Rob's Top 12 Favorite Things

1. Home restoration. The combination of a video camera, a sledgehammer, and a load-bearing wall makes for one hilarious moment.

2. Clients who aren’t afraid of Iguana Green by Benjamin Moore.

3. My late-morning latte run to Bunbury’s Coffee Shop in Piermont, N.Y. They have the best blueberry muffins there. (Don’t tell my trainer.)

4. My trainer Bart—the only human on this planet to ignore cries of pain and suffering.

5. Arbor Hill Garden Center in Sparkill, N.Y. Once you meet Eddie and Elaine, you’re hooked on gardening!

6. My backyard, after I became hooked on gardening. There’s nowhere I’d rather be than lounging in my hammock thinking of new ways to make the world a more beautiful place to live.

7. ReLish in Sparkill, N.Y. Who would have known that I could walk right out my front door and right into a four-star restaurant. Michael Gross is a genius, and any risotto prepared there is truly a magical symphony of taste. (Don’t tell my trainer.)

8. The look on my clients’ faces when they finally understand the importance of SCALE. Friends, make sure that the sofa you fall in love with can fit through your front door.

9. Inniskillin Ice Wine from Niagara-on-the-Lake. Just a little luxury once a month.

10. My Dell laptop. I could kick myself for including it on my list, but I just cannot function as a loving, caring human being without it.

11. My white noise machine in the bedroom. The reasons why are too numerous to list.

12. My support team of Paul, my partner; Pam, my best friend; and Meesha, my other best friend—all of whom love and support me no matter what color I paint the world today.

Biography

Rob knew he was destined for life as an interior designer when he kept rearranging the furniture in his bedroom…at the age of three. Either that, or he was just trying to drive his parents mad. Both secretly satisfied him. Throughout his life, armed with a glue gun and an eye for detail, he did indeed start to make the world a more beautiful place—if not a more glittery one. Whether it was handmade holiday cards or scenery for the theatre, each of Rob’s projects shown with the brilliance of a carbon arc searchlight. It was only after the Great Hot-Glue Incident of 2001 that he felt obligated to dismantle and retire the glue gun holster from his belt.

Before his career as an interior designer, Rob worked in the theatre, both on- and off-stage, and when in doubt, he literally breaks into song and dance with a client. He has been the Director of Marketing and Public Relations for a well-known Pittsburgh company that has nothing to do with ketchup, and he has also enjoyed work as an event planner and floral designer before moving to the Big Apple.

Rob achieved his dream of being an interior designer in New York City, but he did not achieve his dream of keeping his new car intact after commuting and parking in his favorite parking lot on a day-to-day basis. He found it a mystery that he could park a perfectly manicured car in the morning and receive a dented, scratched vehicle in the evening—such is the magic of New York. He now enjoys working out of the city.

Rob lives in Sparkill, N.Y., with his partner and their rescued greyhound, Umlaut. Both feel that their beautiful greyhound should not whine about anything after being rescued, yet he does. Presently the two are in the process of restoring an old Victorian home, and while Rob boasts that he is great at demolition, he confesses that cleanup is hardly his forte. It has taken three years to completely unpack from his move to New York. He found his last box hidden in a dark, lonely corner of his attic. It contained his glue gun.