Before the renovation, a wall separated the kitchen from the family room. "The original plan was to knock out the wall between the two," Carnemark says. Because it was a load-bearing wall, they had to leave a section intact for support, which allowed them to conceal pipes and electrical work while adding visual interest to the space. Says Carnemark, "A lot of times, problems will turn into better solutions."
In the current design, a 12-foot island separates the kitchen from the family room, allowing guests to mingle nearby without getting in the cook’s way. A floor-to-ceiling wall of cupboards off to one side showcases Stone’s favorite SieMatic cabinetry, known for its storage capacity and ecologically sound materials. Another wall integrates the brown-lacquered cabinets with appliances by Gaggenau and countertops by Caesarstone. Around the corner, Carnemark created space for a computer desk.
To offset the spare, contemporary look, he painted red accent walls, which make the kitchen feel warm and inviting. According to Stone, the result is "fabulous. It’s not just ‘the other room’ anymore. We spend 95 percent of our free time there."
Architecture, Interior Design & Construction: Jonas Carnemark, Carnemark systems + design inc., Bethesda, Maryland. SieMatic Cabinetry: Konst Kitchen Interior Design, Bethesda, Maryland
It’s a conundrum designers often face: How to reconcile the style of a home with a client’s vision of what it should be. In the case of a Washington, DC, couple and their Tudor-style house, the issue was how to introduce contemporary elements into a traditional space—while at the same time creating something both striking and seamless.
After nine years in their classic Northwest residence, these homeowners were ready to renovate. Built in 1989, their house was spacious and elegant, but traditional. Over time, their tastes had evolved; they now wanted to weave a more modern sensibility into their home. They turned to DC-based architectural firm Barnes Vanze to design the renovation, and Ernesto Santalla of Studio Santalla, also in Washington, to integrate the space. An architect who also specializes in interior design, Santalla refers to the process as “mediating between the traditional and the contemporary.”
The renovation encompassed a dramatic makeover of the kitchen and the addition of a breakfast room, as well as a large deck off the back of the house. It also included an update of the adjacent family and dining rooms to allow a transition from the new, contemporary area to the older, still-traditional ones. “We tackled most of the first floor,” says architect and principal Anthony Barnes. “It was all redone with a cleaner, more contemporary aesthetic.”
The project started with the kitchen, which evolved into a streamlined, minimalist space in the new design. The homeowners chose German cabinetry manufacturer Bulthaup to create the sleek, aluminum-fronted cabinets. The countertops are a dark, honed Caesarstone; by contrast, the island boasts dark-stained oak cabinets and a stainless steel surface. The adjoining breakfast area, which added another 10 by 15 feet to the room, boasts a vaulted ceiling that, as Barnes describes it, makes the space both cozy and quietly elegant.
Santalla designed the breakfast room table himself using curly maple in contrasting colors. The homeowners chose to keep their original chairs, which were reupholstered to match the room’s new décor. A new butler’s pantry offers access to the formal dining room, creating an easy flow between the spaces.
While the kitchen underwent a major transformation, the rest of the renovation took place on a smaller scale. “You don’t always have to make radical changes to affect a big change in how a space is experienced,” Santalla says. “I call it ‘soft modern,’ where I contemporize the space through paint, textures and furnishings, de-emphasizing the traditional design elements that have to stay.” For instance, he incorporated soft cream on walls, moldings and trim—a monochromatic effect that is more in keeping with modern design. It also provides a backdrop for the homeowners’ colorful artwork and accessories. “I work with a reduced color palette,” Santalla explains. “I prefer splashes, or moments, of color. The idea is to create a serene environment.”
The family room exemplifies Santalla’s ‘soft modern’ sensibility. With the kitchen addition, the adjoining family room gained five extra feet, but that’s the only structural difference; otherwise, it’s been transformed through smaller, subtler means. The oak floors found throughout the rest of the house have been replaced by Jerusalem Gold limestone, which lends an air of elegance to the space. The same limestone is used in the fireplace surround, while the original mantel has been switched out in favor of blond English sycamore panels. On the wall directly opposite, Barnes and San- talla installed an identical section of panels, creating a bookend effect.
Santalla designed a custom carpet in neutrals with a darker stripe connecting the two walls; he also redid the ceiling, adding a panel that mirrors the stripe on the carpet. “Very often there’s a missed opportunity with ceilings, where they tend to be flat,” he explains. “This is a bas-relief design, to add interest to the room and to incorporate the lighting so it doesn’t look like random dots.”
In the dining room, it’s the furnishings and accessories that achieve a more contemporary look. The space is a smooth blend of modern and traditional sensibilities; furnishings the owners chose to hold on to—such as a Biedermeier breakfront, a massive Cuban mahogany dining table and heavy silk draperies—work beautifully alongside the more modern abstract artwork and a contemporary sideboard designed by Santalla out of mahogany and gold leaf. Barnes and Santalla installed the same lacquered paneling from the family room over one wall, which conceals a door to the butler’s pantry. “We got rid of the boring swinging door,” Barnes says, “and added a contemporary element to the room.”
The home’s spacious foyer, which opens onto the dining room, has also been updated: Striped wallpaper was replaced with cream colors; a traditional overhead light fixture was removed in favor of recessed lighting. Santalla also placed a delicate, cast-glass sculpture by local artist Andrés Tremols beneath the staircase, in direct line of sight from the front entry. Symmetrically curved corridors branch out to either side. “We were looking for a sense of understated elegance and a level of restraint,” Santalla says. Though the look is contemporary, “we wanted it to stand the test of time.”
Photographer Geoffrey Hodgdon is based in Deale, Maryland.—
When architect Mark Orling and his wife Martha purchased their Alexandria lot in 1986, they faced a challenge. The ground, made of marine clay which swells and shrinks with moisture and dryness, was considered unusable; the usual cement blocks wouldn’t hold the foundation in place. “Houses built on marine clay with cement blocks can actually slide off their foundations,” Mark Orling says. Nevertheless, he bought the property—a secluded end lot on a wooded cul-de-sac—and setabout designing a house with a poured concrete foundation that could hold up against moisture.
Twenty years later, the house has grown and changed with its owners. Originally built in the elaborate Victorian style of the surrounding neighborhood, it’s been simplified over time. “We didn’t always know how we’d want to use the space,” Orling explains. “As our needs have changed we’ve rearranged the use of the rooms.” Constructed on several levels, the home’s unusual interior layout has made this flexibility possible. The bedrooms and baths are below the entry level, while the public rooms are above it. There’s a loft above the living room that the Orlings use as their office.
While the interior of the house looks significantly different since it was first built, the footprint has stayed pretty much the same. Originally 2,100 square feet, it’s now 2,400. The point has never been to make it larger—for the architect and his wife, its two bedrooms and two baths have been perfectly adequate—but to improve it. They just needed the time and money to do the job.
In 2001, they embarked on the first step, expanding the small, enclosed balcony off the kitchen into a spacious deck with access to the backyard (the original structure offered no such access). “Mark used cable rails for the stairway,” Martha Orling says. “That allowed us an unobstructed view of the woods.”
For the deck project, the Orlings turned to Gaithersburg remodeling company P.A. Portner, Inc. In 2003, the couple updated the guest bath and added cherry shelving to the guest bedroom; in 2006, Orling teamed up again with P.A. Portner to tackle their big renovation: the kitchen and dining area, living room, TV room and loft. They also built an addition: a nine-and-a-half by-11-foot entry with an airy library above it, banked on one end by windows. It’s located at the landing level of the stairwell, where it sheds light on the open-plan kitchen/dining area below it.
P.A. Portner principal Phil Portner and on-site project manager Tom D’Amato admit now that they initially wondered whether the size of the library was worth the expense. Now, however, it’s clear how the new space enhances the old ones. Orling explains the genesis of the addition: “We had a difficult time figuring out how to add on in a way that was pleasing. We needed to put in enough new space
to make it work compositionally.” They removed the old front entry from the corner of the house, using the space where it had been for a mudroom. Orling wanted the addition to look substantial from the outside, so after replacing the old door with one of eye-catching Honduran mahogany, he repositioned it along the side of the house and added a porch in front of it. With the library above, the result is the harmonious, well-balanced composition the architect was after—as well as a little unanticipated extra space.
Though Victorian in style outside, on the inside the house has always veered more towards contemporary; for example, Orling originally designed the walls with small, square holes cut randomly between rooms to allow a sense of “openness and texture.” Since the renovation, Orling has emphasized the contemporary look. He had P.A. Portner move windows, add maple trim and shelving, and replace the loft’s balcony railings with simple, translucent acrylic panels. The kitchen is now a spare, modern space where the sleek maple cabinetry is complemented by honed Antique Black Masabi granite countertops and a stainless-steel backsplash.
“What makes this house so special is the details,” says Phil Portner. “The little things create a better overall result.” As an example, he points to the kitchen’s light maple cabinetry, where the wood grain on each set of doors is “book matched,” or symmetrical. Portner also comments on the home’s size, which remains small by the standards of today’s new construction. “It’s just enough space,” he says. “It’s just what they needed.”
The kitchen and dining area flow directly into the living room, which has a vaulted ceiling more than 18 feet high; the whole floor is 100-year-old reclaimed heart-of-pine, delineating the space as one big room. According to Martha Orling, they chose to remove the fireplace and chimney from the living room in order to get more living space. “We don’t miss it,” she says. “We hardly ever used it.” Up next will be a master bedroom suite, located off the living room. “We’re still at the napkin stage in the plans,” Martha says. “But whenever we do it we’ll be using Portner. They work miracles with space.”
Photographer Bob Narod is based in Sterling, Virginia.
No matter how streamlined your life is clutter tends to build up overtime. Luckily, there are lots of resources to help the overwhelmed homeowner get out from under the detritus of daily living; companies design organizational systems of every shape and size, for any room in the house, from the bedroom to the garage to the wine cellar. Here, we offer advice from the experts on how to organize your home’s most common trouble spots and keep them clutter-free.
In the Bedroom Large, spacious master bedroom suites—including bedroom, bath and walk-in closet—are among the most sought-after features in the home. With the downturn in the economy, however, investing in new construction for the master bedroom suite has become a less viable alternative—and that goes for the closet too. “Lately we’ve been doing room conversions, taking a lot of small, existing rooms either near the master bedroom or adjacent to it and turning them into dressing rooms,” says Randall Fry of California Closets. “We’ll put floor-to-ceiling closet systems in and they then become big walk-in closets.”
When working around existing spaces, Closet Factory principal Denny Stotlemyer uses all angles. “We just did a closet with four different ceiling heights,” he says. “We created multiple-height units so as to utilize all the space.” He adds, “We’ve done closets with 12-foot ceilings; we install rods on pivots so you can pull them down when you need them. The rods are hydraulic, so they pull back up on their own—which works well for anyone who is disabled.”
To help clients get started on any organizational project, Stotlemyer recommends that they find additional space in which to store seasonal and infrequently used items. In deciding what to get rid of, the rule of thumb in the clothes closet is: Store the stuff you haven’t worn for a year, space permitting. If you haven’t worn an item for two years, throw it out or donate it. “Closet Factory will come in and design the space for what you have, with a little room for growth,” Stotlemyer says.
According to Fry, there’s a trend afoot towards “whole-house conversions,” in which clients request a house-wide overhaul all at once. “People are realizing that clutter is not just in closets,” Fry says. “There’s nothing wrong with getting rid of old stuff. Periodically we all have to clear out the old to make room for the new.”
Office Space at Home
The newest trend in home offices is the change from paper files over to digital, which eliminates about 75 percent of the paper stored in the average home office. “I encourage people to scan papers like old tax returns and store them digitally,” Stotlemyer says. “They can always print them out if necessary. You need to hang onto that stuff, but how often do you have to get to it?” The same goes for old newspapers and magazines: Scan them and throw them away, says Stotlemyer.
As a result of the disappearing paper trail, home offices no longer require the space they once did for big, deep file- drawers. In addition, Fry says, flat-screen monitors are changing existing organization systems. “You don’t need a whole room anymore for a home office, you just need a wall,” he explains. “The trend now is towards work stations—a printer, a scanner, and more and more often, a laptop. That’s all you need.”
As for remaining papers and electronics, Denny Stotlemyer suggests concealing as much of it as possible. “One of the things we do is find out how the space will be used and measure the computer equipment so it can be stored inside cabinets,” he says. “You want to be able to slide the equipment out and find spaces for office supplies.”
When a situation is truly overwhelming anywhere in the house, both experts recommend calling in a professional organizer. The Closet Factory works with the National Organization of Personal Organizers (NAPO), offering clients a four-hour consultation with an organizer. “Before you can do anything else,” Randall Fry advises, “the first step is to lighten the load.”
Garage Makeover
The typical garage is home to a wild assortment of stuff, from sports equipment and gardening supplies to power tools and toxic chemicals. No wonder homeowners are turning to elaborate organizational and storage systems to keep up with the chaos. “Most residential garages are basically raw, unfinished spaces without any structure,” says Peter Belman of Rockville, Maryland-based organizational systems company GarageTek. “They are disorganized and can be dangerous. Our systems are all about taming the garage.”
According to Belman, the first priority is to get things off the floor. GarageTek does this by installing a patented surface called a TekPanel on all the walls. Designed with horizontal grooves all over it from which to hang moveable shelving, hooks and baskets, this wall surface makes it possible to clear the floor for things that really belong on it—such as the family cars or extra refrigerators or freezers. GarageTek also installs workbenches and tool areas. “All the systems are customized to fit the individual space,” Belman says. “We come out and take measurements, assess your needs, then design a computerized layout of the garage.”
The company also offers special flooring to cover the cold concrete surface found in most garages. “We learned the hard way that epoxies don’t work on concrete over time,” Belman says. “We now use polypropylene tiles, which aren’t porous so they stay cleaner.” The tiles come in bold colors and designs that complement the bright white wall panels. “The goal,” Belman adds, “is to make the garage a bright, cheerful place that’s safe for everyone to be in.”
