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Designer's vision: Empty room as blank canvas

08.02.10

There's plenty to interest and inspire homeowners. But what's in it for the designers?

Most of them cannot resist the challenge of an empty room. The idea of turning nothing into something special (and doing it with more wit than wealth) is what compels designers. A showhouse is a sensational public demonstration of design talent put to the test.

This year's two homes are vastly different. One is a big, sprawling, multi-level family home from the 1980s in an upscale gated community. It shares a street with palaces. The other is a 1,200-square-foot, compact modernist home in a hidden, eclectic neighborhood. Built in 1960, it expresses the clean, simple lines of the Sarasota school of architecture , with lots of sliding-glass walls, exposed concrete block, terrazzo floors and a floor plan that fully enfolds the outdoors.

Here are some of the most-admired rooms from both houses at the 15th Annual "Jewels on the Bay" Showhouse 2010.

Designer Cheri Pachter-Neary, who is the showhouse captain for the Longboat Club Road house, selected three black metal climbing men for accents on the wall that holds the family's flat-screen television. The clever sculptures are $89 each through the designer. Floating shelves are from Pottery Barn. The intriguing wall treatment is custom hand-painted craft paper. “Once you choose the color, it arrives in flat sheets and the installer rips off pieces and pastes it to the wall to make a collage-like treatment,” said the designer. “Every application is unique. It adds great textural interest to this room, which has been designed and furnished in taupe, cream, gray and black for the ultimate in plush comfort. When I first saw this room . . it had a case of the beige blahs. It's anything but that now.” Pachter-Neary borrowed the furniture for her installation from Baker and Roche Bobois showrooms at the Miromar Design Center in Estero.

Source: Sarasota Herald-Tribune