Home & Design

Bespoke Style Eighteen years ago, a Washingtonian wandered into the one-time Brown Davis boutique in Georgetown seeking the perfect mirror for her drawing room. She was successful on several fronts: Not only did she find what she was looking for, but she also struck up an instant friendship with principals Rob Brown and Todd Davis, who would eventually complete the design of her DC residence, her apartment in Palm Beach’s venerable Biltmore and even her two sons’ houses. 

So when she and her husband recently purchased a larger, newly renovated apartment in the Biltmore, it was a given that they would call upon Brown and Davis, who now have studios in DC and Miami Beach. Drawn to the two-bedroom residence for its light and airy interiors and majestic views of the Intracoastal Waterway, the couple wanted a modern ambience in their new getaway. As Rob Brown explains, “They love this open concept, especially because they don’t have that in their large and formal house in DC. They wanted a departure that reflected a sense of place.”

Fortunately, the new space required very little in terms of structural improvement. The designers refined the crown molding and created frosted-glass doors that close the kitchen off to the adjacent living space in the event of a formal dinner party. 

Both discerning art collectors, the couple knew that a simple background would enable their art to take center stage. Brown and Davis honed in on a soft beige palette to complement the existing marble floors and began to design furniture that reflected a refined, Mid-Century style. “Everything was custom-designed for the space,” says Brown. “We wanted to create something that appeared to be collected rather than all ordered up. This is typical of all our projects—each is truly bespoke.”

An elegant sectional, a pair of leather chairs and a custom rug inspired by a Vogue fashion spread ground the main seating area. On the opposite side of the room, a trim banquette and custom table with a lacquered steel-gray top, both designed by Brown Davis, are suitable for dining as well as playing cards or working on a laptop. A gray shagreen chest ties the areas together.

“This marriage of soft grays and beiges allows the art to be the real star,” says Brown. The owner combed auctions and galleries, selecting pieces by Jim Dine, Robert Motherwell, Frank Stella and others that bring a museum-like quality to the space. 

But despite the provenance of the art, the home is all about comfort. “Even though we wanted it to be very smart-looking, everything had to be comfortable and work for us,” says the homeowner. In the master bedroom, a desk takes full advantage of the water view. Two cozy armchairs invite the couple to relax with a book, or simply gaze out at the Palm Beach skyline. 

After collaborating for so many years, it did not take Brown and Davis long to nail the milieu that would best suit their clients in their new vacation home. “The interiors, while they reflect our guidance, have to be interiors that the residents look great in,” says Brown. “Our client is an Armani lady. There’s editing and restraint and the bare essence of form. It’s always very elegant. A beautiful, bold stroke and you’re done.” 

INTERIOR DESIGN: ROB BROWN and TODD DAVIS, Brown Davis Interiors Inc., Washington, DC, and Miami Beach, Florida. PHOTOGRAPHY: KIM SERGENT, Palm Beach Springs, Florida.

 

Consulting an interior designer for the first time can be intimidating, especially when it means throwing out cherished belongings and starting from scratch. But for a couple of empty nesters who decided to redecorate their McLean home, the process turned out to be calm and reassuring under the guidance of District designer Nestor Santa-Cruz. 

“I never felt pushed into anything,” says the wife, a substitute teacher for Fairfax County Public Schools. “Nestor considers your color preferences and what you already own as part of the design. He really listens.”

The homeowners selected Santa-Cruz, a design director at Gensler who also runs an eponymous residential practice, based on his interiors in the law offices where the husband works. “I liked his sense of style, color and space,” says the attorney. “He made the experience fun. And he got us some ‘wow’ factor.”

Instead of demanding a complete makeover, the designer suggested a “decorative lift” by selectively refurbishing some of the owners’ furnishings and complementing them with new pieces to create a sophisticated suite of rooms on the main floor. “It was a way of establishing trust through familiarity, a way of transitioning to a more contemporary design than what they had,” says Santa-Cruz. 

The change came after the couple and their daughter had lived in their home for 16 years. The pair bought the four-bedroom Colonial in 1995 after deciding to move from a smaller town house in Alexandria. “The home was new and we liked the open floor plan,” says the wife. “But after living here for a while, some of the furniture was starting to go and it was time to upgrade.”

In 2009, the homeowners remodeled the kitchen, adjacent butler’s pantry and laundry room. Distressed, painted cabinets and granite countertops replaced counterparts in plastic laminate and Corian. About a year after completing that project, the homeowners moved on to refresh the rest of the ground floor where mahogany furniture, muddy paint colors and heavy draperies made the rooms feel dark and claustrophobic. 

Before suggesting a style, Santa-Cruz presented a floor plan showing the furniture placement in each space. “Having this map allowed us to work as a team to develop the design over time,” he says. 

In the revamped rooms, an envelope of dark stained wood floors and pale painted walls was established to set off furnishings in similar contrasts. Reproduction Turkestan rugs in subtle, neutral-colored patterns extend under living and dining furniture to offer softer versions of the Oriental carpets previously in the rooms. 

“Before, each space had its own independent coloration,” the designer says. “Now the rooms flow and provide access to daylight.”

Instead of insisting on all new seating in the living room, the designer reshaped the couple’s old sofa and slipper chairs, and reupholstered them in solid fabrics. “When Nestor looks at a worn piece of furniture, he sees the design possibilities,” says the wife. The only new seat in the space is an armchair that repeats the curved shapes of the older pieces. They also kept mahogany side tables owned by the couple, along with a bold, abstract print salvaged from a room in the basement. 

In the adjacent dining room, the homeowners’ sideboard was partially stained to impart a more graphic look. A new Barbara Barry table and Louis XVI-style chairs were paired under a delicate, 1925 French crystal chandelier. 

Tucked off the entrance hall, the library/study recycles a wood shelving unit, a leather-topped desk and a chest of drawers, all refreshed with paint. A new Eames leather office chair now serves both computer station and desk, and an Indian print of a horse complements the small sculptures of bronco busters owned by the couple. 

Next door, the powder room was turned into a miniature townscape with Piero Fornasetti-designed wallpaper depicting rows of Mediterranean-style buildings, some with golden domes. “We never would have picked wallpaper like that on our own,” says the husband. “I fell for it the moment I saw it and smile whenever I look into that room.”

Softer wallpaper in a subtle floral pattern extends through the foyer and stairway to harmonize with the light colors in the adjacent rooms. “At first I wasn’t sure about the design,” admits the wife. “But I’m glad we did it because it breaks up any sense of uniformity.” 

In playing off the traditional décor preferred by the couple, Santa-Cruz suggested several reproductions of Deco pieces by French designer André Arbus from the late 1930s and ’40s. The ebony cocktail table and ivory “Indochine” credenza in the living room and the marble-topped table in the entrance hall add rich finishes and streamlined shapes to the more conventional furnishings already in the homeowners’ possession.

Off the kitchen, the family room was updated with comfortable armchairs, a leather Chesterfield sofa and a clock from Restoration Hardware. A classic Eames lounge chair and a glass-topped Mies van der Rohe table raise the modern design quotient.

Santa-Cruz, who is trained as an architect, upgraded the room’s fireplace with an elegant mantelpiece of his own design. Inspired by the work of French designer Jean-Michel Frank, the mantel’s crisp moldings and limestone hearth epitomize the simplicity and restraint evident throughout the interiors.

Since completing the redesign, the homeowners say they now spend more time in every room, including the rather stately living and dining areas, than they did in the past. Says the wife, “We are not formal people, so it was important to make every space comfortable and usable.”

Deborah K. Dietsch is a frequent contributor to Home & Design. Photographer Angie Seckinger splits her time between Potomac, Maryland, and Spain. 

INTERIOR DESIGN: Nestor Santa-Cruz, IIDA,  LEED AP, Nestor Santa-Cruz Decoration, Washington, DC.

 

New Horizons In search of the perfect art for her clients’ dining room, designer Barbara Hawthorn struck up a conversation with painter John Matthew Moore. “I mentioned I was looking for an abstract of a tree,” she recalls, “and Matthew said he had been waiting for years to paint an abstracted birch.” This serendipitous exchange led to an exceptional piece of art—one of many collaborations that make Hawthorn’s now-completed design resonate with homeowners Sherry Edwards and Paul Denis.

After moving into their McLean residence—formerly home to CBS News anchor Scott Pelley—Edwards and Denis needed help with more than just artwork. The mélange of furniture brought from their previous house was practically lost in their much grander new one. A stately Cape Cod, it had been expanded by the Pelleys about a decade ago with help from the original architect, Bill Sutton of Sutton Yantis Architects, and Great Falls Construction. The renovation added a new wing comprised of a sunroom with a dining area and a great room built around a large outdoor pool and terrace. 

“The house had so much potential,” Edwards says, “but what we had wasn’t cutting it. We wanted a fresh start.” 

She contacted Hawthorn after spotting her work in a local magazine. “Most of their furniture wasn’t suited for a house of this scale,” Hawthorn agrees. “It wasn’t inviting. And the music room was totally empty. I love that kind of challenge.”

She immediately began helping Edwards, a retired Federal Reserve economist, and Denis, an anti-trust attorney, to hone in on a shared aesthetic. “I help people articulate and identify what it is they like to have around them,” says the designer. “In programming meetings, I always do ‘gestalt’ tests on color, fabric and styles of furniture. I get a great sensibility of where that person is coming from—traditional, eclectic or modern. Then we translate that into reality.”

They settled on a serene color scheme of soft greens, blues and neutrals, and a fairly traditional, but not overly ornate, furniture profile. “As I am trained as an artist, color is usually where I begin,” says Hawthorn. “Once we got a sense of the color palette they both loved, we were able to bring color throughout the house.”

An art acquisition reinforced the color scheme. Denis’s aunt, who has lived around the world, offered them a large, abstract canvas, Milky Way Dreaming, by Aboriginal artist Janet Forrester Ngala. They fell in love with the piece and hung it in the living room where it could be viewed from the home’s main entry. “When you walk in, you’re drawn to it,” says Edwards, pointing out that this “anchor” piece sent their art decisions in a slightly more modern direction.

Hawthorn bridged a contemporary and traditional aesthetic throughout the house, commissioning custom pieces to impart a more personal, artisanal quality to the interiors. The intimate space to the left of the main entry is a case in point. It had been empty for years until Hawthorn and Edwards decided to create a music room where the couple’s teenage sons could play the piano. A seating arrangement by the fireplace, along with a two-sided sofa of Hawthorn’s design, can accommodate a large group during a party, or provide a cozy family gathering spot. A blend of rich fabrics and a wool and silk rug, along with a commissioned abstract by Virginia artist Lisa Tureson, add the finishing touches.

Hawthorn designed a custom cabinet to house Sherry Edwards’s beloved teapot collection, which before had been scattered throughout the house. Working with Indiana-based artisan Keith Fritz, she embellished its glass doors using a motif reminiscent of the transoms in the home’s foyer. “It fit in beautifully because it had those subtle cues of other things going on in the house that were classic, but in a more modern way,” says Hawthorn. The owners additionally commissioned two consoles that now grace the living room, designed and fabricated by Keith Fritz in a rare antique veneer.

Denis and Edwards, who own a Canadian lake home and enjoy the wooded surroundings of their Virginia residence, gravitated to art and accessories that celebrate nature. Hawthorn evoked the outdoors in the dining room with an antique garden armillary displayed on a pedestal, decorative spheres made of oyster shells, a large mother-of-pearl bowl—and John Matthew Moore’s dramatic birch painting. 

The nature theme plays on in the breezeway connecting the sunroom to the great room. After hanging a painting of a loon in the space, Hawthorn and her clients decided to pay further homage to avian life. They commissioned a collection of lifelike decoys to adorn the shelves and found antique prints of duck eggs at Avery Fine Art. “We live near Great Falls National Park and thought we’d put pieces in here that give us a feel for nature,” says Edwards.

The great room is a cozy gathering spot where four recliners get plenty of use during hockey season. A custom ottoman makes the perfect footrest or table for casual meals by the fire. The room’s vaulted ceiling, wooden beams and stone hearth lend it a rustic feel, which Hawthorn reinforced by painting the white walls in warm ochre. 

Edwards and Denis are thrilled with their finished home, which suits their needs whether they are hosting a charity fundraiser or reading in one of their comfortable seating areas. Edwards credits Hawthorn with pushing them out of their comfort zone in furniture and art selections. “I spent my whole life in numbers as an economist at the Federal Reserve—not thinking about art,” she admits. “Working with Barbara has opened up my horizons.” 

Kenneth M. Wyner is a Takoma Park, Maryland, photographer.

INTERIOR DESIGN: BARBARA HAWTHORN, Barbara Hawthorn Interiors, McLean, Virginia. ARCHITECTURE: BILL SUTTON, Sutton Yantis Associates Architects, Vienna, Virginia. RENOVATION CONTRACTOR: GREAT FALLS CONSTRUCTION, Great Falls, Virginia.

 

Modern Sanctuary In rural, picturesque Clifton, Virginia, a narrow road winds its way through woods punctuated here and there by houses, most of them traditional in style. But the road leads ultimately to something completely different. At first glance, it looks like two smallish, modern structures set atop a steep slope—but a closer look reveals that the two buildings are actually connected by a terrace. A walk around the back offers the big surprise: The two buildings are actually one, and the terrace is of the rooftop variety, topping the connective section of the house.

This ingenious design perfectly complements the home’s setting and style, and answers the wishes of owners Johan and Anna De Nysschen, who did not want their home to have a large footprint. The design is the brainchild of architect Richard Williams, who was tapped along with Lorna Gross of Savant Interior Design to renovate the quirky contemporary and make it functional and livable for the couple. 

“We were drawn to the place by the setting. It was like a sanctuary,” recalls Johan, an automotive executive. “The dwelling itself did not meet our needs but the bones were good. We could see it had great potential. We called in Richard and it was magnificent from day one. He totally changed the layout, designed it for our needs and made it a low-maintenance house.”

Built in 1999 by Virginia architect Donald Reed Chandler for his own use, the two structures—a three-story tower and a two-car garage—were in the style of Frank Lloyd Wright, with overhanging eaves and shallow, sloping rooflines. “We liked the airiness and aspect of two pavilions with the extended eaves and soffits,” says Williams. “We didn’t want to change the look.” But the couple needed more space, so he devised a floor plan in which an addition would connect the two buildings.

Visitors enter the renovated house on the third level, home to a media room and office with a bar, kitchenette and bath. They then descend to the second level, where the addition encompasses an open-plan kitchen and living room, dining room and master suite. This level, where the couple spends most of their time, now spans the distance between the house and the garage; a back flight of stairs between the garage and kitchen makes bringing in groceries a breeze. The first floor includes two guest bedrooms and a rec room that could easily be converted to a fourth bedroom.

Williams bumped out the home’s top two floors about five feet on one side, cantilevering the extra space above the ground floor. The spacious terrace provides another link to the garage, which now abuts a cozy, cantilevered screened porch with a wood-burning stove, accessible from the terrace as well as the stairs. 

One of Williams’s main goals was to ensure that the house would take full advantage of the gorgeous views surrounding it. The second-level addition boasts a solid wall of windows overlooking the backyard, while a slanted wall of windows above the kitchen brings in even more light. A skylight illuminates the back stairs leading up to the garage. “We were always trying to maximize natural light,” the architect comments.

Within the context of the home’s spare, streamlined architecture, designer Lorna Gross says that her challenge was “personalizing and warming up the space without interfering with the view.” Her well-traveled clients, who are South African, offered a fresh perspective and were open to international cultural influences. Casting about for an accent color to anchor the living room, Gross chose red to reflect the De Nysschens’s affinity for things Asian, and to complement the green of the outdoors. She defined spaces through rugs; a contemporary Ikat made with wool fibers delineates the living area while in the adjoining dining area the rug is made out of hemp. Iconic modern pieces like a Barcelona chair anchor the living room, mixed with pieces picked up by the owners over the years.

To help with the kitchen design, Johan and his wife turned to Deborah Kalkstein of Contemporaria, who paired custom wenge cabinetry by the Italian company Modulnova with granite countertops. To allow for those slanted windows, walls of pantry cupboards flank the kitchen, furnishing plenty of storage.

While the Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired outer shell of the house has been retained, pretty much everything else is new, including plumbing and electrical systems and heat and air. At the main entry, a marble floor now welcomes visitors and a floating wall houses the TV and acts as a room divider.  Outside, the generously sized terrace beckons with its built-in barbeque and breathtaking views all around. 

“Something drew us to it,” says Johan De Nysschen simply. “It’s a wonderful house to live in.” 

Photographer Maxwell MacKenzie is based in Washington, DC. 

RENOVATION ARCHITECTURE: RICHARD WILLIAMS, FAIA, principal; TIM ABRAMS, AIA, LEED AP, project architect, Richard Williams Architects, PLLC, Washington, DC. INTERIOR DESIGN: LORNA GROSS, ASID, Savant Interior Design, Bethesda, Maryland. KITCHEN DESIGN: DEBORAH KALKSTEIN, Contemporaria, Washington, DC. CONTRACTOR: Lofgren Construction Co., Laytonsville, Maryland.

 

HOME&DESIGN, published bi-monthly by Homestyles Media Inc., is the premier magazine of architecture and fine interiors for the Washington, DC, Maryland and Virginia region.

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