Big Easy Does It

In New Orleans, design daredevil Dabito builds a dream house layered with color and character in keeping with its historic surroundings

-  -INGRID ABRAMOVITCH

AT THE NEW ORLEANS HOME OF DABITO, A SALON-STYLE ART ARRANGEMENT ENLIVENS THE LIVING ROOM, WHERE WALLS ARE PAINTED IN SHERWIN-WILLIAMS'S CREAMY WHITE; CHANDELIER BY HUDSON VALLEY LIGHTING.

It takes confidence to present yourself to the world via a single name—and panache to paint your home marigold with peach-pink shutters. Clearly, the interior designer known as Dabito—Dab, for short—does not lack for gumption. The New Orleans house he shares with his husband is a case in point, from its borscht-red kitchen cabinets to a dining room drenched in peacock blue. “There are a lot of colorful homes on our block,” Dabito says of the city’s Faubourg Marigny district. “It’s a very queer neighborhood, and I wanted our house to be part of that rainbow: bright and cheerful.”

Color has always been Dabito’s creative outlet. In his 2023 book,