The grand tour: Design pros create luxe rooms at Kips Bay show house in W. Palm Beach

Rooms in the just-opened Kips Bay Decorator Show House Palm Beach celebrate grand living in a contemporary-style house in SoSo, the West Palm Beach neighborhood just south of Southern Boulevard near the Intracoastal Waterway.

With interiors and outdoor spaces created by more than two-dozen design firms, the seventh-annual show house is open for tours through March 17. As many as 15,000 guests are expected to visit, organizers predict.

The impressively scaled house’s interiors are crowned by soaring ceilings that add to the feeling of grandeur, from the generously scaled grand salon to luxuriously appointed sitting areas, from the outdoor oases envisioned for entertaining to intimate bedroom suites — all designed with luxe finishes and furnishings that might send visitors’ imaginations soaring.

The project benefits the Boys & Girls Clubs of Palm Beach County and the Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club in New York City, where the first Kips Bay show house opened in 1973. Since then, the project has raised more than $29 million for after-school and enrichment programs for children, according to the clubs.

The show house is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays through Sundays at 230 Miramar Way. General admission is $50 with advance ticket purchase and $60 at the door if available, with ticket details at KipsBayDecoratorShowHouse.org.

The Palm Beach Daily News asked the participating designers to describe the inspiration for their rooms and outdoor areas, some of which they christened with whimsical and evocative names.

The professionals discussed what got their creative juices flowing as they approached this grandly scaled residence.

Starting on the ground level and then ascending the stairs, here's a room-by-room tour — or perhaps phrased even more appropriately, a grand tour.

“La Mer Pacifique,” by Tristan Harstan & Co.

A custom de Gournay hand-painted silk wallcovering named La Mere Pacifique and a Scalamandre flame-stitch fabric on the back of the dining chairs contribute to the sophisticated yet understated dining room that easily seats 10, says Atlanta-based designer Tristan Harstan.

“I wanted the room to have a tropical feeling, with a soft refreshing blue-and-white color palette appropriate for Palm Beach,” Harstan explains.

Adding a touch of luxury, the wallpaper on the ceiling features silver leaf. The winter-white silk draperies, meanwhile, have a subtle sheen and are edged with a plaid band and a silk braided cord in blue and white. “I did the same cord as the inside welt on the dining chairs,” Harstan says.

His overall goal, he adds, was to design a room that was not “over the top or ostentatious, but very subtle and tasteful.”

He adds: “When you are entertaining, you want the environment to be beautiful — you are pampering your guests.”

“Salon D'Allure,” by Marc-Michaels Interior Design Inc.

The starting point for the design of the living room was a massive backlighted screen featuring a patterned Arte furry wallcovering, which gave rise to the overall color scheme: rosy chocolates, smoky charcoals and hints of varying shades of saturated taupes and mints.

“It’s every color under the sun. The wallpaper is like an Alice-in-Wonderland explosion of color and figures — a paradise garden,” says Marc Thee, who co-designed the space with designer Mark Tremblay. “It’s kind of meaty, but we dialed into the playfulness of it and the darker side of it, playing with depth of emotion.”

The room embraces some surprising curiosities, he adds. “It shows strength of character, and the (envisioned) owner has a true passion for the unique and is not afraid to being judged. It’s a little bit of the Addams Family,” he says, acknowledging that items like the snake and ant figurines might not be to everyone’s taste.

Thee describes the Ralph Pucci cocktail table as “an organic over-scaled explosion of quality in the room’s epicenter.” Tea tables, meanwhile, invite lounging, “a wonderful way to furnish a room for entertaining friends,” says Thee, who co-founded Marc-Michaels Interior Design. The company has studios in Boca Raton and Winter Park.

Overhead is a striking custom-designed light fixture made of dozens of crystal teardrops lit by individual LED lights, all suspended from an oval-shaped panel. Underfoot, is an oval shaped rug. “I think an oval has always solved my challenging design moments. If a room is too high or too wide, if you throw an oval in there, you are going to come up with a solution,” Thee says.

Front landscape and roof terrace, by Environment Design Group

At the front of the house, Palm Beach landscape architect Dustin Mizell refined the hardscape and created a more prominent sense of arrival by adding pallets of plants to soften the crisp lines of the architecture. “At the entryway, we refurbished the fountains and added architectural pottery to complement the design,” explains Mizell.

Embellishing the front loggia, four calamondin citrus trees serve as organic counters to the architectural pillars, he says.

Meanwhile, the expansive roof deck was nothing but hardscape when he first encountered it. “So we brought up vegetation to screen and frame vistas,” Mizell says. “And to help soften the remainder of the hardscape, we strategically placed (planted) pots with various colors and textures.”

“Lively loggia and jeweled gallery,“ by Nadia Watts Interior Design

Designer Nadia Watts of Denver is a great-great granddaughter of master jeweler and glass designer Louis Comfort Tiffany, of Tiffany & Co., and she took cues from Tiffany’s rich color palette and design sensibility to welcome visitors to the show house. With a 13-foot ceiling, the front loggia features comfortable seating with a color pallet of green, gray and yellow.

From there visitors head into the foyer, which is decorated as gallery with a rich color scheme inspired by pieces of Tiffany leaded glass Watts has collected over the years. The forms in the hand-painted ceiling resemble leaded glass, and its colors are Tiffany-esque turquoise and gold, complemented elsewhere by pink and tangerine.

The gallery’s custom hand-knotted, 28-foot rug has noteworthy center medallions. “In citrus, teal blue and bright-green chartreuse, they contain the shapes of an oval antique brooch, which is more than 125 years old and in the Tiffany archives,” she says.

Watts points out another nod to Tiffany — the lush adornments of tassels and trims.

“Peony Pavilion,” by Redmond Aldrich Design

In Chloe Warner’s tented-ceilinged loggia, the custom fabric plays a starring role. “We had this beautiful fabric that we designed, Peony Chintz. I used 340 yards of it in this space. I have never placed that big an order,” says the Oakland, California-based designer.

Her garden theme was inspired by Lucia McGregor, her grandmother, she explains: “She loved Palm Beach, where she wintered for decades, and she loved to play cards.” Her grandmother would have loved the white and lavender peonies and other flowers on a green background, Warner says: “She was our imaginary hero of the room.”

Another point of interest in the pavilion is the card table, Warner says. “It’s inspired by British and Swedish antiques with clean lines, but we built it with California material — an elm wood burl, with a felted top.”

Kitchen, by Jim Dove Designs

West Palm Beach-based designer Jim Dove says he wanted his kitchen to capture the exuberance of Palm Beach living with its “color and crazy wallpaper and a spectacular star chandelier.”

Bright, cheerful and functional, the kitchen is a grand room, adds Dove, who said he was inspired by the work of the late iconic New York interior decorator Dorothy Draper. With her love of bold colors and stylish architecture, Draper would feel right at home in the kitchen, Dove says.

“Dorothy’s favorite food to cook for her guests, I think, would be seared tuna on the griddle, and she would like Paloma cocktails — pink grapefruit juice and tequila — mostly tequila.”

The color scheme is established by a blue paint by Benjamin Moore and a Gracie wallpaper depicting white-and-cream palm trees against a deep blue background. And for added interest, the perimeter cabinetry is finished in shell pink. “I used touches of flamingo pink, too,” Dove says. “I think the space embodies the essence of Palm Beach, a celebration of color, comfort and the pursuit of the good life.”

The kitchen, with fixtures and faucets by Kohler, is hardworking, too, with a 72-inch range with eight burners, two ovens, a griddle and a grill.

“Le Tropical,” by McCann Design Group

With touches of rich textured velvets, designer Sara McCann’s 1930s-style Parisian lounge pays homage to architect, decorator and furniture designer Elise Djo-Bourgeois, using fabric patterns from Pierre Frey.

“We are huge fans of Frey fabrics, and they came out with designs influenced by Elise,” says McCann, a Palm Beach resident who is also the creative director of Hive Collective in West Palm Beach.

McCann says she and her design team wanted a moody, tropical and maximalist ambience for the room. The rich saturated color scheme includes olive, terra cotta, ivory and rose.

The room also makes good use of soft, rounded lines: Curves are featured on the custom-designed bar — with its plaster palm-leaf motifs — as well as the sectional, the oversize cove moldings and the fireplace’s plaster detail, she says. “We also did a wave chair-rail detail above the textured grass-cloth walls.”

And three oversized rattan light fixtures “cast fabulous shadows and set the mood,” McCann says.

“An Oceanic Dreamland,” by Helen Bergin Interiors

For the cabana bathroom, Palm Beach designer Helen Bergin aimed to create a jewel-box space that was visually exciting and paid homage to the natural environment. “So, I thought of doing an underwater dreamland in umber, white and aqua.”

Lending a dominant note, the silky wallpaper from Aquaville is intricately hand-embellished with beaded, sequined and threaded jellyfish. The focal point is a cast-resin translucent teal sink, made by Karen Atta, that resembles sea glass, Bergin says. Kohler provided the faucets and fixtures.

Abstract art by Mary Nelson Sinclair features all of the room’s color tones. And Bergin hopes visitors don’t forget to look up. “One of my favorite pieces in the space is a sculptural ceramic chandelier by Olivia Cogne that waves around like the ocean in a subtle way.”

Study, by Savage Interior Design

Designer Jonathan Savage says his study was designed for a creative person who enjoys the outdoors but also likes to collect art while traveling. Savage’s signature style combines a respect for the classics with a modern edge and clean-lined furnishings, he explains. And since the room is a study, an important element is the Keith Fritz Fine furniture custom desk.

The starting point was a Zimmer + Rohde fabric that reminded Savage of maritime flags he saw at the Palm Beach Yacht Club, and he chose Benjamin Moore’s Mount Saint Anne blue as the predominant color.

Other important elements are the modular color-block paintings by local artist William Finlayson. “I gave him a piece of the Zimmer + Rohde fabric, and those are what he created,” says Savage, who works out of Palm Beach and Nashville.

Savage is serving as co-chairman of the show house with designer Billy Ceglia.

READ MORE ABOUT JONATHAN SAVAGE'S STUDY: Palm Beach designer Jonathan Savage makes a return visit to upcoming Kips Bay show house

Primary suite: Her bathroom and dressing room, by Jessica Jubelirer Design

Palm Beach designer Jessica Jubelirer describes the style of her rooms as functional, artistic, layered, personal and fresh. “I always consider how a space is used,” she says.

In this ground-floor bathroom, she started by addressing the soaring proportions of the room, she explains. “We added the terracotta cornice, wainscot and baseboard. By addressing the proportions, you would enjoy spending time here,” she says.

Jubelirer wrapped the walls and ceiling in a pattern that is part of a collection she designed in collaboration with Fromental, which will be introduced this spring.

“We paired their beautiful hand-painting with motifs inspired by Christian Berard, a decorative artist in France in the 1920s, and we incorporated some of my favorite decorative-arts embroidery,” she says.  “Everything else flowed from there.”

The fixtures and faucets are by Kohler.

“Bond's Boudoir,” by Donna Mondi Interior Design

"If Sean Connery’s Agent 007 — that international man of mystery — had a boudoir today, this would be it. In the primary bathroom and dressing room, James Bond would shed his tough exterior and just be a man,” says Mondi, who has studios in Chicago and Denver and designed the show-house rooms with her daughter, Alyssa Hall.

Bond’s touch of mystery is foreshadowed in the abstract expressionist art. The black-and-azul color scheme — based on the graphic marble wall in the bathroom's oversize shower with faucets from Kohler — marked the beginning of her design process.

“It’s dark, moody, elegant and an elevated international style. It’s not iconic Palm Beach but has a more urban appeal that would still fit into a Palm Beach home, if we wanted it to be a little bit more worldly,” she says.

Visitors might note the way the space relates to the architecture of the house, she adds. “We are inspired and informed by classical architecture, which we like to infuse with our modernist design. This house seems modern, but when you come in, you see the fluted columns in the home’s main gallery. That’s unusual. So, we thought we had the latitude to bridge traditional and modernist design, which is why we incorporated the elaborate crown profile and panel molding.”

Also of note, the dressing room features a “floating” art-gallery ceiling suspended by cables.

“Midnight Garden,” by Phoebe Howard

Decorated in rich navy blue, white and oatmeal, Phoebe Howard’s primary bedroom on the first floor features a garden-related theme. “The Gracie wallpaper, Navy Lily, has branches, leaves and birds, and I put a lattice design on the ceiling, inspired by boxwood parterre gardens,” says Howard, who is based in Jacksonville.

For an element of whimsy and something fun to look for, Howard has placed a framed picture of her mother, Madeline McGinty, on the bedside table. “It’s from the 1950s,” Howard says. “My daughter and I both do show houses, and we take her with us. That picture goes in first, and my mother watches the whole process.”

All about the garden, the four-poster bed with a simple pipe design is dressed in blue-and-white bedcoverings from Pioneer Linens and framed by sheer panels with a gardenesque fretwork pattern.

"Climbing staghorn ferns and palms," by MELROSE

Designer Charlie Collins of Charleston, South Carolina, says she capitalized on how natural light enters through windows to brighten the soaring glass-railed stairway, while bringing exterior elements indoors with florals, ferns and palms to enliven the vast minimalist space.

Supporting the theme are massive, framed botanical prints foraged from Florida, Collins says. “Above the plaster console, there are four that are 50-inches tall.”

The color scheme includes soft Brittany blue and greens, ranging from the verde of the Murano glass chandelier to the subtlety of the celadon in the rug. And there are pops of color in the decorative Venetian vases on the side tables, the linen floral drapery on the upper landing, the artwork and the accessories.

A living lattice-work wall with live staghorn ferns draws visitors’ attention and adds dimension to the space, Collins says. “My goal was to create a juxtaposition between modern architecture and more whimsical elements of nature through the furnishings. An example of that is paring the Santorini Ralph Pucci plaster console with the more traditional framed botanicals,” Collins says.

She also fitted an alcove on the top landing to recall the look of a garden shed, complete with sliding doors — an idea that takes the outdoor theme to the highest level, literally and figuratively.

“It's Not Easy Being Green: Kermit's retreat," by Lichten Architects and Nicole Mizrahi Interiors

“As with all of our design decisions that we made with (interior designer) Nicole Mizrahi, we started with a sit-down,” says New York City-based architect Kevin Lichten. And what emerged from the conversation was a desire to create “a sense of serenity in our space,” he says.

He and Miami-based Mizrahi chose a serene monochromatic palette in green, “a good Florida color,” as Lichten describes it. The exceptions are a Wendell Castle chair and the Jacques Jarrige desk.

“Our sense of humor bounced around, and with all green, I thought of Kermit from Sesame Street, and the song, “It Isn’t Easy Being Green,” Lichten says, “and that became our humorous theme.

The corners of the room were rounded, and a sinuous wall wraps the space, covered in green-on-green textural tactile rice paper. Two console tables also are wrapped in green leather.

“We meant the room to be a retreat from the visual complexity of the colors of Florida’s landscape. Every decision we made was based on how to keep the space serene,” Lichten says. “We wanted it to be easy being green.”

“Golden Hour,” by OBMI

With an Asian influence, this lounge employs a warm, moody color with a masculine feel, says lead designer Carlos Agelet of Miami-based OBMI. The room was designed for an imagined client — a traveler and a writer, who has collected objects from around the world.

“Everything has a darker, earthy tone layered in gold — and we went with a gold-leaf ceiling that suggests natural lighting in a subtle way,”  Agelet says.

In contrast, the furnishings are organic, textural and cozy. The art by local artists from local galleries also fits the mood.

The prominent wall mirror that greets visitors when they enter the room alludes to the occupant’s self-reflective side, Agelet says, evoking memories of his travels abroad.

“A Gentleman's Affair with Sunset Tea,” by DuVäl Design

An imaginary introverted traveler, obsessed with tea and isolation, inhabits the sitting room designed by DuVäl, who goes professionally by a single name. “The theme is escapism and solitude,” DuVäl says. “The idea was to create a retreat within his own home where he could be alone with his thoughts.”

The designer says the room’s vibe and story play on paradox — familiar but exotic, chaotic but serene, light and inviting but also dark and moody.  A supporting  feature is the ombre-style Gracie wallpaper. At the room’s entrance, the walls are darker but soon become lighter, a visual effect that “pulls you into the room and keeps you there,” DuVäl says.

The designer purposely avoided giving the space a focal point. “For me, I like the entire room to feel like one note. There’s never a leading person. The protagonist is the one who visits the space — the room sets the atmosphere but is not the star.”

And there are couple of unexpected things to look for: “In our wallpaper, we added a small UFO, and there’s an alien peeking out somewhere in the room,” he says.

The room features 10 light sources, which create different moods and effects, he adds, with a baseline of deep forest green, blush salmon and dusty gold.

DuVäl is headquartered in Fairfax, Virginia, with studios in Palm Beach, New York and Atlanta.

“The Parlour,” by Betsy Wentz

Pittsburgh-based designer Betsy Wentz’s hallway lounge/bar, which leads to the second-floor primary suite, features three sets of French doors that open to a patio for gatherings. Rather than envisioning an imaginary client, she chose to design the room with herself in mind, creating a place where she would like to have a drink and relax.

“I’m the imaginary person. I’m so used to working with clients — and there are no palette cleansers in a show house. Because I love color and pattern, I designed the space to suit myself. It’s about doing ‘me plus.’”

Whimsical and playful, the vivid colors include a pinkish lavender, turquoise and coral, all showcased in the Sanderson/Harlequin fabric wall coverings and textiles. The Forte bar is embellished with a turquoise-veined quartzite, and the focal point is a built-in banquette in the corner. The latter has a jumbo 2-inch coral velvet welt at the bottom. “It makes for extra layering and it delineates the shape,” Wentz says.

The mushroom-shaped stools in front of the sofa also are fun, with some of the covers embroidered with beetles.

“The room stops you. Maximalism is the theme. It’s a lot to take in, but it’s done tastefully,” she says.

“Shangri-La Lounge,” by Sara Story Design

Inspired by the late Mexican architect Luis Barragan, the wall coverings in designer Sara Story’s lounge echo Barragan’s angular contemporary architectural forms and his use of color. “Infusing a cacti wonderland (into our) Mexico-meets-Brazil speakeasy, we used a lot of Brazilian furniture,” says New York City-based Story.

She points out the sculptural bar by Reynolds Rodriguez. “He’s from Puerto Rico, and after Hurricane Maria (in 2017), he took wood that had fallen and made furniture. The top part of the bar is made of recycled plastic, and the bottom is a wood plinth from a tree that was knocked over.”

Story used color blocks of pink and blue, complemented by pops of yellow on the sculptural vintage sofa designed by the late Vladimir Kagan and the clay tile in the bathroom.

“Gimme A Minute” and “De-Loo-Loo,” by Megan Gorelick Interiors

These two second-floor rooms — a lounge and bathroom — were designed as getaways for the woman of the house when she needs to be alone, says designer Megan Gorelick.

“She is our muse,” says Gorelick, who divides her time between offices in Montchanin, Delaware, and Stone Harbor, New Jersey.

In the cozy lounge, a piece of wall art by Nelson De La Nuez has a title that says it all: “But I’m the Queen of Everything.” The room also features an animal-print daybed. And there’s also a small bureau “filled with her vices,” Gorelick says, opening drawers to reveal items such as candy and bottles of vodka.

“And there are hands coming out of the wall offering her things she needs, like cake and caviar. She’s kind of a bad girl.”

And across the hall, what gives with De-Loo-Loo, the bathroom’s memorable name? “I’m playing on words, like she’s delusional,” the designer says. “We had some fun, and a floral artist, Carlos Muina from Petal Productions, came in and filled the Kohler bathtub with light-blue tumbleweed — it looks like coral or bubbles — and we popped that with red and pink ginger flowers.”

This color scheme, by the way, is an of-the-moment nod to fashion, Gorelick adds: “Red and pink are back.”

“Seashell Sanctuary at Vizcaya,” by Rinfret Ltd.

Shell grottos at Miami’s historic Vizcaya estate inspired designer Cindy Rinfret’s guest-bedroom retreat on the second floor. “After visiting Vizcaya, we designed the bed with real shells on the underside of the canopy created by (Palm Beach) shell artist Robin Grubman,” says Rinfret, whose design studio has offices in Palm Beach and Greenwich, Connecticut. Shells also embellish the cornices of both the bed and the room.

The tone-on-tone color palette of neutrals, sand, aqua and pale stone hues is offset by the ceiling’s cerused wood. Of special note are the innovative, custom de Gournay wall coverings, hand-painted and hand-embroidered with three-dimensional shells: The silver slub silk has a luminous quality that recalls the interior of a shell, Rinfret notes.

There’s another reference to Vizcaya, specifically to its terraced gardens and fountains. Fabric with a pattern of hand-embroidered shells and coral cascades from the top of the padded headboard, down the bedcovering and continues, seamlessly, onto the upholstery of the sofa at the end of the bed.

“The room has great texture, but it’s quiet and unexpected,” Rinfret says.

“Trellis Garden,” by Ariel Okin Interiors

Designer Ariel Okin asked herself a question before she set about designing her second-floor loggia-style terrace: If she had a great trellis area at her own imaginary Palm Beach home, what would she do?

“This space is a pure expression of my personal taste and my dream house, if I had one in Palm Beach,” says Okin, whose New York City-based business also serves Westchester County.

For her terrace, she took inspiration from vintage Palm Beach homes featuring trelliswork and designed by noted society architects John Volk and Maurice Fatio. She also chose Benjamin Moore’s Southfield green, another ode to Palm Beach.

“The terrace area was huge, and so the challenge was to create cocktail moments for people to have conversations,” she explains. She renovated the existing pergola structure and closed it in with a trellis, adding a ceiling with a botanical-motif mural painted by West Palm Beach artist Joseph Steiert

She chose groupings of outdoor furniture by Brown Jordan, Mainly Baskets Home and Walter’s Wicker to anchor the space. A detail not to be missed: Steiert painted the chandelier’s lampshades to look like wicker.

“Tent Folly,” by Allan Reyes Interior Design

Lake Worth Beach-based designer Alan Reyes knows the site of the show house well. He designed and built the house in the Streamlined Moderne style in 2008 and christened it Villa Aura. “When I lived in the house, I always thought there should be a ‘tent folly’ on the roof, a little getaway from the busier areas of the house.

For his outdoor lounge on the top-floor terrace, he created a restful space defined by white draperies hung from a pipe frame, where one can relax on the Brown Jordan daybed while taking in the treetop-sunset views. The focal-point, however, is a mural in a delicate color scheme of amethyst, lavender and purple, a reproduction of a late-15th-century Renaissance painting titled “View of the Ideal City.”

“While sitting up here, you are looking at that view, too, while having a glass of wine,” Reyes says.

Follies are architectural seductions that became popular in the 18th century, Reyes explains. “I wanted my tent folly to be a friendly space, where someone could play cards at the game table, topped by tiles with bacchanalia scenes.”

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Here's a tour of the Kips Bay show house in W. Palm Beach, Florida