Showhouse Rooms with Red Accents

Holiday House
New York City

Interior designer: James Rixner, James Rixner, 121 Morton St., New York, NY 10014; 212/206-7439, www.jamesrixner.com.

Photographs by Nick Johnson Produced by Eleanor Roper

The soaring ceilings of this living room inspired James Rixner to design for maximum theatrical impact. The challenge: keeping the grand space approachable.

By underplaying the sofa and draperies with champagne-colored silk fabric and then covering the walls of the room with dramatic deep brown, Rixner set the stage for pops of a bright accent color.

Enter red. Matching chairs with sweeping sexy frames are covered in tufted cinnabar silk. The large scroll pattern of a silk-wool rug subtly echoes the Ken Matsubara painting that hangs above the fireplace.

“My goal was for visitors to experience a grand traditional space in a totally new way,” says Rixner. “The interplay of the architectural details, furniture, and fabrics establishes an unexpected dialogue.”

One way Rixner achieved the unexpected was to position the seating arrangement in front of the windows instead of predictably settling furniture pieces to frame the fireplace.