Courtnay Tartt Elias of Creative Tonic Design cleverly renovated the reception area into a Citrus Garden kitchen inspired by Baldacchino in Rome with a lemon twist. “With six doorways and no walls, I knew the island had to make a big impact, and I dreamed up these lemon trees growing up from the counter,” says Elias. The brass lemon trees were hand-forged by Peck & Co. “Il Granito fabricators in Dallas took my idea of lining all the doorways in marble to new heights, literally.”
Just off the kitchen is an office and coffee bar designed by Victoria Sass of Prospect Refuge Studio. The space was inspired by the designer’s childhood home. “I wanted to reimagine some of the more nostalgic moments of Midwestern interiors: golden oak, tiled countertops, wall-to-wall carpeting, popcorn ceilings, Scandinavian folk art, chintz,” Sass says. A custom desk is upholstered in a nostalgic Sanderson fabric with a top covered in a clear vinyl.
Constraints led to creativity for the sometimes neglected “fifth wall” throughout the showhouse. Many designers, like Robert Frank and JT Torres of Robert Frank Interiors, had to reimagine acoustical tile grid ceilings. Frank and Torres did so by building out a new architectural tray ceiling with a custom perimeter frieze in a vintage motif, adding a dramatic flourish to the salon with walls adorned in a Fromental silk wallcovering. Elsewhere, show house honorary chair Jan Showers enlisted Casci Plaster for ornate moldings and trim and continued a burnished gold wallpaper from de Gournay to the ceiling.
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Other rooms had no windows, which became masterfully unnoticeable in Kate Figler Interiors’ Venus Drawing Room, swathed in Gracie’s Linda’s Garden mural wallcovering with a valance and drapery by Perennials that evokes the feeling of a windowed space. In a dining room, Kim Scodro dressed each entryway with drapery by The Shade Store, inspired by a 1948 Vogue cover of women adorned in Charles James gowns, and used opposing mirrors to provide reflective light.
The rethinking of the commercial lighting was also a chance for designers to flex their inventiveness. Ashley Ross of Muse Noire Interiors turned to Luke Lamp Co. to illuminate her private tasting room. “We used 21 of their tracer loops to give main-character energy to our concept. [There were] 20 nine-foot fixtures and one 26-foot,” she says. Statement lighting is also at play in Eddie Maestri’s music salon, with a chandelier and alabaster sconces by Jiun Ho.
