New York City is a divine design destination
Every year, more than 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 townhouse in New York's 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 a smorgasbord of design styles, this year's interior designers displayed a nod toward boho-chic styling and eclectic contemporary interiors. Always interesting and always pushing the envelope, this show is not to be missed.
• 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: Opening Nov. 24.
• Bridging architecture and fashion, the work of Tokyo-based designer Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garcon 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 recreation 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, Hell's Kitchen's newest and hippest Chinese eatery. This unexpectedly elegant restaurant is the brainchild of Chef Pichet Ong, formerly of Jean-George'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 that is artfully displayed on a back wall of the restaurant. Dark blue walls and veillike trellised screens move about the room to create spaces for more or less tables, and keeps constantly changing the views of the diners. Toile wallpaper with contemporary depictions in blue and white adorn the back wall of the sidewalls. 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 sure reason for you to want to visit again and again. This is why I love New York!
• Joseph Pubillones is the owner of Joseph Pubillones Interiors, an award-winning interior design firm based in Palm Beach, Florida.
© 2017, Creators Syndicate