Kips Bay Show House Dallas: The Hi-Fi Lounge in a windowless attic
Show house roomDallas, TexasPublished Updated
At the first Kips Bay Decorator Show House Dallas in 2020, Cravotta Interiors was assigned the room nobody wanted: a windowless converted attic. Mark Cravotta took it, made it dark and enveloping, and built the Hi-Fi Lounge, a listening room that defies time.
The brief
Without a client, Cravotta became the client. The room was conceived as a multi-sensory experience: a place to escape and restore yourself, or to entertain friends for hours over music and conversation. It had to be designed and installed in three months, during COVID.
Scope
A complete room: wall and ceiling treatments, flooring, lighting, furniture, a custom neon sign, art and a boutique audio system.
The design
Every surface is covered. Phillip Jeffries wraps the walls and ceiling, with cerused wood walls and a deep umber sisal carpet. The lighting was tuned, not placed.
Almost everything in the room was made by hand: art, lighting, furniture, rug and audio gear. The speakers were designed by Rob Kalin, founder of Etsy. A VPI turntable, handmade in the United States, and an Octave tube amplifier, handmade in Germany, complete the system. Santa Maria Novella potpourri scents the air. A hammock by Jim Zivic Design hangs in the room, and a neon sign of Cravotta’s own design glows on the wall.
Cravotta drew on his personal art collection to give the room its personality.
“Getting all the pieces in place in such a short time was probably the biggest challenge,” he told Business of Home. “The dogged determination of my team, combined with the very generous support of the artisans and galleries we worked with, triumphed in the end.”
When the other designers kept finding excuses to linger in the room, the work was done. Galerie called it a sexy music room.
- Collaborators
- Photography (press): Stephen Karlisch.
- Materials and makers
- Phillip Jeffries (wallcovering). Rob Kalin (speakers). VPI (turntable). Octave (tube amplifier). Jim Zivic Design (hammock). Santa Maria Novella. Neon designed by Cravotta Interiors.
- Press
- Business of Home, Galerie, Interior Design, PaperCity, Patron, all 2020.