The Pasadena Showcase House of Design is the annual fundraiser produced by Pasadena Showcase House for the Arts to fund their music programs and award gifts and grants to other non-profit organizations to support their efforts. It is open for tours from mid-April to mid-May.
Unfortunately, because of COVID this year, it was pushed back until October, but the exciting news is the “tour” is now an online virtual 360-degree event, along with an online auction.
The house chosen in 2020 is the Locke House. As described by the website, the Locke House is:
…A 1937 Federal-country estate designed by Hollywood’s society architect, Gerard R. Colcord, to be the 2020 Pasadena Showcase House of Design. Situated on park-like grounds, Locke House is a 6,700 square-foot two-story family home that features six bedrooms and five bathrooms.
This event attracts the top interior designers from around the country, and they are each assigned a room where they will instill their magic. In this year’s event, one of the participants, talented interior designer Barbie Palomino, wanted a custom lighting fixture.
Barbie was working with an artist to do a custom mural wallpaper for the ceiling. She knew she needed a beautiful lighting fixture that didn’t compete with the wallpaper. Yet the piece had to be long, draw the eye upward, and have a serious wow factor.
ADG Lighting’s Gerald Olesker’s name quickly came up, and that’s how they worked together on this year’s showcase. Impressed by her talent, Gerald wanted to feature her today.
Barbie is truly living her passion. Initially, she majored in business and worked a series of corporate retail management jobs.
But the artist in her couldn’t be silenced, so she decided to attend the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising in Los Angeles and study interior design. She was later contracted by a hospitality design firm and the recession hit. The recession wasn’t going to stop Barbie, so she took an unpaid internship at a development firm, which turned into a project manager role and eventually a designer role.
Today Barbie has her own interior design firm, Barbie Palomino Design Studio. Recently she moved to Hawaii, but she makes sure her mainland clients are happy, so she comes out every six to eight weeks or more if her clients need her.
Barbie’s style is modern and eclectic, although lately, she admits to doing more contemporary style for her clients. One of her specialties is whole home renovations and then stays on to decorate. Actress, writer, and producer Issa Rae recently had Barbie work on her house, which was later featured in Architectural Digest.
Check out Gerald’s and Barbie’s collaboration!
