Latest Edition of Annual Brooklyn Heights Decorator Showhouse Opens on September 27

A new crop of designers will show off their skills in the much-anticipated new edition of the Brooklyn Heights Designer Showhouse. Co-chaired by Ellen Hamilton and Erika Belsey Worth, the event, whose proceeds benefit the Brooklyn Heights Association, will run from September 27 to November 3, with a preview party held on September 26.

The group’s execs, who had been scouring the neighborhood since the winter looking for a space that will serve as a blank canvas, found a large, 1830s wood-frame house on a delightful tree-lined street near the Promenade to host this year’s event.

Each designer — this year’s edition will feature 15, each with a connection to Brooklyn — is given a month to tackle one room and give it their own unique spin. “All year we’ve been getting emails from designers asking what they can do to be considered,” says Worth. The participants are invitation only, she added, and the process of choosing the designers is “very much like putting together a dinner party.”

Last year, some of the designers who took part included Glenn Gissler Design, Deborah Berke Partners and The Rinfret Group, among others. The location of this year’s event, which will kick off with a glitzy opening night party on September 25, as well as the participating designers, will be announced soon.

In 2017, the inaugural showhouse, which took place in a 1860s Neo-Grec/Italianate brownstone at 32 Livingston Street, replaced the annual Brooklyn Heights house tour that ended in 2016 after 31 years. “Brooklyn design has exploded,” Worth says. “So we view this as the perfect change from what we did before.” At the same time, they hope the new event will become a neighborhood institution, much like the house tour before it.

That’s the plan: If everything goes well, says Worth, the showhouse “will go on for another half-century.”

Admission will be $40 to the general public and $35 for BHA members. The hours will be Wednesdays through Sundays from 11:00 am to 7:00 pm and Thursdays from 11:00 am to 8:00 pm. New York Cottages & Gardens (NYC&G) is the Design Media Sponsor and Brownstoner is the Platinum Sponsor for the event.

[Photos by Susan De Vries]

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• Brooklyn Is Getting Its First Decorator Showcase in Years, in a Spectacular Heights Home

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