Kansas City's 41st Symphony Designers' Showhouse

We had a good reason to be in Kansas City this past Thursday---we were attending the annual Hunter Douglas seminar. Of course that was finished in record time, so we ran over to Ward Parkway and found this years Showhouse.

This probably makes only the third one I've been to in KC, but so far this was the favorite. I think the fact that they remodeled the kitchen so completely made it even more interesting. It was contracted by Madden-Macfarland Interiors, with Connie Church-Fey being the designer.


As soon as you walk in you see the oval shaped island. The curved counter gives room for at least three chairs and also makes it very comfortable for moving around in a kitchen that's not particularly large. Although, for most older homes, it did seem roomy. I believe some of the extra room came from an old laundry room which was moved upstairs (and you should see that space!) We though the bright colored chairs and accessories really made the space.


Across the room was a long wall of counter space, this was just to the right of the stove. Note the cornice and sheers and I'll give you my personal take on those a little later.


Moving on to the right you can see the stained cabinet that was built in to break up the monotony of the white, and looks like a piece of furniture. They even used different hardware to make it look more unique. To the right of it was a shallow cabinet, which covered the radiator. It was also taller and really received a lot of sunlight. I'm sure they'll keep some plants on there, it would be perfect for that. Now my comment of the window treatments. The top cornices added some nice color, but since the repeat of the fabric was so large, they needed to make the cornices large. It really cut out some of the light, and you were not able to see the beautiful trees in the backyard. I also thought the patterned sheers would have been prettier as pleated cafes on iron rods, rather than shirred on spring rods. But they didn't call, or I would have definitely given them my opinion! One can dream, right?



Something they did do a lot of in this house was to mix modern fixtures with some more vintage pieces. We loved this light fixture over the island. It was so clean and fresh, and not the heavy iron chandeliers we've seen so much of lately. The designers used a lot of the polished nickel throughout the house.
Barely peaking out through the corner in the upper right, is the wall color. It was such a nice, light green, and looked so nice with all the accessories. According to the catalog, it is Sherwin Williams 7727 Koi Pond, just in case you were wondering.

Oh yeah, here's the link for the showhouse: 41st Symphony Designers' Showhouse, Kansas City
The history of the house is a lot of fun to read, and they show some good "before" pictures. Hope you get a chance to go.