For this Show House, designers had to create house inside museum
Decorators often welcome a blank canvas, but this isn’t what they usually have in mind.
For this year’s version of the Decorators’ Show House, which starts next Sunday, central Ohio interior designers will bypass an actual house in favor of the bare walls of the Columbus Museum of Art.
Decorators accustomed to exploiting a home’s architectural details, such as molding, windows and doors, now must do their best with plain white walls. Even the ceiling is missing.
“It’s a challenge, all
right,” said Pam Yost, owner of Grand Design Group and a Show House veteran.
“It’s much different than doing a room in a home. A house speaks to you and has features and character and design. With a vanilla box, we have nothing to drive the design.”
The Columbus Museum of Art Women’s Board, which sponsors the Show House every other year as a museum fundraiser, came up with the idea to host the “house” inside the museum this year.
“The inspiration came through Sotheby’s (auction house), which did something similar at its gallery in New York,” said Abigail Fredelake, spokeswoman for the women’s board.
Eleven decorators were given two weeks to transform 13 galleries on the museum’s second floor into a designer showcase “house.” While some designers who participated in past Show Houses passed on this one, others embraced the new venue.
“I was very excited about it,” said John Wilson, owner of CRI Interiors.
“I think one of the true challenges that a designer can face is when you have nothing to start with, so it’s really up to you to invoke a certain flavor and mood with pure design.”
The location also carries a rare perk: the opportunity to use art from the museum’s collection.
For the bedroom he designed, Wilson chose a 1938 oil painting by Walt Kuhn.
“This artwork hasn’t been seen in a residential setting in years,” Wilson said.
Without a conventional home layout, the museum’s “house” took on an unusual design. While the footprint includes a kitchen, living room and four bedrooms, it also features a bar next to a cocktail lounge and a study next to an office.
Rooms have no windows but they have an abundance of entrances, which can be a big challenge for furniture placement.
“It’s a designer’s nightmare when you have more than one or two entrances into the room,” said Sally McDonald, owner of Interiorworks by Sally McDonald. “I have three.”
McDonald compensated by covering the walls of her bar room with a hand-painted mural she commissioned for the project.
“Hopefully, instead of all the pretty architecture and the windows, the interest will be on the walls,” she said.
Designer Lauren King Porteus, owner of Lauren King Design, added a herringbone design in wood to one wall and a pretend window to another to create architectural interest.
“I wanted the window to make it feel a little more realistic, even though the whole space is a fantasy,” said King Porteus, participating in her first Show House.
“The challenging part was not having a client to design for, so I created a client in my head and drew some inspiration from my own life,” said King Porteus, who is pregnant. “I turned it into a nursery.”
Other designers rose to the challenge in other ways, sometimes with more labor than usual.
Designer Neal Hauschild had to build bookcases and fireplaces in the “his-andher office” he decorated, and he installed a framing system to hang a large chandelier. For his “cocktail lounge,” he added a bar and two wine racks.
“There are definitely challenges here,” said Hauschild, owner of Nth Degree realestate and design firm. “But I think most designers are excited to try it.”
One thing hasn’t changed with the new location. The Decorators’ Show House remains a prime opportunity to catch up on decorator trends and gather ideas.
Wilson’s bedroom is done in a Scandinavian theme of light woodwork, charcoal rug and bleached furniture.
“It’s all about natural, organic materials and simplicity,” he said. “It’s a naturalistic approach to things.”
Hauschild’s cocktail lounge includes a glass chair with faux-fur upholstery, reflecting the currently popular dramatic mix of materials.
Yost’s room features a canopy bed, bold chartreuse walls and a built-in banquette.
Now that the Show House is about to open, Yost is glad she participated, even though she acknowledges she was reluctant at first.
“My first thought was, ‘Hmm, I don’t know what I think about that,’ because architecture is a big part of our design,” Yost said. “But the more I thought about it, I thought, it’s definitely a challenge that will stretch us, and it’s always good to be stretched.”