So what you ask makes a designer worth their salt in the design world ? Well when it comes to southern designers throughout the state of Louisiana and in particularly New Orleans, it’s attention to detail. Some of the better designers I’ve had the pleasure of working with over the past 40 years have been based in and around New Orleans. Because my specialty happens to be the sale, restoration and refurbishing of old antique iron beds, it’s probably the passion people of Louisiana have for the past and things like iron beds. Of every state in the nation, I have helped more people in Louisiana lovingly recreate the Victorian era in their homes and B&B’s. Although you’ll certainly find your share of modern designers in New Orleans and across the state…… they are definitely in the minority. Which is not the case the farther north you travel.
Twenty National Register Historic Districts have been established, and fourteen local historic districts aid in the preservation of New Orleans. Thirteen of the local historic districts are administered by the New Orleans Historic District Landmarks Commission (HDLC), while one—the French Quarter—is administered by the Vieux Carre Commission (VCC). Additionally, both the National Park Service, via the National Register of Historic Places, and the HDLC have landmarked individual buildings, many of which lie outside the boundaries of existing historic districts. So it’s easy to see the appreciation the locals and designers have for their historic past.
The French influence throughout the design field in Louisiana is also thick with tradition, going back to the Louisiana Purchase , which was the acquisition by the United States of America in 1803, of 828,000 square miles of France’s claim to the territory of Louisiana. By 1840, New Orleans had become the wealthiest and the third-most populous city in the nation. The recreation of that periods opulence is no easy task and takes a well schooled knowledge it’s history, architecture and materials.
Our hats go off to the preservation of the past that so many designers of New Orleans and Louisiana have taken upon themselves to undertake.
