Every two years, the Visiting Nurses Association of Central New Jersey sponsors the Stately Homes By-The-Sea- Designer Show House, which features the area’s best interior and exterior designers. The show house, which debuted in 2007, attracts more than 13,000 attendees and is the largest fundraising event for the group, according to their website. This year, the home was set at an historic Rumson estate commonly known as “Blithewald”. More information about the home and its historical significance can be found here.   Our landscape architect, Alan Tufts was serving as the events landscape co-chair along with Dr. Norman Hungerford of Marlboro Flower and Garden. Countless hours of time, planning and preparation had been spent leading up to the event, which was set to debut on the evening of April 25th. On the morning of April 20th, after our installation crews had put the finishing touches on our design space, “the Secret Garden”, a devastating fire started on the second floor of the home. Fortunately, no one was injured, but the show house was lost and the event cancelled. Below are some photos of our design space as it looked on the morning of the fire as well as how it looked before we transformed it.  A link to donate to the VNA can be found here.