Ellerslie Interiors embraced the French Renaissance-style building’s good bones for her Mahjong Room. “The architecture carries such a strong vernacular that we approached it almost like a dialogue between East and West—layering lacquer, brass, and mirror against the home’s more traditional bones,” principal Laura Lubin tells AD PRO. “Installing the Robert Kuo hand-hammered dragon bench under the silk moiré walls was a goosebump moment.”
Lisa & Leroy played with the poetry of architectural form in the expansive outdoor terrace, embracing the existing building and creating folly structures to reimagine the space as an indoor-outdoor experience. “Every piece of furniture was custom upholstered”—with fabrics from Sutherland, Perennials, Pooky, and other textile titans—“to show how truly comfortable outdoor living can be,” says owner and creative director Lisa Schaffer. Other rooms also bring the outdoors in, like Paloma Contreras’s inviting morning room clad in Hortus Medicus wallpaper from the Bunny Mellon collection by de Gournay.
But not every designer got to reap the benefit of a design-ready room. Mohon Interiors was assigned a former office space, which they managed to transform into an elegant Evening Lounge, overhauling HVAC, ceiling, floors, and electrical work. The end result’s highlight is a dramatic curtain of ShimmerScreen metal beads surrounding an oak-and-steel table by Berman Rosetti.
Bespoke craft meets digital consulting
Bureau Interior Architecture and Design was allocated the room next door to Cox’s Listening Lounge. The firm created a yin to her yang: a “Quiet Room” with the walls clad in a raw silk Dedar fabric and Holland & Sherry trimmings. A custom ceiling fixture reminiscent of French skylights crafted by artisan Ben Tuna of Glass Visions Studio hangs above, reminiscent of French skylights.
In fact, several designers turned to small bespoke artisans for their rooms, including Doniphan Moore, who conjured a River Room salon fit for worldly Texas collectors. Inside, work from Dallas-based Casci Plaster provides a sculpted architectural frame to ground a custom hand-painted de Gournay wallpaper from the brand’s new collection.
Nicole Zarr also used de Gournay as a jumping-off point. “Last January at Deco Off, I fell head over heels for the striking new Pietra Dura floral-blocked design,” says Zarr, who worked with the textile house to custom color the design. The result is a wall covering of sumptuous chocolate brown, which “provides the ideal foil for my signature canary yellow.”
Yates Desygn, whose principals Mike Yates and Bryan Yates served as Kips Bay Dallas alumni chairs alongside Javier Burkle, took on the Parlour, outfitting it with creative use of brass (most notably, the mesh ceiling fixture) and a dramatically angled rug designed to highlight the parquet flooring. But when asked for the element they were proudest of, the Yates partners pointed to the leather wrapping of the room’s cabinet, wall, and column, performed by their wallpaper installer. “We may never get him to do it again, but it looks amazing,” cofounder Mike Yates said.
Mythical beings and old-world motifs
