Designers Go Traditional -- In This Show House, Black Is The Accent Color Of Choice

CUTLINE: PETER LIDDELL: CREWS HAVE BEEN WORKING FEVERISHLY ALL SUMMER TO COMPLETE RESTORATION AND LANDSCAPING OF THE 1914 WURDEMANN MANSION BEFORE THE OPENING OF THE DESIGNER SHOW HOUSE OCT. 6.

CUTLINE: PETER LIDDELL: IN HIS FIRST SHOW-HOUSE KITCHEN, SHOW-HOUSE VETERAN WALTER BAZ OF MCBREEN INTERIOR DESIGN USES FRENCH COUNTRY ANTIQUES TO CREATE A CRISP, TRADITIONAL RETREAT FOR COOKING AND CASUAL DINING. MULTIPANED CABINET DOORS PICK UP THE LOOK OF THE FRENCH DOORS, WHILE HAND-PAINTED STENCILS (VISIBLE AT LEFT) ADD A CUSTOM LOOK TO THE BLUE TILE BACKSPLASH.

A grand Georgian-style mansion overlooking Lake Washington is the setting for the 1990 Designer Show House opening next Saturday in Lake Forest Park.

More than two dozen of the area's top interior designers have decorated 20 different rooms as part of this event, which is sponsored for the 16th year by the Seattle Symphony Women's Association and the American Society of Interior Designers, Washington State Chapter.

This year, as in years past, the accent is traditional, with late 18th-century and early 19th-century furniture making a particularly strong showing. According to some of the designers who worked on the house, the simple, architectural lines of Empire, Directoire and Biedermeier pieces were a natural complement to the classic detailing of the 76-year-old home. ``It's grand and formal, but not carved and goopy,'' notes James Brown of Michael O. Bowman

Interiors.

Brown, and fellow designers Michael Bowman and Stephen Phillips, used Empire swan chairs and an Empire recamier (chaise lounge) to turn half of the formal dining room into a sitting area. The trio mixed and matched pieces to achieve the look of a room that had evolved over time.

The black, white and yellow interior features gauzy Alencon lace on the windows, and walls upholstered with a replica of an 18th-century French toile. The same fabric appears as slipcovers on the host and hostess chairs, creating a mismatched look that's become popular in recent years. A striped wall covering applied to the ceiling in wedges that meet in the center recalls the tented look of rooms during Napoleon's campaigns.

In order to accommodate the flow of visitors through the living room, designers Deanna Dayment, Marty Applequist and Susan Broll of Masins floated a seating group in the center of the room. A large bookcase helps balance the space, which is dominated by a grand staircase at one end and a trio of French doors leading out to the front veranda.

Here again, Empire furniture was selected to harmonize with the Wurdemann mansion's classic character. Designer Susan Broll feels the look can work just as well in a more conventional home. ``A lot of people like contemporary, clean lines, but also like the traditional look they grew up with,'' says Broll. ``So when they spend money on a piece of furniture, they feel comfortable purchasing something with a heritage, because contemporary fades out quickly. Empire has a traditional heritage but is not that trendy.''

Black - whether in the form of leaping gazelles on a fabric in the living room or shades in the master bath - is the accent color of choice in this year's show house. Neutrals are popular, as always, with greens and yellows showing a strong comeback after a 20-year hiatus.

Interior designer Polly McArthur used an ``old gold'' on the walls of the middle bedroom upstairs, which she says she designed to ``look like Marie Antoinette vacations here.''

A 9-by-8-foot wall panel from a French gothic church stands behind the bed, which is topped with a hand-quilted bedspread, antique buttons and tapestry pillows - the latter a very popular accessory these days. An antique Biedermeier dresser and Directoire chaise are joined by collections of candlesticks, European boxes and old luggage - including an alligator suitcase that once belonged to Betty Grable. ``I think a good room is a collection of things,'' says McArthur, who prefers to use objects rather than fabrics or wall coverings to introduce pattern in a room.

Designers Pam Eshelman and Mary Siebert, whose calligrapher's studio was a high point of the 1988 show house, have again gone for a dramatic look in their ``Welcoming Galleries'' - the title the pair has chosen for the sitting room and sun room. Visitors will enter through the latter, a glassed-in space fitted with photographic transparencies designed to cast colorful patterns on the walls. Totem poles welcome guests into the next room, in which Eshelman and Siebert have juxtaposed Northwest Native American artifacts with high-tech lighting fixtures and contemporary art and furnishings.

``We want it real theatrical, because it's a show house,'' says Siebert.

While Eshelman and Siebert have chosen to emphasize the unexpected, Walter Baz of McBreen Interior Design has chosen to accentuate tradition. His crisp French country kitchen entices visitors to linger over a warm brioche and cafe au lait. Multi-paned French doors line the far end of the room, which has been outfitted with a French country table and chairs and an antique steel chandelier. An old fuse box has been disguised with a trompe l'oeil painting of a vase of flowers sitting on a windowsill. Decorative painter Deborah Huls even worked in a pair of garden shears and a songbird perched on the transom above.

Working with the kitchen's blue, white and yellow color scheme, Huls painted stencils on the walls and floor, and added ribbons that cascade down either side of a reproduction Welsh pine cupboard.

The cabinets feature paneled doors designed to pick up the grid of the room's windows. Matching panels were used on the front of the appliances. Cooking aficionados will appreciate the Viking commercial gas range, and the cooking island topped with butcher block impregnated with polyurethane for greater durability.

Other furnished rooms can be found in the carriage house behind the mansion. There also will be an arts and crafts boutique and a coffee shop on the grounds.

The Wurdemann Mansion has undergone extensive restoration in recent months. According to the home's 25-year-old owner, developer Brian Taylor, the house and its two-acre site will go on the market in the coming weeks for a price approaching $2 million, not including furnishings.

FRED ALBERT REPORTS REGULARLY ON HOME DESIGN FOR PACIFIC, AND IS CO-AUTHOR OF ``AMERICAN DESIGN: THE NORTHWEST,'' PUBLISHED BY BANTAM. PETER LIDDELL IS A SEATTLE TIMES STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER.

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The Designer Show House is open Oct. 6 to 28 from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. daily. (No visitors will be admitted before this Saturday.) The Wurdemann Mansion is located at 17602 Bothell Way N.E., at the northwest corner of Bothell Way and Ballinger Way. Tickets are $6 in advance and $8 at the door. For further information, call the Seattle Symphony at 443-4740. Proceeds benefit the Seattle Symphony and the ASID Education Fund.