Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/1420844
D esigners to the start- ing line. James Arsin and Arsin Rug Gallery launched a week's worth of fascinating Texas Design Week programs with a panel discussion, "What It Takes to Design a Kips Bay Show House Room," an insider chat with four designers who created some of the most talked- about rooms for the 2020 Kips Bay Decorator Show House Dallas. En route to the talk, I heard one of my favorite '80s hits, Modern English's "I Melt With You," and the words felt prophetic: "The future's open wide. There's no [design] that we don't do." Pardon my paraphrasing, but every room in the 2020 inaugural Kips Bay Show House Dallas was innovative and stunning (as was the 2021 Kips Bay Show House itself; see pages 74 through 96). On the dais were 2020 Kips Bay superstars Cathy Kincaid, Michelle Nussbaumer, Chad Dorsey, and Doniphan Moore, moderated by Chesie Breen. They shared the highlights and challenges (call it a designer's anonymous group), the tears and fears of putting together their spaces in just two months' time. The audience quickly learned that those eight weeks aren't done during banker's hours. Many late nights were in the cards, helped apparently by the tequila bar set up in Nussbaumer's Writer's Lair. Moore burst into tears when he found out he was selected to design a room, and Kincaid said sotto voce, "We generally don't share with clients that we get show houses done in six to eight weeks, in fear that they might expect the same for their own homes." Who: Lloyd Princeton, Jane Scott Hodges, Tanner Moussa, Barry Williams, Daniel Houchard, Javier Burkle, Michelle Moussa, Debra Nelson, Wonjin Park, Linda Fritschy, Georgia Bass, Luis Araujo, Esther Parkhurst, and Samantha Falkner. & FEARS TEARS AND A DESIGNER HIGH AT ARSIN RUG GALLERY By Billy Fong. Photography Jonathan Zizzo. Cathy Kincaid Lea LaFortune Linda Fritschy David Rejebian Chesie Breen James Arsin Daniel Houchard Javier Burkle Chrystie Trimmell Sydney Warrington Michelle Moussa Tanner Moussa Esther Parkhurst Samantha Falkner Doniphan Moore Michelle Nussbaumer, Chad Dorsey Elizabeth Anne Casillas Maggie Kincaid McMordie Rachel Cooper, Nancy Neuhoff