Thirteen interior designers created a home within the walls of Sotheby's Auction house again this spring, in the second annual Sotheby's Designer Showhouse.  Designers pulled out the stops this season, as they created spectacularly appointed spaces on the 5th Floor of Sotheby's 72nd Street headquarters. The talented luxury-focused interior designers chose to work with an assortment of auction lots from an array of design styles and decorative and artistic periods, pulling in antique and new selections from the many departments.  This group did justice to the range of design styles, providing a real context with a classically-inspired feel. Below, a look at the designers sophisticated move-in ready well-proportioned rooms that occupied over 6000 square feet of gallery space.

Janine MacMurray & Scott Francis of Area Interior Design created a grand entrance with dark walls in an octagonal gallery

Painted a rich grey shade, walls were built-out in classic panelling that provided a solid background to showcase stunning artwork.

Buying in pairs is a good rule of thumb when it comes to mirrors and demilunes and anything that would look beautiful surrounding doorways, or dividing up a space

Pairing unreal art (note the Chuck Close) and George II and III furniture, Russell Piccioni mixed art and dramatic antiques

 Juan Carretaro of Capital C Interiors used a gently curved sofa in his handsome grey painted library 

Meredith Ellis paired a Swedish bench with other strong silhouettes in her Sunroom. Ellis, also a Bunny Williams alumnae, included a coffee table and hurricanes from her collection.

A serene pale grey, petal pink and sea green palette was grounded by the serious antiques in darker woods.

 The long space has 2 seating arrangements punctuated by a center able and bench. Ellis added a pair of Christopher Spitzmiller lamps in one of my favorite classic shapes. To round out their rooms, designers included additional pieces they borrowed or brought from their personal collections.

Bunny Williams re-launched book, On Garden Style, relays the importance of bringing the outside in with greenery, and Ellis included a variety of ferns to her sunroom.

Vividly striped walls and a graphic linear carpet set the stage for the Breakfast Room by Ashley Darryl

A pair of Sol Lewitt pieces hang above a Danish sideboard from the 1930's 

Eric Cohler's Family Room included a Picasso and other fabulous pieces of art that provide helpful examples of how to hang work beautifully.  Cohler always works with art in creative ways.

Georgia native Trey LaFave painted the Master Bedroom an electric shade of blue

Cullman & Kravis designed the stately Living Room.  Claire Ratliff, Lee Cavanaugh, Alyssa Urban and Sarah DePolo worked with grey, cream and red accents in a sophisticated art-filled room. A classic work by Damien Hirst hangs above the mantel.

A red and cream art deco rug attributed to Jacques Adnet set a graphic tone for the clean-lined statement pieces in the room

Allison Caccoma created a graphic wood floor to punch up the mint-walled gallery space she filled with important English pieces

An elegant feeling pervaded the hall, where the light green walls lightened up the darker woods

Caccoma's classic and refined style was honed as a designer in Bunny Williams office. She now splits her time between Manhattan and San Francisco doing projects for her namesake firm.

Pink walls instantly put major antiques in a fun mood. Robert Dean Harris used a shocking shade to shake things up. It worked.

I love this kind of crazy combination of colors used by Leura Fine founder of Laurel and Wolf

A Swedish desk in a sophisticated writing corner

A streamlined luxe kitchen featured Gaggenau was done by Robert Schwartz and Karen Williams of St. Charles of New York in collaboration with Lindsey Schwartz, Creative Director, CURATED by St. Charles