(Q) Let’s start with your name, your company, and your room. Tell us a little bit about yourself and your interests.
A: I’m Helen of Helen Bergin Interiors, based locally in Palm Beach, Florida and I’m doing the cabana bath! I got involved in design from a young age. My mom was a set designer, and so she ran that through my blood from a young age. I have very whimsical taste and I love to learn more about my clients and understand their vision and add personality to every space.
(Q) What does Kips Bay mean to you? What does it mean to be a designer for this showhouse?
A: It’s so major. I used to go to Kips Bay in New York since I was a little girl, as a tradition, and then to Palm Beach ever since it opened. So when I got accepted to be a designer, it was a huge career moment for me. The amazing thing about a show house is walking around each space and seeing what stamp each designer made on that, and how it represents them. Not one stands out because every year I’m just so amazed by all the creations.
Q) Tell us about your room and the inspiration behind the design.
A: This is the “Aquatic Underworld” , it’s a cabana bath, and we do a lot of cabana baths down here because we’re based in Florida, and that’s a space that you can have a lot of fun with. It can be a jewel box and it can be a little bananas so we rolled with that; jellyfish all over the walls, bubbles, resin sinks, bookmatched slabs. I wanted it to be artistic through and through. Each and every piece of this space is custom and you’re not going to see it anywhere else. In a small space, it’s really important to incorporate those special details, because every little ounce matters. With the cabana bath, you have an exterior door so why not put a cabana directly outside for a place to have a drink and take a seat and chat with your loved ones?
(Q) What kind of vibe and aesthetic were you aiming to achieve in the project?
A: It looks like an underwater psychedelic trip and that’s what I was going for. So you walk in and you see a cast resin sink that resembles sea glass. To the right of that is Primestones Calacatta Picasso Marble which then leans in towards embellished jellyfish wallpaper, and then a graphic floor pattern and it has plays of rust colors and white tones and dark grays and aqua blues.
(Q) What did the stone help you accomplish in your overall design? What drew you to the stone you selected?
A: I ran over to Primestones on day one and I fell in love with one stone, which was the Beryl Blue , which I still love, love, love, but then I ran back because you guys have so many beautiful options, and I just wanted to make sure that was the right fit for where the space was going. I walked in and on display were these two horizontal slabs of Calacatta Picasso. It’s a huge part of the space, it’s the focal point, it’s what you see and it carries through the rest of the room. I wanted to use every ounce of them so we used the remnants to frame out the shower walls and then carry along the baseboard and the threshold and so it wraps around the whole space. I love the pattern and the movement in it that plays towards our theme.
I selected the outdoor stone for the cabana because the coloration and the movement in it was perfect. I used the Crystal Rose Quartzite for the bar, which is inset into a psychedelic mirrored arch and it wraps around as a waterfall, and it’s just a beautiful stone with pink undertones that plays to all of the colors we’re using outside in the cabana.
