme for Julie’s window.
Southern Artist, Carrie Penley of Georgia was commissioned to create a custom painting of Marie Antoinette for the window.
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When Lance was ready to install the window, Julie and I had a grand time
chatting and watching he worked around the showroom and methodically placed each of the many busts he had been collecting for the window display. While Lance draped yards and yards of tulle throughout the window and around Julie’s beautiful chandeliers, Julie
told me the story of how Julie Neill began.
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Julie explained how she hand chose special fabricators to do each style of chandelier. One fabricator is better at gliding or crystals, another is better at plaster, but each chandelier has one finisher which produces that specific style, so the quality is always up to Julie’s standards. Her attention to detail and desire to produce top quality products is unparalleled in the lighting industry.
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Here is a glimpse of the middle window of the Julie Neill showroom with Carrie Penley’s art as the focal point. There are three windows, but I could only get a good shot of one of the center window. If you are in New Orleans, make sure you see the window before the festival ends. My photo doesn’t do it justice. The effect of this display is simply stunning.
(The Beautiful furniture is in the window is from Julie’s retail partner, Ave Home, whom I wrote about in Monday’s post here.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention, Julie’s beautiful artwork which hangs in her studio. I fell hard for these pieces which Julie creates with pages of books fashioned into dress designs to create the artwork.
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The artwork is designed by Julie, and the dresses are crafted from the pages of books like hymnals or self-help books which often have uplifting or mentions of love among the pages. After she finishes the piece, she looks for the title from the sentences from the pages of the book used to create the dress.
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She has made replicas of christening gowns and wedding dresses for clients. Julie said crafting these pieces were therapeutic for her. I loved each piece because I could see the love Julie put into each one. I think she should call these works her “Pieces Collection” because a little piece of Julie is shared in the crafting of each one.
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Julie’s latest artwork is more contemporary proving this artist has no limit to her cache’. I am in love with all things Julie Neill and I must tell you, that the artist herself is as charming and beautiful as her work.
If you are looking for beautifully artisan lighting or artwork, make sure you visit Julie Neill’s website to see more of her offerings here. Better yet, if you find yourself in Nola make sure you visit her studio and meet Julie
or Brent Talavera, who works with Julie.
For information on anything you have seen here contact Julie Neill showroom at brent@julieneill.com
To see more of Julie’s work make sure to
follow her social channels here:
I adore all of Julie’s lighting but below are a few of my favs….
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