Interior Design students reimagine historic bathroom and bring Art Deco elegance to 55th Symphony Designers’ Showhouse

At the start of each academic year, Professor Kathryn Grube selects four JCCC Interior Design students to participate in the Kansas City Symphony Designers’ Showhouse project.

Sponsored by the Kansas City Symphony Alliance (KCSA), the Showhouse is an annual Symphony fundraiser that started in 1970. KCSA selects a historic, landmark home in Kansas City that is usually for sale. The Alliance assigns interior design professionals rooms in the Showhouse to revamp and design. The house is then open for public tours in the spring.

JCCC students have been involved with the project for more than 30 years, but this 55^th Symphony Showhouse is different. This residence is an actual family’s home, located across the street from the historic Thomas Hart Benton home and studio in the Roanoke Park neighborhood of Kansas City, Missouri. More information on the home is available at showhouse.org/2025-showhouse.

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Real-world experience for students

The Symphony Designers’ Showhouse project is a unique opportunity for students to get real-world learning experience (and internship credit). Any student in JCCC’s Interior Design program can apply to be a part of the Showhouse team.

This year’s group of students includes Jennifer Holmberg, Erica Kell, Stephanie Kilkenny, and Hui Liu. Grube matches the team based on their skill set. For instance, Hui holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting, and her math and budgeting skills have come in handy several times throughout the project process.

After Grube assembled the team, they walked through the house in October of 2024 and evaluated their assigned space: the third-floor bathroom, which was once part of the home’s servants’ quarters. After the walk-through, students drafted redesign proposals. The homeowners chose the final bathroom design – an Art Deco-inspired concept that pays homage to Kansas City history.

Ballroom bathroom project

In the home, the bathroom is adjacent to the guest rooms and the ballroom space. With the JCCC student redesign, guests are now transported back in time through geometric shapes, streamlined textures, and neutral colors with touches of gold.

The walls, ceiling, and trim were painted with Sherwin-Williams “Alabaster” and paired with Kohler LED lighting to provide contrast with the dark hardwood floors. A full-height star-patterned porcelain tile shower and penny-tiled niche – compliments of ASMI Surfaces – create a dynamic interplay of geometric forms, signature to the Art Deco design style.

The students worked with numerous vendors who donated resources to the ballroom bathroom project, including:

The Onyx Collection Belvue
Fountain Glass
ASMI Surfaces, Lenexa
Kohler Signature Store by First Supply, Overland Park
Keystone Solid Surfaces, Lenexa
Cambria, Lenexa

Plumbing was a major consideration for the Showhouse student team. The house’s water permit was issued in 1906, and the contractor for the Designers’ Showhouse project had to relocate some of the home’s original plumbing to achieve the student’s vision. To maximize space and optimize the original plumbing, the students added a mirrored, angled vanity wall with a Kohler ferrous gray vanity and a custom Cambria Everleigh quartz countertop to anchor the space.

The final touches were refinishing the bathroom’s original hardwood floors, restoring an antique dressing table (that belongs to the homeowners), and pairing it with a scalloped mirror and fluted Kohler globe sconces. Earlier in the month, the KCSA hosted a VIP preview event, and the students were present to answer questions about their design and work to community members.

A longstanding tradition

These four students aren’t the only JCCC-affiliated designers involved in the 2025 Showhouse project. In fact, two of the designers for the other third-floor spaces are JCCC Interior Design alumni.

Charissa Harris, a former JCCC student, and her father are restoring the home’s original ballroom. Harris’ father is an experienced ornamental plasterer and has spent the last several months painstakingly stenciling a plaster design on the ballroom walls. Harris incorporated some historic furniture pieces from former homeowners, including an antique bar credenza and a 22-foot ornamental rug, into the ballroom space.

Right next door is designer Susan Righter, also a JCCC Interior Design alum, who designed one of the home’s third-floor guest bedrooms. Two JCCC alumni helped design the foyer in the Showhouse, and one former student transformed the basement bar into a speakeasy. Many of these former students choose to be involved in the Showhouse because of their previous experience being on the JCCC student team. The current student team was able to connect and develop professional connections with both alumni and other area industry professionals.