Design: Ideas from a show house

Does your house need some freshening up? Probably not as much as the 1923 Winter Cottage at the Caumsett State Historic Park Preserve in Lloyd Harbor. There, the once-dingy and decrepit English-style country house - designed by John Russell Pope, the Jefferson Memorial architect - got a structural and design makeover from willing volunteers for the Design Show House 2010. Here are some trends that emerged from the event:

SEE-THROUGH

A guest bedroom by Bellport-based designer Giovanni Naso gets its hotel chic look not only from the soft gray dupioni silk bedspread, the nickel lights and the console that reveals a plasma television with the touch of a button, but also the Lucite detailing throughout. The window rods and finials are from the brand-new "Ice" line from Brimar. Translucent details elsewhere in the house include the elegant glass lamps in the dressing room by East Islip's Twice as Nice Interiors and the cut-crystal vase in the guest bedroom by Rockville Centre-based designer Jane Grucci.

LESS FROU-FROU

Several designers avoided heavy draperies. Take the dining room by Huntington-based designer Claudia Dowling, the show-house producer. She used shirred shades with beads and tassels for the elegant but comfortable space. Such simple treatments are seen throughout the house, from the gold and glittery architect's study by Huntington decorative artists Marty Wiesehahn and Linda Leyble to the glamorous and gray kitchen by Cold Spring Harbor-based designer Laurie Duke.

ROARING STYLE

The last time animal prints were in style? When bell bottoms were, too. Only now there are hundreds of patterns to choose from. "Animal skins are a big trend," says Northport-based designer Maureen Consolé. "They're very warm." She used a faux antelope skin rug in her card room. In the powder room, Babylon-based designer Joseph Del Percio went for the real thing - a trunk covered in zebra hide. "It brought life to the room," he says.

IN TILE

In one upstairs bathroom, Carrie Brandstrom of Sayville-based Interiorscapes tried a fresh take on an old standby - subway tile on the vertical. "I've never seen it done," she says. The powder room features another of-the-moment look - oversized rectangular tile. The Italian porcelain tiles, which are 12-by-24 inches each, are used in the soldier pattern throughout the cramped 6-by-6-foot room. "By using the bigger tile, it made the room look bigger," says Joseph Del Percio.

DON'T BE AFRAID

Of dark walls, that is. Examples abound in this show house, from the brown-and- pink pussy willow wallpaper in the butler's pantry by Huntington-based designer Heather Basso to the navy blue nautical-themed wallpaper in the nursery by Cold Spring Harbor's Dyfari Interiors. "Dark colors never go out of style," says Dowling. "Most people are afraid of using them. [But] if you do it well and in the right room, it can have a lot of impact."

Design Show House 2010

WHEN | WHERE 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, 11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays, Sundays and Labor Day, starting tomorrow and running through Oct. 17 at the Winter Cottage at Caumsett State Historic Park Preserve, 25 Lloyd Neck Rd., Lloyd Harbor

INFO $20 on weekends, $18 during the week, $15 for senior citizens, free for children 8 and younger; state parking fee $8 on weekends without Empire Pass; no baby strollers; 631-421-5290, caumsettfoundation.org