Decorating Sense

When it came time to put a face to our Home Tour, we turned immediately to our hometown home diva Joan Steffend. She was reluctant at first: “My home isn’t architecturally significant,” she said. “I just happened to have a decorating show.” It’s that modest, girlfriend-next-door attitude that fans of Steffend’s Decorating Cents love about her. But you take one look at the Edina home she shares with her husband, Joe Brandmeier, daughters, Blair and Jordan, and one little Maltese dog, Barney, and you realize she practices what she preaches. Steffend has created a family home with clean lines, a welcoming palette, and splashes of DIY creativity. “Since I started the show, my decorating style has changed a lot,” Steffend says. “Our home used to be more contemporary with more color in the accents than the walls. Since the show, we’ve warmed up the house, giving the walls more color, and the furnishings are softer with more wood and more aged pieces. You can still see the contemporary, but it’s part of an eclectic, colorful look now.” She says the show also has made her a painting freak. “The kitchen has had three different incarnations of color, and our bedroom has been painted, oh, let’s say five times. I love paint more than I ever dreamed. Scary, huh?”

IF MONEY WAS NO OBJECT: “I’d still be shopping the clearance racks and outlets, just for the bargain buzz!”

LIFE AS A TV DIVA: “That feels like a non sequitur to me. I’m HGTV’s normal woman. Normal woman and diva don’t sound right together.”

THE TREND “I AM SO OVER”: “The idea that design arrogance equals sophistication.”

ON JOAN AND ROBB: “Robb Whittlef, his brother, Mike, my husband, Joe, and I formed Imperfect Partners to design, manufacture, and sell high-style/low-cost home furnishings under the Joan and Robb’s Home Collection label. We’ve got our next Joan & Robb’s Not So Secret Sale in October at MOA, but are also working on licensing product, jumping into the wholesale market, and selling product through a TV shopping channel.”

Rambler Redux
Steffend shares a 1950s rambler with daughters, Blair and Jordan, and husband, Joe Brandmeier. She doesn’t believe it offers much in the way of architecture or grandeur, but says they’ve managed to make it a place where the whole family feels comfortable. Nothing is fussy or too thought out. A few of Steffend’s favorite pieces in the living room include the pair of chairs (shown), the oil painting on the mantel painted by her co-worker Theresa Handy, and a 100-year-old, four-foot-in-diameter steel-and-glass clock-tower face (not shown) from India she bought from Robb Whittlef’s The Great Estate Sale Company.