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July 2008 Introducing CALIFORNIA’S LEADING LADIES -for- Meet the women who are running successful businesses in the Bay Area More than ever, women are likely to be at the helm of their own companies. Today, there are more than 1 million businesses in California that are owned by women. To celebrate, California Home+Design is spotlighting the personalites behind some of the Bay Area’s most dynamic businesses. From interior design to real estate, each of these businesses is worth a look. ALEXANDRA RAY DIRECTOR / FOUNDER, FIVE SENSES INTERIORS 1. How would you describe your design philosophy? To elevate our interiors by stimulating all five senses. Our finished interiors are places where people feel inspired uplifeted and alive. 2. What makes your approach unique? We go above and beyond two-dimensional design. For instance, we can customize a signature scent for our clients; source tactile textures, fabrics, artwork and sculpture; create a “wow factor” through color and form; and incorporate state-of-the-art sound systems and water features. We order, edit, create and embellsih to create beautiful and functional spaces. 3. What is your guiding principle? A home is ore than a place to eat and sleep. It’s where we sustain ourselves intellectually, physcially and spiritually. We help clients get in touch with their senses and, in turn, this gives them a feeling of well-being. Saturday, February 16, 2008 Lifestyles: Home & Garden Fine Living: Designing to indulge all five senses By: PJ Bremier http://www.marinij.com/lifestyles/ci_8279977 WHY ARRANGE furniture just to please the eye when there are four more senses to tempt? That's the question interior designer Alexandra Ray asks her Marin clients and it's the same one she posed to her London clients before she relocated her design firm, Five Senses Interiors, here two years ago. Since then, she's paired up with a French-born fashion insider, Patricia Blanc, and expanded the business from interiors and fine arts consulting to hotel branding and custom gift boxes. "We're just two Europeans who clicked and we're excited to shake things up here so that people can have more fun," Ray says. "It's a lot more fun in London. Design is innovative and eclectic and people are really living with art, creatively; they're not afraid to put personality into their homes." Marin residents, she believes, "are very smart but very traditional and tend to follow a trend or pattern" when decorating." Instead, she thinks, clients are more satisfied when they identify their sensual needs and create a home that caters to them. "Whether in London, Paris, Tokyo or Marin, our lives are crazy and we're all searching for sanctuary," she adds. "Your home has got to feed your soul. Anyone can buy furniture, but I help people feel connected to their interiors so they speak to them on all different sensual levels, so home is a source of peace and beauty or whatever it is they need." And it can be pocketbook-friendly. "People find out the hard way that a designer can saveyou time and money," she observes. "Not everyone wants to spend their weekends shopping for paints and rugs." She does, though. One month each summer is spent scouting London and its surroundings, and she says she researches "24 hours a day" when she's here. She's got a modern aesthetic and claims to "drink in everything through my senses. I'm always looking at what people are doing and eating and colors they're wearing." Projects are charged by the hour so clients can control it and the cost but she only takes on clients who are ready to make changes and go on a fun adventure. Part of that adventure is being exposed to fashionable European designers unavailable on the West Coast, such as Atelier Abigail Ahern, Coco de Mer, Dutch by Design, Conran, Capellini, Skandium and Zara Home. She favors contemporary and painterly works and considers Cecily Brown and St. Martin's School of Arts classmate Peter Doig among her favorites. "Cecily's already made it, but if you can ever get your hands on one, you're one very lucky person." She's also placed Louise Bourgouis, Roni Horn, Chris Ofili, Vik Muniz in corporate collections. "Art is hot right now, period." Eyestorm is often tapped for affordable art; Water Water for incredible water features that change color, Cath Kidston for vintage touches and the Rug Company for eccentric designers such as Vivienne Westwood. "We love Missoni Home for its new range of rugs, threaded curtains in vibrant playful colors. It also has a great outdoor furniture range. It's not in America yet but in Europe, it's very fashionable." For her custom scents ($125 to $300), she often relies on L'Artisan Parfumeur in Paris. "They are true innovators and remain very Proustian in their approach to scents." Scents include Tilleul au Vent (wind in the lime trees) which is "a sweet and velvety journey through the smell of linden blossoms with lemon tea notes," she says, or Pour des Prunes ( sugar plum), which smells like a "reverie of sugar plum cakes in the nursery." Because we taste with our eyes first, she likes to use food as edible art objects, whether it's luscious fruits from the farmers market or special chocolates from local Michael Rechuitti and Woodhouse or Italian products from Carluccio's in London. "It can be completely unpredictable; something like an unusual display of beautiful star fruit ." For one San Francisco couple - he's a chef, she works in high-tech - the company created a hot, spicy-colored kitchen for him, a custom home scent of fresh linens for her, layered the bedroom in a mix of textures and dressed the walls in contemporary art by Bay Area artists. It gave them a whole new environment. It's what she's doing now for another client - the new owners of the 68-room Inn Marin in Ignacio. She says she was startled when she first saw the rooms - they reminded her of a prison cellblock - so she had them resurfaced. She's chosen wood-and-leather furniture that honors the Mission-style building, and a warm palette of reds, gold and camel. She's also customized an allergy-free scent based on natural flower essences for all the rooms, installing contemporary art by Bay Area artist Dan Warth and swathing the beds in soft bamboo sheets and coverlets with fleecy blankets. Not ready to splurge on your home yet? Answer a preference questionnaire on the company's Web site and try a customized gift box. Priced at $395, they've been very popular, she says, among clients who wanted to pamper themselves, friends or clients. "They're like a day at the spa." For more information, call 816-5235 or go to ww.fivesensesinteriors.com. PJ Bremier writes on home, garden, design and entertaining topics every Saturday. She may be contacted at P.O. Box 412, Kentfield 94914 or pj@mindspring.com. November 2005 Home sense ALEX RAY HAS HELPED hundreds of people transform their homes into the perfect sanctuary through the unique approach of her company Five Senses Interiors. Using sight, sound, smell, touch and tast, she creates beautiful interiors that are suited perfectly to your individual needs. ‘It’s about bringing your enviornment to life,’ says Alex. ‘Everything in he home should reflect your own personality and satisfy all your sensual tastes. They are also there to create a welcoming atmoshpere for all who enter.’ With Britain firmly in the grip of a design obsession, people often find it hard to assimilate this into their living space in a way that still projects chracter. Five Senses helps to manifest the vision we all have for our home, but can’t turn it into reality on our own. As the name suggests, it follows a philossophy of sensual design. ‘Whether the whole home needs attention, or one room, I first look to understand who you are and from there quite an exciting collaboration develops until we arrive at a result that lights up the soul of your home, enthuses Alex. Often the result surprises her clients, and while many may use Five Senses to help sell or rent their home, a couple recently found it had the opposite effect. ‘They were an affluent couple in theirhad never really made their 40s,’ explains Alex, ‘but they house a home. They were convinced that selling was preferrable to chinaging things, so on a small budget we finished all the details, applied the practical touches and put their personalities back into the home. They were so happy with the result that they decided not to sell after all. If you feel that your home could do with a touch of Alex’s magic, whether it be a makeover, or just to breathe a bit of lighter energy into your existing decor, the now is the time to take that step. www.fivesensesinteriors.com 12 fresh picks to give and receive december 2008 decemberfinds by mickhael romain bay area designer alexandra ray makes gift boxes filled with treats for each of the five senses, including chocolates from San Francisco's Michael Recchiuti ($395;fivesensesinteriors.com).