New York proves key design destination
Every year, over a dozen interior designers pour out their hearts and wallets to produce breathtaking rooms for the Kips Bay Decorator Show House for the benefit of the Kips Bay Boys and Girls Club. This year is no exception.
To celebrate their 45th anniversary, designers have outdone themselves again, decorating an upscale townhome in the Upper East Side.
These decorator shows are fascinating, as they are the testing ground for what is new in interior design.
The current wall color trends still revolve around darker tones. Emerald green, fog gray and almost black are just some of the colors to offset lighter wood tone furniture with lots of accents in alabaster and white and jewel tones.
While decorator show houses are usually as smorgasbord of design styles, this year’s interior designers displayed a nod toward boho-chic styling and eclectic contemporary interiors. The show is always interesting and always pushing the envelope. It runs through June 6.
Look out as Kips Bay spearheads another decorator show house in Palm Beach, Florida, later this year around Thanksgiving.
A 1925 Mediterranean revival house will host 15 to 20 national and local interior designers showcasing their work. Save the date for the opening Nov. 24.
Bridging architecture and fashion, the work of Tokyobased designer Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons is on exhibit with an aptly titled show: “Art of the In-Between” at the Metropolitan Museum.
Every garment artfully creates an interesting dialogue between “object” and “space.” Kawabuko breaks down the notion of what can be used as creation and re-creation with the variety of materials and patterns.
While some pieces could conceivably be runway fashion, others are just for admiring or lie somewhere in between. The show runs at the Met through Sept. 4.
Hunger pangs a-calling? Head to Chaan Teng, one of Hell’s Kitchen’s newest and hippest Chinese eateries.
The unexpectedly elegant restaurant is the brainchild of Chef Pichet Ong, formerly of JeanGeorge’s Spice Market. Don’t expect to find traditional dishes.
He is masterful at twisting and innovating Chinese cuisine. The interior decor is also a smart play at reinterpreting Chinese decor.
The color palette is a takeoff of the blue and white pottery, which is artfully displayed on a back wall of the restaurant.
Dark blue walls and veil-like, trellised screens move about the room to create spaces for more or less tables, and thus keep constantly changing the views of the diners.
Toile wallpaper with contemporary depictions in blue and white adorn the back wall of the side walls.
This displays a fresh approach to both cuisine and interior design.
What’s in today is out tomorrow. New York’s offerings are always in evolution and a offer reason for you to want to visit again and again. It’s why I love New York.
Joseph Pubillones is the owner of Joseph Pubillones Interiors, an awardwinning interior design firm based in Palm Beach, Fla. His website is www. josephpubillones.com.