Dog lovers everywhere are sure to be charmed by interior designer Sheila Bridges‘ canine-inspired space at the newly-unveiled 2019 Kips Bay Decorator Show House in New York City.
For this year’s beautiful Kips Bay home, Bridges was tasked with transforming a small reception room near the building’s main entryway into a lively and functional space for city dwellers and their four-legged friends. As a proud pet owner herself, she decided to dedicate the area to the dogs of Manhattan – and their influence is everywhere.
The House Tipster Industry team spoke with the designer at the charity show house’s press day unveiling, where she explained how her imagination went wild in the space, “Le Salon Des Chiens.”
“First of all, I love dogs. But this room kind of encapsulates a lot of the things that I love,” Bridges said. “I love dogs, I love nature, I love Central Park. My interiors that I design are generally very colorful. It’s a celebration of all of those things together.”
There are clever dog-themed decorative details all around the room, but there are also surprisingly functional elements woven into every corner.
A turf grass shower acts as an in-house dog washing corner for muddy pets who’ve come in from a fun walk around Central Park, while a small closet houses doggie rain coats and all the leashes, toys, and treats any pampered pup would need.
Not only did Bridges decorate her space with fun pooch paintings and pup portraits, but she also paid tribute to dogs’ historical and societal contributions throughout the ages. From famous pets’ imagery to the police dogs involved with the Civil Rights Era shown in archival black and white New York Times photography, incredible time capsules showcasing dogs are part of the room’s impressively detailed art display.
“A lot of my work has juxtaposition, and that’s why I think I used images that were sort of fanciful, but also from the Civil Rights era, just to mix things together to sort of make people think about the history of dogs and what our relationship to dogs is,” Bridges explained.
To tour Sheila Bridges’ dog-approved space at the 2019 Kips Bay Decorator Show House NYC and hear more about her inspirations, make sure to catch a recap of our live video stream in the Facebook player below.
Visitors will be able to stop by the 47th Annual Kips Bay Decorator Show House located at 36-38 East 74th Street, New York, NY from May 2 – May 30, 2019. Stay tuned for more of House Tipster Industry’s exclusive coverage of the show, including more up-close-and-personal interviews with the season’s top designers.
