Project AZ’s “Southern Sanctuary”
The Kips Bay Decorator Show House Dallas and fundraiser benefits the Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club, as well as Dallas-based nonprofits Dwell with Dignity and the Crystal Charity Ball. This year’s show house was held at the beautiful Old Preston Hollow estate and featured the work of 24 of the top design firms from across the country who worked together to decorate the 12,470-square-foot house. Acording to Architectural Digest, the show is "a welcome escape from the minimalist, modern interiors that seem to be absorbing the moment’s design vernacular, the third-annual showcase presents a fresh peripheral of colors, textures, and materials inspiring designers of all styles right now".
Photo by Nathan Schroder
Ahmad AbouZanat of Project AZ's "Southern Sanctuary" space re-contextualizes the wellness room from the stereotypical monochromatic white and proves that wellness does not have to look one certain way. The mood was set by the color purple and all its neighboring shades, complex pallet combinations that worked wonderfully with Project AZ’s wellness retreat.
Photo by Nathan Schroder
Looking to challenge the coloquial monochrome pallet used for wellness rooms, Ahmad created a sanctuary-minded, tranquil space packed with bright and joyful colors aimed to inspire joy and peace in moments of refuge with relaxed shades of purples, reds and blues, that together, culminate in a warm and serene nurturing retreat. “This home sanctuary is packed with bright and playful colors that inspire inner joy, peace, and highly personalized moments of refuge,” says AbouZanat.
Photo by Nathan Schroder
Among some of its most recognized collaborations for the project, AbouZanat worked with JD Staron to design a custom shade-shifting carpet, with Cambria to create a textured quartz vertical installation, featured a Luke Lamp Co. fixture and of course, our very own Toca Lounge Chair. “It is an opportunity to create a highly personalized refuge within one’s home, whether that’s a minimal design or one packed with bright, bold colors,” says AbouZanat.
Photo by Joe Kramm
This year's show house was decorated by some of the most renowned architects and design firms, such as Alessandra Branca, Anthony Baratta, Jeffry Weisman, Huma Sulaiman, Christina Kim, Natasha Baradaran, Lance Scott, Christopher Peacock, Ahmad Abou Zanat, Atelier Davis, Shelley Johnstone Design, Fisher Weisman Brugioni, LC Studio, Schooler, Kellogg & Co, Lucinda Loya Interiors, Patricia McLean Interiors, Beauty Is Abundant and Avrea & Company. For the first time the Kips Bay Decorator Show House was documented and made available as a virtual 3D experience. For more images, please see the gallery below (photos by Joe Kramm).
About PROJECT AZ | Ahmad AbouZanat Kips Bay Decorator Showhouse Dallas Southern Sanctuary
Southern Sanctuary by Ahmad AbouZanat of PROJECT AZ recontextualizes the wellness room from the stereotypical monochromatic white and proves that wellness does not have to look one certain way. Instead, this home sanctuary is packed with bright and playful colors that inspire inner joy, peace and highly personalized moments of refuge. It is a warm and nurturing escape, whether that be for a morning meditation in an enveloped space of diffused light and acoustics, a midday lounge for contemplation, or a peaceful moment to enjoy nourishment at the custom coffee bar. "Southern" is noted for not only its geographic location, but for the associated abundance of natural light and saturated color.
The introduction to the sanctuary begins in the stairway with the sculptural branching custom light by Luke Lamp Co., lighting the ascent to a conceptual red acrylic drawing by artist William Perez through the Thomas Nickles Project. This piece, displayed against a dark painted closet, is a dramatic display of emotion in its purest form through expressive lines. Immediately, the Southern Sanctuary is an ode to interior design and wellness as an experience within one's home.
Turning the corner and upon entering the room, the eye is drawn to a meditative art installation designed by multidisciplinary artist Samuelle Green. Carved out of Fabricut wallpaper, the structure takes inspiration from the intricate objects we encounter regularly - beehives, barnacle formations, bird and wasp nests, etc.. Ahmad continues elements of this installation on the wall, demonstrating the use of wallpaper as art.
The space is grounded through a custom rug designed by Ahmad and produced by JD Staron. The rug exudes energy and happiness through bold shades of lilac, pink and blue. The color violet inspires a sense of spiritual well-being and playful youthfulness while the calming stability of blue invokes calmness and serenity.
Visual harmony on a transition of planes is achieved through the lines of the carpet pattern to the custom stone coffee bar by Cambria with Jenn Air appliances. The coffee bar impressively showcases the contrast of 4 different stones in layered curves. Additional highlights are an Indo- meditation bench custom designed by Ahmad and side tables, window treatments and noise reducing drapes from The Shade Store, and artwork by Roger Toledo via the Thomas Nickles Project.
Complementing the sanctuary’s design is a narrow bathroom with slanted ceiling complete with graphic Harlequin wallpaper, brass Kohler fixtures and a custom fluted vanity by Chad Dorsey Design x Strike.
Renowned for his use of texture, Ahmad’s design centers around the sensations caused by objects through the sense of touch - the plushness of the rug under one’s feet, running one’s hand along the smooth stone coffee bar, laying down on the soft cushion of the meditation bed, etc.
Ahmad AbouZanat (photo by Joe Kramm)
Banner image photo by Nathan Schroder.