Inspired Decor: A Look Inside the 2023 NYC Kips Bay Decorator Show House

By Andrea Bennett The annual Kips Bay Decorator Show House , which transforms a prominent Manhattan residence into a design exhibition to fund children’s enrichment programs, has become the apogee in accomplishment for designers—and a bellwether for interior design trends. Here, three unique creative talents discuss the inspirations for the rooms they masterminded for the 2023 Show House, held at River Mansion, a stately 10,000-square-foot Beaux Arts private home on Riverside Drive. View the Winter 2024 issue. THINKING GREEN Halden Interiors In over a decade of designing interiors, Kesha Franklin of Halden Interiors never used green. Yet it enveloped the Show House den in shades both subtle and saturated, from chartreuse to moss. “I always talked my way out of green. Using this color palette was a stretch for me,” she says. Yet, “what better way to capture attention but not make too much noise than with a strong color that feels neutral.” Franklin drew inspiration from her own closet (she wears green with abandon), the pastoral views from her home, and even a necklace, which inspired a bronze chain sheer across a window. With increased focus on sustainability and eco-friendly living, it’s no surprise that shades from chive to emerald are springing up in decor. Greens can create a feeling of calm and serenity in a room, as well as a health-boosting sense of connection with nature, which you can reinforce—as Franklin did—with lush greenery and foliage. Green is also one of the easiest color families to layer: Mix shades from light (pistachio and mint) to medium (fern and olive) to deep (forest and hunter) to add drama and dimension. Halden Interiors Creative Director Kesha Franklin’s glorious green atrium celebrated the beauty of nature. (Photo: ANDREW FRASZ) A TASTE OF THE EXOTIC Georgis & Mirgorodsky Designer William Georgis of Georgis & Mirgorodsky drew on his own travels, the work of authors such as Nobel Prize winners Naguib Mahfouz and Orhan Pamuk, as well as the legendary interiors of Rudolf Nureyev and Yves Saint Laurent to conjure what he describes as a “louche, hedonic…modern cross between a dining room and hookah lounge, where guests recline on sofas, ottomans, and stools around a low table for semi-supine dining—and all strangers are welcome.” Rich colors, fabrics, and patterns conjured images of historical interiors in Cairo, Istanbul, and Damascus—places where Eastern and Western cultural influences and sensibilities coalesced. Contemporary art, antiques, and Georgis & Mirgorodsky–designed pieces were all perfectly at home here. A cobra lamp with a scarlet fez shade sat beside a curved Bombola sofa upholstered in Dualoy shearling. Nearby, Damien Hirst’s painting The Golden Jubilee (Yellow) presided over an eccentric Le Nopal chair (a velvet armchair impersonating a cactus). The only design standard followed to create this divine space for libertines? The rules don’t apply. Sergio Mercado Design’s ethereal master bath blended warmth with understated modern elegance. (Photo: JOSHUA MCHUGH) BLISSFUL BATH Sergio Mercado Design More than one visitor half-jokingly asked to move into Sergio Mercado ’s soothing bathroom in the show house. “A lot of ideas are site-specific: They come to me when I’m walking the space for the first time,” Mercado explains. “The bathroom is on the top floor, and when I looked out the window and saw the Hudson River and the sight line, [I realized] you’re looking at the sky.” So, he brought it inside. Cloudlike Nuage lights by designer Céline Wright appeared to float above the tub. Pin lights twinkled overhead like distant stars. The mood in this room? Perfect tranquility. Though the design felt effortless, it was actually a careful exercise in hushed layering of tone and texture—a testament to the notion that monochrome needn’t be bold and bright; it can be subtle and infused with softness. The Astradia stone (created by Mercado as a collaboration with Borrowed Earth) paid tribute to stone floors the designer had seen and admired in Italy. It reached halfway up the wall and paired beautifully with whitewashed white oak slats. Even the fixtures, in gilded bronze-doré by Kohler, reinforced the serenity of this inspired sanctuary.