The Interior Design Advocate™

...your guide to the Wisely Designed™ Home

Interiors By Donna Hoffman

As Seen on ABC TV, Family Circle, Real Simple

June 2014

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It's graduation time! I cannot believe our "baby" Anna is leaving high school behind and soon heading off to a new chapter at Penn State. Life and home are always changing and evolving to rise to our next cycles.

Speaking of evolving and changing, check out my blog post on the ever interesting and trend setting designs at the Kips Bay Designer Showhouse. I recently traveled up to New York City for my annual visit to this fun and charitable event. The historic Villard Houses next to the Palace Hotel served as the canvas behind the innovative work of this year's designers. The juxtaposition of cutting edge decorating against the classic Stanford White architecture was fascinating. I hope you enjoy this tour as much as I did!

Enjoy!

Donna

Design Excitement at the Kips Bay Decorator Showhouse

What do you get when you combine a team of tour-de-force designers with a stunning piece of architecture and healthy budgets (and sure...industry pull and relationships to get "the good stuff" shipped in an installed in about 3 hours - OK...7 weeks...). You get a sensational showing for the 2014 Kips Bay Show House! This year was a stunner across the board. Here are take-aways:

Color of the Year

Sorry Pantone...Radiant Orchid was barely a thought. The color of the day was a Radiantly Rich Teal with just enough black in it to make it sexy and strong. The Mendelson Group featured it in their Lady's Lair that was, well...I'd like to see this Lady. Growl! Kudos to Gideon Mendelson - the bold suede walls (yes!), the patterned ceiling and light oak millwork - Gideon is a talent. (He's also a nice guy. We spoke for a bit and he asked if I would be willing to drape my teal scarf on a chair in exchange for a bottle of scotch.) This same teal showed up a number of times in the showhouse...clearly the color on the mind for some design savants.

Click here to read the full article

Movie Interior Design Inspiration:

The Devil Wears Prada vs. Pride and Prejudice

I love a good movie. I also love, as you may know now, a good movie set. Since I design so many home office/libraries/studies, two movie "office/studies" come to mind as favorites for me. They are in sharp contrast to one another.

First, check out the urban chic office of Miranda Priestly, the beast of a boss in "The Devil Wears Prada." Like the character it's designed for, this office is unforgiving, sleek and organized to a fastidious "T." It's great!