"For far too long, we have been inundated by white walls, white furniture, soft grays and gray-blues, etc.," says Ty Larkins, who designed this bedroom for the 2021 Ivy House Designer Showhome. "There’s nothing wrong with spaces with clean palettes, but it isn’t the best option for most spaces." Photos by Sara Essex Bradley.

Room tour: From bold architecture to flashes of red, this bedroom is all about the drama

Perhaps more than any other color, clients who reach out to designer Ty Larkins for design help with their homes say they dislike—even hate—the color red.

“Many people have aversions associated with the indiscriminate use of red in interiors from the ’90s,” Larkins surmises. “However, we wanted to reintroduce the color by using it more diplomatically than it had been employed in the past.”

Rather than bathe this architecturally rich main bedroom–which was part of the 2021 Ivy House Designer Showhome–in crimson, Larkins chose to use the shade as an unforgettable accent, against a backdrop of Benjamin Moore’s “Kendall Charcoal” on the walls and ceiling. But the rich red notes—found on elements including a vintage Oushak rug, a 5-foot-high Cecil Touchon artwork from Ann Connelly Fine Art, and a ribbon-banded custom linen pillow—are far from the only memorable details in this space. Behind the gold-leafed Oly four-poster bed hangs a grid of 30 drawings of architectural antiquities that echoes both the shapes of the beamed ceiling and the lines of the arched window that looks out on the backyard and pool. In the corner stands an oversized tripod reflector floor lamp by Thomas O’Brien for Visual Comfort, available along with the rest of this room’s pieces through Larkins’ showroom.

Click on the photos in the gallery below for a closer look at this room: