The Miami Herald Covers Trends Seen in DCOTA's DesignHouse

Posted on Sun, Jan. 17, 2010

DesignHouse full of color, metallics, wallpaper

BY CHARLYNE VARKONYI SCHAUB
Special to The Miami Herald

JOHN VANBEEKUM

Designer A. Keith Powell touches up the sitting room in DCOTA's DesignHouse, which is done up in metallic wallpaper and furniture and dominated by four panels of wall art.

The Design Center of the Americas' first DesignHouse is everything a show house should be -- innovative, inspiring and as indicative of trends as a New York fashion runway in Bryant Park.South Florida designers are right in step with the national trends -- plucking bright accent colors like purple and red from fashion and using metallics in furniture and accessories. They are going back to wallpaper, but their choices are more opulent -- studded with glass beads or flecked with metal. And they are simplifying looks with a contemporary, clean style.

``I am finding that more of my clients want an uncluttered, clean look,'' says Joseph Fava of Fava Design Group in Fort Lauderdale. ``Most of my clients are in their 40s. They may have one antique piece that is surrounded by cleaner-lined, more contemporary furniture.''

More people, especially those with children, are looking for fabrics that withstand a dog's dirty paws or spilled ice cream, so Fava is favoring hardy fabrics like Sunbrella.

And Jack Fhillips of Jack Fhillips Design in West Palm Beach says clients are looking for enduring design rather than short-lived trendy.

The DesignHouse, which features the work of 14 designers in 9,000 square feet of DCOTA's converted showroom space, opened Wednesday and will run through June 11. Proceeds of the unprecedented five-month run will benefit Vizcaya Museum and Gardens in Miami-Dade, the Museum of Art in Fort Lauderdale and the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach.

Show houses typically are run by the Red Cross or the Junior League, so why did DCOTA decide to sponsor one?

``We have been strategizing and looking for ways to evolve ourselves and bring designers back to the center,'' says Ashlee Harrison, director of marketing. ``We thought it was a good time to marry design and philanthropy.''

It was also a good time to show the public the hottest trends by designers in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties. Designers love show houses because they can be far more innovative than most clients would ever approve. Here are the latest trends:

Wallpaper murals: These murals, which can be printed on wallpaper from your own design or selected from images at Patou Fine Art & Design in DCOTA, are an innovative way to create a focal point without hiring a muralist. In the dining room, Osirys Mendez and Sabrina Vela of Mendez International & Associates in Miami used a mural of sultry female eyes to add drama. Alfredo Brito of Brito Interiors in Miami created a focal point with a wallpaper mural featuring fluted columns in the study. And Alfred Karram Jr. of AKJ Design Concepts in Miami filled the dead space over the windows with a mural of bare trees to reinforce his winter theme in the family room.

Circular motif: Fava went wild in the cigar room with the ``circle trend'' -- from the Stark carpet with circular motif to Fine Art Lamps' 48-inch diameter chandelier. Karram also embraced the circular trend with large glass balls used as floor sculpture.

Punch of bright color: This trend, which fits with clients' desires to get away from 100 percent neutral colors in a room, allows the designer to make a statement.

Brito echoed his use of red in the study, picking it up in the area rug, oversize Moroccan chandelier and chinoiserie secretary.

The Mendez dining room plucked purple from the fashion runways for use in an amethyst area rug with a hot pink border design.

``For most of my Boca life, I have been doing `Boca Beige,' '' says Cecil Hayes of Cecil's Designers Unlimited in Coconut Creek. ``I love to have a splash of color.''

Hayes pumped up the volume of her neutral master suite with red wallcovering.

Innovative wallpaper: The Maya Romanoff wallpaper that Hayes used is made of flexible glass beads that are attached to wallpaper backing. (Designers aren't the only creative folks who like the product. The Beadazzled wallcovering earned a permanent place in the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum in New York.)

Another Maya Romanoff wallcovering made of natural silica mica chips on paper backing showed up on another wall of Hayes' room and in Karram's family room.

Karram, who says he prefers long-lasting designs rather than trends, is a convert to using wallpaper again. Although he has been using Venetian plaster for 15 years, he says, ``It's over.'' (Other designers in the show house, however, are still using Venetian plaster and consider it a more lasting trend.)

Metallic finishes: ``The biggest trend right now is metallic,'' says A. Keith Powell of A. Keith Powell Interior in Miami, who decorated the formal sitting room.

The room is all gray, highlighted by the dramatic Zinc Gator by Arte for Koroseal, a wallpaper embossed with an alligator design and made with metal thread. It's a beauty, but the price tag is steep -- $8,000 for a small room. The metal theme is also carried out in the stainless grout between the porcelain floor tiles, in the mid-century modern chrome arc lamp (originally designed by George Kovacs) and Thayer Coggin classic chairs with chrome arms and base.

The clear look: One of the best examples of this trend is in the dining room, where Mendez and Vela used a glass table with a Lucite base and an elegant crystal chandelier.

Hayes brought light into the master suite with two mirrored console tables, a touch of Hollywood glam.

Mixing textures and styles: Aldo Puschendorf of Puschendorf Interiors in Miami is a master of mixing textures in the powder room with oversize floral flocked wallpaper on one wall, mosaic glass tiles and horizontal glass tiles on other walls. The focal point is the vanity topped with one of the simpler Venetian mirrors and flanked with elegant crystal sconces.

Charlyne Varkonyi Schaub can be reached at charlynedesign@aol.com.