Showtime Design House 2010: The Borgias

The Showtime Design House is one of my favorite design houses, not least because they not only allow but encourage photography. This year it is at Cassa Hotel and Residences, on 45th Street between 5th and 6th. Entrance is $15, and the money goes to the Harlem Children's Zone. It's open Saturdays from 11 AM to 5 PM, through Oct. 23.

(Also, since it should be said: I don't watch any of the shows represented, I'm just along for the purpose of appreciating design.)

When you get off the elevator, the first room(s) you see are inspired by the show The Borgias, and was designed by Keith Baltimore, Marc Thorpe and David Schwarz:


The Great Room; notice the cross-shaped rug.


I love this chair kind of a lot.


The kitchen counter, complete with skulls.


The kitchen window, with delicate chain mail curtains.


The media room/chapel which is SO AMAZINGLY UNSETTLING, oh my god.


In the bathroom!

These rooms are really, really exactly the kind of thing I like. More red velvet and skulls and delicate fluttery chainmail for everyone! I also though the "media room" was particularly well done, even if it did totally creep me out both times I went into it. The red light and the hum of the neon cross are totally overwhelming, and I mean that in the best possible way. As it happens I read the neon cross as designating a chapel, not a media room, but in this case I don't think the two things are mutually exclusive. And somehow the stark modernism (as opposed to the more Renaissance-inflected great room) created a sense of lingering malevolence better than any pile of medieval skulls.

Next up: The Big C.

view from the boom boom room

New York, Dec. 31, 2009

I have a superstition about New Year's Eve, i.e. that how I spend it will affect the year to come. For 2010, I chose to go to the Standard Hotel. I only went into the Boom Boom Room briefly, before the actual party. (Afterwards I spent the evening in my room with my sister, eating delicious room service and watching Green Day on TV.) It was just as glamorous as everyone says it is, even mostly empty. Here are some views from the windows:

The end of the High Line:



West Side Highway and the Hudson River:



And one of the ceiling from the way in:



2010 has been marked by a lot of travel. In fact, this new year's eve, I'll be in Glasgow, among old friends.

a few of my favorite rooms: Showtime/Metropolitan Design House 2009

Metropolitan Design, the magazine, has sadly folded, but the Showtime Design House soldiers onwards, opening this year on Sept. 2. I'm excited as I was very fond of the concept: rooms decorated to reflect the themes of different TV shows from Showtime. A lot of other people seem to like it too -- after my pictures of Pete Wentz and Brendon Urie, this set gets the most traffic. This is partially because they're in a pool that's featured on Showtime's website, but I think they get a good bit of search traffic as well.

Anyway! On to the fancy design shenanigans:


A sconce, possibly from Dexter's dining room.


Bathroom, inspired by Weeds.

Yes, that's astroturf on the floor. ASTROTURF. That is the best bathroom carpet idea EVER.


Dexter's family room, complete with cradle!

The Dexter rooms were actually kind of the creepiest. Fitting, I suppose, given the show.


Henry VIII's sexy bondage chair, in The Tudors living room

This was the one Tudor room that wasn't really, really boring. The dining room was particularly minimalist and disappointing and mostly full of pictures of Henry Tudor.


A detail from Nurse Jackie's bedroom door

And, finally, Calinfornicatin' on the roofdeck: