Two Houses and 23 Design Firms Made Magic Happen
at the Kips Bay Decorator Show House Palm Beach



Photos by Nickolas Sargent Photography





The 2026 Kips Bay event marked a historic first, transforming two properties: a waterfront Intracoastal House with views towards the glittering azure water, and across the street, the charming Palm Cottage, where the more intimately-scaled spaces became jewel box stunners. Both properties were graciously loaned for the Show by prominent Palm Beach entrepreneur Scott Diament. The classic, cherished Palm Beach aesthetic appeared in abundance: rattan, sherbet hues, and shell décor, joined by on-trend maximalist pattern play with wallcoverings and textiles, an effusive use of passementerie, and dramatic color-drenching. Every room in the Show House presented a new voice, a new design story written with verve and an eye to the unexpected. This year’s edition of the event features the work of an exciting mix of talents — big names, boutique firms, and rising stars, including Pappas Miron Design, BAMO, Wecselman Design, Eerdmans, Sherill Canet Interiors, LTA Interiors, and Lori Morris Design.


The Kips Bay Decorator Showhouses, with editions in Dallas, Palm Beach, and New York City, are the nation’s premier design events, and an invitation to participate confers a marked level of esteem and a substantial boost to an interior designer’s career. Weeks of frenzied activity, scores of late nights, and near-constant pivoting and problem-solving culminated in the breathtaking rooms we see here.


The Showhouses benefit the Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club in the Bronx, New York, and local Boys & Girls Clubs in Dallas and Palm Beach. Proceeds provide critical funding for afterschool and enrichment programs that provide guidance for young people to reach their full potential.




BAMO

Architectural Mirage


Conceived in the footsteps of Jean Cocteau, BAMO created a surrealist-inspired architectural envelope with a mind-blowing wood-slat wave ceiling, in the manner of the mid-century Finnish architect Alvar Aalto, that appears to move rhythmically as it stretches across the room towards the water. Folds of curtained walls align with the slats, blurring the distinction between horizontal and vertical. Gio Ponti’s 1950s geometric floor designed for Villa Plancha, Caracas, was the inspiration for the mixed stone composition here, with oversized and irregular shapes that whirl around the room. Biomorphic-shaped furnishings reinforce the room’s surrealist abstraction, and Franz West’s quirky “Privat Lampe II” plays a visual joke. An oversized painting depicts a distant landscape dissolving into the sky, mirroring the scene outside where the sea and sky become one.





Wecselman Design

A Designer’s Retrospective 


Deborah Wecselman drew upon touchstones to her past, her travels, and her love of collecting to create a warm and nuanced great room layered with objects that highlight her decades-long career as a designer. Above the sofa, a 1977 Olga de Amaral textile pays homage to the Peruvian-born designer’s South American heritage, while a quintet of antique mirrored bass panels is reminiscent of her 1980s New York apartment. These storytelling pieces embrace and define the main seating area, serving additional roles as architecture and sculpture, while adding luminous textural interest. The ceiling shimmers with a spectacular light sculpture of iridescent hand-blown Murano glass discs by Jamie Harris from Todd Merrill Studio. Also from Todd Merrill, Pia Maria Raeder’s otherworldly “Sea Anemone” floor light captures the ocean’s beauty, crafted from thousands of individually placed beechwood rods on a patinated bronze base. The rainbow-hued columnar sculpture, composed of vinyl records, is by Berlin-based artist Gregor Hildebrandt. Deborah tapped into her love of vintage design by selecting a pair of 1950s Italian lounge chairs by Gigi Radice. The “Aurisino” cocktail table by Alex Turco, with Italian marble and resin top and three burnished bronze legs is a unique piece, continuing her statement in material dialogue and craftsmanship, and her ever-evolving journey of refined collecting.







Vintage black painted iron fish chairs and a sleek, kidney-shaped midcentury writing desk combine the whimsical and the refined, demonstrating how the push-pull of contrasting elements creates a dynamic and vibrant design.

Pappas Miron Design

The Citron Salon


The jumping-off point for this sophisticated salon came with the selection of a 1915 Savonnerie floral-patterned Arts & Crafts carpet, which the designers layered atop checkerboard flooring. Burnished and waxed lime plaster walls shimmer softly with reflections from filtered sunlight and the warm glow of Murano glass sconces. The bold and piquant pop of a citron velvet built-in sofa makes an unforgettable focal point. “It’s like a burst of sunshine indoors,” remarked designer Alexandra Pappas. Left of the sofa is a sculptural Japanese paper lamp from Ingo Maurer, and on the right, a monumental cobalt blue Chinese urn lamp. In the center of the seating group, a black iron and glass cocktail table pays homage to Diego Giacometti’s coveted and costly 1970s cast bronze “Berceau” table. The cool, classic Palm Beach décor combination of chrome and white leather makes an appearance here in a pair of vintage 1970s Saporiti ‘Onda’ cantilevered lounge chairs.





Lori Morris

The Gilded Palm Waterfront  Lounge



Toronto-based designer Lori Morris went all-in on gilded glamour with metallic tones and sparkling crystal in her waterfront lounge, which she described as a “celebration of sunshine and warmth.” Walls are awash with soft gold metallic mural wallpaper and antiqued mirror panels that catch and reflect sunlight. More reflective surfaces dot the room — a faceted polished chrome console à la Paul Evans’s Cityscape series, contemporary brass-framed lounge chairs, and the designer’s own glossy enamel and brass Stuart coffee table. A trio of crystal and copper palm tree chandeliers recalls Austrian architect Josef Hoffmann’s circa 1918 ‘Palme Kobe’ Jugendstil chandelier. Fur-covered furniture is alluringly decadent, oversized, and plush; there’s a palm tree floor lamp wearing a crown of ostrich feathers, and ottomans are covered in a rich, riotous floral tapestry. Witty and lighthearted artwork keeps the mood festive and fun, with a pair of Hunt Slonem bunny paintings, and contemporary riffs on the legacy of Pop Art master Roy Lichtenstein by “The King of Pop Art” Nelson de la Nuez, with First Class Girl, 2019, and A Perfect Match, 2024.





LTA Interiors

Mah Jong Lounge


Mah Jong’s perennial popularity in Palm Beach, plus a recent boom in interest among younger generations, prompted LTA Interiors to craft a dedicated space for the trendy social activity. Pattern play, dramatically overscaled objects, attention to the 5th wall, and color drenching all come together here. A ceiling pattern of large-scale brushstrokes and beaded moldings melds into a blush-tone wallcovering and oversized wave-like cornices of a similar hue. A towering columnar rattan floor lamp adds a playful Alice-in-Wonderland effect. Curves abound, appearing in the fringed pink velvet corner sofa and the undulating contours of an olive burl game table. The distinctive design of Danish maker Overgaard & Dyrman’s “Circle” dining chairs was inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man drawing. Quebec lighting studio Larose Guyon’s romantic mobile-like Saule pendant light is a cascade of hand-formed aged brass willow leaves designed to move softly around a pink glass globe.





River Brook

Tiki Tent



A Slim Aarons photograph of midcentury poolside glamour inspired the transformation of an existing rustic tiki hut into an over-the-top entertainment space showcasing skillfully modulated pattern play. Curtain walls of sunny yellow cabana-striped fabric wrap the walls and tented ceiling, a pink and burgundy stone floor is composed to resemble a rug, and a massive bar clad in shimmery pink glass mosaic tile is surrounded by seating vignettes for all types of socializing: gossip groupings, people-watching posts, canoodling corners, and a row of flirty fringe-skirted barstools. Vintage pink Murano palmette chandeliers, bamboo chinoiserie chairs, and a pair of John Risley-inspired his and hers iron garden chairs evoke the midcentury heyday of Palm Beach society.