With a keen company commitment to philanthropy, we are always thrilled to participate in the Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club Decorator Show House. This gives us the opportunity to create magical rooms, albeit in an incredibly tight time frame.
For the 2018 edition, we were given a small suite of connected rooms in a grand, recently renovated 36 ft. wide Upper East Side townhouse, originally built in 1885. Spanning the full breadth of the building, we created a luscious hued salon and bar, entered through a square foyer with adjoining powder room.
Swathed in shades of rich ochre, with accents of ebony and ivory, our trademark love of textures is fully realized. A modern damask weave upholsters the walls, with areas of it hand beaded in crystals, sequins and beads creating streams of sparkle that wrap the space. A large scale custom sofa curvaceously surrounds a pair of bean shaped cocktail tables in brass with semi-precious tiger eye tops. Across, a pair of eccentric 19th century English chairs are covered in a modern geometric fabric, adding one of the notes of eclecticism we love using into the spaces.
The chimney breast is paneled in glossy lacquer, and is the backdrop for an antique mantel in pristine white marble, with a contemporary mirror and sconces above. The straight geometry of the panels is counterpointed by the repetition of circular motifs in the mantel, sconces, mirror and vases.
The windows wear three layers, adding elegant softness without feeling heavy. The face panels are ivory wool sateen graphically bordered in black silk edged in gold braid. A layer of unlined curtains is made of a chunky open weave, with a hint of gold thread, and unlined Roman shades are against the windows in a craft inspired textile with gold slubs. A magnificent antique gilt bronze vase—a sentinel of the past—sits atop an ebonized wood pedestal.
Beyond the salon, an intimate bar is the height of moody glamour, its walls covered top to bottom in mirrored squares in four colors. The immense custom bar in the center is another sensuous piece, a complex curve of stepped ink lacquer topped in veined marble.
