Decor Arts Now

In the collection of the Bartow-Pell Mansion Museum and Garden

Anyone who has been around me since April 26 knows that I have been obsessively touting the cause of Beauty in the Bronx, Bartow-Pell Mansion Museum and Gardens (BPMM).

BPMM is currently engaged in an American Idol-like voting contest for preservation funds along with 39 other worthy sites in New York City. American Express in conjunction with the National Trust for Historic Preservation selected the sites late last year. Volunteers for BPMM (including me) have been working hard since last January to develop our plan for winning votes. We are up against some stiff competition from much larger organizations such as the New York Botanical Garden, the Intrepid and the Guggenheim! The top four sites with the most votes are guaranteed their grant money.

And….drumroll please….BPMM has been in the number 4 slot for much of the competition!! 

How did we get there??

We have lots of loyal supporters and dedicated volunteers. I also think my friends in the blogging and twitter worlds have been a HUGE help. These wonderful friends have all written beautiful posts about Bartow-Pell to help get out the vote: Jennifer at Decaporter, Cynthia at The Buzz, Katie at the Neo-Traditionalist and Elizabeth at Pretty Pink Tulips. BIG hugs and thanks to each of them. Their posts, plus my own, here and here, (and pretty much anything else I had to say about Bartow-Pell on twitter) have been retweeted by so many twitter friends that I couldn’t begin to name them for fear I would leave someone out.

BUT IT IS NOT OVER YET! The contest ends at 11:59 p.m. on May 21st. Please, please vote for Bartow-Pell, today, Saturday, Sunday and Monday (yes, you can vote each day) by clicking here. We have heard rumors that the ‘big guys” pull out all of the stops these last few days.

And I’ve decided, a good luck charm doesn’t hurt.  There are greek keys all over our Greek Revival Mansion.

In the collection of the Bartow-Pell Mansion Museum and Garden

With your help, maybe they will lead us to success!

Love this stair runner in the Mansion

Bunny Williams, Brian J. McCarthy, David Kleinberg

Sophisticated. Curated. Stunning.

This year’s Kip’s Bay Show House may well be my favorite. Ever. 

Each room is multi-layered and rich with detail, as if a connoissuer waved his magic wand and the finest in art and furniture appeared. There is no art hung whose sole purpose is simply to shock—and I for one didn’t miss it. And the designers moved away from that formulaic, paint-by-the-numbers type interior. These are my kind of rooms.  

For the first time ever, the show house has crossed Central Park and is located on the Upper West Side—in a brand new condo, the Aldyn. The designers were given two duplex penthouses to decorate. Of course the rooms are different sizes, but in a way the playing field was rather level. Everyone started with a white box.

With over 200 photos, I have a lot to show you. I thought I would pick my top 3 rooms to share, but I find I can’t narrow it down–I loved so much. Instead, consider this your tasting menu. I will be back next week to dive in with the full details. It will take a few posts…..

Timothy & Associates Interior Design

Jamie Drake

Alexa Hampton

Alexander Doherty

Scott Sanders

Gunn Landscape Architecture and Vert Gardens

Detail shots of these rooms, plus many more rooms to come next week.

By the way, the stairs on the terrace lead to this:

Yes, really. Each penthouse has its own private swimming pool.

All photos by me. 

+++++++++++++++

Have you voted today to preserve Bartow-Pell Mansion Museum and Gardens? You can vote once per day til May 21 to help them get the grant money they need. To read more about it, click the green button in my right side bar. To go straight to the vote, click here.