Decor Arts Now

Photos from the New York Times

By Lynn Byrne. Well, I will ‘fess up.  This is strictly a “then” post.  You will have to wait patiently to see the “now”, i.e. the results achieved by the wonderful designers selected to transform this spring’s venue for the 2011 Kips Bay Showhouse, located at 163 East 63rd Street.

The Showhouse is open April 28 though May 26.

Still I was fascinated by the especially rich history of this year’s venue and felt that it deserved a post.  Owned at one time by the famed John Hay “Jock” Whitney, a noted art collector among other things, it has a famous top floor conservatory room that was once decorated by Sister Parish.

I dug around and uncovered an excerpt from Sister’s biography by Apple Parish Bartlett and Susan Bartlett Crater, entitled Sister, The life of  legendary interior decorator Mrs. Henry Parish II, where Mark Hampton describes Sister’s room at 163 East 63rd  Street.

He said the room was originally built as a contemporary “folly” with large glass walls and furnished with bare white walls, Barcelona chairs and a Morrocan rug.  The Whitneys concluded that their experiment with modern design was not to their taste and hired Sister to fix it.  It was her first job for them.

She conveyed her idea for the space by showing the Whitneys an old shutter with a flaky white painted finish, and to the Whitneys’ credit, they got her vision simply be seeing that shutter.

The resulting room was lined with similarly crusty shutters covering the glass walls.  The shutters were left open for light.  The other walls were painted white, lined with a canvas linen and then overpainted again—lots of texture.  Mr. Hampton goes on to describe the room as having a large Tibetan rug that was the color of “old Levi’s”, and furnishings in other tones of white, some yellow and some blue.  The furnishings were not modern but early Louis XIII and Flemish.

And of course the room was filled with showstopping art, including a Picasso, a collection by Matisse and some Toulouse-Lautrecs.

It all sounds simply divine. I couldn’t find a picture online of the room.  Perhaps there is one in the Parish/Crater biography.  I don’t know but that would be reason enough to buy it!  Click here to be redircted to Amazon.

So who is assigned to design that space?  Brad Ford and Robert Stilin.  If it were me (only in my dreams!), I would be feeling loads of pressure just from the “Sister” karma.

The pre-renovation party was held on March 14, 2011.  I so wish I could have attended, but I am still knee deep in helping husband Larry with his recovery (check out my January posts if you are curious) and single handedly keeping the kids and house going.

Here are just 3 pictures from the Kips Bay Flickr stream of the “befores” for the house to whet your appetite and get you to clickety clack over to see them all right here. They are not described in any way but the glimpse is intriguing.

OMG, check out this wallpaper.  

Could this be the famed top floor?  I have no idea! 

Detail. 

And the image at the top of this post? The right hand side is how the exterior of the house looks today.  The left shows the house in 1924 sporting the stucco facade it had when built by architect Frederick Sterner in 1919.  When Whitney bought the house, he ditched the stucco and gave the home its brick neo-Federalist look.  For more on Sterner, this home and some other Sterner homes, click here.

Finally, drumroll please, here is a complete list of the 2011 Kips Bay Showhouse designers. Congratulations all.  It is sure to be spectacular.  I can’t wait.

Amanda Nisbet Design

Aurelien Gallet

Barbara Ostrom Associates

Bilotta Kitchens of New York

Brad Ford ID Inc.

Campion Platt

Cayley Barrett Associates, Ltd.

Fanuka Inc.

Greener by Design Richard Heller

Gunn Landscapes

Harry Heissmann Inc.

Jamie Herzlinger Interior Design

Jeff Lincoln, Inc.

Celerie Kemble for Kemble Interiors

Mary McDonald Interiors

Matthew Patrick Smyth Inc.

Richard Mishaan Design

Robert Stilin LLC

By Lynn Byrne. How cool are these dresses!  They are constructed of paper! I spotted them in the window of an Anthropologie store.

Earlier that weekend, I stumbled across this display up in Stamford. 

What are those things hanging on the wall in the back of the booth? Turns out they are made of paper.  

Then there was the David Stark pop up paper store at West Elm last spring.  Click here to see more of that.  

Paper crafts are having a moment.

Of course, people have been crafting with paper for centuries.  It has been traced back to Europe since 1440.  Origami, the folding of colored paper, is generally associated with Japan but there is also evidence that it existed in Germany, Spain and China. 

Photo from the California State Univ.website (no photographer credit)

The blog Style Hive posted this collage showing orgami-inspired fashion and home furnishings (note ottoman in bottom left) back in 2007, but in this instance, the paper craft is interpreted with fabric! 

Back in Victorian times, many families decorated their trees with paper ornaments.  For instructions on how to make your own, click here.

Photo from Family Christmas Online

Finally, since we are talking about paper crafts, I can’t forget the fabulous Mrs. Delany.  She made gorgeous “paper mosaic” botanicals in the late 1700s.  Yes, the original artwork of the flower below was made by her from tiny scraps of paper.  Click on the link above to read more about Mrs. Delany.  The book below is available on Amazon.

Are you ready to get crafty?

Photos not otherwise identified are by Lynn Byrne for Decor Arts Now.