Out and About: Show House Season
Ok. I feel the need to write one last, obligatory post about my recent trip to New York. On May 20th, I headed up I-95 with design pal V. Carr of the Interior Design Resource Agency for the opening weekend of the Elle Decor Modern Life Concept House and the closing weekend of the Kips Bay Decorator Show House. Yes, I’ve posted a few blurbs here and there, but I never detailed the experience. In short, it was a blast!
Imagine two sleep-deprived designers traipsing around NYC in the pouring rain all the while giddy from various forms of caffeine. Perhaps, more accurately, we were giddy from inspiration! The show houses, though very different, offered everything from the "that’s nice" to the "whoa!" to the "what the…???"
The Kips Bay show house was a four-story, mega home complete with elevator, terraces, and spiraling staircases. It had the feel of a museum – lots of people, velvet ropes, docents, a gift shop, and unfortunately, no cameras. Contrastingly, the Elle Decor show house, located in an undeveloped part of Chelsea, occupied two modest units of a newly constructed condo building. There, we were able to view rooms at our leisure. We even made friends with the show house’s security guard, Brandon, and had a dynamo convo with designer Beth Martin.
They allowed photography (we think), so, here are just a few pics from both of our cameras:
VIP Lounge
Elle Decor Show House
Elle Decor Show House
Unit 10B
Elle Decor Show House
Elle Decor Show House
Elle Decor Show House
Elle Decor Show House
Elle Decor Show House
Elle Decor Show House
Unit 10C
Elle Decor Show House
Elle Decor Show House
Elle Decor Show House
Elle Decor Show House
Elle Decor Show House
Elle Decor Show House
Of course, I must mention a couple of celebrity sightings including Robert Verdi, who designed a space in last year’s Kips Bay show house, and some chick from Gossip Girl or The Hills or someplace (you’ll have to ask V.) During the trip, I also had my first iced cappuccino. The jury's still out on that one. Anywho...