By Charly SHELTON

The Pasadena Showcase House for the Arts is now open and delighting guests with beautifully redesigned rooms across three levels of the house – the chic yet comfortable bedrooms and bathrooms upstairs, the grand and elegant entrance and dining hall downstairs, and the sunken patio and swimming pool area, with landscape redesign surrounding the English Tudor home. There are styles to fit every taste, whether the tech-savvy bedroom with mini-projectors replacing photo frames and computer monitors or the picturesque tea cottage and bee garden set outside on the grounds beneath a canopy of oak trees or the simple yet elegant laundry room cum office housing a private bathroom, washer/dryer and folding station and a simple wooden desk looking out through faux leaded glass windows onto the Victorian garden of succulents.

Each room has a story to tell, some more pronounced than others. One such story takes place in the library of the house, designed by Aaron B Duke. This library would not look out of place in Allan Quatermain’s or Teddy Roosevelt’s respective residences. Pale brown built-in bookshelves line the walls, a black ivory-handled magnifying glass lies next to a pair of cigars in a crystal ash tray, a plush canvas sofa with animal print throw pillows are on a fine imported rug, bamboo plants in front of windows cast long shadows from the corner of the room and a cowboy hat and boots rest near the wicker chairs, all surrounded by large vases. The story the room tells is one of a man with good taste, who is well-traveled and honored for his accomplishments. In fact, there is a picture resting on the fireplace of such a man.

“My partner was in a relationship with someone for 17 years, and he started this little company with a guy named Ralph Lipschitz, you may know him as Ralph Lauren,” Duke explained. “Jerry [Robertson] was the tastemaker for Ralph and he designed the first flagship store in New York. He then was the president of Ralph [Lauren] over in Europe until he passed away in 2009. When I came to Showcase House I had no idea what I was going to do, and then I sat in here and thought, ‘This is the Jerry Robertson library.’ So this is my homage to him.”

The humidor, the cowboy hat, the boots, the flask all belonged to Jerry Robertson and are lent to the room while it is on display to the public. Even the lamp on the table by the window was designed by Robertson as a prototype for the Ralph Lauren store in New York.

This room, like many of the rooms at the Showcase House, has a backstory that can be seen in the artifacts that create the ambience of the space. From the use of crystals in the upstairs bedrooms to catch the light to the flowing water outside on the patio that springs from the middle of a table and flows out under the walkway and into the riverbed water feature, the feeling of each space is palpable and perfectly sets the theme of the activities of the space.

Tickets are available now for the Pasadena Showcase House for the Arts. This annual fundraiser funds three annual music program plus awards gifts and grants to other nonprofit organizations that provide music programs. Showcase House is open through May 21. Tickets are available at pasadenashowcase.org.

  Charly Shelton