Design Panel
Cultivating Timeless Design
Saturday, Feb. 1: 2 p.m.
Rita Konig
Rita Konig has worked as an interior designer and design journalist for over 20 years in both the U.K. and in the U.S. and is regularly included in Architectural Digest’s annual AD100 as well as ELLE Décor’s prestigious A-List, both of which recognise the best in global design talent. Most recently, Rita has been honoured to receive the Condé Nast House & Garden Designer of the Year Award for 2024.
Known for her fresh, traditional style with a crisp and relaxed air, Rita’s interiors layer colour and texture, creating a calming environment of old and new. Her rooms are comfortable, thoughtful and luxurious, resulting in a warm and well-loved space. Rita’s clients are the cornerstone of her design approach, and every project is based on a thorough understanding of the individual brief. Working on both commercial and residential projects globally, Rita creates interiors that go beyond current trends and reflect the style and lives of people who live there.
Rita is passionate about sharing her expertise and empowering people to decorate and design their homes themselves. She has written design advice columns for more than 20 years for titles including British Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar US, The Wall Street Journal, The Telegraph, and House & Garden. In 2019, Rita launched her first hugely successful online course with Create Academy – “Rita Konig’s Ultimate Guide to Interior Design” – followed by “The Advanced Guide to Interior Design” in 2024. Rita now offers 1:1 private video consultations with clients via The Expert.
Working closely alongside brands she uses regularly as part of her design projects, Rita has worked on product collaborations with luxury names including The Lacquer Company and Oficina Inglesa.
Veere Grenney
Veere Grenney is widely considered one of the most important interior designers of his generation. World-renowned for the homes he has created over the last 30 years, he is celebrated for his signature ability to couple glamour with restraint, sophistication with comfort, and modernity with classism.
Born on the South Island of New Zealand, Grenney moved to England in the 1970s and trained under Mary Fox Linton. He became a director at Sibyl Colefax and John Fowler before launching his own company, Veere Grenney Associates, in London in 1996.
Veere currently divides his time between homes in Tangier, London and Suffolk in the English countryside. The Temple, Suffolk, is an 18th-century Palladian folly, a pastoral idyll that embodies all the cornerstones of the English country house. Then there in his cosmopolitan apartment in Chesil Court, an exercise in the chicest urban living. And finally, Gazebo is Grenney’s masterpiece in Tangier. It is in this house where his memories, inspiration and experience from the past 40 years come together. The garden has been transformed from cliffside to exotic paradise, and the house itself is infinitely romantic and welcoming.
Grenney has been consistently acclaimed by The World of Interiors and is listed in House and Garden’s Top 100 interior designers. This year, he has been inducted into the AD100 2024 Hall of Fame as well as declared an Elle Décor A-List Titan.
Dara Caponigro
Dara Caponigro is Chief Creative Officer of FS&CO, the 134-year-old American heritage company composed of Schumacher, a luxury design house specializing in fabric, wallpaper and home accessories; Patterson Flynn, a prestigious rug and textile firm; Backdrop, a paint and wallpaper company with a fresh perspective; and Frederic Media, a multiplatform business devoted to generating best-in class design content.
Caponigro is also creative director of Schumacher, where she directs and oversees product development, marketing, licensing partnerships, visual merchandising, and the design of new offices, showrooms and boutiques.
At Frederic Media, she is editor-in-chief of FREDERIC magazine, and oversees fredericmagazine.com, Frederic Entertainment and Frederic Books.
Caponigro is the author of “The Authentics: A Lush Dive into the Substance of Style” (Clarkson Potter), “Domino: The Book of Decorating” (Simon & Schuster), “S Is for Style: The Schumacher Book of Decoration” (Rizzoli), “Decorate like a Decorator” (Monacelli) and “FREDERIC: The Last Word in Chic” (Monacelli).
Prior to joining Schumacher, Caponigro held numerous illustrious positions as an editor in the magazine publishing business, specializing in interior design and architecture. Most recently, she was the editor-in-chief of Veranda, which she established as a global luxury brand.
Caponigro was also a founding editor at Domino, where she was style director from 2004 to 2009. Previously, she was design and decoration director at ELLE Décor and decorating director at House Beautiful. She began her career at the Cooper Hewitt Museum in New York.
Caponigro is known for her ability to develop and invigorate brands, whether that means breathing new life into existing companies or building new ones from scratch. With her discerning eye and uncanny skill for knowing her audience, she is able to analyze a property’s existing assets, give it a distinct personality and help it evolve to its fullest potential.
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