This year’s Ninth Annual Kips Bay Decorator Show House brings a first to Palm Beach County — not just one show house, but two.
The result is a double dose of Palm Beach design and talent — twice the talent, twice the inspiration.
Highlighting the work of 23 interior designers, many from South Florida, the two show houses are open to the public through Tuesday, March 24.
For the first time ever, designers transform two West Palm Beach properties: a 4,673 sq.-ft., five-bedroom, four-bath, waterfront Intracoastal house at 3410 N. Flagler Drive, and the Palm Cottage, directly across the street in the Northwood Shores neighborhood.
“Bringing together exceptional design and a shared commitment to giving back, this event makes a lasting difference for the young people in our community,” says Daniel Quintero, executive director of the Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club.
Since its inception five decades ago, the Kips Bay Decorator Show House has raised more than $34 million for the Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club’s mission of providing essential educational and developmental programs for young people in New York City. The Palm Beach edition continues this legacy.
“Events like the Kips Bay Decorator Show House remind us that investing in the arts and investing in our youth go hand in hand,” says Jaene Miranda, CEO of Boys & Girls Clubs of Palm Beach County.
Arriving at the Palm Cottage, be prepared for your own “three-hour tour” as you enter “Mrs. Howell’s Retreat,” a living room designed by Emily Evans Eerdmans of Eerdmans Gallery & Interiors, and inspired by Mrs. Thurston Howell III, known also as Lovey, from the Gilligan’s Island sitcom of 1964-67.
She designed a room filled with antiques, colored orchids, shells and accoutrements for making Lovey’s signature martinis. At this, her first time designing for Kips Bay, the New York-based designer was dressed in an indigo lace dress designed to complement the room. Known for her exuberant colors, especially chartreuse, Eerdmans restrained herself for Lovey’s Palm Beach cottage, creating a palette of less exuberant blues and whites.
The deep pink and white orchids sitting in a chinoiserie jardiniere pay homage to Enid Haupt, former editor of Seventeen magazine, who loved orchids. On a woven wicker side table is a photo of Lovey and Thurston Howell III with their dog, Fifi, a playful touch created courtesy of ChatGPT.
The walls are tented in silks and a linen print from Jim Thompson Fabrics of Thailand (also showcased in the White Lotus Thailand episodes) with a wooden-bead, fringed valance from Samuel & Sons.
Overhead, the ceiling is painted in Benjamin Moore Blue Bonnet 2050-70, reminiscent of a perfect Palm Beach sky, and in the center of the room, over an elongated Louis XVI sofa, hangs a large abstract painting titled Aquarius, by artist Margaret Kennedy.
Other rooms in the cottage include Fort Lauderdale and NYC-based architect and designer Steven Walsh of Steven Walsh Design, who designed a botanical hallway and a marble bath created with slab marble.
In a sunlit back bedroom, New Jersey-based designer Colleen Rosar of Colleen Rosar Design created a room “where plans get canceled.”
Amy McArdle of Amy Young Designs of Palm Beach Gardens designed “Breakfast Club-After Hours,” along the theme of a jewelry box where gold, silver and rose gold tones all work in harmony. A small kitchenette, which McArdle calls the Carrie Bradshaw Kitchen (if Carrie Bradshaw cooked), reimagines the kitchen and breakfast room as an intimate boutique hotel-like ambience, creating a space that is sophisticated, feminine and, of course, très chic.
The design journey continues across the street.
Across Flagler Drive, in The Intracoastal House, with its 50-ft. backyard pool overlooking the Intracoastal Waterway, Miami designer Debra Wecselman creates “A Designer’s Retrospective,” a great room inspired by a look back at her 30-year career and an homage to designer Ralph Lauren, for whom she worked.
“I want to invite you in and create a cozy and warm ambience,” she says.
With echoes of Paris, New York and South America, the room reflects a cosmopolitan approach to living. On the wall is a painting by Cuban-born artist Diango Hernández and in the corner, a large-scale cactus lamp by Pia Roeder, whimsical and sculptural, casting its light over a small sitting area set up for chess and a working fireplace.
“I love the idea that many lives can exist in one room at the same time — talking, gathering and socializing,” she says. She says that great design is not created all at once, but thoughtfully accumulated over time.
Down the hall is Palm Beach designer Lisa Erdmann of Lisa Erdmann Interiors, “The Royal Retreat,” a salute to Princess Margaret’s residence in Mustique, where she honeymooned in the early 1960s. Erdmann is a veteran of Kips Bay, having designed a room for its first Palm Beach incarnation in 2017.
Highlights of the sitting room include Brunschwig & Fils Caribbean-inspired wallpaper, which envelops the space in soft watercolor scenes of palm trees, custom trim work, Serip Lighting bird sconces, a ceramic lamp by Kass O’Brien Ceramics and formal English antiques.
The space evokes coastal elegance, as well as the island’s indoor/outdoor lifestyle with flora and fauna furnishings, a custom chandelier from Christa’s Seashells and decorative accents, such as custom lattice and millwork. Princess Margaret’s favorite cocktails are waiting for her at the bar, including gin and tonic and her signature drink, The Famous Grouse Scotch whiskey.
Next door, Toronto designer Lori Morris of Lori Morris Design created “The Gilded Palm” room in luxurious couture with a “sexy French vibe.”
“I wanted to create a timeless feel with modern fabrics and beautiful art,” says Morris. “It’s a mix of old, new and eclectic.”
Highlights of the décor include custom-made chairs, sofa and bench by Stuart Coffee Table from the Lori Morris Collection, tailored drapery from The Shade Store, area rugs from Stark Carpet and pop art by Cuban-American artist Nelson De La Nuez.
It wouldn’t be a designer showcase house without the landscape design on the same level as the interior design. Outside the cottage, the Lopez Group created Florida Garden Rooms, outdoor spaces designed like the rooms of a home (including one with a life-size alligator), and at the Intracoastal House, Robert Bell of Bell Designs created “Neither Fish Nor Fowl,” the contradictions of a landscape architect — neither architect, nor gardener.
In the front Vita Garden, is a whimsical treehouse, an exercise area with a Kohler C2 outdoor sauna and juice bar (Purgatorio Garden).
In the back, he created a seating area overlooking the water with a custom bird bath and chairs with fish scales, and a cocktail garden with coral lipstick palms and silver bromeliads. A large floating sculpture (Voliera Garden), like a sail, drifts and drapes in the wind adjacent to the seating area, the pool and the Intracoastal Waterway.
At the far end of the pool is the Tiki Tent by Leigh Misso and River Brook, inspired by a Slim Aarons poolside photograph, giving a modern take on the classic Palm Beach cabana. Showstopper vintage Murano glass chandeliers hang over the large rectangular-shaped bar and 800 yards of Schumacher/Hampton striped drapes cover the walls.
A metal sculpture titled The Seraphim Bar, designed by Bell and inspired by the French artist team known as Les Lalannes, is the centerpiece of the space, along with David Harber’s bronze sculpture, FLO.
With so much to look at, every corner tells a story.
“It’s all about the details,” says Misso, pointing to the two goldfish swimming lazily around inside a chandelier bucket.
In a show house defined by grand gestures, sometimes even the smallest details make a splash.
If you go
Tickets, which are $50 in advance and $60 on the day of, are available for purchase at kipsbayboysandgirlsclub.ticketspice.com until closing day March 24, with proceeds benefiting the Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club and Boys & Girls Clubs of Palm Beach County. For more information and a complete list of designers and sponsors, please visit www.kipsbaydecoratorshowhouse.org.