At times, the best-laid plans are meant to be broken. A couple ready to downsize from the Maryland manse where they’d raised three kids had set their sights on a luxury apartment in Baltimore—then covid struck. “I couldn’t imagine living on the 22nd floor of a high-rise during the pandemic,” recalls the wife.

A right-sized but outdated home that had been languishing on the market near their former residence suddenly became desirable. In a quick pivot, she and her husband decided to acquire and remake the 1990s-era Tudor, nestled on scenic Caves Valley Golf Course, into their future home.

Designer Patrick Sutton was chosen to take on the challenge. As he recalls, “It had the potential to be a cute, Cotswold-style cottage but needed a nudge to get there. And the inside was kind of a ’90s Tuscan mishmash.” Working with architect Jay Brown and J Paul Builders, Sutton recast the dwelling as a serene oasis, playing up views of the greens and surrounding woodlands. A few deft moves would let in more light, fine-tune the floorplan and create a fitting backdrop for the owners’ extensive art collection. The redo also forged new al fresco living spaces, part of a sweeping outdoor overhaul by landscape architect Jeffrey Plusen.

“My clients’ former home was much more traditional. They wanted a fresh start and were looking for a calming, decluttered, simplified lifestyle,” Sutton explains. “Our plan was to make the interiors more open and modern with an edited, minimal palette and comfortable furnishings.”

Now complete, the 7,300-square-foot abode perfectly reflects the couple’s lifestyle, whether relaxing à deux, throwing a party or hosting their grown kids and grandchildren. A glassy entry door system and a bounty of expansive windows flood once-dim spaces in light. A six-foot bump-out lends the living room gravitas and accesses an expanded stone terrace. The first-floor primary suite, rejiggered to remedy a weirdly angled wall, embraces one-story living. Upstairs, three bedrooms and two baths are primed for guests while a revamped lower level harbors a family room, an apartment and a fully equipped gym.

As the interiors took shape, Sutton feathered the nest with sophisticated, tactile furnishings and finishes. He selected “modern but comfortable” seating, sculptural casework and dramatic lighting. Banks of new windows and doors—painted black to contrast with the pale walls and white oak floors—frame verdant views in the living and dining rooms and kitchen.

Texture, not color, steals the show. In the living room, Sutton notes, “The base silhouettes are all in a cream hue, but each fabric has a different texture. At first everything might look uniform, but as you get into the space, a richness evolves.”

This richness lets the art shine. Sutton strategically installed paintings and sculpture from the owners’ existing collection—giving the works renewed life in the brighter, open setting. “We look at each painting differently now,” reveals the wife. “Patrick created a whole new dialogue.”

Refined materials and tailored details elevate every room. Sutton created a beautiful walnut cap on the glass stair rail “so your hand has something friendly to grab onto.” A beveled marble surround trims the fireplace in the couple’s shared study, where a reshaped ceiling now echoes the arch of a nearby window. In the transformed kitchen, cabinets were handcrafted in cerused walnut—a rare finish that Sutton likens to butternut. A steel china cabinet fabricated by Baltimore’s Gutierrez Studios mimics the blackened window frames in a thread that, the designer says, “seamlessly weaves its way through the house.”

Serenity reigns in the primary suite. A moody sitting room enveloped in three-dimensional Arte wall covering plays yin to the airy, adjacent bedroom’s yang. In the spa-like primary bath, a Victoria & Albert soaking tub rests on Tundra Grey marble floors.

Just as much attention was lavished on the exterior. Staining the once-speckled stone façade a pale gray—no small feat—delivered a major lift. In front, landscape architect Jeffrey Plusen heightened the sense of arrival with a tumbled-bluestone entry path enveloped in sun-loving perennials, from salvia to Russian sage. In back, he recalls, “There weren’t really outdoor spaces where the owners could enjoy the incredible setting.” To remedy that, he eliminated a major slope behind the property, creating a flat lawn buttressed by a curving retaining wall.

In addition to a new terrace near the living room, the team collaborated on a pavilion off the kitchen that houses a resort-level outdoor dining and lounge area. Low perennial grasses, catmint and allium soften the hardscape and add color and texture through the seasons. “When the weather’s warm, we do most of our entertaining on the porch,” reports the wife.

She and her husband are grateful not only for their splendid landscape, but also for their reimagined abode—one of seven winsome properties chronicled in Tailored Interiors, Patrick Sutton’s 2025 design tome. “Patrick and the whole team turned a house that nobody wanted into the most beautiful, fabulous, comfortable, warm and inviting home you could ever imagine,” she enthuses.

Builder Steven Lichter sums up the process well: “When you have a really strong team and everyone is just beaming at the end, it doesn’t get any better than that.”