A newly redesigned room at Key West’s Audubon House and Tropical Gardens surprised some visitors Tuesday evening with its key lime-colored, art-deco sofa, bird holograms on the ceiling and faux plants hanging from an Astroturf-covered ceiling.
But the younger crowd, which the room was meant to attract for weddings and special events, stepped right up to the brightly papered walls and started posing and posting.
“John Audubon was so inspired by the colors in nature that he found in Key West, I wanted to stay in keeping with the roots of Key West while also catering to a younger crowd,” said Sasha Bikoff, the interior designer who conceptualized and assembled the new look for the third-floor room that opens to the public on Thursday, Nov. 21.
“We’re calling it ‘#AudubonExperience,’ and ‘#liveyourwildlife.”
Holograms of birds soar on ceiling-mounted flat screens throughout the room while the sounds of birds that are native to the Florida Keys fill the room from speakers hidden among the faux orchids, bromeliads and greenery that hang from the ceiling.
“We wanted to be cutting-edge,” says Cori Mizrahi Wolfson, the creative director for the redesign, who selected Bikoff for the project. “And we also wanted to make sure that the younger generation is able to appreciate this artwork; to create a room where they are able to understand it and feel connected to it. We live in such a world where it’s all about Instagram; it’s all about, you know, engaging all of our five senses, and we really wanted our audience in every age group really to connect with it.”