SPOTLIGHT Show House of Design : Country French by 12 designers
Posted on Sunday, May 4, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/Northwest_Profiles/224733/
ROGERS — When a dozen designers converge on a house in the upscale gated community of Pinnacle, the result is truly a show house.
Tours during the fifth annual Show House of Design fundraiser organized by St. Mary’s Hospital Foundation will help pay for capital equipment and charity care at Mercy Health System of Northwest Arkansas.
Between May 2 and 18, the show house will be open for tours and used for private parties. Tickets for public tours are $ 20.
The 5, 330-square-foot home at 29 Nottingham Lane combines brick and rock on the exterior. It features a master bedroom, two guest rooms and a nursery. Between the master bedroom and the nursery is a walk-in closet fitted with floor-to-ceiling cabinets with glass doors and interior lighting.
Heather Herzik and Carolyn Schwyhart, co-chairmen of this year’s event, say the home’s single level makes it perfect for big crowds.
“It flows wonderfully for entertaining,” Herzik says. “It was just well designed.”
For the second year, the fundraising show house was built by Jeff Mortensen, who also designed it. He was chosen a year ago, when planning for this year’s house began. Designers presented concept boards in mid-January, showing some of their ideas. For this house, the 12 designers worked in 17 design areas — for a surprisingly cohesive result.
“Actually, it comes together pretty good,” Schwyhart says.
Mortensen also made the house energy-efficient in many areas.
“I know Jeff put the latest of everything in,” Schwyhart says.
The builder’s deadline was April 1. The designers were already working on basic things, like lighting and ordering furniture, before then. Afterward, they really got to work pulling everything together. It sometimes takes six to eight weeks for some pieces to be delivered.
Within an overall country French theme, each designer also showed his personal style.
“Everybody kind of showed their own personality,” Herzik says.
“Designers will have their own interpretation of country French. You see that as you go through the house,” Schwyhart adds.
Herzik, also an interior designer, decorated the master bedroom with many antiques, including an armoire, with all the elements focused on a large tapestry above the bed. She used rich colors, trying to make it fit masculine and feminine tastes. The good-size room also has a fireplace.
This house was also designed with the man in mind. There’s a putting green in the backyard. A gentlemen’s room, designed by the builder, holds two large-screen televisions and a game area.
The house also has a sauna in one guest bathroom and a steam shower in the master bathroom. There’s a mud room and a laundry room.
Schwyhart got Herzik involved with the show house five years ago. This is Herzik’s first year to help lead the committee. She says she donated her time because she likes that some of the money raised for Mercy Health System goes “to help people who don’t have much.”
This house sold midway through the process, so the designers worked with the new owners on some of the plans. Last year’s house also sold before it opened to the public, but that doesn’t always happen, Schwyhart says.
Most of the items in the house are available for sale after the show — from furniture to drapes to accessories. That’s how most of the money is raised from the fundraiser, Schwyhart says. The foundation gets 25 percent of those sales.
Last year’s show house netted about $ 40, 000.
When the house closes, the designers go in and take everything out that didn’t sell. Sometimes the homeowner will buy items that are left.
Four of the five show houses have been in Rogers; the other was in Bentonville. This is the third house to be built in the Pinnacle subdivision.
For many years, Schwyhart had been involved with another major fundraiser for St. Mary’s Hospital Foundation: the annual charity ball. A good friend got her involved several years ago, “and it just stuck.”
She was part of the original concept for the show house. Committee members researched the idea by traveling to Kansas City, Mo., Little Rock and other cities to get ideas from several houses that had been done.
“No one had ever done this [here ] before. All we had was an idea,” she says.
They tried to see what did and didn’t work and to learn from other people’s experiences.
Over the years, they’ve pulled designers from Tulsa, Hot Springs, Little Rock and Fort Smith. Schwyhart likes this event because of her passion for design. “I love design. I love it,” she says. “So I love to see all the different ideas and all the different things that go in. I always pick up some new ideas. I love it — the different styles and different tastes.” More information on the Show House of Design is available by calling Tammy Mostyn at (479 ) 338-2992 or emailing
tammy. mostyn@mercy. net