This year’s Pasadena Showcase House for the Arts has been revealed as a 1918 Mission Revival two-story estate in La Cañada Flintridge.
An Open House Party for media, designers and guests was held on Friday, Jan. 22 at the six-bedroom, five-bathroom house formerly known as Dryborough Hall.
The nonprofit, all-volunteer organization, Pasadena Showcase House for the Arts, chooses a different house every year to feature the latest design trends and highlight the home’s classic architecture.
“This year, showcase will be in the beautiful and welcoming city of La Cañada Flintridge,” said Marilyn Campbell Anderson, benefit chair for the Pasadena Showcase House for the Arts. “We can’t thank this city and its employees enough for their support and assistance with our project.”
Approximately 80 volunteers dedicate their time to producing the Pasadena Showcase House with an additional 200 Intermediate and Associate members offering volunteer and financial support. After numerous local designers contribute their concepts to different portions of house, it is then open to the public with proceeds benefiting numerous local music and arts organizations.
The showcase house opens to the public for tours from April 17 to May 15 with tickets set to go on sale Feb. 3.
Three San Marino-based interior designers – Lemmon Hill, Robert Frank Design and Tocco Finale Corp. – are contributing to the showcase house.
Lemmon Hill is collaborating with Kira Halter Design Studio of Pasadena for The Grandparents’ Suite and Sitting Room.
“My design concept focused on creating a dramatic, lush and beautiful canopy bed, unlike anything I had even seen before or specifically at the Showcase House – a show stopping vision that would take your breath away when you saw it, overwhelmingly gorgeous, a true statement piece.” Lemmon Hill owner and designer Cathy Arkley said. “The canopy will go up to the ceiling, and there will be lavish drapery around the king sized bed.”
She said her inspiration came from many years of seeing gorgeous canopy beds “reminiscent of English and European bedrooms in grand villas and country estates in a castle in the 15th century” in various Interior Design magazines.
“I had put away a picture of one such luscious canopy bed in my inspiration file,” Arkley said. “The day I met Kira, we somehow began a conversation about it and I described the design details. She asked me to wait a minute; that the fabric sounded so much like the one she was using in one of her client’s bedroom. Kismet. It was the same exact fabric as shown in my inspiration picture!”
“I looked at the photo and I said, ‘I know that fabric,’” Kira Halter Design Studio owner and designer Kira Halter said. “So I happened to have it in my car. I go and show her this fabric that I was already using for a client. So she goes, ‘Oh my God. We have to do showcase.”
“We decided on the spot we would apply for the 2016 Showcase House as partners with our canopy bed design,” Arkley said. “The application day arrived and we went into the house looking for a bedroom big enough for it, with high ceilings. The minute we saw the Grandparent’s Suite we knew it was a match. Go big or go home!”
She called it “a very ambitious undertaking for two first time Showcase House designers.”
Halter called the collaboration “serendipitous” and Arkley said the pair has “the perfect partnership”
Robert Frank Design decorated three rooms this year – the Family Room, Main Hallway and the Powder Room.
“This is our third time here and we’re excited to be part of it,” Robert Frank Design owner and designer Robert Frank said. “This is probably the largest space that we’ve worked on.”
Frank said his design studio incorporated a lot of details that are true to the Mission Revival era, such as the wood built-ins of a coffered ceiling, media center and wet bar in the Family Room.
“Really, I think what will shine is all the millwork that we’re doing,” he said. “The same with the Hallway. We’re actually building it all out with new perimeter wainscoting and new moldings. In the bathroom, we’re doing tile wainscotings and new moldings on the ceiling to dress it up.”
Frank said there’s great camaraderie among the designers at the showcase house and it’s run by a great organization.
The Morning Room and Lady’s Office is being designed by Tocco Finale.
Designer Brenda Jacquez said Tocco Finale owner Dona Dockendorf’s image for the office was “a traditional, yet sleek female office space.” She said there would be new wainscoting put around the room.
“We’re going to put grass cloth on the walls for some texture,” Jacquez said. “All of our colors are soft. We’re going to bring in a little bit of pink in the accessories and pillows.”
“We have this coffee table that’s actually an Annie Leibovitz book,” designer Cheryl Santoro said.
This is the fourth year that Tocco Finale is contributing design to the showcase house.
“Everybody knows showcase and it’s an honor to get involved,” Jacquez said.
The Interior advisor for the showcase house was Saxony Design Build of Los Angeles and the exterior advisor was Land Re: Vision of San Marino.
Organizers believe Myron Hunt originally designed the 2016 Pasadena Showcase House for New York City restaurateur Leon C. Riggs. The main residence is approximately 16,000 square feet and has a 2,032-square-foot two-bedroom, two-bathroom guesthouse. The entire property is two acres with an outdoor barbecue area, pool, spa and horse corral. It made its showcase house debut in 1987.
The Pasadena Showcase House is in its 52nd year and has donated more than $20 million to community music and arts programs throughout the years.
Tickets range from $35-$45. To purchase tickets or for more information, visit PasadenaShowcase.org or call 714-442-3872.
