denise ritchie
Vickie Lautenbach (right), owner of Elegance by the Sea, and her associate Linda Kerley review their busy schedules in the decorating showroom and design studio they created in The Village Shops.
are anxious to have the renovation done sooner, the designers will work to move the project along to accommodate them. “We have completed several projects in three months, so long as we can begin the design process after the season and work on it during the slower summer months,” Vickie explains. “In the current economy, manufacturers and reps are working hard to make sure our industry has the latest and greatest fabrics and furnishings available to designers; however, we sometimes find that fabrics have been discontinued so we always have to check availability.”
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ickie has faced bigger hurdles than fabric availability. “My husband was with IBM and we moved 17 times, south, north, east, west, and then to Europe. Each time we moved I had to create a home with what we had,
and I always enjoyed the experience. After settling the kids in school, finding doctors and places to shop, I then had time to decorate the house. I knew what I wanted but I didn’t know how to get it done, so I would always work with someone who did and I began to learn from them. They always appreciated the fact that I had good color sense and knew what I wanted. “When we moved to Paris and rented a newly remodeled apartment, we had to do a lot of planning and preparing before we arrived,” Vickie recalls. “In France, the apartment lifestyle is very different. For instance, there was nothing in the kitchen – it was basically a small, empty room. A passion of mine is cooking, so I designed the space with the eyes of a gourmet cook; my husband called it my ‘dollhouse’ American kitchen. “Also, everything had to be measured in centimeters. I had been
working with my decorator in Texas, and when the containers arrived with everything we needed, we had our French-speaking maintenance people all lined up to do the installation. Three weeks later when my husband and I were enjoying dinner in the dining room, he commented that the apartment was beautiful – that it felt like home already. “I had brought along familiar furnishings from our Texas home but no accessories or artwork because I wanted to collect things from where we were living and traveling, especially in Paris where I immersed myself in the French culture. So when we returned to the States, we brought back an extra container of some really beautiful things. I loved living in Paris and left kicking and screaming!”
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hen her husband Dan retired, the desire to own a place where the sun shines and balmy breezes blow brought the Lautenbachs to Vero Beach, where Vickie’s long-held passion for decorating and acquired design expertise led her to establish Elegance by the Sea. “When I started my company I wanted it to be a service business. I love meeting new people and I wanted to do whatever I could to help them enjoy their surroundings and the time they spend here,” she says. “Living in a small town like Vero Beach and finding qualified contractors with excellent experience has been significant, and I think the quality of what we offer is one of the reasons we get a lot of referrals and repeat business. In fact, Linda and I are flying up to Maryland to help the couple we worked with on the South Beach condo finish renovating their 1906 waterfront farm home up there. We can’t wait.” `
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