BOFFI GEORGETOWN, a two-story showroom featuring the Italian brand’s clean-lined kitchen, bath and wardrobe collections, has teamed with Maxalto to bring more Italian style to Cady’s Alley. Now on display is Maxalto’s line of interior furnishings, including sofas, tables, beds and shelving systems. An array of vignettes and even a terrace showcasing outdoor furnishings let homeowners visualize how their projects can come together. 3320 M Street, NW; 202-337-7700; boffigeorgetown.com
Renowned Italian fashion designer Roberto Cavalli has teamed with CREATIVE CONCEPTS DESIGN CENTER to distribute his first collection of home products in the DC area. The Roberto Cavalli Home Collection is characterized by the designer’s chic home design, opulent aesthetic. The line encompasses furniture, bedding, carpet, wallpaper, tile, flooring and more, all available through Creative Concepts’ sleek new showroom, which just opened its doors in March. 2929 Eskridge Road, Suite J, Fairfax, Virginia; 703-573-0033; creativeconceptsdc.com
Baltimore’s historic Mount Vernon neighborhood is now home to CHARLES LUCK STONE CENTER’s newest design studio. Located in the recently restored Park Place Plaza building, it showcases a wide range of natural stone products for interior and exterior application. The studio also carries Kreoo by Decormarmi, a line of stone furniture crafted in Italy; Charles Luck is its sole U.S. distributor. 800 N. Charles Street, Baltimore; 410-244-8727; charlesluck.com
MAY/JUNE 2012
With three teenage daughters, a Reston, Virginia, homeowner had her hands full. When she decided to renovate her 1980s-era house, her goal was to accommodate the family’s busy yet casual lifestyle; along the way, she also hoped to modernize the design. She contacted designer Elizabeth Krial, who had previously worked with the family on an oceanfront property renovation, to realize her vision.
“They wanted a home that would be refined but relaxed enough for everyday life,” recalls Krial. “This family is very active, but has a laid-back, easy-going attitude. So having comfortable spaces that are practical was key.”
The result was a dramatic transformation—and nowhere is the change more evident than in the dining room. Prior to the remodel, the space was “heavy”—filled with traditional Queen Anne furniture and painted crimson with shiny moldings and lots of shadow boxes. Krial softened the room’s design, adding a round table that makes it a more comfortable space to congregate for meals. “The round table is modern and more suitable for relaxed gatherings,” she explains.
Light fixtures were chosen to make the room sparkle, and a handmade jardinière from France with layers of rich hand glazing offers a reflective focal point. “It’s really important to have light that casts shadows and reflections to pick up on the details of the ceiling,” Krial says. “I placed the jardinière on a pedestal so that it can be used as a luminaire during dinner parties; the candle flame dances and throws out intriguing patterns on the walls.”
To give the illusion of more depth in the room, the designer commissioned a stunning triptych panel of flowering dogwood branches. Throughout the home, organic forms and hues are present—from the intricate design of placemats that mimic a butterfly’s wings to the serene, milky quality of the sage palette. Inspired by nature for its soothing, familiar qualities, Krial considers these signature elements of her work.
Even the draperies on the main level evoke the outdoors with their pebbly texture.
Krial worked closely with the team at Tassels Window Couture to ensure that all the draperies would create a billowy effect. She chose a modern silk fabric, but made it more transitional by lining it with a flannel-like English bump cloth and hand-sewn trim.
According to Krial, each room in a house should serve a purpose. This was especially true for the study, a long narrow room with a large stone fireplace. “It was a very masculine poker room with sports memorabilia,” explains Krial. “As the function of the room changed, its identity needed to be rediscovered.” She revamped it into a multifunctional space that includes an organized home office area where the homeowner can pay bills, a computer station for the kids to do homework and a sitting area for board games and relaxing.
Krial also gave purpose to the rarely visited living room, turning it into a glamorous music room where one of the homeowner’s daughters plays the piano. “When I thought of the room, I envisioned jazz music playing with people hanging out and having a great time,” she says. “Now it’s a room in which to sip a cocktail and listen to music.”
In fact, this is the homeowner’s favorite room in the house. “I love the vintage trumpets on the walls, the sound of my daughter playing piano and how my friends enjoy being in there,” she says. “We jokingly call it ‘The Lounge.’ The room just has a great vibe and people always gravitate to it at parties.”
The piano room may be the homeowner’s most beloved spot, but it’s the master suite that holds a special place in the designer’s heart. “This space is dedicated to luxury and relaxation,” she says. “I was thrilled that the client agreed to the palette for the master bedroom, as it is decidedly feminine!”
Inspiration for the suite came from an Atlanta-based artist’s work called “Golden Goose,” an eglisome done on a black mirror with a cut-out in the shape of a large goose filled with golden straw. “I kept all the colors very classic so that the lavender walls would have more longevity,” explains Krial.
Described by the designer as “the piéce de resistance” of the project, the adjoining dressing room area was originally a sitting room with very dark, oversized leather furniture. “When I saw the shape of the space, all I envisioned were fabulous rows of mirrored closets,” Krial says. “This is every girl’s dream!” To frame the space, the designer chose curvy, laser-cut taffeta drapes that mimic the pattern in the carpet, which serves as the room’s focal point.
With the addition of the new dressing room, Krial could eliminate the existing smaller closet and open up the floor plan for the master bathroom. She made room for a grand double-door entry and designed an 11-foot custom vanity stained a chocolate shade to anchor the predominantly light-hued space.
“When we started this renovation project,” recalls the homeowner, “my main objective was to create a relaxed, calm environment that was more transitional and updated. We achieved this—and more—by selecting subdued and subtle colors, bringing more natural light into the house and keeping a reference to nature.”
Author Kelli Michele is based in Baltimore. Gordon Beall is a Bethesda, Maryland, photographer.
INTERIOR DESIGN: ELIZABETH KRIAL, Elizabeth Krial Design, Reston, Virginia.
MARCH/APRIL 2012
Nestled in the Spring Valley neigh-borhood of Washington, DC, a 1930s English Tudor-style home had much to offer owners Michel Rivest and Louise Courtemanche. Electrical engineers at Navigant Consulting and Fannie Mae, respectively, they recently became empty nesters and decided to look for a home closer to work. The location was ideal—just a few miles to the office for Rivest—and it had “venerable” bones. But the existing space was in need of a modern overhaul, and the small, compartmentalized floor plan was not conducive to entertaining, a priority for the couple.
So they teamed with Rob Morris, architect and president of Morris-Day Designers and Builders in McLean, Virginia. The result earned a COTY finalist award in the category of “Entire House Over $1,000,000,” and the process turned out to be an experience neither homeowners nor architect will soon forget.
“The joke is how long we will live here before we buy another house and start all over again,” laughs Rivest. Not because the couple isn’t absolutely thrilled with the finished product, but because they thoroughly enjoyed the journey. “The fun was in the process. The outcome is interesting but it’s the doing of it—the discovery, the research—that was the most fun,” he says.
Initially, Rivest wasn’t planning to play such an active role in the overall design process. According to Morris, the renovation was headed towards an ornate Edwardian look. That is, until Rivest took his wife with him on a research trip to Scotland. There the couple found true inspiration in the works of Arts and Crafts designer/architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh—and their vision for the house changed.
“It was the attention to detail and the integration of the design with every component in the house,” says Rivest, explaining the attraction. “I thought that was the genius of it. The furnishings, the architecture—everything fit together into a theme.”
Fortunately, the couple had established what they call “an organic, very creative” relationship with Morris, who is also a great fan of Mackintosh, and who had himself visited all of the same sites as the enthusiastic homeowners. So when Rivest and Courtemanche returned to the U.S. with a new design direction for the project, Morris could not have been more pleased.
True to the original style of Mackintosh, the renovation contrasts strong right angles with curvy floral motifs. For example, two leaded-glass French doors with Mackintosh-inspired rose designs now flank both sides of the maple-accented living room fireplace, leading out to the library. This same floral motif is incorporated into various picture windows throughout the home and will also serve as the main design element in two foyer fixtures that are currently in the works.
The most ambitious aspect of the project, however, was the addition in the rear of the home of a large gathering space where the couple could entertain family and friends. Morris designed a modern kitchen extension and sitting room, with a newly excavated basement below. Rather than eliminate the existing kitchen, he expanded the space in an L-shaped configuration with the result being two completely functioning kitchen spaces. The scullery is the everyday kitchen, while the addition, complete with an Aga stove, is used for entertaining.
The most dramatic feature of the room—and perhaps of the entire project—is the cathedral ceiling, which is supported by bespoke maple beam and collar ties reminiscent of the ones Mackintosh designed for the Glasgow School of Art in Scotland. Large skylights emit ample natural light and serve to brighten the space. Morris cleverly reconfigured the basement access with an open staircase from the gathering room that funnels sunlight into the space below, which houses a media room, kitchenette and fireplace with seating area.
In fact, illuminating the home was a priority throughout the entire renovation. The project also eliminated an octagonally shaped den and added bay windows in the living room and the master suite directly above it—changes that also admitted more light into the home.
Rivest and Courtemanche have no regrets about the outcome of the project and credit this to the fact that issues were resolved along the way. For example, the ceiling in the new master bathroom addition above the existing library was originally designed to be flat. However, once the homeowners saw the massive height of the space, they requested something with a pitch. Morris and project architect Dwight McNeill saw this as an opportunity to create a focal point, so they designed a full cathedral ceiling with timber accents to mimic the design elements in the rest of the home.
“Sometimes homeowners are reluctant to be exacting, to say what they really want, when they are working with an architect,” says Morris. “But with Michel and Louise, it was liberating to have that kind of guidance, to know how to spend my time, to know I was going down the right path. To see that level of enthusiasm made the process that much more enjoyable for me.”
Kelli Michele is a writer based in Baltimore.
RENOVATION DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION: ROB MORRIS, principal; DWIGHT McNEILL, AIA, project architect, Morris-Day Designers and Builders, McLean, Virginia.
**Out of the array of interior design magazines, Home and Design magazine stands out as a primary idea source for luxury home design and building/remodeling features. Wonderful visuals of custom homes and eco-friendly resources are combined with expert advice to provide a fundamental reference point for bringing amazing home interior design and remodeling projects to life.
