This is the American Red Cross Designer's Showhouse with Traditional Home Magazine

Image via American Red Cross Exterior

Entrance designed by Keith Williams of Mario Nievera Design, Inc.

I felt like such a superstar when I was invited to the American Red Cross 2011 Designer's Show House for Traditional Home Magazine. (Thanks for the invite Volvo!)  This is old hat to so many bloggers out there that are professional interior designers and decorators, but for me- a new blogger and a neophyte design enthusiast - this was thrilling!  And I'm so so excited to learn about and feature the work of local designers here in Palm Beach, Florida.

I was able to grab a few professional shots from other places, but most of these sad little pictures are from my new fancy camera that I still don't completely know how to use.  So I apologize in advance and promise to take a photography course pronto.  I will credit the 'real' photos, but you will know the difference, precious readers.  

And I'm assuming the whole place will hit Traditional Home Magazine at some point over the next year.  SNEAK PEEK! 

Let's start with the darkest room in which I couldn't get my flash to work! Hurray!  This gorgeous living room was designed by Mimi Masri for MMDesigns, LLC.  Love the chartreuse sofa.  She had quite the challenge laid out for her since this was a pretty tiny room with a giant 28 foot ceiling.  Yowzas! (Wish I had a good shot of the really cool curtains. Sad face.)

Look at this beautiful coffered metal panel running from the mantel up the wall (Hi Jenn!)....

View from above....

And the yellow, white and gray ceiling

Alrighty, here comes my favorite room of the house (Already! Don't say I always make you wait.), the Library designed by Joseph Pubillones Interiors Inc.  The designer was in France or Greece or somewhere else fabulous I'll probably never go, so I wasn't able to ask him about this artwork that I LOVE.

 I would never get any work done with this view.

Love the table, love the poufs, love everything, love to. (Anyone?)

Now here's the room I like to call "Looks most like Lauren's House".  I definitely don't have this talent, but I use so much blue in my house and this looks a lot like my family room if you can picture navy walls and a bunch of orange thrown in there too.  This gorgeous Family Room was designed by Lisa Erdman from Lisa Erdman & Associates. I love the panel on the wall- you can't tell in this picture, but I believe it is Robert Allen's Saya Gata in green.  

Okay, can we just talk about this view of the 'backyard'.....

Image via Ray Graham for the Palm Beach Post photos

and FROM the 'backyard'? (my own, so sorry)

We really just wanted to sit and enjoy our wine, but there was so much more to see.

This amazing covered loggia- designed by Michael Powers of Studio Powers (and seen in the first pic)- is right off the family room.

Photo via PBC Style

Let's look at the complete outdoor area again which was designed by landscape architect Daryl McCann, of Lombardi Design, Inc.

Look at this INCREDIBLE garden wall!  It was really breathtaking in person.

Back inside we made our way to the dining room area, which was designed by Leta Austin Foster of Leta Austin Foster & Associates.  Fun fact! Leta has a great blog, Decorating With Sheets, and all photos of the dining room are hers.

 Love the trumeau mirror.

The downstairs guest bedroom and bath were designed by Katherine Shenaman of Katherine Shenaman Interiors, Inc.  I'm not sure how well you can see in the photos, but the wallpaper is so so pretty!

Image via PBC Style

 Oh look, a present!

I wish I had more photos of the stairwell (there was a VERY interesting art piece) and this one doesn't do those gorgeous 1,000yd tall drapes justice.  This beautiful area was designed by Scott Robertson of Scott Robertson Interiors, Inc.

Upstairs and on to my 2nd favorite part (really 3 parts!) of the show house, the landing.  This huge area was designed by Jennifer Garrigues of Jennifer Garrigues Interior Design.  Can we all remember please that this is a LANDING.  And it's nicer than any area of my entire home. It's funny because I was recently thinking how fancy my landing would look with a bookshelf and new light.  Hmmph.

 I hate that this picture came out so dark because that is another gorgeous painting (apparently I love pink, who knew?) and that light fixture is so cool.  I think it was inlaid capri shells, but I can't recall exactly.

 And yet a third area by this incredible designer.  I could read a book here all afternoon!

 Another view (and the walls look so rich and gorgeous here) of the landing...

The lovely and spacious Master Bedroom was designed by Stephen Mooney of Stephen Mooney Interiors, who was also the Design Chairman of the Show House.

How fun are these lucite coffee tables mixed in with the traditional fabrics and furniture?

Oh just wait until you see where this lucky duck homeowner gets to drink his coffee every morning...the master loggia was designed by Veronica Volani-Inza of Smith and Moore Architects, Inc.- Interiors Division. And she rocked it!

Just in case I'm ever invited to stay overnight, I decided to check out the 2 guest bedrooms upstairs.  The East Guest Bedroom was designed by Joseph Cortes and Kevin Marnell of HomeLife Interiors.  The pictures cannot come close to capturing how INSANE the silvery grasscloth on the wall was.  I wanted to tear it off and bring it to live at my house (Ed. note: Oh, because we all know how efficiently and quickly she removes wallpaper).

Image via PBC Style

And lastly (I know! Please don't end.), this is the West Guest Bedroom designed by Chad Renfro of Chad Renfro Design.  And since I'm completely crazy about navy and white, I didn't even mind that the curtain fabric was the same as in the family room.  It's that pretty, and how resourceful! :-)  I love how masculine this room is and then there is the stunning arrangement of pink stargazers (my FAVORITE) plopped right in the center.

LOVE the closet where the designer inserted a little vanity.  Wonderful!!

Hope you enjoyed this as much as I did!  Ask my friend Jenn, they pretty much kicked us out.

Baylor Says...

Lately Baylor has been reading a book that is all about different cars (shocking!).  One of the pages talks about 'Tow trucks rescuing smashed vehicles', but Baylor says "Vee-vi-kickles!".  It makes us giggle uncontrollably everytime he says it.  I have a video I'll upload soon, but my uploading finger is snoozing after this long post.