The joy of good design

Published 8:00 am Saturday, September 1, 2018

I have a confession. When it comes to design, I’m not so good.

For years I thought my green paisley tie went with everything. It didn’t.

In the photo that accompanies this column, I look well put together. It’s a lie. The clothes were on loan from a retailer in Longview who carefully selected each piece. I had nothing to do with it.

By the way, my green paisley tie would have looked great with the brown jacket I’m wearing in the photo.

If it was up to me, the couch in my living room would be a bunch of mismatched bean bags (at least one held together by duct tape) clumped together. It worked just fine for me when I was single and living alone in the mid-1980s.

For some reason, my wife, doesn’t share my passion for bachelor chic.

I know what you must be thinking. “But the magazine looks so good.”

Again, not me. The look of the magazine is in the capable hands of Kathy Garvin, our creative director and designer. 

This edition of Lifestyles Magazine is all about good design — none of which I had anything to do with.

Check out the careful plating of the entrees served by brothers Brad and Wes Ebey at Jack Ryan’s restraurants. Look at the integration of modern and Western influences in a ranch house decorated by Mary Anne Smiley, an interior designer in Dallas.

See how former Tylerite Ashley Darryl is turning heads with her interior design projects in New York City. 

The Botique in Bullard offers fashions that are perfect for the fall social season. And get a close look at some of the intricate jeweled designs on Texas Rose Festival Rose Queen coronation gowns. 

Enjoy Lifestyles Magazine and if you see me wearing a green paisley tie, just smile politely. If you see Kathy Garvin, tell her the magazine looks great.