Martha Stewart’s Opal Point Collection for Bernhardt is really a smash. The design team went to the West Coast this time for inspiration, and the result is a collection of sophisticated and sometimes glamorous pieces that fit with today’s trends and lifestyles. My favorite piece was the Page Dressing Table, a gracefully curved work in bird’s eye maple with an attached oval mirror at the center back. The hardware—nickel with mother-of-pearl—is exquisite. Other wonderful pieces: a needlepoint bench and a tall cabinet with a basket weave pattern on its wood front.
Martha spoke at the press preview, welcoming all of us and providing her thoughts on the collection. Later, the IHFC sponsored what was billed as “an evening of design and decorating with Martha Stewart.” After what was certainly the best dinner I have ever eaten in High Point (desert was Krispy Kreme bread pudding), she spoke about not only her new furniture collection and what inspires her designs, but also about her new book, The Martha Rules. She said she wanted to write a business book for some time, and now she has.
I have always approached reading her cooking and housekeeping books as a sort of domestic voyeurism since I never have the time to actually accomplish any of the things in them, but I like to see how they are done. I’m wondering if the 10 Essentials for Achieving Success as Your Start, Grow, or Manage a Business in Martha Rules (that’s the subtitle of her book) will feel similarly out of reach. But I was so impressed with this woman’s energy and enthusiasm that I’m going to give the book a try.
If you are in High Point for the market, don’t leave without seeing Opal Point at Bernhardt on the 6th floor of the Design wing.