JACKSON HOLE, WY.- The Western Design Conference Exhibit + Sale will welcome guests back to the in-person, four-day Jackson Hole event this September, celebrating the finest functional art inspired by the West and introducing six top interior designers – including celebrity designer and author of new book Modern Americana, Max Humphrey – all turning their hands to Western style for the highly-anticipated Designer Show House. Constructed in the middle of the 28,000-square-foot showroom, the eclectic and artful house features six life-size spaces exclusively designed for the WDC Exhibit + Sale.
The 2021 Show House will be revealed at the Opening Preview Party + Fashion Show on Thursday, Sept. 9, at the Snow King Events Center in Jackson, Wyoming, and guests are free to tour the house at their leisure throughout the four-day event, which runs through September 12. As Executive Director Allison Merritt recently told Architects + Artisans in an interview about the return of the in-person 2021 Western Design Conference, the event will be Responsibly Wild and adhering to all CDC recommendations.
Beginning with a spectacular rustic front porch designed by Max Humphrey of Portland, Oregon, the Designer Show House opens with a theme that Humphrey calls “a little bit country, a little bit rock ‘n’ roll.” A patinaed metal shed roof shelters benches filled with vintage grain sack pillows, large throw pillows and camp blankets against a custom-designed horseshoe wallpaper and accompanied by select Old Hickory Furniture along with some of the designer’s favorite found treasures. Humphrey spontaneously coined the term “modern Americana” to describe his signature style during a 2018 interview, and his popular book of the same name was published in April 2021. Acclaimed as a design changemaker and named one of Country Living’s 100 most creative people, Humphrey’s interiors are featured in media from Architectural Digest to the Wall Street Journal.
Entering the Show House, WDC guests are greeted by the hallway designed by New West Fine Art, a contemporary art gallery in Jackson in an exclusive partnership with artist and Jackson native Connor Liljestrom. Working primarily in oil and mixed oil media, Liljestrom explores themes inspired by his life in the Tetons, mythologies, Hollywood and pop culture, natural history, colonialism and the canon of Western art history.
From the artful hallway, guests enter the living room by 2019 WDC Best Interior Design award-winner Anne Buresh Interior Design with offices in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Jackson, Wyoming. Buresh looks forward to returning to the Show House with a fresh look bridging the South and the West, blending traditional with contemporary, feminine with masculine, and highlighting a well-traveled lifestyle. A striking wallpaper mural wraps the space, furnished with custom pieces, French antiques and a dramatic black-and-white image by Austrian photographer Josef Hoflehner.
Across the hall, guests can relax in the sitting room, featuring work by Jackson’s Emily Janak Interiors and Fighting Bear Antiques, and Alley Modern and More, providing a contemporary approach to iconographic Western motifs. The sitting room collaboration will showcase Thomas Molesworth, Stickley and mid-century rattan furniture with touches of soft-textured accessories in ikat and florals combined with Navajo weavings and contemporary art, providing a modern look with subtle touches of the past.
And finally, the Show House features a combination kitchen, dining and living room by Jackson Hole’s Harker Design, also returning to the Show House and winner of the 2018 WDC Best Interior Design award. The multi-purpose space will feature a rustic 12-foot dining table crafted from old timbers with inlaid dovetails, a custom sectional sofa using leather and Belgian linen and a custom coffee table made from salvage wood inset with antique metal butterflies, all accompanied by a full kitchen installation complete with appliances and separate island.
