The Reality of Participating in a Show House

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The Trials and Triumphs of Designer Show Houses

Pulling off a show house room is a major milestone in a designer’s career. So it’s been with rapt enthusiasm that I have been following the recent Instagram stories of Ashley Ross—a.k.a. Muse Noire Interiors—as she has vlogged the good, bad, and ugly of her first-ever show house room at the just-unveiled Kips Bay mansion in Dallas. As she shared with our writer Anne Lee Phillips (who penned our must-read look inside the space), one of the biggest challenges as a first-timer was “not getting into [her] own head.” On a more tangible note, though, the drop ceiling was also a bugbear—Ross thought she’d rigged a “cheat code” by removing the acoustic tiles, numbering them, and covering them with wallpaper, only to discover the day before install that the plan was a no-go. Onto Plan B—which looked fabulous, by the way.

Ricardo Barroso, meanwhile, faced a different set of obstacles, as he orchestrated his install from a faraway locale. (The pro was in the middle of a hands-on project in Mexico, so he synced up with a local team in Dallas to bring his vision to life.) Kim Scodro was up against a long, narrow room with no windows, but forged a creative solution through drapery; nearby, Kate Figler embraced the “happy accident” of her pink lacquered ceiling. “We love how the light now shimmers off its surface and that the whole look references the soft pinks seen inside of a seashell,” notes Figler.

Victoria Sass of Prospect Refuge Studio transformed her room into a nostalgic ode to her Minnesota childhood home, and for her, the plumbing of those emotional depths brought with it some strong feelings. “I thought about it more as an artistic installation than the kind of interiors work we do for clients,” she tells AD PRO. “[It was] an unpacking of memories and emotions in a particularly ‘coming of age’ time for me.” Fortunately, another part of her childhood was able to lend a hand: Her dad flew down to help with the install.

The demanding nature of these spaces is undeniable—but so are the rewards: new friends and clients, brand relationships, press clips, prestige, and solid gold for your portfolio. “Participating in a show house brings with it several ups and downs that require designers to be nimble and quick problem solvers,” says Figler. So queue up the ’gram, I say, and make those ups and downs work for you.

—Lila Allen, Associate Director, AD PRO

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