2012 Hampton Designer Showhouse, with inspiration from aqua to 'Grey'
Mercedes Courland designed the master bath for the 2012 Hampton Designer Showhouse. (July 16, 2012) Credit: Randee Daddona
This summer's Hampton Designer Showhouse brings new meaning to what's hot in home design.
Not one but two rooms in the newly constructed Water Mill house drew inspiration from the erotic novel "Fifty Shades of Grey."
"People who read the book are excited to see what's happening in here," says Cold Spring Harbor designer Diane Guariglia, who did a playroom with a "Fifty Shaes of Grey" theme (for adults, that is) in the basement.
Upstairs, visitors might get a peek at a newsmaker next door. Listed for $5.495 million, the shingled Hamptons-style home borders property occupied by New York Knicks point guard Jason Kidd.
And so it was at the showhouse, where Roslyn Harbor designer Mercedes Courland's use of the "Fifty Shades of Grey" theme started as a way to offset the overwhelming whiteness of the master bathroom. In the center of the space is a bright pink pleated velvet chaise, where, she imagines, "you can lounge, read the book and maybe then take a cold shower."
In the second "Fifty" space, Dyfari Interiors' Diane Guariglia says she wanted to make her grown-up playroom sexy but subtle, fashioning the room after what she imagines dark and complicated Christian Grey's living space ought to really look like in the novel. "There are 50 shades of gray in the room, maybe more," Guariglia says, from the reclaimed barn wood on the walls to the mylar wallcovering with faux rivets on the ceiling.
"Nearly every single room has it," says Katie Leede, whose firm Katie Leede & Co. is based in Manhattan and Los Angeles, correctly noting that wallpaper sales are on the rise. The designer, well known as a textile artist, turned one of her Egyptian-inspired fabrics into wall coverings for an upstairs bedroom. Depicting papyrus, the bold and painterly Menna pattern is in blues, greens, golds, chestnuts and hay yellows.
"Aqua is of the moment," says designer Austin Handler. "There's a bit of it in everything." He and fellow designer (and wife) Jennifer Mabley found inspiration for the space from a new Kravet fabric design to be released in the fall. The chevron-like pattern, which is used in the chairs and drapes, was designed by Shelter Island's Jonathan Adler. Aqua is "a little bit more fun" than timeless navy blue, Handler says.
