See the Daring Designs at the 2013 Kip's Bay Decorator Show House
New York designers show their latest creations in a fashion show for the home
Janet Paik
May 13, 2013
Houzz Associate Editor. Passionate about creative homes and the people behind them. Loves thoughtful design, improving her family's 1950s fixer-upper and VW buses. Former designer at the San Jose Mercury News.
Houzz Associate Editor. Passionate about creative homes and the people behind them.... More
A 7,000-square-foot luxury townhouse overlooking Manhattan's Central Park serves as the latest canvas for the 41st annual Kips Bay Decorator Show House, which opened May 7 and runs through June 4.
The lofty spaces and beautiful terraces offer plenty of opportunities for individual designers to showcase new ideas for adventurous homeowners. Think of this as a fashion runway show for the home, with each designer using an assigned space to express his or her style. And it's all for a good cause: The proceeds support the Kips Bay Boys and Girls Club.
Step inside some of the most distinct spaces from this year's event.
2013 Kips Bay Decorator Show House
Location: 161 E. 64th St. (between Lexington and Third avenues), New York City
Open: May 7 to June 4, 2013; 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Tuesday and Thursday until 8 p.m.
Cost: $35 general admission. More info
The lofty spaces and beautiful terraces offer plenty of opportunities for individual designers to showcase new ideas for adventurous homeowners. Think of this as a fashion runway show for the home, with each designer using an assigned space to express his or her style. And it's all for a good cause: The proceeds support the Kips Bay Boys and Girls Club.
Step inside some of the most distinct spaces from this year's event.
2013 Kips Bay Decorator Show House
Location: 161 E. 64th St. (between Lexington and Third avenues), New York City
Open: May 7 to June 4, 2013; 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Tuesday and Thursday until 8 p.m.
Cost: $35 general admission. More info
Modern Family Lounge
Design team: Eve Robinson Associates (this photo and previous)
This space is meant to embody that all-in-one room where modern families gather and relax, watch television, play games and sit fireside. It has a soothing combination of grays and lavenders, first set with a luxurious geometric hide rug from Kyle Bunting and continuing to a defined ceiling. Venetian stucco was added to the walls for texture, and a walnut cabinet with stainless steel detailing and lacquer accents anchors the TV wall.
Sofa: Jens Risom; photograph: Olivo Barbieri
Design team: Eve Robinson Associates (this photo and previous)
This space is meant to embody that all-in-one room where modern families gather and relax, watch television, play games and sit fireside. It has a soothing combination of grays and lavenders, first set with a luxurious geometric hide rug from Kyle Bunting and continuing to a defined ceiling. Venetian stucco was added to the walls for texture, and a walnut cabinet with stainless steel detailing and lacquer accents anchors the TV wall.
Sofa: Jens Risom; photograph: Olivo Barbieri
Living Room
Design team: Jack Levy Design (this photo and next)
Using the idea of living in a fishbowl, Jack Levy wrapped this space with what he describes as a "sexy, crazy and lovely" new wallpaper from Fornasetti. Ovals are a recurring theme seen in all the details of this space, including Herve Van Der Straeten candle sconces from Maison Gerard and a reclaimed painting from one of Levy's former projects above a borrowed Belgian black marble fireplace from Chesney's.
French 1940s dressers: wood, Bermingham & Co. Antiques
Design team: Jack Levy Design (this photo and next)
Using the idea of living in a fishbowl, Jack Levy wrapped this space with what he describes as a "sexy, crazy and lovely" new wallpaper from Fornasetti. Ovals are a recurring theme seen in all the details of this space, including Herve Van Der Straeten candle sconces from Maison Gerard and a reclaimed painting from one of Levy's former projects above a borrowed Belgian black marble fireplace from Chesney's.
French 1940s dressers: wood, Bermingham & Co. Antiques
Levy was drawn to use this needlepoint chair because it looks and acts like a traditional throw pillow. A number of tall sea-inspired plants tie in with the oval theme, including this Myrtle topiary in a black marble urn and a ladyslipper orchid, which are used to help add height to the room. Iridescent blue-green draperies play off the fluid quality of water.
Tiered table: Fornasetti, Eric Appel; draperies: The Ruffled Window
Tiered table: Fornasetti, Eric Appel; draperies: The Ruffled Window
Bedroom
Design team: Kathryn M. Ireland Textiles & Design
Ireland is best known for her layering of patterns; here an elegant floral wraps a canopy bed against a mix of red and blue bedding. Each fabric used in this room is named after different places or homes in England.
Design team: Kathryn M. Ireland Textiles & Design
Ireland is best known for her layering of patterns; here an elegant floral wraps a canopy bed against a mix of red and blue bedding. Each fabric used in this room is named after different places or homes in England.
Lounge Suite
Design team: Garcia/Maldonado (this photo and next two)
Originally a rather dark and uninviting room with heavy wood paneling, this space is now a soothing urban sanctuary using primarily platinum and orange tones. By adding full-height library-style custom book shelves, a built-in bar and sumptuous leather Edelman Leather upholstered wall panels, the design team achieved, in designer Louis Garcia's words, "a place where you can submerge yourself into a world of literature, art and tasteful pleasure so desperately needed in today’s fast-paced environment."
Wing chair: Adrian Pearsall; art: "Kate Moss #3," Russell Young, Taglialatella Galleries
Design team: Garcia/Maldonado (this photo and next two)
Originally a rather dark and uninviting room with heavy wood paneling, this space is now a soothing urban sanctuary using primarily platinum and orange tones. By adding full-height library-style custom book shelves, a built-in bar and sumptuous leather Edelman Leather upholstered wall panels, the design team achieved, in designer Louis Garcia's words, "a place where you can submerge yourself into a world of literature, art and tasteful pleasure so desperately needed in today’s fast-paced environment."
Wing chair: Adrian Pearsall; art: "Kate Moss #3," Russell Young, Taglialatella Galleries
Daybed: custom, New Wave Custom Woodworking; daybed fabric, pillow fabrics and cashmere throw: Romo Group
Dining Room
Design team: Kristen McGinnis Design (this photo and previous)
This intriguing light fixture by Elliott Hundley, a dear friend of McGinnis' since sixth grade, served as the inspiration for this dramatic room that mixes both antique and modern design. The glossy walls show off some of the space's original details while complementing the Maya Romanoff gold leaf ceiling and serving as a backdrop for the room's other captivating piece — a sculptural console by French designer Vincent Dubourg.
Dining table, chairs: Joaquim Tenreiro
Design team: Kristen McGinnis Design (this photo and previous)
This intriguing light fixture by Elliott Hundley, a dear friend of McGinnis' since sixth grade, served as the inspiration for this dramatic room that mixes both antique and modern design. The glossy walls show off some of the space's original details while complementing the Maya Romanoff gold leaf ceiling and serving as a backdrop for the room's other captivating piece — a sculptural console by French designer Vincent Dubourg.
Dining table, chairs: Joaquim Tenreiro
English Drawing Room
Design team: Gomez Associates (this photo and next)
Mother-daughter design team Mariette Gomez and Brooke Gomez went back to the basics with their elegant interpretation of a traditional English drawing room. Challenged with high ceilings, they used elegant dentil crown molding, an original Carrara mantel and a wrought iron and brass railing to create an inviting space. The main inspiration comes from a London flat, with a delicious vanilla palette and accents meant to look like they've been collected over time.
Rug: Loto Chinese; tilt-top table: George Bullock Regency; floor lamps: Adnet
Design team: Gomez Associates (this photo and next)
Mother-daughter design team Mariette Gomez and Brooke Gomez went back to the basics with their elegant interpretation of a traditional English drawing room. Challenged with high ceilings, they used elegant dentil crown molding, an original Carrara mantel and a wrought iron and brass railing to create an inviting space. The main inspiration comes from a London flat, with a delicious vanilla palette and accents meant to look like they've been collected over time.
Rug: Loto Chinese; tilt-top table: George Bullock Regency; floor lamps: Adnet
These adorable dog sculptures, named Henry and Harriet, invite you to admire the room.
Sitting Room: "Bamboo Story"
Design team: Sara Story Design (this photo and next)
The theme of this graphic space is optical effects. A custom fractal sofa covered in lilac lambswool by Furniture Masters and a binary pair of black and white coffee tables add to the visual tension, grounded by a checkerboard floor. The walls are covered in a black and white version of the designer's own bamboo patterned wallpaper.
Upholstery, window treatment fabric: Elizabeth Dow; carpet: Flor; Venetian plaster: Fortuna Painting; sconces: Gio Ponti, Bern Goeckler; black candles: Celine Cannon; drawings: Otto Zitko, on loan from Cheim & Read
Design team: Sara Story Design (this photo and next)
The theme of this graphic space is optical effects. A custom fractal sofa covered in lilac lambswool by Furniture Masters and a binary pair of black and white coffee tables add to the visual tension, grounded by a checkerboard floor. The walls are covered in a black and white version of the designer's own bamboo patterned wallpaper.
Upholstery, window treatment fabric: Elizabeth Dow; carpet: Flor; Venetian plaster: Fortuna Painting; sconces: Gio Ponti, Bern Goeckler; black candles: Celine Cannon; drawings: Otto Zitko, on loan from Cheim & Read
The visual illusions continue in the bathroom, which features a custom vanity using a spectrum of the same lilac seen in the sitting room, to break up the visually arresting black and white tile.
Construction: AR Woodworking, Robert Bump Construction and RG Tile; plumbing: Lefroy Brooks
Construction: AR Woodworking, Robert Bump Construction and RG Tile; plumbing: Lefroy Brooks
Wine Lounge Observatory
Design team: Dineen Architecture + Design PC (this photo and next)
This quirky little nook-turned-wine-lounge is adjacent to the dining room. After paneling the walls in a dark-stained walnut and installing steel wine racks, the designers created a leather-clad floating bar inspired by a 1950s Italian asymmetrical cantilevered bar. Completing the custom bar are one-of-a-kind pulls by Pamela Sunday. To further encourage a good time, hanging above is a Margeaux Walter photo of a mosh pit next to a 19th-century silver pug box and a Thomas Boog shell mask.
Design team: Dineen Architecture + Design PC (this photo and next)
This quirky little nook-turned-wine-lounge is adjacent to the dining room. After paneling the walls in a dark-stained walnut and installing steel wine racks, the designers created a leather-clad floating bar inspired by a 1950s Italian asymmetrical cantilevered bar. Completing the custom bar are one-of-a-kind pulls by Pamela Sunday. To further encourage a good time, hanging above is a Margeaux Walter photo of a mosh pit next to a 19th-century silver pug box and a Thomas Boog shell mask.
The windowed bay became a natural sitting nook for the wine lounge, with its huge windows overlooking the garden and atrium. On one wall is a custom-painted celestial chart inspired by the room's awkward proportions and Joseph Cornell's boxes. A regency wine cooler and other older accessories from Kentshire fill out the space.
Mirror: Carlton Hobbs; sheer curtains: Donghia
Mirror: Carlton Hobbs; sheer curtains: Donghia
Entry Hall, Living Room, Powder Room
Design team: Andrew Suvalsky Designs (this photo and next three)
These three rooms designed by Andrew Suvalsky are meant to be a "playful dance between strong architectural lines enhanced by vibrant colors," he says. A sheer drape adorned with multicolored peonies is meant to emphatically announce that spring is here, while a Kyle Bunting runner gives an accurate preview of what's to come in the color-intense living room and powder room.
Painting: Clara Fialho
Design team: Andrew Suvalsky Designs (this photo and next three)
These three rooms designed by Andrew Suvalsky are meant to be a "playful dance between strong architectural lines enhanced by vibrant colors," he says. A sheer drape adorned with multicolored peonies is meant to emphatically announce that spring is here, while a Kyle Bunting runner gives an accurate preview of what's to come in the color-intense living room and powder room.
Painting: Clara Fialho
Meant to evoke a playful sense of spring at nighttime, the living room has sheer blue drapes that serve as a backdrop for jewel-toned furnishings.
Painting: Rainer Gross
Painting: Rainer Gross
Punchy art by Adrien Broom surrounds a glossy cabinet finished in the same lacquer as in the powder room (next).
The lacquered, striped walls in the powder room are meant to feel like the satin lining of a jewel box.
Atrium
Design team: Huniford Design Studio
(this photo and next two)
When conceptualizing the design of the atrium, Huniford wanted to take advantage of the multiple perspectives of the space and its proximity to the garden. The custom window film was inspired by Eileen Gray’s use of pattern and allows light to filter into the room while adding texture and depth. With sculptural furniture, an eccentric color palette and modern art, the atrium gives a nod to an artist’s studio.
Artwork: courtesy of the artists, Huniford Design Studio and Cheim & Read, New York
Design team: Huniford Design Studio
(this photo and next two)
When conceptualizing the design of the atrium, Huniford wanted to take advantage of the multiple perspectives of the space and its proximity to the garden. The custom window film was inspired by Eileen Gray’s use of pattern and allows light to filter into the room while adding texture and depth. With sculptural furniture, an eccentric color palette and modern art, the atrium gives a nod to an artist’s studio.
Artwork: courtesy of the artists, Huniford Design Studio and Cheim & Read, New York
Sofa: custom upholstered in Schumacher velvet with separate winged back; Roy Orbison art: Cheim & Read Gallery; wood, plastic, metal wall sculpture: Jack Pierson
This outside garden space was designed by Nievera Williams Design.
Terrace
Design team: West Chin Architects & Interior Designers
This front terrace is a serene, spa-like retreat meant to offer relief from the chaos of Manhattan. A sculptural chair from DDC draws you into the cedar-clad space, complete with a concrete wall and a birdhouse inspired by one of the design team's former projects.
Products from FTF Design Studio, including a cedar side table from Lepere, accessorize the space.
Design team: West Chin Architects & Interior Designers
This front terrace is a serene, spa-like retreat meant to offer relief from the chaos of Manhattan. A sculptural chair from DDC draws you into the cedar-clad space, complete with a concrete wall and a birdhouse inspired by one of the design team's former projects.
Products from FTF Design Studio, including a cedar side table from Lepere, accessorize the space.
This small white birdhouse on the ledge, by FTF Design Studio, is modeled after one of its previous award-winning design projects. Chin says, "We thought it would be cute if birds live like our clients do."
Living Room
Design team: Barbara Ostrom Associates (this photo and previous)
This elegant gold and white retreat is a far cry from the home gym with mirrored walls and ceiling that it once was. “When we took it off, tar globs were all over. They were extremely thick and could not be sanded off. The whole room looked like a dalmation,” Ostrom says.
She concealed the ceiling’s unsightly tar with an 8- by 8-foot plywood square, then framed it with moldings and added faux-gold Venetian finish. Then, using the fluffy white angora goat hair bench shown as inspiration, she layered in antique gold leaf Louis XVI armchairs, Matisse-inspired artwork, sisal flooring and a zebra-skin rug.
Paintings: Spanierman Modern Gallery; white porcelain lamps: Christopher Spitzmiller
Design team: Barbara Ostrom Associates (this photo and previous)
This elegant gold and white retreat is a far cry from the home gym with mirrored walls and ceiling that it once was. “When we took it off, tar globs were all over. They were extremely thick and could not be sanded off. The whole room looked like a dalmation,” Ostrom says.
She concealed the ceiling’s unsightly tar with an 8- by 8-foot plywood square, then framed it with moldings and added faux-gold Venetian finish. Then, using the fluffy white angora goat hair bench shown as inspiration, she layered in antique gold leaf Louis XVI armchairs, Matisse-inspired artwork, sisal flooring and a zebra-skin rug.
Paintings: Spanierman Modern Gallery; white porcelain lamps: Christopher Spitzmiller
Sitting Room
Design team: Felicia Zwebner Design
Inspired by the idea of world-class luxury travel, Zwebner made the fireplace a showstopping design element. "The challenge was that I needed to find one that was only 4 inches deep, since I had to frame a wall out to mask all the plumbing and wires that were once part of this laundry room," says Stark. She found one at Modern Flames, then continued layering on elegant finishes with Stark wall coverings — meant to symbolize the luster of pearls — and floor-to-ceiling marble from Artistic Tile.
Wall coverings, fabric, rug: Stark; furniture: FZ Collection; lighting: Porta Romana
Design team: Felicia Zwebner Design
Inspired by the idea of world-class luxury travel, Zwebner made the fireplace a showstopping design element. "The challenge was that I needed to find one that was only 4 inches deep, since I had to frame a wall out to mask all the plumbing and wires that were once part of this laundry room," says Stark. She found one at Modern Flames, then continued layering on elegant finishes with Stark wall coverings — meant to symbolize the luster of pearls — and floor-to-ceiling marble from Artistic Tile.
Wall coverings, fabric, rug: Stark; furniture: FZ Collection; lighting: Porta Romana
Kitchen
Design team: Christopher Peacock
Instead of opting for a sleek white kitchen, designer Peacock was inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement and decided to put his own modern spin on it. He used quarter-sawn oak and stained it a black-brown instead of a classic amber stain; the nickel hardware is reminiscent of a luggage strap handle.
Countertops: Caesarstone; Appliances: KitchenAid
Design team: Christopher Peacock
Instead of opting for a sleek white kitchen, designer Peacock was inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement and decided to put his own modern spin on it. He used quarter-sawn oak and stained it a black-brown instead of a classic amber stain; the nickel hardware is reminiscent of a luggage strap handle.
Countertops: Caesarstone; Appliances: KitchenAid
Receiving Lounge
Design team: Robert Brown Interior Design
Meant to be a study in contrasts, this intimate receiving lounge is wrapped in a luxurious python-print linen from Lee Jofa, with rich walnut flooring. The Law club chair from David Latesta is a modern interpretation of a bergère; it is covered in Kravet cotton velvet and surrounded by understated antiques.
Flooring: Burchette & Burchette; art: Spanierman Modern and Duane and BK Antiques; Italian commode, ebony klismos chairs, folding screen: Lee Calicchio
See more photos of the showcase
Design team: Robert Brown Interior Design
Meant to be a study in contrasts, this intimate receiving lounge is wrapped in a luxurious python-print linen from Lee Jofa, with rich walnut flooring. The Law club chair from David Latesta is a modern interpretation of a bergère; it is covered in Kravet cotton velvet and surrounded by understated antiques.
Flooring: Burchette & Burchette; art: Spanierman Modern and Duane and BK Antiques; Italian commode, ebony klismos chairs, folding screen: Lee Calicchio
See more photos of the showcase
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