The Kips Bay Decorator Show House New York is perhaps the country’s most renowned designer showcase. This year it had an equally renowned site: the 10,000-square-foot River Mansion, completed in 1902 in grand Beaux-Arts style. The Hudson River in all its glory is visible from the Upper West Side home, particularly its roof deck.
For what was the first New York Kips Bay show house since 2019, 22 designers reimagined rooms among the mansion’s five stories, with ticket proceeds benefiting the Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club. Check out a few of the highlights below.
View favorite spaces from the 2023 Southeastern Designer Showhouse >
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The exterior of the 2023 Kips Bay Show House on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, with fresh plantings courtesy of Janice Parker Landscape Architects.
Two of the mansion’s previous owners, Shakespearean actress Julia Marlowe and businessman (and Seagram heir) Edgar Bronfman Jr., inspired Ghislaine Viñas‘s design of this sitting room. The plaid wallpaper and striped drapery nod to the businesslike aspect; the paint and felt overlays on the walls and the custom coffee table definitely bring the drama.
“I wanted the space to feel like an updated version of the kitchen that may have been original to the house,” says Wesley Moon of his show house room. To achieve that goal, he added custom crown molding by Hyde Park Mouldings and had LaPolla Designs give the cabinetry a hand-applied finish. Contemporary artwork and the sculptural table and chair ensure that the space doesn’t feel stuck in the Edwardian era.
With this living room/library, Penny Drue Baird of Dessins LLC aimed for cozy refinement—and achieved it. Drawing on Belle Époque influences, she kept the palette restful while indulging in lush materials and luxurious finishes. Post-pandemic, “we want an environment that gives us the pleasure of homey comfort as well as hotellike elegance,” she says.
The bronze fireplace surround by sculptor Jean-Marie Fiori, resembling a roaring tiger, is a focal point in David Scott’s reimagining of a Moderne parlor. The daybed and the wingback chair flanking it hold their own, however, thanks to their strong silhouettes. The quiet palette and the disciplined curation of objects ensure an inviting serenity.
Clinton Smith Studio dubbed this bijou room “The Hideaway,” and it is ideal for escaping to savor some me time. The golden celestial wallpaper encourages daydreaming, while the daybed encourages napping.
This laundry room by Fairfax Dorn Projects could have you looking forward to running a load of delicates. When not being used as a surface for folding laundry, the counter beside the sink makes a handy desk or table.
Timothy Corrigan’s love of classic elegance is on full display in this living room. The greens and blues, the plants, the antique tulipiere, and the designer’s own Spring Fever wallpaper from Fromental make the room a graceful extension of the outdoor space on the other side of the French doors.
“For this sweet niche of a bedroom, I chose a contemporary and ladylike nod to the women of centuries past: those who traveled, wrote, and collected ephemera and natural curiosities from around the world,” says Mary McDonald. And should the wealth of patterns become a bit too stimulating, all one has to do is close the bed curtains.
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