Guest Blogger: Patrick J. Hamilton on Avoiding Design Clichés at Holiday House (Part 1 of 2)

Guest Blogger and AskPatrick writer Patrick J. Hamilton recently had the opportunity to attend this year's Holiday House 2011. Holiday House, the designer tabletop showhouse, was founded three years ago by Iris Dankner to benefit the Greater New York City Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Now Patrick is sharing what he loved!

By Patrick J. Hamilton

The annual Holiday House on the Upper East Side is perhaps my favorite show house in Manhattan. It's a triple threat, and triple treat—a great house, stunning interior design and holiday-inspired rooms with LOTS of delectable tabletop styling... my true guilty pleasure. Every year I’ve been, the lucky designers have risen to all three occasions (and all four floors), with their designs, holiday interpretations and styling. They have created rooms that stay in the memory like the happy holiday moments they hope to conjure, capture or poetically reinterpret.

This year was largely no exception. Visiting this festive assemblage of design talent and holiday spirit was like walking through a giant 3-D calendar, charting the joyous passage of time and the marking of life’s moments with lots of ideas to take back to your own party. It is a fitting tribute to the cause, the Greater NYC Chapter of Susan G. Komen for the Cure, and the way we mark and celebrate it, is a gift very often taken away all too soon.

As a designer, I’ve also been fascinated by how my colleagues face the challenge (and joy!) of a room with no client but themselves, and the opportunity to tell a story, stop the show—and garner a new gig or two along the way. Like Kips Bay, there were many lessons here on how designers take on raw spaces, find inspiration and make their marvelous marks.

I noticed an abundance of perfectly executed avoidances of design clichés. Theme rooms, whether animal-animated nursery, or sports-driven basement, can go from good idea to cartoon cliché in the blink of an eye, so the Holiday House is of special interest to see how the design elite ramp up or tone down their inspiration starters. It was refreshing to see two inspired takes on holidays that seem otherwise ripe for stereotype: Valentine’s Day, and New Year’s Eve.

Stay tuned to GoDesignGo next week for more from Patrick on the 2011 Holiday House when he discusses two designers who know what they're doing when avoiding clichés in design.