BUFFALO, N.Y. — For the last several weeks, designers, contractors and volunteers have been working around the clock to put the finishing touches on this year's Decorators' Show House.
"This building has so much history, and as a league it is our goal to grow and connect our community and to improve spaces and places that we go," 2023 Chair Cindi McEachon said.
This is the first time the Junior League of Buffalo is bringing its signature fundraiser to Larkinville. The building is the former St. Patrick's Friary, located at 102 Seymour Street.
"The St. Patrick's Friary was never open to the public. So this is a space that wasn't a traditional residence, but housed Franciscan friars from its inception back in 1891," McEachon said.
"So for us, this is incredibly different, with countless rooms, to just the age of the structure, than anything we've done before."
Decorators had a blank slate to work their magic.
"It was a dormitory type layout, kind of like a college dorm," Karen Bialkowski of the Interior Design Association of Western New York and Kittinger Furniture said. "I think that we have been creative in making these little vignette kind of sub categories."
Even though women never lived in the friary, Bialkowski dreamed up a bridal suite in one of the bedrooms, with blush pink walls, plush furniture, and complete with a bridal gown, on loan from Dalia's Bridal in Williamsville.
"It's not meant necessarily the preparation room, the makeup, the hair, all that kind of stuff," she explained. "It's really meant for her to just relax with her bridesmaids that day."
There's a conjoining groom's room next door, by California Closets.
"One of the girls that works with us, her uncle was a friar and he used to live here," Kimberly Rusin said. "So we got like a pre-tour beforehand and to see how this house has transformed and what the designers have done, the designers in Western New York are incredible."
Back downstairs, Michael Poczkalski of Michael P. Design and Room created a new take on a traditional dining room.
"You start to pull it all together and you're like hoping before you put it in that it's actually going to work," he said. "I was fearful for this one that it wasn't going to work and then all of a sudden it all just came together.
It's his tenth Junior League Decorators' Show House. The now well-established designer and business owner credits the organization with giving him an opportunity and helping him launch his business.
"They took a chance on me way back when and put me in a little room, and we did it and since then, we've just been having a great time with them," he said.
The Junior League of Buffalo donates the proceeds from each Show House back to the community through grants.
Tickets and more information are available on the Junior League of Buffalo's website.