Best in Show

PSPCA's DogHaus lets animal-loving interior designers off the leash.

by Dominic Mercier

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Published: Oct 7, 2008

Michael T. Regan RAISE THE WOOF: DogHaus organizers Lynn Lehocky (left) and Rebecca Paul hope this year's pet-rified design show room will raise $160,000. (CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

When Charles B. Dunn purchased a stately Victorian home in Chestnut Hill, renaming it Edgcumbe after Mount Edgcumbe in his native England, he probably had no idea that, more than 130 years later, his treasure would become one enormous doghouse. Or, to be more precise, the 2008 home of the Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals' DogHaus design show.

After joining the board of the PSPCA, Lynn Lehocky was looking to do something significant for her organization. Not trained for frontline work or to deal with the emotional horrors that the society's rescue workers must often face, Lehocky turned to friend and interior designer Rebecca Paul. Both animal lovers, the two created DogHaus, which showcases designer (human) living spaces to raise money for the PSPCA while giving Philadelphia-area interior designers a chance to run free.

"I wanted to do what I thought I could do best," Lehocky says: raising money and, through design, focusing on the "brighter side of awareness" of major animal problems in the city, like overpopulation, breeding pit bulls for fighting, and the abundance of stray cats. While it does tackle darker issues through the much cheerier design process, DogHaus avoids any political pretensions, Paul says. "No matter which side of the fence you're on, everyone loves animals and everyone can support animals," she says. "They're voiceless victims and they need our help."

DogHaus kicked off in 2003 at the Dilworth House on Washington Square, followed by a turn at a Chestnut Hill home in 2005. After taking a year off in 2007, DogHaus returns to Chestnut Hill, this time at Edgcumbe.

With three floors and more than 20 designers working in as many spaces, the grand scale and traditional nature of Edgcumbe — with its impressive architectural details and abundant carved woodwork — lends itself perfectly to a show house. Modern houses don't have as many "pockets" for designers to work in, Paul says. Lehocky and Paul invited established designers and ones new to the business to stop in for an open house, select a few spaces they'd like to work in, and leave behind a portfolio. Those chosen were assigned a space, free to do what they please.

Once the selection process is over, the paths of design concepts can diverge wildly. Chuck Soldano of Work in Progress, who is participating in his first DogHaus, says there are two schools of thought on approaching a show house: Go nuts with impractical features like metallic wallpaper or create a completely livable space. For his second-floor guest room, Soldano says he's staying a bit more traditional but focusing on tweaks and revealing his double threat by adding his own pattern-like contemporary paintings.

Michael Shannon of Michael Shannon Designs, a DogHaus veteran, echoes Soldano's sentiments, and says that wildly different rooms can cause the house "to lose its cohesiveness." With the entry hall as his space, Shannon is leading the charge and setting the tone for the whole house. To do that, he's working in a distinct Asian theme including what he calls his "wow factor" — an illuminated black lacquer display cabinet filled with Asian antiques from Liao Collection.

While DogHaus is a show house in its truest sense — Lehocky and Paul say they try to direct the focus on quality, livable rooms and not kitschy, animal-centric spaces — their designers still find ways to incorporate sly nods to animals, whether through the liberal use of houndstooth or, in Shannon's case, the Chinese foo dogs in his display cabinet. Others have been a bit more cheeky, says Paul, citing an example of a designer who did an entirely white room with nothing but a dog bed in the corner.

Since its start, DogHaus has raised more than $250,000 for PSPCA programs, says special events planner Nicholas Chapman. This year, he says, they're figuring on another $160,000. That's a lot of rescued puppies and kittens.

(d_mercier@citypaper.net)

Preview party Fri., Oct. 10, $175; show Sat., Oct. 11-Nov. 9, $25; Edgcumbe House, 8860 Norwood Ave., 215-426-6304, ext. 227, spcadoghaus.org.

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