Pasadena Showcase House 2007

Amidst the oft-heard “ooh’” and “ahh’s” on the Pasadena Showcase House of Design tour, a comment that lingers from last year’s event best captures, I think, the reaction from most visitors: “Honey, when we get home, I want to throw everything out and start over from scratch!”

Since 1965, the Pasadena Showcase House for the Arts (PSHA) has invited approximately three dozen area design studios to transform the rooms and gardens of a selected San Gabriel Valley mansion into elegant, sophisticated, breathtaking and inviting vignettes that respectively capture their signature styles and distinct personalities. Mesmerizing colors, eclectic textures, innovative lighting, timeless furniture and unique fixtures and accessories that maximize the assets of each space seamlessly come together in a tableau befitting the definition “star quality”.

It’s hard not to be dazzled and amazed by the magic spell that each year’s interior designers and landscape artists skillfully cast throughout the target showplace. Their three-dimensional canvas this spring is Descanso Gardens’ Boddy House, a two-story, 22-room Hollywood Regency style that was completed in the late 1930’s for the princely sum of $140,000. Its original owner, E. Manchester Boddy, was the publisher of the Los Angles Daily News and purchased 160 acres of what was once land deeded to Corporal Jose Marie Verdugo in the 18th century by the King of Spain.

The theme of this year’s tour revolves around the glitz and glam that Southern California is famous for – Hollywood! What celebrity wouldn’t feel right at home in the “Red Carpet Foyer” by Christopher Gaona Interiors, the “Director’s Cut Library” by MV Design Group, the sumptuous “Singing in the Rain” master bath by Foothill Tile and Stone Company or the “My Girl Friday” ladies office by Judy Taylor Interior Design, Inc. Without question, the Boddy House is definitely ready for its close-up.

For first time visitors to a Pasadena Showcase House tour, it’s easy to feel a bit overwhelmed. Event the helpful explanations of the docents – combined with the abundance of detail-rich visuals – may have you feeling as if your head is going to explode by tour’s end from all the elements you’ll be furiously trying to commit to memory.

Fortunately, we’ve got some helpful tips that those who faithfully attend this event every year were gracious enough to share.

First of all, unless your own abode is a clone of the Showcase House, what you’re seeing in the various rooms on display won’t translate easily to your particular remodeling project. Accordingly, what you’ll want to take note of are how the colors, fabrics, and placement of furniture all work together to create a harmonious and inviting setting. Rather than try to replicate everything contained within a gigantic space (i.e., a dining room that comfortably seats 24), train your eye to pick out the smaller components that would lend themselves to similar dimensions in your own home.

A change of paint or window treatments or even investing in a different pair of lamps can transform an existing room into something fresh and exciting. A friend of mine, for instance, swears that simply buying a new bedspread, shams and throw pillows causes her bedroom to take on a brand new personality at significantly less cost than replacing an entire room full of furniture.

Take along a notepad so that you can record product names and colors. If you have an artistic streak, you may even want to do a simply sketch to jog your memory after you return home. Many visitors also write notes in the margins of the tour brochure as a way to keep track of what styles they’d like to introduce into their own habitat. Note: Absolutely no photography is allowed inside the house or on the grounds, and children under the age of 12 will not be admitted.

Last but not least, don’t be shy about asking questions. This will help you make informed choices down the road when you have the time, budget and enthusiasm to give your home a makeover.

The event, which is one of the largest and oldest of its kind in the U.S. will run from April 22 through May 20, 2007.

Tuesday, Saturday and Sunday tours are available from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday visitors will be able to see the house upon until 6:30 p.m. Tours are closed on Mondays. Tickets range from $35-$40 and can either be acquired in advance through PSHA’s website at www.PasadenaShowcase.org or by calling (714) 442-3872 or (626) 578-8500. Onsite dining is available for light breakfasts, lunches and dinners.

Through its annual proceeds, PSHA has donated over $14 million to local youth music and symphonic programs, in addition to presenting the Pasadena Showcase House Music Mobile program, the Pasadena Showcase House Youth Concert, and the Pasadena Showcase House Instrumental Competition.