ARC Designer Showhouse Palm Beach ~ PART DEUX

Not a lot of response to Part 1, The Downstairs (duhn duhn duhhhn)....thanks for your comments those that did.  I get it though, showhouses are tough.  Again, I'm an outsider looking in and really know so little of what I speak...but I imagine it is difficult to inject personality into an empty room that you're decorating for nobody.  I mean, I'm pretty sure they're not actually decorating for the homeowners right?  Hey, does anybody know what happens when it's over?  I imagine the people had their own stuff originally...is it in storage?  Do they have to tear all that grasscloth off the walls?  

Anyway, it kinda ends up looking like hotel rooms with really good taste.  So it's hard to really form an opinion other than "that's nice."  It is nice.

Okay, let's jump right into the upstairs with one of my favorite bedrooms.  I guess it's technically the Master, and it is big, but the bathroom was a sad little number.  Old houses.  I think I'd split this sitting room in half and widen the bedroom and the bathroom.  Lavender grasscloth, yes!  Room was designed by Katherine Shenaman.

(As usual ~ blurry, too light, too dark...I took the pic. Otherwise it's credited.)

via PB Daily News photo credit: Meghan McCarthy

Obviously I love the starburst mirror, who wouldn't.  And I love the little wheat sheath coffee table and the delicate little mirror over the doorway to the bed.

More wall to wall sisal, yes indeed.  Love layered rugs.  Also adore the purple on purple with the drapes and all the gold is so perfect with the shade.

Lovely piles of textiles on the bed, and a gorgeous headboard.  How cool are those lamps?  Cork?

via PB Daily News photo credit: Meghan McCarthy

Fiddle leaf fig, love.  Very cool light.  Can you see the yellow rug? 

Darling little deck off this bedroom was designed by Jackie Armour of JMA Interiors.  Drinks on the veranda, dahling? 

Hi!  You had me at Trina Turk.

The sad little bathroom.  It was decked out in bright yellow grasscloth, but I thought it was wasted money.  You could have achieved the same feel with paint.  Didn't feel any richer or better than a teensy bathroom that needs to be redone. 

FABULOUS Nursery.  Designed by Mimi Masri.

Look at that amazing bamboo hanging crib.  Do you see the detail on the chains?

Probably love this room so much because the Victoria Hagan fabric I used in my home office and sometimes use as a table runner was all over the place.  So makes me feel validated as having good taste, how ridiculous is that.

How gorgeous is the open closet?  You have to be really restrained and clean to do something like that (where do they keep the diaper genie refills?)

  

The giraffe lamps are darling.

Okay, I really adore this bedroom by Nancy Pearson.  I loved it at first sight for it's framed De Gournay (maybe?) panels and pink and girly fabulousness. I thought it was beautiful but something wasn't quite right.

via PB Daily News photo credit: Meghan McCarthy

Do you know what I mean?  Yeah I wasn't sure either, that's where a real designer's eye came in.  My friend Didi nailed it for me.  I really loved the pink, but the silk taffeta was too much...would have preferred a less fancy linen.  Didi also felt the scale of the low-slung bed was off...I just really didn't like the bed at all.  So maybe that's just a matter of personal taste.  But it speaks volumes about everything else in a bedroom when you hate the actual bed but just love the room.

How GORGEOUS are the lamps?

Awesome bubble chandelier.  Don't you love how the room is setup like a very fun and fancy girl is getting ready for a party?  Now this room had personality.

Wish you could see the sconces and art better...beautiful.  This is a house of debauchery, I tell you.  There was a bar in every room but the nursery. 

Umm, here's what's next.  Or what you could see pulsing and glowing from the hallway.

 via PB Daily News photo credit: Meghan McCarthy

I actually don't even mind the idea of a chartreuse over the top room...I embrace it, I live for the shock and indulgence of it.  But this color was just really way off.  The pictures are making it look better than it was.  No, not for me.  The room was designed by Allan Reyes who I have profiled here on the blog before and I usually very much enjoy his work.

  

Super FAB desk and look at the little ballerina lace up cushion. 

And last, but certainly far from least...most actually.  This was over the top glammy and bachelory.  Odd, right? Very Z Gallerie meets Palm Beach (I'm sorry Joseph Fava). Beautifully modern and sultry and shiny, but just not my taste at all.  I thought I would love those chairs but I did not.  Too much.

via PB Daily News photo credit: Meghan McCarthy

via PB Daily News photo credit: Meghan McCarthy  

I really thought it was very interesting how shiny and laquered up they did the ceiling.  Usually you don't see the old, very imperfect ceilings done that way since high gloss magnifies every tiny imperfection, but they just went for it.  It was paper if I remember correctly.

 

The bed area.  The art was interesting, it was made up of a million tiny raised dots.  It was all so super modern and way too cool for little old me. 

via PB Daily News photo credit: Meghan McCarthy 

And now you've seen the whole thing!  What did you think of the upstairs?  What do you think of Showhouses in general?  Does anybody know what happens after it's over?  I know the designers bear the expense, so surely they take it all with them.

There is a Pirate exhibit at a museum in Miami that is heavily advertised on PBS Kids.  Baylor is always saying we should go check it out, so a few days ago I said "sure, we will go to Miami and see it" or something to that effect.

Then my husband said a few nights later "Baylor, do you want to go to Miami to see the Pirate exhibit?"

Baylor: "No, not YOUR Ami...Mommy's Ami."

That took me a few minutes.