I think the Decorator Showhouse is here in Birmingham this week as well as next.

I have a girlfriend that is an interior decorator that use to decorate a room in the houses each year. Each decorator would pick a room and decorate. But I have never heard of anything such as pieces or furniture being for sale. But I could be wrong.

I was not impressed either Debor with the house in Columbus. Gosh 2.2 million dollars, yikes, a bit high I think.

.....Jane

>But I have never heard of anything such as pieces or furniture being for sale

It's pretty common. They don't have price tags on things, but it's very usual for there to be a sheet for each room giving the price of all the articles used and the contact info for the room designer.

Boy, they sure do like purple in Columbus. :)

There was a lot of purple and one bathroom had purple/lilac wallpaper and I did not like it at all. The rooms that impressed me the most was these two bedrooms.
{{!gwi}}
{{!gwi}}

Thanks for that link, I love the before and after concept;
lots of great ideas people can use in that house.
I adore that big round mirror in one of the bathrooms.
They managed to work around the green carpet, they also painted the grasscloth wall, and the dark trim.
Overall I love the decor and how they gave a dark house an updated look.

I wonder if the suppliers are listed on a website somewhere.

Jane, my New Dawn's are blooming in all their glory but New Dawn's baby, Awakening is much prettier. You really need to get introduced to Awakening. Same beautiful color but a more quartered bloom, better fragrance and repeat.

Anyway, back to furniture. The Decorator Showhouse in Montgomery sells the furniture because I own a bed and dresser from one many years ago. It is Thomasville BC Furniture, when Thomasville was a great name in home furnishings (BC=before China).

I believe my DIL told me a friend of hers had bought furniture at one in Birmingham, but not 100% sure because that person is a friend of one of the decorators and could have acquired it through the decorator.

I googled the showhouse and this article I linked explains
a few things.

Here is a link that might be useful: article on the decorating concepts

I wish we could have taken photos. In one of the rooms the ceilig beams were painted and glazed in a creamy color. Very different from what I have seen before. I may go back again this week to take another look

deborah, I am still waiting for a nice day during the week so I can go to the showhouse! Weekends are filled with too many sport activities! Anyway, glad you were able to go. looking forward to it! The Parade of Homes sells their furniture too!

I went to the show house last Thursday. I agree the price is a tad high but it's in Upper Arlington, which is one of the premier original neighborhoods in Columbus, and it is 8000 sq ft. and practically across the street from Scioto Country Club. That said, it was nice, but not a drool worthy house to me. Deborah, the blue guest room and master bath were my favorites too. Did you notice they put glass mosaic tile on the bottom of the shower? They had the same tiles on the sides as an accent, and I ran my hand across that and it was sharp! They didn't do a great job of tile installation on the glass shower tiles. I don't see how anyone would be able to stand on those glass tiles without foot pain!

The purple areas of the house I didn't like either, it just didn't flow with the adjoining rooms. On one side was a rich red dining room and on the other a rust/green LR. Plus, in real life, that green carpet was just awful with the purple. The fabric they used did have green and purple in it, but if I had a 2 million dollar home - not the look I'd pick. They could have gotten that carpet replaced, there wasn't that much just up the steps and in the upper hall.

Funny how you liked that glazed ceiling Deborah, I thought it looked like they had water damage!! I just didn't like that room period. They used the grass cloth wallpaper that was already there and paired it with geometric fabric drapes which is very contemporary and then finished the dormer ceiling like it was a old world cottage. Too many different styles for me. If they had gone with a botanical or tropical design with the grasscloth, the ceiling might have gone better. It just reminded me of a designer trying to do too much.

Thanks for sharing the pics! I love seeing how they change up things.....bonnie

Patricia I will check out Awakening, it sounds gorgeous. However, I don't have all that much sun, except where the New Dawns are. The New Dawns have a lot of blooms but they haven't popped yet.

Patricia I bet your rose gardens look lovely. For those of you on here that haven't seen Patricia's gardens, they are to die for. I hope you don't mind me saying that.

I didn't know the stuff in the Decorator Showhouses were for sale. I had been to one where my friend did a butlers pantry. And she borrowed so much of the stuff to put in there from other friends. Such as old transferware and hotel silver domes and coin silver pieces.

But heck what do I know I have been out of the loop so long. lol

....Jane

Thanks for sharing Deborah, but I'm with you, those are the only 2 rooms I liked. For millions you'd think they would at least paint all the rooms to look nice instead of having stark white and then around the corner dark red or purple.

That kitchen needs to be torn out and redone. I found the lighting throughout inadequatea also.

Would be a nice house with the right touch.

>And she borrowed so much of the stuff to put in there from other friends. Such as old transferware and hotel silver domes and coin silver pieces.

Hi, Jane. Yes, there are usually several items in each room listed as "not for sale," too.

Thanks for sharing these with us.....and all the other ones of you who have the privilege of attending open houses, please post pics.....I LOVE to look at them.
What are the "new" things being shown and colors that are out this year?.....always fun to see the "trendy" things that they come up with.

It looks like (based on the link from Mitchdes), this house is one of those you will seriously absolutely adore or will not like at all, even though you can like parts of it and it appears decorators for different parts of the house had different ideas about the house. It would probably look great if one decorating firm corroborated on a plan which to decorate and carried it out. Great house. Just very disparate decorating from room to room.

Jane, you are very sweet. I think your New Dawn roses are a perfect compliment to your home. For many years, the world's favorite rose.

Patricia, you're so right. If they got together and came up with a unified theme the house would be so much better.

The thing is, nothing they do other than something that is permanent to the home stays. All the furniture, lighting, artwork etc. goes back to where ever it came from. In some cases the decorator can ask the homeowner to pay for things if they feel they would increase the value etc. and the homeowner can agree or not. Otherwise, the decorator is responsible for getting the items donated or "loaned" by a gallery, furniture store etc. I think if they go way out here and paint the room a color the homeowner thinks is too out there - like perhaps lavender :-) the decorator has to paint it back to its original color. The homeowner who is donating their house doesn't really have much say on how they decorate the house, only on things that are structurally added or not easily removed like tile etc.

I think in most cases each decorator is trying to showcase their design look in the room they're assigned. Sometimes they draw a good room and sometimes, a more difficult room to decorate. The purple entry/bathroom was decorated by the same design team, but obviously they didn't coordinate their color scheme with the DR decorator or the LR decorator!

But, I have to say, the house looks so much better than it did before they came in and generally, these houses have been empty for awhile and just aren't selling. My friend on the museum board who works the show house event tells me every show house generally has sold soon after the event if not during. So, I guess it's a good thing - if for nothing else it gets alot of foot traffic through it.

in my above link, it says:

"Although initial designs must be approved by the homeowners and show house committee, individual rooms needn't be complementary to others.

That means visitors might move from a crimson dining room through a hand-painted blue and white hallway into a stark purple stairwell.

Such variety is meant to inspire and showcase diverse styles, from a lime-colored laundry room with a built-in pet shower to a secondary "green" kitchen furnished with sustainable-wood cabinetry and recycled tile."

I personally prefer it this way; you experience different designs. If one design firm did it all, and I would not personally be in love with their style, visiting the showhouse would be tedious for me.

I'm going to go have another look now, lol.......
specially at certain paintings that caught my eye.

Mitchdesj, they had some lovely paintings in the Living Room. I also liked the painting the hall - on the lavender walls and green carpet.

In the main entry foyer that had a two story staircase, they had 3-4 rows of paintings of different sizes. They all had gold frames and were sized and arranged so nice. I don't think they show a photo of that area.

Yuk! With the exceptions of the bedrooms and baths, that is probably the worst redo I have seen for a house of that caliber and it is a historic house to boot. To each her own, I guess.

I like the before and after concept, but not the after results. Maybe it was better in person, where you can really see the details. Or not.
Diane

I attended the preview for the San Francisco Decorator Showcase and wrote about it. The house is currently on the market for $12 million. It was an amazing experience to be able to cover the event as all the decorators were on hand to discuss their rooms with the press. They were incredibly nice and put so much thought into each of their designs.

The house is a 10,000 sf 1910 Georgian - 4 stories and sweeping views of the SF Bay & Golden Gate Bridge.

It was impossible to show every room as there were nearly 40 designers!

Each designer had a list of items/manufacturers used and yes, many of the items were for sale.

Phoggie, I'm not allowed to post a link to my blog(GW rules)
:(

caroleoh, yes the painting in the hall, that's the one that struck me the most.

phoggie, if you google "san francisco decorator showcase",
one of the results in the top 5 results has a sneak peek of a few rooms, it's gorgeous.

Here's a link the a page with lots of different show houses:

Here is a link that might be useful: Designer Show Houses on The Design Board

I'm enjoying everyone's comments about the house. Kmgc, I'm looking forward to this year's parade of homes in Dublin. Last year I thought the homes were terrible.

Carole, I didn't notice the tiles in the shower. I think I'm going to go back tomorrow since the designers will be there from 6-8.

"In the main entry foyer that had a two story staircase, they had 3-4 rows of paintings of different sizes. They all had gold frames and were sized and arranged so nice. I don't think they show a photo of that area." I immediately noticed the paintings too and I was bummed that there are no pictures of the foyer. I also immediately thought about the debate that would ensue here if the HD crowd saw the paintings as to whether they were hung too high/low/too many. LOL! I actually liked the way they did the foyer.

I forgot to mention that my hubby did not like the house at all. He thought it should much more for 2.2 mil.

What did you guys think of the art deco "away" room with the wallpaper on the ceiling? I thought it was too much and wasted space.

I know the whole idea of a decorators showhouse is to feature individual design firms but I agree with everyone above that in the end, the whole look was disjointed and not something that I would want for myself.

Finally, I'm looking forward to my first homearama in Cincinnati that is coming up soon.

I think they should have left the house empty until someone was ready to actually redo it, or redecorate it. The laundry room actually looked better in the "before" pictures, as did some of the other spaces. The teal carpet in the upstairs hall..... who would leave that in place? This should be renamed "designer's showcase on the cheap."

Thanks for the eye candy. I enjoyed looking. Yep, the green carpet with the purple walls....who would have put "that" together?!

On my book thread, someone linked to the site Houzz and they show rooms of the San Francisco Showcase, seems really nice.

Here is a link that might be useful: San Fran Showcase

Thanks for sharing. I actually thought this house was pretty well done. I have seen many where the rooms didn't look good together at all. Overall, it looks like a nice house.