Kips Bay Decorator Show House 2013
A seating area by Sara Story Design at the Kips Bay Boys and Girls Club 41st annual Decorators Show House in Manhattan. (May 1, 2013) Credit: Linda Rosier
From dark rooms to leather floors to snakes on the wall, the just-opened Kips Bay Decorator Show House on Manhattan's Upper East Side, a benefit for the Bronx-based Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club, will help homebodies get trendy with fresh ideas in interior design.
The fourth-floor landing features a Christian Lacroix wallpaper called "Voyage," inspired by old French maps. New Jersey designer Judy King says that whenever she shows the high-end wallpaper to clients, it ends up somewhere in their home.
Sara Story Design of Manhattan freshened up the geometric look in the "Bamboo Story" room. "It's a little more abstract . . . funkier . . . edgier," says senior designer Pamela Dailey. There's geometry in the modular flooring, Asian-inspired wallpaper of Story's line, vintage binary interlocking tables and custom-designed fractal sofas.
Even the floor oozes drama in the architecturally intriguing atrium. It's made of leather. "It has a certain softness to it -- hide can be soft" says Manhattan designer James Huniford, who has a home in Bridgehampton. Leather also makes a statement on the walls of Manhattan firm Garcia/Maldonado, Inc.'s lounge suite. Each of the 15 buffalo hides in the space cost $1,500 just for the material, says Louis J. Garcia-Maldonado, who has an East Hampton home.
Atlanta designer Robert Brown turned Lee Jofa python-printed linen into a wall covering in the receiving room. "It's a nod to fashion," says Brown, explaining that in terms of home design, the pattern provides texture and a neutral palette. "It's a new substitute for the typical zebra or cheetah print," he says.
