2009 KIPS BAY DECORATOR SHOW HOUSE DANNY SINOPOLI It’s rare for the Kips Bay Decorator Show House, one of New York’s grandest home-design venues,
to feature the work of even the most accomplished designers more than twice every half-decade. Nonetheless, the yearly charity extravaganza’s current incarnation in a 20,000-square-foot townhouse on Manhattan’s Upper East Side features not one but two eye-popping spaces by Plant Specialists Inc., a Long Island-based indoor/outdoor landscaping firm co-owned by former Torontonian Grahame Hubbard. The firm’s appearance this year is its third since 2007. “I’m not sure if they made a mistake or they really like us,” Hubbard joked in a phone interview this week. “I would like to think it’s the latter.”
That wouldn’t be an unsafe bet. In a year that includes room creations by such powerhouse designers as Bunny Williams, Charlotte Moss and Gloria Vanderbilt, the two spaces by Plant Specialists () more than hold their own.