Modenus’ BlogTour New Orleans 2013

I’m positively thrilled to share with you that I will be returning to the BlogTour family this April as they take New Orleans by storm during the 2013 Kitchen and Bath Industry Show (KBIS). I was deeply honored to be part of BlogTour’s maiden voyage to London in 2011, and over the last two years I have watched with pride and joy as my friends Veronika Miller and Tim Bogan have taken their idea to marry world travel with design and create a design experience unlike any other.

This trip will also mark my return to KBIS. I had last attended the show in 2010 in Chicago, and was so highly disappointed with the show that year that I decided to remove it from my “must attend” design shows list. For whatever reason there was a heavy, melancholic and stagnant feel to KBIS that year. It felt like everyone from show management to exhibitors to buyers had just phoned it in. When asked by designers or others in the home décor industry if attending KBIS would be worthwhile, my answer was no – unless all you do is kitchens and baths (and even then) it wasn’t worth the precious travel expenditures and time it would require.

When I learned that Veronika’s company Modenus along with Flying Camel, White Good and O’Reilly-DePalma would be adding their brand of sparkling design excitement to KBIS, I took note. I’m confident that this media and public relations collaboration with KBIS will help to rehabilitate the show’s image and make it appealing and inspiring to designers, retailers and the press once again. I look forward to visiting a new and exciting KBIS, and honestly, I can’t think of a better city for a brand’s rebirth than New Orleans. As they say in New Orleans, “Laissez les bons temps rouler!” (Let the good times roll!)

Follow the Decorating Diva coverage of BlogTour New Orleans from April 16th – April 20th.  I will be joined in New Orleans by the following distinguished bloggers, writers and designers, several of them are also BlogTour Alum! :

• Toma Haines of The Antiques Diva
• Tamara Stephenson of Nest by Tamara
• Kelly Morisseau of Kitchen Sync
• Jennifer Mehditash of Dec a Porter
• Linda Merrill of Surroundings
• Cynthia Bogart of The Daily Basics
• Rebecca Reynolds of New Canaan Kitchen
• Arne Salvesen of Useful Spaces
• Leslie Fine of Leslie Fine Interiors
• Gloria Graham-Sollecito of Brendan Donovan Cabinets
• Barbara Hirsch of Elza B. Design
• Erica Islas of EMI Design
• Patricia Brown of Patricia Davis Brown Designs, LLC