Photography by Katherine Bish
Imagine that behind Door No. 1 is a neutral room filled with a fine balance of furniture, paintings, lighting, hardwood flooring, a coffee table covered in books, and windows of elegant drapes. Collectively, it could be a page right out of a catalog.
Behind Door No. 2 is a room identical to No.1, except that Anna Buechter has been there. Note the texture-rich pillows and cushions, the custom silk lampshades—the light now catches the sparkle of crystal trim. A footstool, barely noticed in the first room, is now crowned with a cunning small cushion. A papier mâché box on the end table has morphed into a mini treasure chest, detailed in ribbons and tiny feathers.
A perfectionist, Ms . Buechter doesn’t just see design; she feels design. “When I walk into a room, I see all the little details that have to be added,” she says. Thinking “big” occupies so much time that most of us overlook the small flourishes which can actually change the final look. “Change a white lampshade to a custom silk shade and it completely changes the whole room.”
An artist/designer, Ms. Buechter manages her own business, the Golden Needle Design Studio (314-522-9830) and works with designers or homeowners to “finish” rooms. With her needle and thread (and sewing machine for larger creations), she completes any living space, one piece at a time.
But rather than just meet with homeowners and their swatches of fabric, Anna prefers to see the setting when deciding on trims and fabrics . “The embellishment, beadings and the nooks and crannies part I do by myself,” but she can start at the beginning or the end of the design process. “It doesn’t really matter as long as I know what the designer and the client want at any stage.”
Her Euro sensibilities translate into her handwork. With her tiny tools, beads, handmade trims, and keen talent for turning fabrics into cushioned and upholstered works of art, she harmonizes, details and, ultimately, makes a room pop. Growing up in St. Petersburg (Russia, not Florida), Ms. Buechter was influenced by frequent visits to the city’s brilliant museums. Under her grandmother’s tutelage, she began sewing at age 5, and eventually mastered all manner of handwork.
“I always think of myself as a small detail person,” she says. “I look at the pillow or the lampshade and customize my beading to it. I don’t like to reproduce [my designs] except when making two of something - you need a pair, but that’s the extent of my repetition. I keep everything unique.” However, she did recently contrive an embellishment using hand-carved mother-of-pearl beads that she just might repeat somewhere—“it is fabulous,” she says.
Some of Ms. Buechter’s favorite things? Beads from Bali, Swarovski crystals, hand-dyed ribbons from Japan, soft colors and neutrals, and fabrics from Scalamandré, Colefax and Fowler, and Brunschwig & Fils. She combs vintage and antique shops for yesteryear jewelry, reusing the baubles to embellish her own original trims and braids.
Her finishing work also constitutes her relaxation. With her Missouri native husband and four children, she is also renovating the family’s 120-year-old Victorian home. Still, she finds time to comb vintage and antique shops for yesteryear jewelry, disassembling and reusing some pieces in her handwork. She looks for antique linens and unfinished needlepoint pieces to complete. A self-confessed book junkie, Ms. Buechter also gorges on interior design publications, and not surprisingly, given her love for salvaging architectural pieces, she is now interested in learning how to work with wood.
Anna Buechter’s simplest advice on the power of design detail: “Change a room by adding accessories, changing the color, and changing the positions of the room’s pieces.”
