Kips Bay Decorator Show House

Window25 is proud to participate in the 2026 Kips Bay Decorator Show House New York, contributing our custom wall-upholstery craftsmanship to a remarkable room conceived by acclaimed interior designer Peter Dunham.

One of the most anticipated events in American interior design, the Kips Bay Decorator Show House brings together leading designers and craftspeople to transform an extraordinary residence into a showcase of imagination, artistry, and technical execution.

For Window25, the opportunity to work with Peter Dunham Design was especially exciting.

An award-winning interior, textile, and furnishings designer, Dunham is known for sophisticated rooms that combine color, pattern, vintage pieces, bespoke furnishings, and a distinctly international point of view. His work has earned him a place on ELLE Decor’s A-List and has appeared in Architectural Digest, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Veranda, and House Beautiful.

Our role was to translate his vision into an impeccably upholstered architectural surface—one in which pattern, padding, proportion, seaming, and hand-finished details come together as a unified composition.

When Fabric Becomes Architecture

A fully upholstered room has a presence unlike any other wall finish.

Fabric softens the architecture, absorbs sound, and gives color and pattern a depth that paint or wallpaper cannot achieve. In Peter Dunham’s room, the striped textile does far more than cover the walls. It envelops the space in color and establishes a warm, tailored backdrop for the furnishings, artwork, and window treatments.

Yet when wall upholstery is executed successfully, most of the craftsmanship behind it becomes almost entirely invisible.

That apparent simplicity comes from close collaboration among the designer, workroom, and upholstery team—and from a process in which every detail matters.

Preparing the Room

The installation begins long before the fabric reaches the wall.

A wood lattice is secured around the perimeter of each upholstered surface and carefully fitted around windows, doors, ceilings, baseboards, corners, and other architectural conditions. This framework establishes the boundaries of the installation and provides the foundation to which the finished fabric will be attached.

Precision at this stage is essential. The placement of the lattice determines how cleanly the fabric will meet the surrounding architecture.

The walls are then covered with upholstery Dacron. This layer creates the softly cushioned surface that distinguishes true wall upholstery from fabric applied directly to a wall. It helps smooth minor irregularities while giving the finished installation its subtle dimension.

The intention is not to make the walls appear heavily padded. It is to create a refined softness—something felt as much as seen.

Translating Pattern Into Architecture

While the room is being prepared, the striped fabric is carefully laid out and fabricated in the workroom.

Stripes are particularly unforgiving. Every line must appear continuous and intentional as it moves across the walls, meets a corner, or approaches a window or doorway. Even a small shift can interrupt the visual rhythm of the entire room.

Each panel is measured, cut, pattern-matched, and sewn according to the dimensions and architectural conditions documented on site. The workroom must anticipate how the textile will behave when it is stretched across the padded walls.

This is where fabrication becomes interpretation. The workroom is not simply calculating yardage or joining pieces of fabric. It is translating the designer’s pattern into the architecture of the room.

Stretching and Aligning the Fabric

The completed panels are brought to the site, positioned over the Dacron, and stretched evenly across the prepared walls.

Throughout the installation, the upholsterer continually evaluates pattern alignment, tension, corners, openings, and transitions. Too little tension can create looseness or rippling. Too much can distort the weave or pull the stripes out of alignment.

The work becomes especially exacting around windows, doors, and other architectural interruptions. The fabric must follow the shape of the room without disturbing the balance and continuity of the pattern.

Although the finished walls appear effortless, they are the result of countless small adjustments made by hand.

The Final Architectural Detail

Once the fabric has been stretched and secured, the exposed attachment points must disappear.

For this installation, matching double welt is fabricated from the same striped textile. The welt fabric is cut on the bias, allowing it to wrap smoothly around the cord and follow corners and changes in direction without twisting or puckering.

The finished double welt is applied around the upholstered surfaces, concealing the staples and creating a precise, tailored transition between the textile and the surrounding architecture.

It may be one of the smallest elements in the room, but it completes the entire installation.

When the Craftsmanship Disappears

A successful wall-upholstery installation is one in which the viewer experiences the room—not the process that created it.

The stripes rise cleanly from floor to ceiling. Corners feel continuous. Windows and doors appear deliberately framed. Staples, seams, padding, and perimeter supports disappear.

What remains is Peter Dunham’s vision: a room enveloped in color, texture, pattern, and warmth.

Behind that effortless appearance are detailed site measurements, architectural preparation, careful pattern planning, skilled sewing, precise stretching, and hand-finished edges.

At Window25, our responsibility is to bring all of those elements together—to understand the designer’s intent, engineer the fabrication, and execute the installation so completely that the fabric feels as though it has always belonged to the room.

We are honored to have our craftsmanship become part of Peter Dunham’s extraordinary vision and thrilled to participate in one of New York’s most celebrated interior design events.

Because installation day is more than the final step.

It is the moment when design, material, architecture, and craftsmanship become one.

Kips Bay Decorator Show House

80 W Washington Place

New York, NY

September 16 - October 13, 2026