Host of ‘You’re Home’ to Speak on Creativity

“That’s just a Kittyism,” says Kitty Bartholomew, pointing to a message-filled blackboard in a gilded picture frame in her kitchen. “So is the stemmed glass full of beans I use as a candlestick.”

Her Santa Monica house abounds with examples of the way she takes ordinary objects and tweaks them into new uses. It’s that creative way of looking at objects that Bartholomew, host of Home and Garden TV’s “You’re Home,” will be talking about at 10 a.m. today at the Laguna Design Center.

“This year, more than any other of the 12 years I’ve been doing television, I’ve spent a lot of time in Orange County,” Bartholomew says as she runs her hand through her trademark black hair with silver streaks. “I’ve discovered that Orange County is really a powerful pocket of creativity. I love the spirit and the energy I see there.”

Bartholomew says her goal as a TV personality is to showcase clever, affordable solutions. “My show is not ‘Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous,’ and I’m not impressed by overly expensive, cookie-cutter kinds of looks,” she says. “My goal is to empower the viewers and help them make choices and tempt them into trying to do their own design projects.

“I want them to say, ‘Yeah, I can do that.’ ”

Bartholomew began her career as an interior designer and started at ABC’s “Home Show” in 1984. Over the years, she’s seen changes in the way these fields have grown. There is now a cable channel dedicated to home improvement, and she sees people taking an active interest in designing homes that reflect their lifestyles.

Her advice to those who are decorating their first homes is twofold:

* Find out what you like. “People think they don’t know what they like, but they really do because they’ve been dressing their bodies for years. So the first thing to ask yourself is ‘What’s your favorite tie? Shirt? What is it that you grab that you feel comfortable in and is special to you?’ Then break down the elements about that and you’ll find out what you really like.”

* Collect images of what you like. Bartholomew suggests ripping pages out of magazines and circling favorite areas. “Pretend money’s no object. Study the picture and ask yourself what about it that you like. For example, you might not like the whole room, but you like the print on the sofa.”

She also suggests tearing out pictures of rooms you could never live in. “Look for those rooms that make you say, ‘No way.’ ”

After you lay out all your likes and dislikes, you will find common denominators. Once you start looking at your initial responses to something, you can learn which direction to go. That will give you confidence, too.”

As she explains, you’ll sometimes see the same color over and over again. Or you may discover you hate patterned furniture but love patterned rugs. Or perhaps all your favorite rooms have shutters or elaborate drapery or sectionals.

Bartholomew recognizes that people who rent homes often can’t use paint or put holes in walls to hang pictures. Over the years, she’s suggested they use spring rods and removable wallpaper.

“It’s good to buy things that have flexibility for when you move up,” she says. “For example, a room divider screen can be used in lots of rooms. Old trunks are great and can be used in many different ways, like for storage or as a coffee table.”

“There are so many looks,” she continues, gesturing to her bookcase full of home design books, “and yet so many pieces are adaptable to many motifs. If you’re smart in your initial purchases, be it an antique or a chair, you can reuse it in different ways.”

Harder, perhaps, is changing a look after you’ve had it awhile. “That’s what I’ve recently done,” says Bartholomew. “I had an English country look with chintzes, cabbage roses, tortoise bamboo, plates on the wall. It’s all gone since my marriage a year ago. I’m so crazy about my husband that we’ve found our own new direction together.”

Even if you trade cabbage roses for abstract art as Bartholomew did, your personality remains in the house, she says.

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Schedule and Highlights

The Laguna Design Center’s Entertaining by Design event is open to the public from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. today. Tickets are $15 at the door and will benefit the Philharmonic Society of Orange County.

The Laguna Design Center address is 23811 Aliso Creek Road, Laguna Niguel. Telephone: (949) 643-2926.

Highlights include:

* Kitty Bartholomew and Dan Marty, owner of Corona del Mar’s Urban Gardener and Les Interieurs, will design a tabletop from 10 to 11 a.m.

* Designer-comedienne Lynn Anne Chichi will offer party ideas for the millennium from 3 to 4 p.m.

* More than 30 showrooms will display tabletops dressed for the season. Designers will be available to answer questions.