Home & Design

Fabulous Flooring 1. Build Your Own
West Coast interior designer and collector Windsor Smith and Kravet Carpets have joined forces to create a new line of fabrics and rugs in crisp, classic designs. The Build Your Rug option allows customers to choose from 11 designs and more than 600 custom colors in silk or wool threads. www.kravet.com

2. Popping the Cork
Architectural Systems, Inc.’s new Vencork flooring is both fashionable and eco-friendly. This product comes in a variety of shades and combines a traditional wood overlay with a sustainable cork substrate to give your floors a sleek look. www.archsystems.com

3. Wool Wonders
Enliven your home with the rich hues and variations of a hand-made Tibetan rug by Tamarian. Made from hand-carded, hand-spun wool and organic dyes, each rug is unique. Customize your color and design options by choosing among 500 hues and patterns ranging from traditional to contemporary. www.tamarian.com

4. Broadloom Basics
Be your own master of design with the new “Inspired Luxury” program from Karastan, which allows customers to design rugs to their own specifications. Choose everything from broadloom style to binding and have your very own creation in four to six weeks. www.karastan.com

5. Quiet Time
Block out the noise with ecofinishes’ collection of cork flooring. Available in 12 different looks, the floor is soft to the touch yet durable, and muffles the sound of loud footsteps. Available at Flooring America in floating floor or tile form. www.ecofinishes.com or www.flooringamerica.com

6. Exotic Appeal
Mirage’s World Aromas Series features hardwood grown in Canada. Canadian Breza is available in Bali Coco, a shimmering brown inspired by Balinese coconut trees. Using new, environmentally safe technology, the wood’s natural pigments are enhanced, resulting in a richer shade with the allure of the tropics. www.miragefloors.com

7. Textured Tile
Designer and manufacturer Ann Sacks provides the perfect alternative to typical tile with leather flooring, made in conjunction with craftsman Cowden Bell. Tiles are hand-dyed and stamped to create little works of art, each subtly different in color and texture. www.annsacks.com

8. Floating Floor
Bamboo flooring manufacturer Teragren has introduced the newest addition to
its Synergy Line, a wide plank, floating floor. Equipped with a glueless self-locking system for stability and ease of installation, the product is available in Wheat, Chestnut, Java and Brindle and can be installed anywhere in the home, including basements and bathrooms. www.teragren.com

 

A Timeless Design
Gardens go in and out of fashion. When landscape architect Richard Arentz began work on a Northwest DC project several years ago, it was clearly out of date. It had an oddly shaped pool, a large lawn, some statuary and a small fountain. The homeowners told him they wanted an updated, more attractive design that would provide more screening for privacy.

Arentz devised a plan that reflects the Federal style of the house. The former pool was repurposed as the basement of a new conservatory, while a formal fountain with water lilies is now the garden’s central feature. “The fountain really is the garden,” says Arentz. “It draws you out, and there’s a connectivity from the house to the garden that didn’t exist before.” The conservatory, he says, serves as “an outdoor living destination” where the homeowners can enjoy the view year-round.

Ironwood LLC, Arentz’s contracting firm, maintained a high level of craftsmanship and attention to detail on the project. All of the stone in the new fountain and pool garden was cut in France and shipped to the U.S. Ironwood also preserved the property’s magnificent magnolia trees. Boxwoods and a clipped yew hedge lend the garden a formal air, but there’s also a seasonal flowering shrub border and planters with annuals that change with the seasons. The plantings impart “a very edited, tailored feeling,” says Arentz, but the main feature remains the fountain pool, which will never go out of style. “It’s a very formal gesture,” he says, “but if you strip away all the layers, it transcends and becomes a timeless design.”

AWARD: Grand, Total Residential Contracting. CONTRACTOR: Ironwood, LLC, Washington, DC. LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE & PHOTOGRAPHY: Richard Arentz, Ironwood, LLC, Washington, DC.

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Georgetown Modern
In Georgetown, Federal style is giving way to the 21st century—at least at an R Street residence that is nearly all glass in front and back. The property now has a contemporary garden to complement its architecture, thanks to landscape designer Brian Hunt of Botanical Decorators.

In a long, narrow space just 36 feet deep and 16 feet wide, Hunt found room for a spa, a dining patio, a walkway from the garage to the house, a tiny lawn and plantings that extend the garden season through the entire year.

Initially, Hunt developed several different designs, honing in on a motif of repeated diamond-shaped forms. “Once we got through a couple of conceptual plans,” he says, “the diamond pattern was really making the space feel large and it worked with the lines of the house.”

Botanical Decorators tucked in a spa at ground level near the basement-level lanai for easy access year-round. A diamond-shaped patio is constructed of thermal Pennsylvania bluestone, flame-torched to give it a smooth finish. A small diamond-shaped lawn repeats the theme, while a water feature is the focal point at the garden’s rear.

A fence in the same Masonite material used on the house creates the feel of a modern courtyard. Trees were planted in neighbors’ yards (with their agreement) to benefit all three properties. A rear grove of cherry trees screens the garage and alley on one side, while birch trees block the view between adjoining properties on the other. Triangular planting beds contain a PeeGee hydrangea, Sky Pencil hollies, cherry laurels and perennials. There’s even a dogwood that’s a harbinger of the Georgetown spring.

AWARD: Grand, Outdoor Living Area. DESIGN: Brian Hunt, Botanical Decorators, Olney, Maryland. PHOTOGRAPHY: Botanical Decorators.

 

 

 


Known for his bold moves on the ice, Washington Capitals’ defenseman Mike Green is just as daring when it comes to design. Settling in for his fourth season on the team, Green purchased a new penthouse loft in Clarendon last summer. He was drawn to the condo for its abundant natural light and reclaimed brick accents. But he had a few improvements in mind. Green wanted to trade in its white walls and standard finishes for a look that was young and hip. He also wanted a water feature, a wine cellar and TVs in every room. And, he figured, what good is a rooftop terrace without a hot tub big enough to hold a bunch of friends?

To help him make these goals a reality, Green tapped interior designer Leslie Rose of Jenkins Baer Associates in Baltimore, who had recently helped her brother outfit his bachelor’s pad in the same complex. Green saw photos of the brother’s home and knew he wanted to achieve the same vibe. So he called Rose just as he was leaving town for summer break in his native Calgary, hoping she’d have a plan in place when he came back to DC in September.

“Every apartment here has the same floor and the same brick and the same cupboards,” says Green. “I wanted to make it my own. I told Leslie I want it to be very modern, clean and simple, yet a little bit ‘rock and roll.’”

Rose got the message. She and Green bounced ideas back and forth in daily emails. After Green returned for training camp in September, she arrived at their first face-to-face meeting fully prepared. “I had done a furniture plan,” she recalls. “I brought in some carpets and lights to kind of get the ball rolling. We got off to a really good start and definitely clicked.”

Rose proposed a dark, masculine color scheme punctuated by bright works of art. They decided to paint the walls Gauntlet Gray (by Sherwin Williams) and stain the wood floors a deep ebony. She balanced sleek modern pieces with a few traditional touches. “Mike’s got a very personal style,” she says. “It was easy to play off that. And the space lent itself to a direction with its industrial feel. I was trying to blend the two. I think we hit it.”

Rose wanted to create comfortable arrangements that would suit her client’s lifestyle. “My goal always, especially when doing something contemporary and modern, is keeping it comfortable and inviting. I’m not a minimalist,” says Rose. “There is a certain traditional element in some of the stuff here, and I sometimes had to convince Mike that it was okay to do.” The draperies around the banquette, for example, are damask—tricked out in a funky black and silver color scheme. “I was afraid to show him that. But he said, ‘No, I love it,’” she recalls. “Mike has really good taste. He won’t take as much credit as he deserves. He pushed me a lot, keeping it a little edgier than I typically do.”

Rose’s plan dictated a few structural changes. They replaced all of the brand-new kitchen and bath cabinetry with lacquered cabinets for a more modern look. They installed a track lighting system, moved the door to the master bedroom to make space for a custom banquette and relocated the laundry room to create an open wine cellar. To top it all off, a hot tub was craned onto the second-story deck—where Green and guests can now enjoy views of a large video screen hung inside on a wall above the main living space while outdoor speakers provide sound.

Green turned to Scott Thomas of NGenius to outfit his home with the latest smart-home technology. “Touch panels on the walls allow Mike to control every aspect of the home: heating, cooling, home security, every light in the house, all the TVs, satellite radio, music, blinds, MP3, Internet and temperature,” Thomas explains. “Everything is controlled through one single system that he can access anywhere—even on the road.”

Now that he’s moved into his new home, Green is enjoying life in Washington more than ever. The fact that the six-foot-two, 208-pound defenseman is (at press time) the number-one scorer of all defensive players in the NHL—despite missing 13 games for a shoulder injury—doesn’t hurt either. The Caps are on a roll and hopes run high for a chance at the playoffs. “The city’s getting into hockey. And we have such a good group of guys,” says Green. “You get on a lot of teams and guys don’t care that much. Here, it’s a lot different. The guys are my family.”

Green’s teammates have an open invitation to hang out in his new loft. “I made it clear that any time they’re ready to play, they can just come here,” he says.

Does Green look forward to coming home to relax after tough games and long road trips? The soft-spoken 23-year-old pauses for a nano-second. “I think I’m going to be doing more partying than relaxing here,” he says. “The time for me to relax is in the summer.”

Photographer Lydia Cutter is based in McLean, Virginia.

INTERIOR DESIGN: Leslie Rose, Jenkins Baer Associates, Baltimore, Maryland. AUTOMATION: Scott Thomas, NGenius, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

 

 

 

Luxe Outdoor Living
Brand new houses are a dream for landscape designers: There’s no need to rip out overgrown trees or reconfigure existing hardscapes. They also allow designers to work closely with clients to create exactly what they envision.

When landscape designer Joel Hafner of Fine Earth Landscape, Inc., met the owners of a property in McLean, they requested “lower plantings that wouldn’t overpower the architecture of the house” in the front yard and evergreen screening around the perimeter of the site to provide privacy from neighboring homes. Other requirements included an outdoor kitchen, a deck and a terrace with a fireplace.

In the front, Hafner created a parking court of Dublin cobble with a flagstone border. He planted perennials, flowering shrubs and evergreens that soften the entrance and complement the architecture of the home.

In the back yard, he transformed a tiny second-floor terrace put in by the builder into an outdoor kitchen and added a generous deck with a rose-covered pergola. On the lower level, double doors from the house open to a flagstone terrace with an outdoor fireplace that warms the entertaining area in colder months. Tucked beneath the deck and adjacent to the terrace is a water feature complete with a waterfall, a stream and a fishpond. Large stepping stones across the stream allow access from the terrace to the deck.

Flowering dogwoods and redbuds, hydrangeas, roses and hollies bursting with berries bring this landscape to life in every season and make the new residence look like it’s been there forever.

AWARD: Distinction, Total Residential Contracting. DESIGN: Joel Hafner, Fine Earth Landscape, Inc., Poolesville, Maryland. ACCESSORIES & STYLING: Gwen Seidlitz, Sage Interiors, Great Falls, Virginia. PHOTOGRAPHY: Bob Narod.

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A Sense of Drama
Small yards often require ingenious design because there’s little space for all of the components a client wants. When the owners of a Bethesda residence called McHale Landscape Design, Inc., to overhaul their modest property with its unassuming landscaping, they asked designer Carolyn Mullet to plan “a garden they could live in” that included a spa, a swimming pool and more inviting plantings.

In front, Mullet designed a granite-edged parking area and a new front walk and added plantings for year-round interest. Now, a Sweetbay magnolia graces the front entrance, winter-blooming jasmine spills over a front wall and hydrangeas and spirea bloom away all summer.

The major challenge was finding room for everything the clients wanted in the 35-by-60-foot back yard. Mullet removed a large second-story deck and replaced it with a balcony where the owners can enjoy their morning coffee. A stairway leads down from it to the patio below. There was enough space left for a 22-by-10-foot lap pool with a spa and waterfall. The pool is flanked on one end by a white crape myrtle and on the other by Japanese snowbells which screen out neighboring properties. A shower and changing room were built under the stairway.

“We took a space that was unappealing,” says Mullet, “and we made it into a place that gives them the exercise they want, that looks beautiful from the house, and gives them a place to have dinner and socialize.” Big, bold plantings around the pool, including drifts of black-eyed Susans, Sum & Substance hostas, Arena lilies and Winterthur viburnums, lend the back yard a modern look as well as a sense of drama.

AWARD: Grand, Total Residential Contracting. DESIGN & PHOTOGRAPHY: Carolyn Mullet, McHale Landscape Design, Inc., Upper Marlboro, Maryland.

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Al Fresco Style
Garden trends are shifting as homeowners become more discriminating about their choices of materials and plantings. Almost everyone now wants an outdoor “room” instead of a simple garden with handsome plantings, and today’s outdoor spaces nearly always include special features that extend the garden’s season.

On the pages that follow, you’ll see five elegant gardens that were among the winners of the 2008 “Excellence in Landscape” awards sponsored by the Landscape Contractors Association (LCA) of Maryland, DC and Virginia. A tiny garden on R Street in Georgetown features a heated spa that can be used year-round. A garden conservatory in Northwest DC is outfitted with a fireplace that makes it cozy in winter and air-conditioning that keeps it cool in summer.

Landscape architect Chad Talton of Surrounds Landscape Architecture and Construction designed a garden in McLean that includes a shady area underneath a spacious deck and a separate poolside bar with a built-in wine rack, counter space, refrigerator and sink. “Across the board,” he says, “most people ask for an outdoor grill area. And a lot of them ask for outdoor structures, whether it’s an arbor, a pergola or a pool house.”

Designer Brian Hunt of Botanical Decorators agrees. “A real trend these days is an outdoor fireplace,” Hunt says, “and more homeowners are asking for landscape lighting.”

At Fine Earth Landscape, Inc., designer Joel Hafner sees more requests for specific materials and styles. The ubiquitous azalea, he says, is “a dying breed,” because clients have decided that they don’t like the look of them after their brief bloom in spring. “We get a lot of requests for cut-flower gardens and hydrangeas,” says Hafner, gardens with “an English feeling.” Others ask for in-ground trampolines and paving materials that stay cooler than bluestone, he says.

Luckily, local landscape professionals are staying ahead of the curve and meeting their clients’ needs in style, as you’ll discover in the award-winning gardens on the following pages.

Jane Berger is a Washington, DC-based landscape designer and publisher of GardenDesign Online.com.

AUTHOR: Jane Berger is a Washington, DC-based landscape designer and publisher of GardenDesign Online.com. AWARD: This Baltimore garden by Chapel Valley Landscape Company won two LCA awards.
PHOTOGRAPHY: Roger Foley.

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The Water Source
When a Virginia couple originally installed an irrigation system 18 years ago, their needs were extensive. Their newly landscaped property, with its fresh perennial gardens and turf, required plenty of water. Eventually, however, the gardens became established; today, they no longer require regular watering—but the turf still does. The homeowners’ system had become outdated, using up too much water not only for the health of their plants but also for the health of the environment. Recently, they turned to Mitchellville, Maryland-based Petro Design Build to update their irrigation system. The resulting setup allows them to tend to their property’s now-disparate needs while also acknowledging the pressing need to conserve water.

As the couple discovered, there’s an irrigation system out there to suit every situation. According to Petro’s president, Kathleen Litchfield, the question is as much whether you should get a system at all, as it is what kind to get. “I’m not a big fan unless you’re using it for turf, because it isn’t necessary for established trees and shrubs and it does waste water,” she explains. “If you’re putting in new plant materials, it’s better not to rely on irrigation at all because plants need a more concentrated watering system initially.” Under those circumstances, Petro recommends using a hose to do the job.

However, if you do decide you want to irrigate, the best plan is to use a drip system in the gardens and a spray system on the turf. The drip system is a series of half-inch tubes set 12 to18 inches apart from one another. Positioned just under the surface of the soil, the tubes can be directed at specific plants from root level. “Drips are best for beds,” says Tom Woods, residential irrigation manager for Bowie, Maryland-based Complete Landscaping. “They are more efficient because they water plants at the roots so they use less water. And there’s no waste due to evaporation from sunlight or runoff.” Drips are optimal for some plants, such as roses, that respond best to being watered at the roots. And according to Kathleen Litchfield, the drip system also eliminates fungal growth on plant leaves caused by too much water collecting on them.

There are some downsides, however. Drip tubes require some maintenance; because they sit just beneath the surface of the ground they can become visible and periodically need to be re-covered. And, as Mike Ritgert, irrigation and lighting design manager for Dulles, Virginia-based Chapel Valley Landscaping, explains, it is often difficult for the homeowner to actually tell whether the system is working without going outside to test the soil. “A drips system needs more monitoring and management,” Ritgert says.

Typically, homeowners use pop-up systems for their turf, and though landscapers may discourage it, they often choose them for their beds as well because they require less maintenance than drips. Rotor pop-ups and spray pop-ups both are available; spray from a rotor head reaches 30 to 40 feet and is most often used on commercial-sized lawns, while a pop-up spray head reaches up to about 12 feet—a more common span for a residential property. According to Tom Woods, these systems are more wasteful than drip systems, using 10 to 12 gallons of water per minute, but require almost no maintenance. “Drip materials are a little less expensive, but installing them is more labor-intensive,” Woods says. For spray pop-ups, the opposite is true. Ultimately, Woods estimates that the cost for pop-ups is about 10 percent higher.

Given the varying needs within one yard, most landscapers recommend installing a combination of systems. “When I go out to a property,” says Chapel Valley’s Mike Ritgert, “I talk to the client about having the yard divided into separate zones for irrigating. With irrigation systems you can have a tendency to over-water”—which can be good for turf but overkill for plant beds. Creating zones that can be controlled separately will allow the homeowner to monitor their systems’ water output most effectively.

Whether or not a property is divided into zones, any automatic irrigation system will require a timer to turn the system on and off, called a controller. Controllers enable the system to sense moisture, so that it can detect when to turn on the water. “Controllers can adjust the system to factors like time and climate conditions,” Ritgert says. There are also sensors on the market that read soil moisture for the controller, but Ritgert suggests using them with caution. “They are only so helpful because soil conditions can be so diverse even from the front to the back yard, a sensor is not necessarily accurate.”

Another option is a rain sensor. “Rain gauges on the roof and gutters tell the system not to come on until the weather is dry,” explains Tom Woods. Computerized controllers are also available, working off weather reports on radio or satellite systems. Some use modems or cell phones to enable homeowners to operate them remotely. Alternatively, landscape companies will offer to maintain the system by computer for the homeowner. At Chapel Valley, “we offer the service as part of our maintenance program,” Ritgert says.

Controllers come with a variety of extras which, according to experts, may or may not be worth it. “Don’t use injector systems,” advises Woods, referring to a mechanism that adds chemical fertilizers to the irrigation water. “They’re not scientifically fine-tuned enough and it will be hard to control how much is getting out.”

Before deciding on any irrigation system, be sure to confirm the adequacy of your water source. “If your existing water source is not sufficient, it’s probably not worth the expense,” says Kathleen Litchfield. It’s easy enough to check the water pressure on your property if you have city water, by hooking up a pressure gauge to the hose or spigot outside the house. For a well system, homeowners will need to have the well checked. “Older communities can often have lower pressure,” says Woods. “Also, highly populated neighborhoods where lots of people are sharing the same water source can have the same problem.”

Determined homeowners may choose to install a new well if there is not enough water to support an irrigation system, but this is an expensive alternative, adding up to $7,000 to the cost of the whole enterprise.

Ecologically concerned homeowners are turning to green alternatives as well; Chapel Valley recently buried two plastic tanks on a Takoma Park property to catch runoff. Green roofs and gutters are becoming increasingly prevalent as a way to manage storm water, channeling it into the irrigation system. If the water is dirty or chemically compromised, it’s possible to run it through a water softener.

The total cost of an irrigation system includes plumbing and electricity, as well as “backflow protection,” a safety device that ensures the irrigation water—which flows through a line from the house to the system outside—will never back up into the house (this is required by law in Maryland). Depending on the choices you make—the type of system you want, the level of sophistication of the controller, the sensors and other extras you prefer—the cost of an irrigation system will range widely, from $5,000 to $15,000 for a half-acre lot.

Many homeowners prefer to hire a landscape company to maintain their irrigation system. The company will monitor the property’s needs as the seasons change and regularly check soil and plant health. This may be the best solution: Landscaping a property is a major investment, after all, and homeowners want to make it last. According to Litchfield, having an irrigation company install your system is fine, but it’s important to “hire someone who knows about plant materials” to calibrate the system to the needs of the property.

“Money is a huge factor, but what you really want is for the system to work efficiently,” says Tom Woods. “Get a company that will do maintenance year-round.”

 

Art Studio- A Sense of Place
March/Febuary 2009

Every day Eileen Doughty walks her greyhound through the sylvan parks near her home in suburban Vienna, Virginia. Beyond houses and cars, she observes the bare limbs of oaks in winter, the blooms of wild cherries in spring and the changing light on tree bark in all seasons. These images—fractured and sewn together—take on new life in her engaging art quilts. “People always say, ‘Do what you know,’ and I love trees,” Doughty says, standing in the second-floor studio of her home, where the seeds of her ideas germinate. Above all, she points out, “My quilts have a sense of place.”

That sense of place is what inspired “Beyond Great Falls,” her view of the Potomac River’s rocky overlook at Mather Gorge. The three-panel work, commissioned as part of the Utah Public Art Program, depicts sweeping mountains and a stylized tree suffused with rich colors of the West. Doughty embeds deeper meanings in her decorative landscape quilts. “Root Domain,” created for an exhibition at a Wisconsin nature preserve, fancifully explores animal life below ground while suggesting the interconnectedness of all life.

Most recently, Doughty designed two pieces that capture a sense of the moment as well as a sense of place, for an art-quilt exhibition celebrating President Barack Obama at the Cafritz Foundation Arts Center. The first, a commentary on hope and freedom, is based on the classic Greek allegory of Pandora’s box. At the center, a monochromatic figure with headdress represents the statue of freedom crowning the Capitol. A folksy patchwork background of machine-pieced blue-and-white cotton above red-and-white stripes subtly echoes American flag tones. Rising from an open box like a god in disguise, Obama as hope takes the form of an appliqué bird with a golden beak.

On a lighter subject, the second quilt shows a greyhound curled up and dreaming about being adopted by Obama’s daughters. Doughty’s dog appears in all of her political quilts. He stands for Everyman, asleep and unaware of everything around him.

In fact, Doughty’s light touch plays to the strength of her accessible medium. As Martha Sielman, executive director of the nonprofit Studio Art Quilts Associates, points out, “A lot of political art can make you so uncomfortable, you don’t want to look at it. This element of humor gives you a way to relate to it.” She adds, “Eileen’s work is very approachable.”

Doughty began quilting 20 years ago while working as a cartographer at the U.S. Geological Survey in Reston, when she took a class in quilt making. The teacher brought in magazines illustrating landscape quilts and, Doughty recalls, “It was an epiphany for me. I realized quilting was not just about squares and triangles. It could be about anything you wanted, like places.” Quilting extends her experience in cartography since, she has discovered, both visually express an abstract idea. As she explains, “Maps use colors and shapes to communicate geography or populations. Now I use them as emotional symbols.”

Doughty majored in cartography at the University of Wisconsin, where she grew up. With her wide-boned face and silver curls, alert blue eyes behind rimless glasses, Doughty seems the model of a heartland America quilt maker. In fact, her work builds on tradition. Rather than sew functional quilts by hand as her mother, an accomplished seamstress, continues to do, Doughty pieces everything together by machine. She prefers the look and speed, noting, “I have too many ideas and too little time.” Instead of turning under the rough edges of appliqué fabric, she likes the natural look and added texture of loose, fraying edges. “I don’t intend it to look like a painting,” she says. 
 
While contemporary quilt makers now incorporate a startling assortment of materials—from matchsticks and twist ties to fishing line and roofing nails—Doughty still prefers fabric and thread. When she’s ready to assemble a design, she heads over to a stash of fabric. Her supply consists mainly of cotton and transparent fabrics with less distinct patterns. Increasingly, she draws or paints on fabric to achieve effects such as water or clouds.

In an intuitive process, Doughty adds and moves samples around until everything works together. Then she sits down at her 10-year-old Bernina sewing machine. Depending on the design, she may use the machine either to join fabric or as a free-motion drawing tool.

Doughty continues to explore new directions. Two grants support her investigations into creating three-dimensional sculptures entirely with thread interwoven on a sewing machine. She also works on public and private commissions. While her quilts average three-feet square, her pieces have ranged from postcard-size views of Washington monuments to a 14-foot-long assembly of panels. This year, besides showing her work locally, Doughty will display her quilts at exhibitions in Connecticut, Taiwan and Birmingham, England.

Doughty gets up from her machine and looks out the window to the front of her house, where a seed she planted many years ago has grown into a statuesque elm. It seems inevitable that at some point a rendering of that fine tree will artfully find its way onto one of her quilts.

Writer Tina Coplan is based in Chevy Chase, Maryland. To reach Eileen Doughty, call 703-938-6916 or visit www.doughtydesigns.com. She shows her quilts regularly at Potomac Craftsmen Fiber Gallery in the Torpedo Factory Art Center in Alexandria;www.potomaccraftsmengallery.com.

**Out of the array of interior design magazines, Home and Design magazine stands out as a primary idea source for luxury home designs.  Wonderful visuals of inspired décor and lush landscapes are combined with expert advice to provide a fundamental reference point for bringing amazing home interior design ideas to life.

 

Design House Encore
After touring a designer show house, who hasn’t wondered, “What happens to it now?” These spacious, often palatial homes do have a life after the spotlight, to which Virginia-based interior designer Ame Gold can attest. After the 2005 National Symphony Orchestra Decorators’ Show House closed to the public, one of her clients purchased the McLean property, and they set out on their second residential design project together—this one much larger in scope than the first.

Going from a 6,000-square-foot home to the 10,000-square-foot estate gave the homeowners lots of wiggle room. What they challenged Gold to do was to make it comfortable and livable for their family of four.

As with most designer show houses, this one bore the remnants of each and every designer involved in the project. But before putting the house on the market, the previous owner had painted many of the bolder spaces in neutral shades. “That actually made it a bit easier for me,” says Gold, whose clients “saw the house, fell in love with it and bought it.”

Gold was determined to “let my clients’ lifestyle determine how the house would look.” Some of the homeowners’ furnishings, carefully chosen for their former residence, would easily make the transition to the larger home. Others would not.

Likewise, they preserved those elements of the home that fit their aesthetic of relaxed elegance, but chose to create new features as well. For instance, they decided not to alter the marble floor in the foyer, but painstakingly painted and stenciled the walls. “The stencil is an original design that the homeowner and I collaborated on. Unfortunately for my painter, a new stencil template had to be re-cut after every eight or so uses,” says Gold. It’s a lovely backdrop for the distinctive occasional chair by Century that came with the homeowners from the previous house.

The custom, glass-top dining table and silk-upholstered chairs from the previous dining room now grace their new one. The owners also replicated the color scheme of their former dining room, with red walls and a metallic ceiling and trim. “The red works well here because it offsets the cool feel in the room from the silver ceiling and paint below the chair rail, which the homeowners wanted to keep,” explains Gold. A motif of birds and branches inspired by toile fabric was projected onto the wall and then gilded free-hand by her talented decorative painter. “It was a great way to do it. We could all see what it was going to look like in the end,” says Gold. The chandelier conveyed with the house, but was relocated from a different room, and a new credenza and lamps were selected to complete the look.

Throughout the house, Gold balanced traditional and modern elements. Nowhere is that tension and play more dramatic than in the living room, where an oversized, contemporary art installation hangs above the traditional fireplace. At that end of the room, which is most often used for social gatherings, sleek tables share space with a comfortable roll-arm sofa, and period chairs happily mingle with a modern, open-back chaise. Other accessories in the room give a nod to various periods and styles and engage a visitor’s senses with their variety and harmony.

The opposite side of the room provided an ideal setting for the family’s piano, which their daughter plays. “I divided the room into two areas because it’s so large and I wanted easy access to the French doors in back,” says Gold. “Design inspiration came from the carpet. It’s a Wilton from England, and they [the homeowners] just love it, so we picked the wall color from it, and coordinated the sofa with the color of its border.”

Since the owners’ previous home did not have a formal living room, all furniture choices were made specifically for this space. Gold achieved a subtle interplay of textures and hue, introducing shots of color in the upholstery and accent pillow fabrics. The draperies—gimp-edged, linen blend semi-sheers—are neutral in color and create little more than a scrim at the windows, even when drawn across the French doors.

Gold did very little to the existing kitchen, which features Clive Christian cabinets and granite countertops. “It meets the needs of a family of four with two children in elementary school,” she says. The changes were purely decorative and included new art over the cook top, a simplified chandelier and new stools at the center island, which provides counter space for a quick meal.

The most recent changes to the house took place in the back hall of the kitchen, where Gold created a kid-friendly space between the indoors and out. With a big backyard, an inviting swimming pool and a deck, the house is often the center of activity for the children and their friends.
They needed a place to change into swimsuits and a mudroom that would provide space for coats, backpacks and toys. So Gold designed a cheerful powder room that opens to a new mudroom featuring plenty of shelves, beadboard walls and benches that open to store family belongings.

It was the main-floor master suite that was perhaps the easiest for Gold to design. “We had just finished the master suite in their other house when they decided to buy this one,” says Gold, “so all we really did was to paint the walls and re-create the goblet-pleated draperies. Everything else was from the other house.” It is one of the most serene and relaxing spaces in the home—an ideal place to end the day.

Jeanne Blackburn is a writer in Montgomery Village, Maryland. Photographer Gwin Hunt is based in Annapolis, Maryland.

INTERIOR DESIGN: Ame Gold, PG Interiors, Fairfax Station, Virginia.

 

 

Back to Nature
After 10 years in their McLean, Virginia, home, Bob and Patty Finch were ready to renovate. Situated on five picturesque acres of densely wooded hillside, their 7,000-square-foot house already had a lot to offer. But it was an odd amalgam of contemporary architecture and Colonial influences that didn’t really fit its setting; built in 1980, it had been redecorated over the years, yet without any cohesive vision. The Finches wanted a home that would connect better with its setting, while also conveying a particular look and style. “The house was piecemeal,” explains Patty Finch. “It had Colonial banisters, Spanish tiles and creamsicle-pink walls. After all the mismatching, we wanted to make it more formal and uniform. More traditional.”

Armed with a design plan from Rebecca Bostick, an Alexandria, Virginia-based architect, the couple turned to the Fort Valley, Virginia-based Hayes Construction Corporation to help them achieve their goal. The project, which won a 2009 Contractor of the Year Award merit prize for whole house renovation over $1 million, required that the interior be largely gutted, and the outside altered completely. According to Bill Hayes, principal of Hayes Construction, “Ninety-eight percent of the house changed, even though the footprint only grew 850 square feet. The whole roof structure changed dramatically.”

In fact, the altered roofline transformed the front façade from contemporary to traditional. “We extended the front elevation out to add the stone entryway, creating a gabled roof above it,” Hayes explains. The roofline over the original home’s clerestory windows was raised, creating another gabled roof. The result was the traditional structure the Finches wanted. The couple chose a massive pine front door, reclaimed from Philadelphia’s Constitution Hall, to complete the more formal look.

Inside, what was a series of smaller rooms became one big room, encompassing a two-story entry hall, sitting area, kitchen and family room. The room’s ceiling height varies from nine feet in the kitchen to a soaring 35 feet in the sitting area. Two huge fieldstone fireplaces anchor near-opposite ends of the space. In addition, as Hayes describes it, the original house “had high ceilings and low windows. It looked odd.” Taller windows were installed, both for aesthetic purposes and to let in more light.

The new design also called for the stairway to be moved from its original, cramped location in the entryway. By repositioning it, the builders were able to open up the space; they also removed the wall separating the entry hall from the sitting area. This, however, created a dilemma. The wall between those spaces had supported a bridge between the master bedroom suite and the other three bedrooms on the second floor. “The bridge was no longer held up by a wall,” Hayes says. “So we installed steel beams to hold it up.” The catch, apparently, was that it had been a load-bearing wall. So the steel beams had to support the roof as well as the bridge.

The task of balancing the original contemporary design with a more traditional style was another challenge. Patty Finch recruited Falls Church, Virginia-based interior designer Karen Aylestock to work with her on the home’s interiors. “I can definitely say I had a vision,” Finch says. “I wanted earth tones and materials like stone and wood to be brought in to connect with the outdoors.” Finch was attracted to the Arts and Crafts style, so she and Aylestock tried to blend that sensibility with something more modern. “I call it transitional Arts and Crafts,” Finch says.

In addition, other rooms such as the dining room and formal living room have been updated to blend with the new décor. “To really change the feel of the house,” Aylestock recalls, “we put in new casings, light fixtures, hardware. Just changing finishes and windows made a big difference.” Design elements such as the library fireplace—formerly white-painted brick and now refaced in fieldstone with a warm cherry mantel—and the rich, alder-wood newel posts on the stairs, add the charm Patty Finch was looking for.

For the kitchen and baths, Aylestock and Finch chose natural materials that would reflect the outdoors such as copper sinks and porcelain-tile floors and a backsplash made to look like slate. In the kitchen, alder-wood cabinetry matches the newel posts, connecting the spaces. Patty Finch says she requested that the sink be positioned “at the right angle to be able to do the dishes and look out the windows.”

In fact, looking out the windows here could be a full-time occupation. Against a breath-taking view of the woods, a spacious deck and terraced patios lead down to a swimming pool and tennis court; a rope bridge offers the only access to Bob Finch’s home office, a structure they call the tree house, which was there before the renovation. Then there’s the five-panel NanaWall, an accordion-style set of doors that the couple had installed by the deck. It looks like a wall of windows; folded all the way back, however, the wall disappears entirely, making the deck an extension of the house.

As Patty Finch says, there’s room in this house for everybody: “We get to enjoy the house as a family, in one big room.”

Photographer Greg Hadley is based in Fairfax, Virginia.

ARCHITECTURE: Rebecca L. G. Bostick, AIA, Alexandria, Virginia. CONTRACTOR: Bill Hayes, Hayes Construction Corporation, Fort Valley, Virginia. INTERIOR DESIGN: Karen P. Aylestock, ASID, KPA Design Group, Great Falls, Virginia. KITCHEN DESIGN: Patty Whitman, Kleppinger Designer Group, Fairfax, Virginia.

 

 

French Garden Flair
When you think of French gardens, the elements that come to mind are wrought-iron fences, classic fountains, beautiful details and, of course, a place to relax with a glass of wine. Landscape architect Chad Talton of Surrounds Landscape Architecture and Construction immediately noticed the distinct French style of his clients’ house in McLean and decided to incorporate it in his design for the garden.

The existing landscape, put in by the builder, was non-descript and afforded the clients little privacy. The homeowners told Talton they wanted a new deck off the back of the house, an expanded patio area around the existing swimming pool and spa and a welcoming front entry. “The house is really elegant,” says Talton, “so we tried to come up with a design that was really formal and very clean.”

The new deck houses a covered grill area, and is constructed of Procell, a composite material that is maintenance-free. The curvy wrought-iron deck railings are reminiscent of many that you might see in Paris. Surrounds turned to Cardine Studios of Bealeton, Virginia, to design an intricate wrought-iron gate at the top of the spiral stone staircase that leads to the house and the drive.

The garden’s formal limestone fountain was imported from Italy. The copper-roofed outdoor bar designed by Talton houses a sink, a refrigerator and a wine rack for easy poolside entertaining.

Japanese cedars, the main plantings at the far end of the pool, screen the neighboring house, while Japanese maples, a lovely blue Atlas cedar, crape myrtles, boxwoods, flowering shrubs and annuals provide a four-season palette of color, texture and blooms.

AWARD: Grand, Outdoor Living Area. LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE: Chad Talton, Surrounds Landscape Architecture and Construction, Sterling, Virginia. PHOTOGRAPHY: Ron Blunt.

 

 

A Timeless Design
Gardens go in and out of fashion. When landscape architect Richard Arentz began work on a Northwest DC project several years ago, it was clearly out of date. It had an oddly shaped pool, a large lawn, some statuary and a small fountain. The homeowners told him they wanted an updated, more attractive design that would provide more screening for privacy.

Arentz devised a plan that reflects the Federal style of the house. The former pool was repurposed as the basement of a new conservatory, while a formal fountain with water lilies is now the garden’s central feature. “The fountain really is the garden,” says Arentz. “It draws you out, and there’s a connectivity from the house to the garden that didn’t exist before.” The conservatory, he says, serves as “an outdoor living destination” where the homeowners can enjoy the view year-round.

Ironwood LLC, Arentz’s contracting firm, maintained a high level of craftsmanship and attention to detail on the project. All of the stone in the new fountain and pool garden was cut in France and shipped to the U.S. Ironwood also preserved the property’s magnificent magnolia trees. Boxwoods and a clipped yew hedge lend the garden a formal air, but there’s also a seasonal flowering shrub border and planters with annuals that change with the seasons. The plantings impart “a very edited, tailored feeling,” says Arentz, but the main feature remains the fountain pool, which will never go out of style. “It’s a very formal gesture,” he says, “but if you strip away all the layers, it transcends and becomes a timeless design.”

AWARD: Grand, Total Residential Contracting. CONTRACTOR: Ironwood, LLC, Washington, DC. LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE & PHOTOGRAPHY: Richard Arentz, Ironwood, LLC, Washington, DC.

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Georgetown Modern
In Georgetown, Federal style is giving way to the 21st century—at least at an R Street residence that is nearly all glass in front and back. The property now has a contemporary garden to complement its architecture, thanks to landscape designer Brian Hahn of Botanical Decorators.

In a long, narrow space just 36 feet deep and 16 feet wide, Hahn found room for a spa, a dining patio, a walkway from the garage to the house, a tiny lawn and plantings that extend the garden season through the entire year.

Initially, Hahn developed several different designs, honing in on a motif of repeated diamond-shaped forms. “Once we got through a couple of conceptual plans,” he says, “the diamond pattern was really making the space feel large and it worked with the lines of the house.”

Botanical Decorators tucked in a spa at ground level near the basement-level lanai for easy access year-round. A diamond-shaped patio is constructed of thermal Pennsylvania bluestone, flame-torched to give it a smooth finish. A small diamond-shaped lawn repeats the theme, while a water feature is the focal point at the garden’s rear.

A fence in the same Masonite material used on the house creates the feel of a modern courtyard. Trees were planted in neighbors’ yards (with their agreement) to benefit all three properties. A rear grove of cherry trees screens the garage and alley on one side, while birch trees block the view between adjoining properties on the other. Triangular planting beds contain a PeeGee hydrangea, Sky Pencil hollies, cherry laurels and perennials. There’s even a dogwood that’s a harbinger of the Georgetown spring.

AWARD
: Grand, Outdoor Living Area. DESIGN: Brian Hahn, Botanical Decorators, Olney, Maryland. PHOTOGRAPHY: Botanical Decorators.

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A New Beginning
Liz and David Muhlbaum purchased their 1960s Bethesda rambler in January 2007 with the intention of expanding the cramped and outdated home. They moved in with their two young daughters, and while they got a feel for the space the couple interviewed design/build firms, ultimately engaging The Levine Group of Silver Spring, Maryland for the job. They moved out for the renovation in January 2008 and returned in July to a charming, two-story cottage-style home.

The original rambler had three bedrooms in one wing, including a master bedroom with its own bath, followed by two bedrooms and a hall bath. A parallel wing contained the living room, dining room and kitchen, followed by a sunroom. The renovation would rework the entire first floor, creating a new kitchen, a mudroom, a guest suite and a conversion of the ground-floor bedrooms into a family room. A partial second story was added with three new bedrooms and two baths. The project won a finalist Contractor of the Year award in the category of whole-house renovation from $500,000 to $1,000,000.

The Levine Group’s architects and designers were sensitive to the scale of the neighborhood, retaining the home’s original footprint and building up. They were able to add 1,200 square feet to the home while minimizing its mass with batten dormers. As the house expanded upward to accommodate a master suite, two bedrooms and a bath for the couple’s two girls, a staircase was created just inside the main entrance. “There was just a wall there,” explains Alan Field, the Levine Group’s design director. To add the stairs, “we bumped into the living room about 18 inches.”

In the kitchen, dining and sunroom wing, the designers opened the kitchen and dining room up to the living room. “The Muhlbaums like the open-plan living,” Field says. “They want to communicate with their friends and guests.” The kitchen had been recently updated, so the couple had its components recycled through a local non-profit agency.

The new kitchen’s focal point is an island with a cook top on one side and seating space on the other; the island is deep enough so that the children cannot reach the cook top. “I am actually enjoying the kitchen because the kids can sit up here at the island and do their homework and arts and crafts and participate in the process,” Liz Muhlbaum says. The countertops are Carrara marble while the kitchen backsplash is a continuation of the beadboard wainscoting that surrounds the adjacent dining room. It is also repeated on the ends of the island.

At the far end of the kitchen is the mudroom—a priority for a family with two dogs and two cats. This space with its own entry helps keep the house clean and its two-legged family members well organized. The Levine Group also added a front porch at their clients’ request. “I have always wanted a front porch,” explains Muhlbaum, “A front porch, to me, means home.” The property’s original bluestone steps and stoop remain; the porch was built onto them, with space for the storage of gardening equipment underneath.

The soft gray exterior of the house blends into the landscape as white horizontal trim emphasizes the lines of the house. “The challenge here was in integrating the new roof lines with the existing roof shapes, preventing a boxy feel,” says Field. “There were also structural challenges—how to support the new roof using the existing bearing walls and ceiling joists—that we solved with clever layout and truss design.”

Black shutters on the windows over the garage balance the row of new windows above; latticework visually breaks up the three-story mass of the wing. Throughout the house, two-over-two windows replace six-over-six windows to allow more light and better views of the outdoors from within.

Working with The Levine Group team, Muhlbaum selected a cool gray for the living areas, in contrast to bright, punchy tones for the auxiliary spaces; the couple’s lively and colorful upholstered furniture brings it all together, and those hues are repeated throughout the home’s interior.

In the original bedroom wing, walls were torn down to make room for an expansive family room, with one end for arts and crafts and the other for games and TV watching. The former master bedroom is now a guest suite. “In this floor plan, our family spends more time together,” says a delighted Liz Muhlbaum. “I never once believed it would make that much of a difference.”

Contributing editor Barbara Karth is based in Chevy Chase, Maryland. Alan Russ is a photographer with Hoachlander Davis Photography in Washington, DC.

RENOVATION DESIGN: Alan Field, ASID, The Levine Group, Silver Spring, Maryland. RENOVATION CONTRACTOR: The Levine Group, Silver Spring, Maryland.

 

Luxe Outdoor Living
Brand new houses are a dream for landscape designers: There’s no need to rip out overgrown trees or reconfigure existing hardscapes. They also allow designers to work closely with clients to create exactly what they envision.

When landscape designer Joel Hafner of Fine Earth Landscape, Inc., met the owners of a property in McLean, they requested “lower plantings that wouldn’t overpower the architecture of the house” in the front yard and evergreen screening around the perimeter of the site to provide privacy from neighboring homes. Other requirements included an outdoor kitchen, a deck and a terrace with a fireplace.

In the front, Hafner created a parking court of Dublin cobble with a flagstone border. He planted perennials, flowering shrubs and evergreens that soften the entrance and complement the architecture of the home.

In the back yard, he transformed a tiny second-floor terrace put in by the builder into an outdoor kitchen and added a generous deck with a rose-covered pergola. On the lower level, double doors from the house open to a flagstone terrace with an outdoor fireplace that warms the entertaining area in colder months. Tucked beneath the deck and adjacent to the terrace is a water feature complete with a waterfall, a stream and a fishpond. Large stepping stones across the stream allow access from the terrace to the deck.

Flowering dogwoods and redbuds, hydrangeas, roses and hollies bursting with berries bring this landscape to life in every season and make the new residence look like it’s been there forever.

AWARD: Distinction, Total Residential Contracting. DESIGN: Joel Hafner, Fine Earth Landscape, Inc., Poolesville, Maryland. ACCESSORIES & STYLING: Gwen Seidlitz, Sage Interiors, Great Falls, Virginia. PHOTOGRAPHY: Bob Narod.

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