Every year over 100 of New York City’s top interior designers come together to create individual vignettes to help raise money for Housing Works, a charity dedicated to helping those living with HIV AIDS. The vignettes are created from items contributed by the interior design vendors we frequent as we design our client’s homes. It’s definitely a competition to create a vignette that stands out among the other designers and inspires the most shopping and purchasing from the New York City interior design aficionados who attend. This year, my vignette was inspired by the magic realism of the butterflies in Gabriel García Marquez’s book 100 Years of Solitude and from the interpretations of those butterflies in the beautiful artwork of Colombian artist, Pedro Ruiz. I designed and hand-built the dramatic wall art of hundreds of blue butterflies, certainly catching the attention of shoppers as they quickly purchased virtually everything in my vignette. My many thanks to my vendors and artist friends who contributed including, B&B Italia, Jody Morlock, Mitch Ferrin, Nest Interiors, Custom Design Studio NY, Area NY, Suite NY, Donghia, Osborne & Little, Regeneration Furniture, Condé Nast and Visual Aids.
The vignette I created was a collection of furnishings, artwork and accessories donated by my many interior design vendors and artists. When the doors opened, the first piece to be snapped up by a New York City art collector was the small original oil painting of the woman at the ocean by one of my favorite artists, Mitch Ferrin from New York City. The lounge, covered in a fine gray linen fabric was a custom piece I had designed for a client who graciously donated it in brand-new condition.
My collection mixing vintage and new accessories, including beautiful smoke bronze and dark blue glasses donated by Nest Interiors and a pair of vintage jacks were quickly purchased, all in the name of a good cause.
The beautiful lamp at right, donated by B&B Italia, is one of my favorites in their collection. The throw is a custom limited edition wool blanket created by Dylan Egon for Regeneration Furniture.
My sincere thanks to my friends at Custom Design Studio NY who donated their services to help me transform an old forgotten vintage chair I found at an antique store into this beautiful, modern piece.