The 40th Annual Kips Bay Show House recently opened in New York, which allows us the opportunity to take a peek at what A-list designers are up to and perhaps spot a few trends.
Whereas Kips usually secures a townhouse on the Upper East Side for the event, this year there was no townhouse for the taking and a bright new condo was used instead. This forced an element of contemporary architecture into the mix.
Trendsetters will notice a few fads that persist and inspire — lacquered walls, wallpapered ceilings, pattern on pattern and bespoke textured walls. But the purposes of color analysis, one thing stood out for me: green.
And I mean all manner of green. Chartreuse, Spring Pea, Moss, Green Slate and Emerald were all used either as stand-alone elements or in combination with other colors like Aubergine or Coral. I don't remember any of this from my color forecasting of last winter, so perhaps I'm behind the curve, though I'm delighted with the range in tone and mood it creates.
• Kips Bay Decorator Showhouse
• Through Thursday, June 14, 2012
Images show above, list of designers:
1. Brian Del Toro
2. Todd Alexander Tomano
3. Alexander Doherty
4. Chuck Fischer
5. Laura Bohn
6. Mark Hampton
7. Scott Sanders
8. Shawn Henderson
9 & 10. Thom Filicia (two views)
11. Timothy and Associates
12. Jamie Drake
(Images: Edgar Pineda, courtesy of Kips Bay Organization)
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I hope mirror walls don't come back into fashion. I thing they are fugly.
Love picture #1..oh, that turquoise room! Ahhh.
I must be getting old because this all looks dated. Why is a Burt Bacharch soundtrack playing in my head?
I've only ever seen show houses in photography, so probably I have a skewed impression, but it seems to me that the various participating designers ALL want to go for bold and dramatic statements they hope will be memorable. Whereas in my real life, at least, I could deal with maybe one standout space in my home, after which I'd want to see restful, understated spaces. So it would be pleasant if SOME show house rooms were peaceful and uncluttered.
Love #7!
it's Todd Alexander Romano... and i heart him. he's a peach.
ugly. plastic. poorly thought out. looks like the hgtc design shows have finally become the inspiration instead of the other way around.
hgtv. not hgtc.
Love the first room. Meh, for the rest. Maybe it's the lighting.
It feels to me like designers are going "So, mid-century was the most recent big resurgence, right? Well, that's been going on for a few years now, how about we move on up to the late '60s and '70s!" Not to say that there weren't good design elements to come out of those years (because my grandma's house tells me there were), but what I'm reading in these images that strikes me as from that period are definitely not the highlights.
However, I do love green and will defend its use and possible over-use in decor to the end of my days - my plain-jane Ikea coffee table's about to be the same color as the wall in image 5 after all.