How Does A Decorator Show House Work?

Dear Readers:

Did you know that there is something called a Designer or Decorator Show House scheduled this time of year in most states? Do you know what a designer showhouse is? It’s a type of fundraiser sponsored by a charity or nonprofit group. You may have heard of the Kips Bay Boys and Girls Club Decorator Show House, which occurs every year in New York City, or the Pasadena Showcase House of Design, in California.

For those of you unfamiliar with a show house, this is how it works. Interior designers, decorators, and decorative painters bid on rooms and spaces in a large unoccupied house. If someone has the winning presentation for a room, that person’s firm has a limited amount of time to decorate that space at its own expense, as a form of marketing. Landscape designers are afforded the same opportunity for different areas of the home’s grounds. The idea is to create something unusual and inspirational. The public purchases tickets to view all of the unique spaces in the house and gardens, with proceeds going to the sponsoring charity or nonprofit group. At the end of the allotted month, each firm must return its space to the original condition (or a reasonable facsimile thereof). It’s sort of like Brigadoon – it’s only there for a short time and then it vanishes.

It’s a lot of fun for the viewing public to compare the “before” pictures with the transformation of each space. (Although since different firms do each space to showcase their own talents, don’t expect anything resembling continuity among the rooms.) There is no better way to pick up clever ideas to try yourself; or if you’re in the market for a decorator or landscaper, you can determine just how creative the different local firms are. I should make a point about the latter, however.

As a veteran of seven showhouses, I have noticed that some visitors come into the house looking for a particular room; and only if they see exactly what they’re looking for, do they hire that designer. You have to understand something. These are talented people. Someone who does a fabulous bedroom in a show house may be the perfect person to do your family room. Or the talented designer of a dining room might be the one to help you with your living room. We are multidimensional. Every one of us can do contemporary as well as traditional rooms, dining rooms as well as nurseries. So, here’s a tip: find the person, not the room. Ask to see the portfolios of the designers’ other rooms. Talk to the designers and artists to see if you are well suited. Compatibility is paramount.

The rooms and gardens in a designer show house are spectacular. The lunches are wonderful. Often there are lectures and wine tasting scheduled on the grounds. All in all, a showhouse makes for a lovely summer’s day out. M.A.K.

Reverse-Painted Glass Walls

Dear Melissa:

I loved your room at the Guilford showhouse a few years ago. The bathroom is really stunning. I would kill for that awesome shower curtain. I could tell the trim was real jade. The glass walls kind of confused me, though. I still don’t quite understand how they were done. Were the walls painted and then covered with the sheets of glass? G.B., Madison, CT

Dear G.:

Thank you for supporting the showhouse, and for the compliment. (I need all the encouragement I can get.) The amazing onyx sink in the bathroom required equally dramatic surroundings, which explains the silk-and-jade shower curtain and the glass walls.

I love to experiment and push the envelope in showhouses, because there is no client to disappoint. Since my two favorite surface materials are metal and glass, they came to mind immediately. Metal was too contemporary for this space, so I chose to create something special in glass. Hence the unique walls.

Reverse-painted glass itself is not new. The Chinese have been doing it for centuries. It was also popular in this country during the Art Deco period, although mostly on picture frames and mirrors. You may be familiar with Eglomise, the French name for gilded and reverse-painted glass.

As its name implies, reverse painting is painting in the opposite order. Consider normal painting, where an artist paints the background first, builds up each layer, and then ends with the foreground. When one paints on the back of clear glass, the order is reversed, starting with the foreground. This way when the glass is turned over, the foreground is uppermost. As you can imagine, this requires a lot of skill and practice.

As far as I know, reverse-painted walls are unheard of. Think of them as glass wallpaper.

I needed a truly adventurous artist, so I asked Randy Davis, of Off The Wall Murals, in Killingworth, CT, to create the walls for me. He’s incredibly talented, and has done work for Disney, Paramount Studios, and Warner Brothers, among others. I knew if anyone could figure out how to do this, he could. And he did. Beautifully.

The glass company solved the problems of the physical constraints and how to affix the panels to the walls, and we were good to go. (So what if I had a few sleepless nights until we were sure this would work. That’s what it means to do a showhouse.) M.A.K.