itself to displaying several paintings, many of them nightscapes, which pop against the yellow walls. There is one exception, a watercolor of a cityscape in daytime, the work of A.H. Rey, illustrator of the Curious George children’s books. “That was [from] my aunt and uncle,” says Rokahr. “They were great collectors. They left me that and some pieces that were just incredible. A Noguchi coffee table. You don’t know what it was when you’re a kid, but later, oh my God!” The centerpiece of the room is a chartreuse sofa, flanked by two dark end tables with gold accents. “These end tables actually belonged to Earline Heath King, says Rokahr, referring to the late Winston-Salem native and sculptor, who created the iconic equestrian statue of R.J. Reynolds downtown and another of Bowman Gray, which stands before the Wake Forest School of Medicine in Innovation Quarter. “They were in her studio. They were bright blue and I had them painted,” the designer continues, pointing to a lamp with an oblong ceramic base that rests on one of the tables (“my aunt’s mid-century”). Atop the other end table is its counterpart, with a white ceramic base shaped like a pineapple. “I found it somewhere else,” Rokahr says, straightening one of the gew-gaws on the sitting room’s mantel. “Even though I’m a maximalist, I do like surfaces to be organized and planned,” she says. “There’s a method to the madness.” She became mad for decorating and interiors as a child — as far back as third or fourth grade. “Much to my mother’s chagrin — she would
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come home from work and I would’ve rearranged the whole house, taken stuff out of her bedroom and put it in the living room and put the sofa in a different direction. She was just like, ‘OK, whatever.’ She would just let me do it,” Rokahr recalls as her irrepressible laugh bubbles up again. “She was like, ‘Well at least she cleaned up while she did it.’” But the self-taught designer’s real education and “love of stuff and decorating and furniture and antiques and everything” came later, when around age 12 or 13 she started working at The Snob Shop, Winston-Salem’s — and possibly North Carolina’s first — consignment store. The brainchild of original owners and founders Marguerite Lord and Margo Majette, The Snob Shop opened in 1974 on West End Boulevard, at the convergence of Reynolda Road and Broad Streets and has been a fixture of the local retail scene ever since. Generations of shoppers have filled houses and apartments with housewares and books they pulled off of shelves that abutted bulging racks of prom dresses and cocktail attire, casual wear and children’s clothing. Rokahr remembers walking to her part-time job from Wiley Middle School. “The first thing I had to do when I came in was to empty all the ashtrays,” she says with a chuckle. “It was a mess. It was such a mess! Tangles of jewelry and stuff everywhere.” But here, too, among the madness was method: “They kept all the records by hand. All by hand. Every piece in there had a consigner number, description,” Rokahr says, recalling the clerk who painsSummer 2019