5 rooms to see at 2018 Holiday House breast cancer research fundraiser

Each fall during the past decade, Holiday House NYC has given an Upper East Side townhouse a makeover. This year, after several at the Academy Mansion on East 63rd Street, the designer show house got an even fresher update, moving 13 blocks uptown to a more contemporary four-story home on East 76th Street. 

“This is a newly renovated property and gives the designers beautiful white canvas to create their designs," says Woodmere native Iris Danker, who organizes the event to raise money for breast cancer research.

More than 20 interior designers put their mark on the 13,000-square-foot space (plus the lower level), giving various rooms a sophisticated, exotic or playful spin, depending on the holiday theme they felt inspired by. 

Sweet new year

For her family-friendly, New Year’s Eve-themed kitchen, Manhattan and Hamptons designer Melanie Roy installed colorful artwork, including lining the counter with sculptures of melting lollipops from artist Desire Obtain Cherish and a tower of macarons by artist Peter Anton. 

Number nine

Manhattan and Shelter Island designer Perry Sayles blended traditional furnishings from China with more modern pieces for his third-floor sitting room, themed around the Double Ninth Festival, a traditional Chinese holiday observed on the ninth day of the ninth month in the Chinese calendar. The room had many natural elements, with floral patterns and a table with a base that mimicked a tree, giving it an organic elegance.

Bubble bath

Iris Dankner outfitted a white and blue-gray master bathroom with a fur-lined ottoman and sumptuous linens from Frette. “Nothing is more luxurious than soaking in the sweetness of idleness,” she wrote in the show house guide, explaining her theme, Dolce Far Niente, Italian for “The sweetness if idleness.”

Adopting whimsy

Gabriel and Brooke Anderson, the Hudson Valley-based husband and wife team behind Dean & Dahl, designed a room for a preteen boy that included a custom-built bunk bed with a rock wall made by Bear Mountain Woodworking and fun artwork, including a bull wearing a leather jacket by artist Yago Partal.

Hardy florals 

Manhattan designer Ariel Okin created an English garden in bedroom form. She worked with De Gournay to create a custom, trellised wallpaper, paring florals and shades of pale green and pink with modern furnishings, like a wrought iron and brass bed.