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As in years past, the 2008 Kips Bay Decorator Show House in New York offers up a series of painstakingly composed rooms, each padded, propped and positioned in an expression of the designer's vision.

So while Manhattan design stalwart Larry Laslo (http://www.larrylaslodesigns.com) has filled his imagined Petite Penthouse with an appealing mix of antique furniture and colourful contemporary art, Canadian-born S. Russell Groves (http://www.srussellgroves.com) has repurposed a second bedroom as a serene and sophisticated "therapist suite" where a homeowner might host his shrink.

These standouts are among the 21 rooms and two terraces at the 36th-annual event, which this year features rooms ranging from the functional to the fantastical and, occasionally, both. (A kitchen collaboration cooked up by Daniel Boulud, Bilotta and Electrolux, for instance, is positively drool-inducing.)

The most dramatic development, though, is that show "house" has become a misnomer. For the first time ever, the month-long showcase is taking place in a series of high-rise apartments rather than the usual mansions.

The six units hosting this year's event are spread out over two floors in Manhattan House, the behemoth modernist landmark designed by Gordon Bunshaft for Skidmore, Owings & Merrill in 1952.

Because Manhattan House is in the process of being converted into luxury condominiums, showing the transformation of lacklustre white boxes into fabulous and flawless spaces will undoubtedly help from a sales perspective.

Of course, the primary purpose of the Show House is altruistic: The $30 ticket price raises more than $1-million every year for the Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club, a non-profit organization that provides 14,000 Bronx-based kids under the age of 18 with after-school enrichment programs.

The designers, who are not paid for their contribution, also stand to gain from the increased exposure, especially since visitors often come looking to update or redo their homes.

This year, exotic trappings from Turkey, India and Morocco inspired some designers, while others were driven by glamour and nostalgia.

BKH, a firm based in Sydney, Australia, made the most modern and accessible statement; think rich dark fabrics, high-gloss surfaces and lilac as an accent colour.

Those who really want to learn about a designer, however, should start by inspecting his or her choice of books. ("Oh, look! There's the Grimani Breviary, a 16th-century illuminated Venetian manuscript recently reproduced by Levenger Press. How marvellously esoteric!")

For his part, Geoffrey Bradfield (http://www.geoffreybradfield.com) went with insiderish auction catalogues. (His room, not surprisingly, was called An Art Dealer's Bachelor Pad.)

And "pad" is being generous, given that previous Show Houses boasted high ceilings, crown mouldings, hardwood floors and an air of all-around elegance.

In a follow-up phone conversation with Groves, the first-timer to Kips Bay acknowledged that he had never worked in such a small space before.

"It was more challenging because I didn't have as much to start out with," says the designer, who was born in Nova Scotia, moved to New York at a young age and worked for five years under retail design legend Peter Marino.

"But using a soft palette hopefully helped the room to expand and then placed the focus on the pieces inserted into the room."

To that end, he paired up a wall of framed Rorschach-like inkblot drawings and a sinuous Jean Arp sculpture with compact furniture including a pivoting walnut-and-brass desk by Thonet.

"Even though it had a little bit of humour, it was still a very serious, very beautiful, very contemporary room," he says.

Those who prefer the study of It bags over Freud or Le Corbusier will be equally engaged by a visit to the Show House.

This is, after all, where sightings of Goyard, Hermès, Chanel, Prada and Louis Vuitton are so common that visitors who aren't sporting one of the above are usually in the minority.

This may explain the presence of such rooms at the Show House as A Fashion Editor's Private Aerie by Nancy Ruddy (http://www.cetraruddy.com) or the decision by Charlotte Moss (http://www.charlottemoss.com) to organize Manolo Blahnik shoe boxes with Polaroids cataloguing their contents.

As one woman was overheard saying, "you can buy a bare box and turn it into anything you want. You can get ideas. All that matters is good dimensions and a great view."

The 2008 Kips Bay Decorator Show House takes place in

Manhattan House at 200 E. 66th St. in New York until May 22.

Visit http://www.kipsbay.org for details.

Tips from Kips

LACQUER

For an instant hit of glamour, nothing beats high-gloss surfaces. In his well-edited Den/Study, for instance, Jeff Lincoln painted corrugated wallpaper with a dark brown glaze for an elegant ribbed effect. In its Mod Sitting Room, meanwhile, the team for BKH New York evoked late-1970s swank with high-shine finishes on floors, walls and ceilings.

EXOTIC

To give depth to a modern bedroom, White Webb LLC incorporated Indian elements and a spectacular antique rug, while interior designer Sara Bengur gave her Orange Room off the kitchen a playful Persian feel. Among the unusual materials chosen by BKH to upholster furniture was earthy African mud cloth.

TEAL

Looking for the season's hottest accent hue? Try teal. It was prominent in the bedroom by Ellen Ward Scarborough Ltd. with Pariscope Design. White Webb also used it to cover a footstool.