Show Me the Modernity

Show me the modernity This is the end of the spring designer show house season, and people often ask me which room I like best of the dozens I’ve seen. My answer this year: the room I didn't see.

I know that interior designers show off the styles they do best, or the ones that they believe most of their potential clients will want. One of the reasons to participate in a show house, obviously, is to drum up business, and if designers think lots of homeowners around here are interested in ornate French style, or the Ralph Lauren English country house look, a show house is a perfect opportunity to say, "I can do that, take a look." (Designers create these rooms on their own time, at their own expense, their contribution to the fundraising efforts of local worthy causes, such as the Florida Orchestra, and for this we. owe them all a big thank you.)

What I'd love to see — humor me, amuse me, indulge me here — is a modern look. No, we're not talking about things that are pointy and metal and orange, and this has nothing to do with Lava lamps. Please. I'm thinking: a Barcelona chair. Something by Charles and Ray Eames. Put a Frank Gehry chair in a home office and I’ll weep with joy. Show me what is going to look terrific in the lofts in Channelside, or the Signature condos in downtown St. Petersburg. Show us all what the richness and purity of line and form and color are about (and it isn't cold and sterile, believe me). I'm thinking Dwell magazine, not Better Homes and Gardens.

How about if a developer or owner of an appropriately contemporary space offers it up for a show house next year? The people who will live in the Arts Center condos in St. Petersburg, in a complex that includes a gallery displaying the art of studio glass master Dale Chihuly, aren't going to decorate with Phooey Louis or Brideshead Revisited Yet Again. Buyers will get a piece of Chihuly glass when they purchase their homes. It's time for the design community to show they can speak their language too.

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