Want some more ideas and inspiration for holiday decorating? Today, treat yourself to several gorgeous rooms from the “Rooms With a View” Designer Showhouse where talented interior designers take on a 6’x8′ space and completely transform it into a “Home for the Holidays” vignette. If you missed the previous consecutive posts that highlight additional rooms, click here and here to see them. We are submerging into Parc Monceau’s room first. Parc Monceau is a French antique store located in Westport, Connecticut that also offers design services. This space was designed by Tracy Dwyer and Patrick Briel of Parc Monceau and they named this room “The Diving Room.” It features a jellyfish lighting fixture that gave off the prettiest light pattern on the ceilings and walls – it actually gave the illusion of dappling water. They stayed true to a color palette of black, blue, gray and white with silver metallic accents. This team is so clever, they chose elements and imagery that would impart the feeling of movement, spot on for this water-themed vignette! Don’t forget to come back again tomorrow for the final three rooms, so worth the wait.
{I’ve always liked a good lava lamp}
{The lighting fixture that stole the show! I can’t imagine how long it took to make this. Each tentacle contains clear beads that have been hand strung and graduate in size with the smallest ones on the end so it replicates the real thing.}
{The view from under the jellyfish lighting fixture, I just thought it was pretty}
Let’s swim over the pond to France. Designed by Patricia Lapierre of New York Architect Designers, this is a glamorous Parisian apartment and the vignette is “le Nouvel An.” “Le Nouvel An” is a very special time of the year in France, according to Patricia, if there is one event of the year when you may have the “chic attitude” it is between December 31st and January 1st when the French love to celebrate their last and first meal of the year! Patricia contributed the following about the space she designed (thank you Patricia!):
The “Nouvel An” is also called “La Saint Sylvestre” and it is highly celebrated with a feast called “Le reveillon de la Saint Sylvestre.” It can be celebrated either as an intimate “tete a tete” or une “soiree dansante”/ball. I decided to choose the romance of the “tete a tete.” Champagne, foie gras, oysters, macarons are “de rigueur.”
In terms of pure design concept, the dining-room was selected as the room, since this specific room is at the heart of the festivities, where the conviviality is a must. This gives me a unique opportunity to revisit the classics and to play with a wide range of materials, textures and style and of course to glam!
{Tabletop: no to minimalism, since it is a unique time to jazz up your china ware}
The design challenge was obviously the size of the space: 8’x6′. To create a vignette with this tiny dimension requests a lot of thinking outside the box. The challenge was not to select the few pieces but to select the right ones, in order to create and “ambiance” of elegance and hopefully refinement. In terms of approach to design, I believe in being totally democratic: just live with things you love whether they are from a top Paris gallery or a great flea market find. The art piece from Tommy Mitchell obviously set the palette of the room as a focal point, after the selection of the Farrow and Ball wallpaper and paint.
Elegance and refinement are “au rendez-vous.”
Texture: eclectic and unpredictable mix of rough with refined, with layers of the expected elements of reliable pieces with the unexpected ones. Nothing celebrates the richness of the season better than the ethereal quality of ivories, creams, gold, silver Lucite and reflective glass with the atmospheric French grey.
Let’s head outside (I’m taking you everywhere today!). We are wrapping up with the only outdoor space at this year’s event. This beautiful slate patio features cozy outdoor furniture in aqua with coordinating pillows, a very dressy fire pit, and round urns planted with grasses and succulents. I also took a few photos of the church, the stained glass is so pretty!