I LIVE for this. Someday I'll get a chance to visit in person. Wouldn't you just DIE to be asked to design a room?!?!? I'll stick with visiting someday since I don't plan on moving to NYC anytime soon....but I never know what could happen;) SO anywho, let's get on with it already!

The Kips Bay Showhouse is like a couture fashion show, it's the BEST of the BEST. It's a little over the top, a little crazy & completely fabulous. It's RARE that a designer gets to really do what they want to do. We have to consider clients & blah blah blah. Kidding kidding. But it's true that when a designer is let loose to design what's actually in their heads, things can get pretty amazing.

Here's something you may not know, at least in Houston, the showhouses dictate what colors you are allowed to use & usually you can't change anything but paint AS LONG as it coordinates with the already chosen & you had no say color palette. SO the public visits the showhouse ASSUMING that the designer has done the design that they dream of, but it's not USUALLY the case. I think that makes showhouses incredibly boring, more like a model home....zzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Sorry for the tangent, let's see the rooms!

Art Installation by Aakash Nihalani. Hall designed by Wayne Nathan.

Living Room designed by Celerie Kemble of Kemble Interiors.

Sitting Room designed by Richard Mishaan.

Bedroom designed by Amanda Nisbet.

Black light Laundry Room designed by Stephen Fanuka.

Study designed by Aurélien Gallet.

Scary Children's Room designed by Harry Heismann.

Back staircase designed by Janet and Carolina Rauber.

Stereo Lounge designed by Brad Ford. Psssst...notice the record player in the middle of the cocktail table!

Lounge designed by Robert Stilin.

Soooo whatdya think? Some of it's completely off the wall. The details are SO GOOD though. You have to look closely to see them. That's what good design is about. The pink walled bedroom is my favorite. I think even I could do a wall treatment like that. Maybe I will;) Head over to the Kips Bay website to read about viewing hours, events & all of the designers involved.

All images above are from the NY Times, click each image for a link to the original source.

XX,

Jamie