By Melissa Tilley, Staff Writer
Host and interior designer of HGTV’s popular home-renovation program “Designing for the Sexes” Michael Payne will be


visiting Howell Furniture, 6095 Folsom Road in Beaumont, on Saturday, Sept. 23, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. for a meet and greet session and to lead two design seminars.

“Howell Furniture is proud to carry Michael Payne’s furniture designs from the Powell Company,” said Shawn Hanley, advertising director of Howell Furniture. “We will be holding a drawing for one lucky person in attendance that day to win an autographed jewelry armoire from one of his collections.”

Reservations are encouraged for the seminars as seating is limited. Interested individuals should reserve their seat at either the noon or 2 p.m. seminar as soon as possible. In addition, three lucky individuals will each win a 20-minute personal consultation with Payne. Advice-seekers should visit Howell’s showroom to enter for the personal consultations.

Payne obtained his bachelor’s degree in physics and mathematics from Southampton University in England. Following 10 years in the computer industry, during which he was transferred from England to the United States, he pursued a career in interior design and graduated from the UCLA interior design program in 1980. In the same year, he founded Michael Payne Design, which offers interior design services to clients on a national and international basis and is involved with projects featured on “Designing for the Sexes.”

“Designing for the Sexes” is a television program that helps a different couple each week resolve conflicts as they tackle a home or room renovation project. The program follows the couple in design trouble and witnesses an interior designer’s creative approach to bring their fabulous project to completion.

In 2004, Payne also entered into a furniture design partnership with the Powell Company and the initial “Michael Payne Collection” was introduced in 2012. Since then, seven diverge groups, each with a different design theme and inspiration have been introduced.

For more information or to make reservations, call (409) 832-2544.