Sorry I missed last Saturday. It was the first unplanned day I’ve missed in 20 months of blogging. It was a crazy week (what week isn’t?), and Friday was my HH’s 40th birthday dinner and celebration. I just didn’t get it done early and chose to sleep in. Hope you’ll forgive!
On to today’s topic! The holidays are LONG over, but photos of the 2017 Home for the Holidays Designer Show House are just coming out, and man are they a treat! The event was a fund raiser for Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and boasted a veritable Who’s Who in interior design.
As with any show house, the rooms are individual little capsules of style — not a connected home — and much of what you see may be over-the-top style wise or more expensive than a second home in the Hamptons. However, I think overall the rooms were elegant and livable, alternating between layers of luxe and relaxation.
I found that most of the designers fell into the below four camps. I’d be hard pressed to say which style is my favorite. It’s like asking whether or not I’m more of a jeans and flannel girl or a little black dress with red lipstick girl. I may trend one way most of the time, but I feel at home both ways. Just depends upon the mood and occasion.
1. Purple is the Color of Royalty
Ultraviolet may be the color of the year for 2018, but it’s too brazen for me. Deeper shades of purple with warm undertones are more romantic, sophisticated, cocooning, and classy IMO and were chosen by design’s most elite names.
Robert Brown, the king of moody masculine spaces, did this stunning and enveloping living room in Farrow & Ball’s Pelt. Last year I wrote a post on aubergine rooms, and I definitely would have added this one to the list had it been done at the time! Love the pops of chartreuse, but the herringbone grey on the lounge chairs and heathery, woolsy drapes keep things from getting too blingy and in your face. Looks like Urban Electric’s Hamilton pendant to me.
The always elegant Barbara Westbrook did the entry. Reminds me a little of Benjamin Moore’s 2017 Color of the Year, though the magazine didn’t reveal the actual color she used.
While a little dramatic for most homes, this entry shows how beautifully the patina of vintage brown furniture can complement modern art and more spartan spaces. I don’t know where the above porcelain butterflies came from, but you can check out the butterfly art of Paul Villinski (I won’t guarantee you’ll be able to afford it!) and the lovely Allison Cosmos, who has been branching out into painted butterflies.
2. Gender Neutral Tailored Spaces
This white/textural style room is always popular, and the above room by Jimmy Stanton is done very nicely, with updated and feminine wing chairs, a faux boix rug, linen upholstery, and a slightly different take on the ubiquitous reclaimed wood console. The coffee table is pretty boring, but not everything can stand out. Currey’s Moondance Orb chandelier looks lovely.
I’m definitely noticing a return to upper cabinets, after a long, long time seeing nothing but open shelves in kitchens.
Meredith McBrearty worked with Bell Cabinetry & Design to create the kitchen. She opted for warm grays and dark wood for a sexy, sophisticated, grown up appeal. What I find fascinating is the way she used flat panel drawers, raised panel lower drawers and doors, and recessed panel upper doors … and it looks fabulous! Visual Comfort’s Dalston Hanging Shade.
I’ve always been obsessed with Thonet chairs, and the above, with their kicky purple leather skirts, definitely keep the dual-gender appeal going! Meredith combines a classical sculptural Saarinen table and a plaster chandelier from Julie Neill. (Cote de Texas’s fabulous Joni Webb wrote a great post on plaster wars this week. You should definitely read it.)
3. Beautiful, Lived-In Layers for Timeless Interiors
John Oetgen is a master of antiques and a layered, lived-in Southern style. I love the old secretary, the antique English Windsor chair, and the zebra rug with the floral Schumacher Indian Abre Spring fabric.
I don’t know about you, but I’m totally ready for some florals — when tempered with texture and clean lines. Tons of trend reports are saying that florals (especially big, graphic varieties, not necessarily the English rose type) are going to be back in 2018, but I don’t think classic botanicals will ever be in bad taste. I’ve never been all that trendy, I guess. Beautiful is always in style.
The above bedroom may not be the go-to style of generations X and Y, but you have to admit that Patricia McLean‘s “Classic Corner” bedroom is interior design at its unstudied (seeming) finest. Nothing matchy matchy, everything quality and lovely.
A truly traditional (i.e. timeless) designer, Patricia specializes in the customization of paint colors, finishes and fabrics, and layering of antiques and accessories in a way that many in my generation don’t have the time, money, or desire for — but can still unabashedly admire! That Serapi rug is to die for! Crystal lamps with silk, sea foam pleated shades, embroidered bedding, silk velvet pillows … refined and yet still somehow relaxed.
What’s that quote that goes, “Money talks, but wealth whispers…?” Shhhhhh….
A little jewel of a powder room by Clary Bosbyshell of Margaux Interiors Limited. One of the beauties of using wallpaper is that is pretty much can stand on its own, especially if you choose a pattern as lovely and rich as this Swan Lake by Nina Campbell for Osborne & Little (I love ALL of her papers for O&L!). Add classics like marble, a champagne-finish Louis Philippe mirror, some funky-yet-white-and-therefore-understated sconces (once again by Julie Neill), and pink peonies, and you have a perfect modern-debutante look!
4. Pattern Happy and Color Punch Drunk
I adore pattern, color, and rooms designed for families with squirrelly kids, so if I had to choose my “everyday” look, this camp is probably it.
Lauren Davenport tried to make a laundry room a happy place by painting it Farrow & Ball’s Oval Room Blue and using a fun, but subtle, Schumacher Raindots paper on the ceiling. I’ve had a sample of the same Villa Nova Roman shade fabric waiting for the perfect client! The floors are understated. Love this space.
Truth be told, Mallory Mathison Glenn‘s “Little Boy Bleu” room was a bit over the top for me overall, but there are so many elements I love at the same time — the red, white, and blue color palette, the choice of pattern on the walls, the mismatched pattern on the bedding, etc. I’d adore this room if it were simplified by about 30%, but I totally give her credit for pulling out all the stops. It’s a show house, after all. Her portfolio is gorgeous; you should check it out.
My last stop on this abbreviated tour is Laura Walker of Verde Home‘s lounge/guest room. Obviously, the most special thing is the Farrow & Ball Hornbeam wallpaper, trimmed in Stiffkey Blue (what I used in my library!). This colorway is less often used, but it’s so cozy for a small TV room. I’ve been wanting to use this pattern forever. It definitely makes for a fun teen lounge/sleepover spot.
You can see the rest of the rooms in the February issue of Atlanta Homes Magazine. Do you have a favorite style camp? Any obvious winner in your minds?
‘Til next Saturday!
-Amy
3 thoughts on “4 Styles Compete in the 2017 Home for the Holidays Show House (Can You Choose a Winner?)”
Agreed! Definitely #4. So much happiness in that little room. I wouldn’t mind doing laundry in there. 🙂
All of the #3 rooms are my favorites. I especially like the wallpaper in the powder room, but I also appreciate the layered, “not-as-obviously” decorated look of the Patricia Mclean living room and the John Oetgan living room. Maybe it has something to do with being a Southerner? 🙂
I LOVE those rooms, too. You cannot argue with refinement and taste — and you Southern ladies have that in spades! My mother-in-law and late grandmother-in-law are/were cut of the same cloth.
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