The 2026 Brooklyn Heights Designer Showhouse Proves the Power of Thoughtful, Daring Interior Design
by David Hay
October 2026
Contemporary design studios — including members of Douglas Elliman partner TALD, a curated marketplace for interior designers, architects and more — have transformed the interior of a historic townhouse at 1 Monroe Place in Brooklyn Heights, open to the public through Nov. 1.
When designer Sarah Fleischer first walked into the historic townhouse at 1 Monroe Place in Brooklyn Heights, she was more than a little overwhelmed.
It was July, and the founder of SRF Interiors had come to the 1850s-era home to select a space that she would soon transform for the 2026 Brooklyn Heights Designer Showhouse. To the amazement of all, Fleischer included, she was drawn to a tiny space on the second floor, hardly bigger than a closet and just off a much grander room with a fireplace.
“I had a vision for what it could be,” she recalled. “When I walked in, I thought: pink and purple.”
Fleischer created what she dubbed The Snug, a “cozy conversation nook” for one (perhaps two) to “sit and withdraw from the world.” This jewel box of a space is dominated by an undulating banquette custom built into the corner and enlivened by dazzling pink, scallop-print wallpaper all around it. The wallpaper comes from Marova Design, and all the fabrics are courtesy of Spring Street by Pollack, one of Fleischer’s regular suppliers.
The result proved to be a huge hit — particularly on social media.
“What I hadn’t planned on was designing something that was so Instagram-able,” she confessed. "But that’s what’s happened."
Like all of the interiors in the Brooklyn Heights Designer Showhouse, which opened October 2, Fleischer’s delightful hideaway is, of course, far better experienced IRL than via smartphone. Happily, visitors have through November 1 to explore how she and her fellow designers brought their visions to life.
Presented by, and for the benefit of, the Brooklyn Heights Association, this year’s Showhouse is the fifth in a series that began in 2017. It is also the first edition to feature designers who are members of TALD, a curated online marketplace that connects people across the U.S. with trusted interior designers, architects, builders and landscape designers for home projects of any size. (TALD has also partnered with Douglas Elliman to be the “on-call concierge” to the brokerage’s agents and clients for their design and architecture needs.)
According to TALD Founder Emily Shapiro, the collaboration grew out of the company’s relationship with Sarah Boyd, the design producer of the 2026 Showhouse.
“Sarah approached us for recommendations of local emerging and established designers with a compelling point of view as she was forming a list of candidates for the showhouse,” Shapiro told me. “We introduced Sarah Fleischer of SRF Interiors and Jess and Jonathan Nahon of Sugarhouse Design & Architecture to Sarah, and both firms were subsequently selected through the Showhouse's review process.”
Both Fleischer and the Nahons were on hand at a recent tour and reception at the Showhouse hosted by TALD with Spring Street Textiles and goop kitchen, as were the principals of three other design studios selected to transform the townhouse: Hannah Hemmerly Studio, Max Aboody Interiors and Unionworks.
When I spoke that evening with Jess Nahon, she marveled at what Sugarhouse had managed to achieve in the two months since they had been selected to decorate a large room and kitchen towards the rear of the parlor floor. The room had functioned previously as a pass-through space, but the organizers suggested that it could be transformed into a dining room. The fact that the space featured three different ceiling heights made for an especially daunting creative challenge.
“Our first decision was to actually define the space,” Nahon recounted.
Their clever solution was to add faux beams between the ceilings to create the illusion of a single surface. The addition of lacquered cabinets and lush, botanical wallpaper made quite a statement. Standing amid the convivial guests crowded around a center table bearing hors d’oeuvres, I can attest that the space felt like a dining room that had been the devised and constructed decades, not mere months, in the past.
As for the kitchen and bar area, Sugarhouse harmonized them with the dining room by installing a different color of lacquered cabinetry and a large backsplash of custom, hand-painted ceramic tiles that echoes the natural floral theme of the wallpaper in the adjoining room.
The collective work of Sugarhouse, SRF Interiors and the other studios behind the 2026 Brooklyn Heights Designer Showhouse is a testament to the transformative power of thoughtful, at times daring interior design. Although the six-floor home at 1 Monroe Place may seem imposing from the outside, the inside tells a different, altogether inviting story, from Fleischer’s second-floor Snug and Rachael Rosenblum Design’s inspired seating area on the garden-floor entryway with Day-Glo geometric wallpaper to Llewelyn Chupin’s Drawing Room, where a white U-shaped seating banquette wrapped around a pale travertine coffee table elevates the act of gathering to a kind of performance.
For TALD’s Shapiro, the Showhouse affirmed the fundamental mission of her company.
"It’s a great example of what TALD was built to do: create meaningful connections that lead to real opportunities for our architecture and design community,” she said. “From introducing designers to the Brooklyn Heights Association to connecting them with brands and bringing the broader industry together to celebrate their work, this partnership reflects the ecosystem we're building and the value of bringing these relationships together."
David Hay is a well-known architectural writer and playwright. His stories have been featured in The New York Times, Dwell and New York.
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