Veranda: SWOON’s Kips Bay Showcase

The team at SWOON, the studio was tasked with refreshing the rotunda at the 2024 Kips Bay Decorator Show House Dallas, proving to be just the designers for the job. Founder Sam Sano and partner Josyln Taylor have experience working across both commercial and residential interiors, and the pair decided to blend their knowledge of the two to create a dreamy central location for stealing away, finding refreshment, and indulging a daydream or two in “Atrium Tisane.”

“We always really try to honor the architecture of a space, so our first instinct was how do we make this feel exciting and interesting for the showgoers, but at the same time, respect the architecture, which is really quite beautiful,” says Taylor. “It’s probably one of the most architecturally beautiful spaces in the house, and we didn’t want to take away from the beauty of the space [because] it feels really special.”

Sano and Taylor kept true to the space’s grand dimensions by creating a conservatory that would also serve as botanical-forward tea room, filled with organic furnishings, original art, and stunning floral installations that would pay homage to the verdant beauty of the natural world. The pair found a Calico mural wallpaper that would play up the scale while giving the feeling of a “botanical wonderland.”