Old Westbury design house offers new spin
The French-inspired kitchen was decorated by Kim E. Courtney Interiors & Design at the Home for the Holidays designer showcase at Orchard Hill. (Oct. 31, 2011) Credit: Newsday/Audrey C. Tiernan
Don't let the name of this year's Old Westbury Gardens designer show house fool you. Christmas trees and festive garland are the subtlest elements in the "Home for the Holidays" event, which opens this weekend. If anything, the past is the muse. And reinventing something old is the guide.
In his "Holiday Rhapsody" living room, Port Washington designer Lee Najman found a way to incorporate a 55-inch television screen into the design -- he created a program, which is for sale, that displays art when the set is off, although images of any kind can be used. The idea is to turn what would be a big black screen into an element that can change the mood of the room.
Sparkle makes a statement in Roslyn Harbor designer Mercedes Courland's snowflake-inspired bedroom, titled "Winter Wonderland." Rhinestones accent the headboard, bedframe, ottomans, draperies and pillows, but they are used sparingly. "This is an elegant way to display it in your interior," says Courland.
Silver is fashionable again, says Mary Beth Donohue, a designer with Manhattan-based McMillen Inc. and a former Old Westbury Gardens trustee still on the garden committee. She uses it throughout the "Let It Snow" master bedroom: There's a hammered metal bed frame and drapery rods, a silver basket in the fireplace, a silver gilt frame, a silver mirror and more.
The "Winter Solstice" reading room is Brooklyn designer Albert Leon Sultan's playful and contemporary take on the Middle Ages. The Old Westbury native describes the place as "a feudal sanctuary" with white faux pelts, throne chairs and unicorn art. "Design references many sources in society -- politics, economics, social trends," he says. "What was key to medieval society was a sense of insecurity. There's a similar mentality today with a lot of social and political upheaval."
This red zebra wallpaper comes with a story -- Hauppauge-based Scalamandré designed it in the 1940s for the dining room of the legendary Upper East Side Italian restaurant Gino, which closed last year. The fabric, trimming and wallpaper company reintroduced the pattern (now also available in blue), which Huntington Bay designer Susan Calabria of Noli Design Interiors, Scalamandré's design director, hangs in the children's bedroom, a space she calls "A Safari Christmas Holiday." Such traditional designs are making a comeback in wallpaper (and fabric, too), she says.
