Sophia Bennett, Editor in Chief of Window Fashion VISIONWindow Fashion VISION is thrilled to announce the winners of this year’s VISION Design & Workroom Competition Awards, which were founded to recognize artisans in the window fashion industry and celebrate the amazing work they do every day. This year’s awards were sponsored by Kirsch Drapery Hardware.
Top honors went to Tracie Bresnahan (left) with Custom Creations in Cartersville, Georgia, who was named Workroom of the Year, and Lori Yanez (below) with Sheffield Furniture & Interiors Workroom in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, who was named Designer of the Year. Bresnahan received a total of five awards during this year’s award ceremony, including Ingenious Installation and Bedding/Pillows. Yanez got three awards, including ones for Specialty Window Fashions and Combination Treatments (Diane Ten Broeck was a co-recipient for both projects).
Sandra VanSickle of Apex, North Carolina, received the annual Industry Achievement Award, which recognizes people who have make a special contribution to the industry. VanSickle was honored for founding Mask America, a grassroots campaign to make masks for medical professionals and other during the COVID-19 outbreak. So far, volunteers with the effort have made over 130,000 masks.
The VISION Design & Workroom Competition Awards were founded by Window Fashion VISION publisher Grace McNamara 28 years ago. She realized that people in this small but important segment of the interior design industry were often overlooked in other competitions. As the only award program that exclusively recognizes the work of window covering professionals, these honors call attention to the importance of window coverings and the people who specify and make them.
Workroom Competition Winners
Bedding & Pillows
1st Place: Tracie Bresnaham, Custom Creations, Cartersville, GA
2nd Place: Melissa Hammann, Riviera Décor, Corpus Christi, TX
Combination Treatments
1st Place: Sigita Nusbaum, Delaney Window Fashions,LLC, Fishers, IN (above)
2nd Place: Tracie Bresnaham, Custom Creations, Cartersville, GA
Curtains & Draperies
1st Place: Tina Fontana, Fontana Designers, Crofton, MD
2nd Place: Olga Polyanskaya, Drapery Expressions & Blinds, Colorado Springs, CO
Ingenious Installations
1st Place: Jennifer Linds, Lyn’s Draperies, Belllingham, WA
2nd Place: Tracie Bresnaham, Custom Creations, Cartersville, GA (below)
Specialty Window Fashions
1st Place: Elizabeth Gerdes, Stitch Above the Rest, Woodstock, GA
2nd Place: Vita Vygovska, Vitalia, Inc., Richboro, PA
Top Treatments
1st Place: Olga Polyanskaya, Drapery Expressions & Blinds, Colorado Springs, CO
2nd Place: Sigita Nusbaum, Delaney Window Fashions, Fishers, IN
Upholstery & Slipcovers
1st Place: Leigh Anderson, Willow Upholstery & Drapery, Glenview, IL (above)
2nd Place: Tracie Bresnaham, Custom Creations, Cartersville, GA
Design Competition Winners
Combination Treatments
1st Place: Lori Yanez and Diane Ten Broeck, Sheffield Furniture & Interiors Workroom, Phoenixville, PA (below)
2nd Place: Robin Bond, Robin Bond Interiors DBA Draped, Austin, TX
Curtains & Draperies
1st Place: CJ Knapp, Yours by Design, Pacific, MO
2nd Place: Keely Hersh, Right at Home Interiors, Placerville, CA
Commercial
1st Place (tie): Carl Sly, Creative Windows, Ann Arbor, MI (above)
1st Place (tie): Atsuko Nakajima and Satoshi Mochizuki, Avenue Interior Design, Yamanashi, Japan
2nd Place: Otto and Kristi Rankin, Pacific Shades Custom Design and Automation, Phoenix, AZ
Decorative Hardware & Trim
1st Place: Keely Hersh, Right at Home Interiors, Placerville, CA
2nd Place: Olga Polyanskaya, Drapery Expressions & Blinds, Colorado Springs, CO
Motorized Window Fashions
1st Place: Emily Moss, Emily Moss Concepts & Designs, Anna Maria, FL
2nd Place: Olga Polyanskaya, Drapery Expressions & Blinds, Colorado Springs, CO
Soft Shades
1st Place: Leigh Anderson, Willow Upholstery & Drapery, Glenview, IL
2nd Place: Laura Nelson, Sew Nice Creations, Lafayette, IN
Specialty Window Fashions
1st Place: Linda H. Bassert, Masterworks Fashion & Designs, Fairfax, VA
2nd Place: Lori Yanez and Diane Ten Broeck, Sheffield Furniture & Interiors Workroom, Phoenixville, PA
Top Treatments
1st Place: Otto and Kristi Rankin, Pacific Shades Custom Design and Automation, Phoenix, AZ
2nd Place: Keely Hersh, Right at Home Interiors, Placerville, CA (below)
Whole Room Integration:
1st Place: Melinda Peters Elliott, Fine Designs & Interiors, London, OH
2nd Place: Sara Lynn Brennan, Sara Lynn Brennan Interiors, Waxhaw, NC
We also offer our deepest thanks to this year’s judges: Georgina Rice & Co. in San Francisco; Linda Tully with Custom Coverings in Scottsdale, Arizona; Amanda Smith of Sew Unordinary in Cornelius, North Carolina; Eric Ross with Eric Ross Interiors in Nashville, Tennessee; and Katherine Wozniak with Katherine Elizabeth Designs in Barrington, Illinois.
