A year and a half after Ann Roddy and Jill Johnson moved into their new foursquare house in DC’s Palisades neighborhood, they hit the design equivalent of a brick wall. The paint colors they’d chosen were at war. The dining room chairs they’d ordered from a high-end catalog were too large. And the furnishings they’d salvaged from their previous home were too modern for the couple’s traditional new environment.
“This is something we’ve done by ourselves for a long time, but with the scale of this house, we didn’t know what to do,” recalls Roddy, a former teacher who now stays home with the couple’s three young children. “We had a fair amount of modern stuff in the old house and we didn’t know how to integrate it with our more traditional pieces.”
Their frustration level peaked in October 2006 as they anticipated Thanksgiving in a dining room that remained, in their eyes, undone. “It was starting to feel depressing being here because it didn’t look like we lived here,” recalls Roddy. “It didn’t have any of our personality.”
As luck would have it, the couple met interior designer Nestor Santa-Cruz, who was decorating their former home in Mount Pleasant for the new owners. Roddy and Johnson liked what they saw, and hired him on the spot. Known for his modern commercial work and residential interiors at DC-based SKB Architecture and Design, where he is a partner, Santa-Cruz collaborated on this project with Lisa Lambert, a mutual friend of his and the homeowners.
He and Lambert started by taking stock of the home’s interiors. The couple had purchased custom draperies and new furniture that they hoped to mix with modern pieces from their previous home. “We had already bought things that we loved beyond their material value,” says Johnson, the executive director of a Washington, DC, nonprofit organization. “Nestor came in and he listened really well about how hard it would be to hand it over to somebody else.”
When deciding what would stay and what would go, Santa-Cruz realized that most of the home’s rough spots could be ironed out by changes in placement, proportion and color selection. A master at combining different styles, he set out to acquire the necessary furnishings and objects that would tie many seemingly disparate elements into a stylish and cohesive whole. “We wove in another layer of detailing,” he says. With a few fixes here and there, he and Lambert would be able to utilize nearly all of the couple’s furniture and artwork.
Johnson and Roddy are avid collectors of figurative and abstract art. Their collection would become an important element in the overall design. “An art collection is one of those areas where the personalities of the owners come across. Jill and Ann have a sense of tradition and a sense of abstraction and liberal minds and it all comes across in an understated way,” Santa-Cruz says. “I gathered all the pieces in one room and I started moving the art, mentally grouping it. I look at scale. It’s almost like a game, figuring out, ‘Where does this image go?’”
He knew instantly that the self-portrait by Cape Cod artist Leslie Packard belonged in the living room above the couple’s new sofa (which he planned to nip, tuck and reupholster). A pair of Florentine gilded screens cast an elegant sheen in the space. An Italian chandelier that Santa-Cruz purchased in Buenos Aires completed the room’s traditional feel.
Once the living room was finished, it set the tone for the rest of the house. “I have a love for doing living rooms and establishing a sense of what a house should be,” explains Santa-Cruz. “Jill is from Texas, Ann is from Atlanta…and I’m from the deeper South [born in Cuba and raised in Central and South America]. In this house, they wanted a combination of a Southern classical touch and a modern sensibility.”
Santa-Cruz deftly achieved this aesthetic by maintaining a minimal, uncluttered canvas and a precise sense of scale. The dining room is a perfect example. Santa-Cruz preserved the couple’s blue walls and silk drapery, the Murano-glass chandelier and the Regency-style sideboard and dining table, but the massive chairs they had purchased from a catalog had to go. In their place, Santa-Cruz selected smaller Directoire-style chairs in a white ivory wash, upholstered in brown cotton velvet, that better fit the proportions of the room. But the pièce de résistance was the rug that he found at Timothy Paul: a modern interpretation in blue of Indian and Asian motifs. A pair of transparent Philippe Starck Ghost chairs plays off the chandelier and brings a playful, modern element to the space. “When he brought in that rug,” recalls Johnson, “I knew Nestor was our guy. He got it right away.” Much to the homeowners’ delight, the dining room was ready in time for Thanksgiving.
A proponent of mixing “high and low,” Santa-Cruz showcased the practice in the study, where a shaggy Flokati rug from IKEA provides a child-friendly play spot in front of a vintage Chinese-style ebonized desk. Elsewhere in the house, a mirror from Crate & Barrel and candlesticks from the sale bin at Anthropologie mingle with priceless antiques. “Nestor has convinced me to buy a pair of lamps that cost $6,000, but I know we are going to make that up somewhere else,” says Roddy.
A sense of fun prevails in the family room. Dubbed “country modern” by Johnson and Roddy, the space incorporates classic modern pieces, from an Arne Jacobsen egg chair to a Noguchi side table.
In the breakfast room, the couple utilized other mid-century-modern pieces that had been relegated to storage after they moved into the new house: a Heywood Wakefield table and chairs. “Nestor didn’t come in and say, ‘Buy this, this and this,’” Roddy recalls. “Instead, he said, ‘Why not use it as a kitchen table?’ He brought us back to our personality. The house now reflects our taste in furniture and in art.”
The latest project Santa-Cruz and Lambert are tackling is the porch, located off the family room. A Mexican jute rug, gauzy white drapes and a ceiling painted Hermès orange will boast a comfortable indoor/outdoor vibe.
Santa-Cruz and Lambert were able to create a successful dialog with their clients that ultimately helped them achieve a look that makes Roddy, Johnson and their kids feel at home. “There was a real care to the placement of art, the styling. It looks like we’ve been collecting this stuff for 40 years, but that’s not the case,” says Roddy.
By mixing different styles, periods and provenances, Santa-Cruz and Lambert seamlessly achieved a look that reflects their clients’ design sensibilities. “How do you have that right scale, placement, balance of color and texture?” Santa-Cruz asks. “I’m a true believer that anything goes with anything. It’s a question of how you make it sophisticated. If you can find that common language, it works.”
Photographer Erik Johnson is based in Washington, DC.
Interior Design: Nestor Santa-Cruz, IIDA, SKB Architecture and Design, Washington, DC, and Lisa Lambert, Washington, DC
RESOURCES
ENTRY HALL 19th Century Biedermeier Chairs: Tone on Tone, Bethesda, MD. Upholstery Fabric: Gretchen Bellinger through J. Lambeth, Washington, DC. Rug: Timothy Paul Carpets + Textiles, Washington, DC. 1940s French Plaster Sconces: Gore Dean
Antiques, Washington, DC. 1940s Bronze German Chandelier: Flavio Serrati Antiques, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
LIVING ROOM Sofa: Custom Design by Nestor Santa-Cruz. Sofa Fabric: Manuel Canovas, Paris. Accent Pillows on Sofa: Larsen. Sofa Upholstery & Pillow Fabrication: Pilchard Designs. Coffee Table, Bagues Floor Lamps: Tommy Parzinger. Candlesticks,18th-Century French Directoire Chair & Antique Boxes on Coffee Tables: Gore Dean Antiques. Florentine Gilded Screens: Good Wood, Washington, DC. Crystal Chandelier: Through Flavio Serrati Antiques. Lounge Chair Fabric: Timothy Paul Carpets + Textiles. Upholstery: Pilchard Designs. Gilded Italian 1950s Vase on Mantel: Millennium, Washington, DC. Pillows on Side Chairs & Lavender Glass Vase on Coffee Table: Baker, Washington, DC. Bronze Side Table: Jacques Garcia for Baker. Vintage Saint Louis Crystal Vase & Vintage Orrefors Purple Glass Bowl on Side Table: Good Wood.
DINING ROOM Table, Side Board, Chandelier & Gilded Mirror: Owners’ Collection. Rug: Timothy Paul Carpets + Textiles. Mirrored Obelisk: Baker. Blue Austrian Glass Vases: Good Wood. Blue Opaline Glass Candlesticks: Sixteen Fifty-Nine Mid-Century Antiques, Washington, DC. China, Silverware, Glass Goblets & Linens by Hermès, Bernardaud, Christofle: Nieman Marcus. 1940s Venetian Glass Floor Lamp: Good Wood. 1940s Louis XVI-Style Chairs: Gore Dean Antiques. Upholstery Fabric: Gretchen Bellinger. Upholstery: Pilchard Designs. Acrylic “Ghost” Chairs by Philippe Starck: Design Within Reach, Washington, DC.
STUDY Ebonized Chairs with Original Upholstery: Tommy Parzinger, Cherry Antiques, Washington, DC. Chinese-Style 1960s Ebonized Desk: Sixteen Fifty-Nine Mid-Century Antiques. Art Deco Table: Owners’ Collection. Industrialist Copper Desk Lamps: Moss & Company, Washington, DC. Vintage Painting on Desk & 1970s Yellow Ceramic Table Lamp: Good Wood. Flokati Rug: IKEA.
FAMILY ROOM/DEN Sofa, Coffee Table & Side Chair: Owners’ Collection. Table Lamp: Anthropologie, Washington, DC. Side Table: By Noguchi for Knoll. Pillows, Floor Lamps & Rug: Timothy Paul Carpets + Textiles. Egg Chair by Arne Jacobsen: Furniture from Scandinavia.
BREAKFAST ROOM Vintage Table and Chairs: Owners’ Collection. Paper Chandelier: Isamo Noguchi through www.noguchi.org. Fabric on Bench: Calvin Fabrics through Donghia, Washington, DC. Pillows & Runner Rug: Timothy Paul Carpets + Textiles.
MASTER BEDROOM Sofa Bed & Side Tables: Owners’ Collection. Rug, Forged Iron Floor Lamp & Accent Pillows: Timothy Paul Carpets + Textiles. Faux Fur Throws on Bed: La Maison de la Fausse Fourrure, Paris, through Bergdorf Goodman, New York, NY. Bedside Table Lamps: Good Wood. Gilded & Marble Tables: Gore Dean Antiques. Silk Pillows on Sofa: Baker. Vintage Wood Side Tables: Sixteen Fifty-Nine Mid-Century Antiques.
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.
Even diehard city dwellers find that urban living sometimes loses its luster after kids come along. A DC couple is a case in point. Owners of a grand 1910 Adams Morgan row house, they set their sights on a quieter, more family-friendly neighborhood after their baby girl was born.
The pair was charmed by a 1932 home for sale in DC’s Forest Hills. They liked its sunny interiors and English Country style. Faced with the prospect of ongoing renovations at their downtown home, the couple decided to sell it and make the move three miles up Connecticut Avenue—but worlds away from the late-night noise and traffic. “The new house had a very good vibe,” says one of the owners. They also liked the fact that it required no structural work. “From our perspective, the only thing we needed to do was move in and essentially decorate.”
Nestor Santa-Cruz, a design director at the international design firm Gensler in Washington, DC, had helped the couple design their two previous houses in Adams Morgan—the most recent of which was published in the November-December 2006 issue of Home & Design. There was no question that Santa-Cruz, who had become a close friend, would be the one to decorate their third home—a project that would involve repurposing as much of the owners’ existing furniture as possible into the smaller new residence.
Santa-Cruz’s work resonates beyond the typical labels of traditional or modern—a balancing act that is not as easy as it looks. His plan would combine existing furniture in new and novel ways—a process he terms “musical chairs.” But there’s more to it than child’s play. Trained as an architect, he channels a home’s inherent style through a carefully edited selection of furnishings and accessories.
Armed with the owners’ collection of new and antique furniture, Oriental carpets and art, he had an ideal foundation not only for creating room plans but for honing in on color schemes. Subtle, muted palettes filled their previous homes with shades of cream, celadon and café au lait. But this time the couple wanted to go bold. “We were looking to really bring out the warmth the house already has with all the bright colors,” says the homeowner.
“Color is one of the most difficult things to do for the educated and the non-educated,” says Santa-Cruz. “I had a good starting point from the main pieces I already helped them pick.”
The designer started with Benjamin Moore’s pale Edgecombe Gray in the entry foyer. “It’s not gray and it’s not beige,” he explains. “The center hall, two-story foyer needed to be neutral so that from room to room we could change colors.” From there, Santa-Cruz went progressively brighter room by room, making sure that the views from one space to the next would not be jarring. To the right of the foyer, golden shades in the living room wall color and the dining room wallpaper—both by Farrow & Ball—give way to deeper reds in the study that follows. And to the left of the foyer, the crisp white in the kitchen and breakfast room is punched up with orange accents, which transition to reds and more orange in the adjacent family room.
“When you look at the color,” says Santa-Cruz, “it fits very well with the English character of the house. There’s a historical precedent to use multiple colors in multiple rooms in English Country houses. This is a classical technique applied in a modern way.”
In the living and dining rooms, Santa-Cruz effectively “bumped up the volume five notches” from color cues found in his clients’ existing rugs and upholstery. Drapery selections were made to reinforce rather than compete with the wall colors. “That helped to create a new theme,” he says.
Throughout the home, a blend of classical antiques, mid-century furniture, abstract art and accessories creates a look that is fresh and hip. Santa-Cruz grounds it all with rugs from DC’s Timothy Paul Carpet & Textiles that put a simplified spin on Old World motifs. For example, though the reproduction Sultanabad carpet in the living room has a traditional pattern, “it is certainly a more modern colorway,” says Santa-Cruz, “which helps balance modern furniture and pieces of art with more traditional touches in a room like this.”
The client’s art collection also helps create a modern edge throughout the house. Santa-Cruz helped plan where pieces would go best, including a new painting by Jeannie Motherwell (daughter of Robert Motherwell) that his clients recently purchased in Provincetown. They were sure it would look great in the living room, until Santa-Cruz hung it in the study, where shades of red complement its palette. “Nestor hung it inside the bookshelves,” says the homeowner, “which I would never have thought of. And he’s totally right. It looks perfect there.”
All told, Santa-Cruz was able to furnish more than 50 percent of the home with pieces from his clients’ previous projects. The exception was the family room, where existing furniture proved too large for the space. Here he paired club chairs from Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams with a banded and striaed Chinese woven rug.
In the kitchen, Santa-Cruz suggested a few surface changes. The owners decided to paint the cabinets white and modify millwork in the breakfast room to create a sense of symmetry. “We kind of evened out the architecture without destroying the original character, which we were all happy with,” Santa-Cruz explains. “We added color behind the bookshelves, which is a trick that I use a lot. In this case, the kitchen stayed monochromatic, but that punch of orange helped achieve a higher impact.”
While Santa-Cruz and his clients are still in search of a painting for the blue and cream master bedroom, their work on the home is essentially done. The whole process took only a couple of months, thanks in part to the cache of furniture and carpets they had purchased for their former residences. “Their previous investments went a long way,” asserts the designer.
The couple and their baby daughter are happily settled into their new home, enjoying daily visits to the park across the street. They don’t miss their Adams Morgan property, despite its grander stature. “We totally could have made it work as a family house but frankly it was too big,” says the homeowner. “We just didn’t need all of it.”
Santa-Cruz agrees. “We were able to move the chapters of a story from room to room without changing or creating a new story,” he says. “That really is what this project is all about.”
Photographer Angie Seckinger is based in Potomac, Maryland.
INTERIOR DESIGN: Nestor Santa-Cruz, IIDA, Gensler, Washington, DC.
Like a stage set, a simple stone façade greets guests outside this Northwest DC home. Curious passersby might assume the structure is a museum or an embassy—until they enter and discover an expansive living room decked out with palm trees and a gold shag rug. Beyond, a wall of glass overlooks the pool, complete with fountains and a pool house awash in white drapes.
This is a modern custom home where the vibe is decidedly more Delano than DC. It was built for serious entertaining by a single, 40-something real estate developer who refuses to take himself too seriously. Humor and political innuendo create a common thread in the pop art and sculpture thoughtfully placed throughout the home. A sci-fi fan, the owner even designed a logo for his new abode—a rocket ship—and commissioned an outdoor sculpture and dozens of monogrammed pool towels to reinforce the playful theme.
But there is more behind the project than sleek design and pop culture. The owner was compelled to build the home during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. “I was so upset by the condition of our country. I thought I could create a venue where people could meet to talk about things and to raise money for change.” Though he often hosted fundraisers for 80 or 90 guests at his former DC home, he wanted to go even bigger.
So he bought an infill lot on a street of Victorians and Colonials and started talking to architects. Though he wanted the home to have a formal façade that would blend into the neighborhood, he sought a modern interior with large rooms that could be used for multiple purposes. “The original concept I wanted is a stage set. I wanted a façade that was very serious. But you open up the curtain, and it’s actually playful,” he says.
After two “big-name” architects drew up concepts that he felt did not reflect his vision, the owner was ready to throw in the towel. Then mutual friends introduced him to John Sage and John Coplen, two young architects who had recently launched their own firm, Alter Urban LLC, in Baltimore. The homeowner scheduled a meeting with both the architects and Josh and Emily Rosenthal of Rosenthal Homes, the custom building firm he was close to hiring. “John Sage sketched out exactly what I was talking about in front of us on a napkin,” the homeowner recalls. “Emily Rosenthal said, ‘That will work,’ and we salvaged the project.” He hired Rosenthal and Alter Urban on the spot. Also on board were Christopher Rice, who was involved in the concept stage and acted as architect of record; DC lighting designer Scott Guenther; DC landscape designer Thorne Rankin; and interior designers Sam Ewing and Gail Winn of Winter Park, Florida-based Ewing Noble & Winn. (Ewing and Winn had designed three previous residences for the client, who also owns a home in Florida.)
The project would be a collaborative effort among all the members of this group. “The team was excited by the chance to create something young and fresh and embraced Alter Urban’s outside-the-box approach,” says the homeowner. The architects embarked on a design program that would satisfy a number of requirements. As the scope of the structure grew to encompass 9,500 square feet, they wanted to downplay the size of the house from the street. They were faced with creating the volume their client wanted on a half-acre, wedge-shaped lot. With neighboring properties on all sides, establishing privacy presented another challenge.
Sage and Coplen sited the main, rectangular part of the house parallel to the street. They carefully scaled the façade so that the second story housing the master suite would be barely visible from the front. “Although the house is seemingly tall, the façade is still only one story,” says Sage. “It helps bring down the scale of the rest of the house behind it.”
To fit the oddly shaped lot, they angled a guest wing from the west side of the main house toward the rear of the property and added a free-standing pool house at the same angle on the east side. The structures form a triangular perimeter, screening the pool and courtyard from neighboring properties.
From the façade inward, the house progresses from formal to casual to intimate. The most formal spaces—the dining room and office—are located along the façade, their walls faced with the same cast stone used on the exterior. These spaces spill into the open living room and kitchen, which in turn lead to the bedrooms and the pool and courtyard beyond.
Dark-stained bamboo kitchen cabinets and inked-maple floors in the kitchen and living room offset a colorful array of art and furnishings. The kitchen leads to a mudroom and a caterer’s kitchen. With the two kitchens combined, the house is equipped to handle elaborate affairs with the countertops serving as stylish buffet and bar stations and the catering kitchen reserved for food storage, prep and clean-up.
From the great room, a corridor housing an Andy Warhol series on the JFK assassination and a Keith Haring sculpture leads to a formal powder room, a large open stairway and the guest wing. With luxurious bathrooms, custom closets and access to the pool courtyard, the two guest suites rival any five-star hotel. Upstairs, far removed from the action below, the master suite boasts custom furniture, a dressing room by Poliform and a large bathroom with a steam shower and an oversized Italian tub hand-carved from a single block of marble.
The home’s lower level was designed to accommodate guests in style. A fully stocked bar, polished concrete floor and cascading “Mr. Bubbles” chandelier create a glamorous effect in the game room. It leads to another luxe powder room, a plush home theater and a gym.
Throughout the interiors, a clean-lined, minimalist sensibility prevails. A premium was placed on top-of-the-line lighting, appliances and finishes, from the glass-beaded Maya Romanoff wall covering in the main powder room to the crystal-orb chandeliers in the dining room. “It’s important that the house have a solid textural feel,” says the homeowner, who also had the property wired with a state-of-the-art Lutron lighting system and audio-visual automation.
The design team reviewed countless magazine clips and photographs their client collected to hone in on selections that would complement—and not compete with—the overall interior scheme. Says John Coplen, “There was a very conscious choice to make sure there was a simplified palette throughout the house. You’ll notice that his furniture is very bright in color. It was really all about dimming the background and letting the furniture speak for itself.”
The client wanted to be sure that the interiors didn’t come off as cold, as is the case in some ultra-modern spaces. Designer Sam Ewing says they achieved a warm feel through the liberal use of color and texture. “Putting those huge trees in the living room totally changes the mood of the room,” he says.
“There is a continuity in the feel of everything we did that flows through the house. You don’t feel disjointed when you go from one room to the next,” says Gail Winn. “There’s a certain whimsy to it, too, that makes it comfortable, even in the artwork. It doesn’t look forbidden. It looks like you’re meant to have fun.”
Part of the reason the project was such a success is that all of the players were involved from its inception. “It was definitely a democratic process,” says John Sage. “A lot of decisions were kind of thrown out there at meetings…In the end, whatever decision was made was never far askew from the original concept. It was an unusual situation in that the builder was included from the very beginning conceptual design, which was really nice because when we actually got to construction, there were no surprises.”
The builders also made a concerted effort to be sure everything would come together seamlessly. “Rosenthal was very good about taking a very educated look at materials and putting the time into doing that,” says John Coplen. “A lot of contractors don’t want to deal with that.”
The fruits of this collaboration are most apparent in the kitchen. The architects devised and roughly sketched the concept of a kitchen “in the round,” with a large center island. Knowing the client’s plan for entertaining on a large scale, Emily Rosenthal and kitchen designer Jerry Weed of Kitchen and Bath Studios in Chevy Chase drew up detailed plans that would function efficiently whether a meal was underway for two or 200. In turn, Ewing and Winn helped specify the finishing touches, such as the colorful bar stools and the stainless-steel cabinet hardware.
One of the team’s priorities was to make the house as green as possible without compromising its aesthetic qualities. It features spray-in Icynene insulation; Energy Star-rated appliances; low-VOC paints; double-insulated, argon gas-filled windows; and basement floors made from recycled rubber. “We always try to bring it [green design] to the forefront,” says John Coplen, “not so much to push clients but to educate them. Hopefully, when this client does his next project, it’s not a question, it’s a direction.”
Their client is, in fact, contemplating his next DC project—an Indonesian-style glass house with a pool on the roof. When he’s ready, he says, he’ll be using the same design team. “If you have a strong vision of what you want to do, it’s very important that you deal with people who want to realize it and not people who want to fit you into a box,” says the homeowner. “I wanted something unique. It’s not a new house built to look like an old house with all the chopped-up rooms that people used 100 years ago. It’s a contemporary house with contemporary flow, which I think makes it stand out.”
Photographer Bob Narod is based in Sterling, Virginia.
ARCHITECTURE: John Coplen and John Sage, Alter Urban LLC, Baltimore, Maryland. ARCHITECT OF RECORD: Christopher Rice, AIA, Austin, Texas. CONTRACTOR: Rosenthal Homes, Rockville, Maryland. Interior Design: Sam Ewing and Gail Winn, Ewing Noble & Winn, Winter Park, Florida. LANDSCAPE DESIGN: Thorne Rankin & Associates, LLC, Washington, DC.
For chef Todd Gray and Ellen Kassoff Gray, a night off doesn’t mean going out to eat—it means cooking at home. Co-owners of Equinox restaurant, the Grays recently completed a total overhaul of the outdated kitchen in their Wardman-designed DC row house (featured in the January/February 2007 issue of Home & Design ).
“What a difference,” says Todd, who designed the kitchen himself with help from designer Mark O’Neill of MON Interiors. By removing a wall separating the kitchen and dining room, they created a new space that boasts stainless-steel Electrolux appliances, granite countertops and a sit-up counter. New cabinetry neatly stores their tools of the trade. And pendant lights on dimmers create just the right ambience—whether they’re serving cookies to their son Harrison and a pack of nine-year-olds or aperitifs at a dinner party. Since its completion last summer, Ellen says, “We have been entertaining more than ever.”
Todd spends his evenings running the show at Equinox—named 2008 Fine Dining Restaurant of the Year by the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington. So the family focuses on having breakfast together. “What most people do at six o’clock at night, we do in the morning,” says Ellen. “We help Harrison finish homework and have a hot meal,” which might include blueberry corn cakes with maple syrup or wheat toast with eggs “in the hole.”
On Sundays, the Grays enjoy hanging out in their new kitchen. “Ellen is a great cook in her own right. She starts prepping a dish, I start prepping a dish and we both have pans on the fire,” says Todd, who raves about his new Electrolux range, selected for its sleek design and professional performance. “To us,” he says, “cooking means family. It brings us together.”
KITCHEN DESIGN: Todd Gray and Mark O’Neill, MON Interiors, Washington, DC. TEXT: Sharon Jaffe Dan. PHOTOGRAPHY: Lydia Cutter, McLean, Virginia.
Bang & Olufsen brings its sleek, cutting-edge audio and video technology to a new showroom in Logan Circle. The store features the full line of Bang & Olufsen products, as well as the BeoLiving concept- an integrated system with customizable audio and video products that can interface with lighting, draperies and atmohsphere-control modules to suit any lifestyle. Pictured here are the BeoVision 7 LCD screen, BeoLab 3 loudspeakers and the BeoLab 2 subwoofer. The new showroom joins Bang & Olufsen's area showrooms in Bethesda and McLean. 1604 14th Street, NW; www.bang-olufsen.com .
It sounds like a childhood fantasy come true. Imagine a house that looks like a castle, complete with turrets, secret passageways—and an indoor sports court. Add 15 acres of rolling countryside with four barns, a herd of sheep, and alpaca, pigs, cows and a couple of ponies on the way. And don’t forget the pool, scheduled to be done in time for summer.
This fantasy has taken shape in the heart of Potomac, where a couple and their four children, ages four to 12, recently moved into a new French Norman-style farmhouse designed by architect John Neufeld. The couple initially spotted one of Neufeld’s other projects in Potomac and approached him about adapting its style for the new home they were planning. Also inspired by holidays at Villa d’Este on Italy’s Lake Como and The Cloister in Sea Island, Georgia, the twosome wanted to weave Old World details and a sense of whimsy into plans for their future residence.
John Neufeld was happy to comply. “We started working with John and we knew we could do whatever we wanted. He was super open and said, ‘This is your house.’ Whatever we saw, he would try to make work. And he brought us great ideas too,” says the wife.
Neufeld honed in on French Norman style, devising an 18,000-square-foot house with steeply pitched rooflines, turrets, Gothic arches and an exterior barrel-vaulted arcade leading into the home’s own private chapel. Stone, brick, stucco and a variegated slate roof lend the exterior undeniable style and authenticity.
The front entry leads into a vaulted foyer with stone floors. To the right, a massive wooden balustrade and stairway lead to the upper level. To the left, a Gothic arch opens to the richly appointed dining room.
Interior designer Sharon Kleinman, who worked on the couple’s previous residence, collaborated with the homeowners and John Neufeld on this new home. Adept at dressing up traditional homes to be chic and sophisticated—but not overdone—she achieved a delicate balance throughout the interiors. “I wanted to complement the architectural style but at the same time, I was trying to go along with the client’s wishes,” says Kleinman, who incorporated both new furniture and antiques into the home. “We tried to add a lot of whimsical aspects to the design. We were trying to mix it up.”
Kleinman joined the project before construction, so there was sufficient time to work out interior architecture and design elements with the builder and architect. She and Neufeld refined countless details together—from the style of the moldings to the cabinet design. “Typically, architects and interior designers don’t always work that well together,” says Kleinman. “But this [project] really dispelled the myth that it can’t be done.”
Shortly before breaking ground on the project, the wife approached Neufeld with a new concept for the gallery: to change what was to be a plain hallway into an intersecting barrel-vaulted passage. “She found a photo of a gallery that had vaults in it and said, ‘Can you do this?” he recalls. “So I went off and figured out how to do it. And we took the concept and just applied it.”
Neufeld had to modify the design and account for the openings to the dining room, living room, loggia and family room along the vaulted gallery. “Having to get the vaults to scale right and to work on both sides of the opening with the restrictions we had in place…was hard because we were behind the curve,” he says. “But it came off.”
The gallery opens to the living room, which offers a light and airy contrast to the rest of house. “The homeowner wanted a soft, dressy room,” explains Kleinman. “I love it that as you come in, you’ve got the heaviness around you but this room is very bright and the light comes in.”
The gallery culminates in an open kitchen and family room. Reclaimed pine flooring and stone hearth walls warm the space. In the family room, a vaulted ceiling makes way for a towering arched wall of windows that Neufeld had custom-made at a mill in Texas.
The adjoining kitchen features a casual dining area and cozy morning room, with upholstery in bright green and coral shades and a TV that Neufeld strategically concealed in the stone wall, behind a barn-style door. The room is one of the family’s favorite gathering spots.
The family room also opens to the covered loggia, with arched stone doorways framing the backyard. The homeowner, who was active in 4H as a child, wanted to find a property large enough for raising farm animals so that her kids could have a similar experience. Since moving into the home in March, the family has acquired sheep, with more animals to come once the barns are ready.
Despite its grandeur, the home was created with kids in mind. Neufeld devised three secret passageways, which are an instant favorite for the kids during play dates. One of the passageways leads from behind a mirror in the gallery upstairs to the parents’ sitting room. Another leads from the second-floor hallway into a family study that opens to a deck.
With Kleinman’s assistance, the couple selected child-friendly furnishings whenever possible. “Because it is a family house with dogs and farm animals and kids running around, we tried to choose fabrics—except for the living room—that was going to be durable and stand the test of time,” she says. Read some effective spring cleaning tips for dog owners at Bored Cesar.
With the holidays approaching, the homeowners are looking forward to throwing a Christmas party that’s been on hold for a couple of years during the home’s construction. They’ll host some 200 guests inside the house and on the tented loggia—sure to be an enchanting evening for all.
Architecture: John Neufeld, John Neufeld Architects, McLean, Virginia. Contractor: O’Neill Development Corporation, Gaithersburg, Maryland. Interior Design: Sharon Kleinman, Transitions, Potomac, Maryland.
Photographer Gwin Hunt is based in Annapolis, Maryland.
Washington Redskins left tackle Chris Samuels, one of the team’s most recognizable players, is known for his tenacity and force on the field. But at home in Vienna, Virginia, the six-foot-five, 310-pound Samuels is sweet as pie as he relaxes on the patio with his girlfriend, Monique Cox, and their two mastiffs, Coach and Blue, after a tough day of training at Redskins Park.
Samuels bought the 9,000-square-foot house for its generous size and large lot surrounded by woods. However, he and Cox were not fond of the home’s existing interiors, where a dull beige palette and pickled-white wooden floors prevailed. When the couple attended a birthday party for Redskins quarterback Jason Campbell at the home of a mutual friend, they were so impressed with the design of the home that they contacted their host’s interior designer, Chad Alan of Chad Alan Designs in Washington, DC, for help.
Cox and Samuels explained to Alan that they wanted to infuse their home with color and create a comfortable environment for both time alone and entertaining. They spent a day touring The Washington Design Center with Alan, who got a feel for their likes and dislikes. Two weeks later, Alan presented them with a book of room drawings, furniture selections and fabric, wallpaper and paint swatches—some 400 options in all. “I said, ‘Sleep on this and call me next week,’” Alan recalls. “They said, ‘No, there’s really nothing that we don’t like.’ On the next Monday, my crews were here starting to prime and paint.”
The designer embarked on a “dramatic transformation” of the entire home, replacing the beige with a vibrant palette of persimmon, gold and earth tones. “They were very adventurous,” says Alan. He hired decorative painter Maggie O’Neill of O’Neill Studios in Kensington, Maryland, to create custom treatments throughout the home, commissioned original artwork and selected furnishings to suit Samuels’s style—and his physical stature.
“Chad made it easy for someone like me. I’m just a guy,” says Samuels. “I’m not good at stuff like this at all. If he was telling us something, I couldn’t visualize it. I was totally lost. Once he brought in the drawings and the fabric, I could see it a whole lot better.”
Alan infused the home with color and a sense of drama—especially in the dining room, where a hanging chandelier of glass spheres, a mirrored ceiling and walls upholstered in nutmeg-colored velvet envelop guests In style. In the nearby living room, the walls are finished in a brown high-gloss paint by Dutchlac while the ceilings are covered in an aged golf-leaf wallpaper by Schumacher. A bold portrait of Samuels, Cox and their dogs is a personalized piece of pop art on the wall. Alan commissioned the piece by Bel Air, Maryland, artist Melissa K. Shatto, who also painted several other works in the home.
Her underwater scenes in the foyer reflect Samuels’s passion for sea life and fishing. “I just love being on the water,” says Samuels, who also owns a waterfront vacation home in southern Maryland. “Any time I’m out there, I’m really relaxed.” Two large aquariums—one built into the wall between the family room and kitchen and the other installed in the master bedroom—display an array of tropical fish.
“We both have pretty decent-sized families,” adds Samuels. “We also have a lot of friends, especially with my teammates. We want to throw cookouts, barbecues and have little family get-togethers here. It’s a house that we can live in and be comfortable but on the flip side we can entertain here too.”
Since joining the Redskins in 2000, Samuels has been active in the local community, counseling inner-city youth. “I go down to DC and talk to the kids at Anacostia and Ballou high schools in Southeast. It’s a rough area. I just feel like I can make a positive impact on their lives.”
In 2006, he launched the Chris Samuels Foundation, which this year sponsored a 16-year-old Suitland High School student to attend the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s official school in New York. The Foundation also recently donated a house to a family in need in Samuels’s home state of Alabama, where he is building a development of 70 homes.
Samuels is upbeat about the 2008-2009 Redskins season. “I am excited about the new head coach,” he says. “Our team has been making the playoffs, but we get knocked out around the first round. Hopefully, we can get in there and make something happen and win a Super Bowl like the Giants did.
“We’ve got the greatest fans, no doubt about it.”
Photographer Bob Narod is based in Sterling, Virginia.
INTERIOR DESIGN: Chad Alan, Chad Alan Designs, Washington, DC.
A Warholesque portrait of the couple by Melissa K. Shatto
dominates the living room. The artist incorporated Samuels’s
number 60 and the couple’s mastiffs in her work.
Alan achieved a sense of drama in the dining room with a
glamorous chandelier by Eurofase, a mirrored ceiling and
glass drapes by Global Views. He upholstered the walls in
nutmeg-colored velvet by Robert Allen. “Dining rooms are
about presentation and theatre,” says Alan. “It’s all about the
moment.”
The kitchen features plenty of seating along two breakfast
bars, while an aquarium by The Marine Scene in Herndon,
Virginia, displays an array of colorful tropical fish.
The master suite incorporates a Beacon Hill bed with a
leather headboard, a chaise by Henredon and Mokum
drapery through Hines.
Art in Concrete
Waterworks recently unveiled the Promenade line of handmade, individually pressed concrete tiles. The concrete is made from a combination of natural elements such as crushed limestone, sand, water and aggregate. The decorative Fleurette tile incorporates aggregate tile with shimmering mother of pearl (using material that is actually waste from the button industry). Visit www.waterworks.com.
Barn Wood Reborn
Carlisle Wide Plank Floors salvages antique siding from historic barns. Typically a mix of pine and hemlock, its antique barn siding is carefully removed and then graded for color and structural durability. Each wood plank is milled to bring out a rich, rustic patina. Planks are available from five to 12 inches wide. Visit www.wideplankflooring.com.
Carpet Whimsy
California-based Alicia D. Keshishian, a former art director and illustrator, now fashions custom rugs that are handmade in Nepal. Keshishian’s grandfather was an Oriental rug authority; she grew up surrounded by the vibrant patterns. Keshishian’s whimsical designs, such as Onnie, are made with the finest Tibetan wool and often incorporate silk as a lustrous accent. She also participates in RugMark, an international non-profit dedicated to ending illegal child labor. Visit www.adkcarpets.com.
Walk on Glass
Glass tiles have become commonplace in bathrooms, so why not use them on floors throughout the home? Nathan Allan Glass Studios Inc. of British Columbia creates glass flooring in tiles as small as 12 inches square and in sheets as large as seven by 12 feet. A safety finish provides subtle texture on the surface. Tiles come in six iridescent colors including FL Green Mist, FL Bordeaux, and FL Marine Blue. Visit www.nathanallan.com.
Geometric Motif
Furniture and accessories company Cobble Court Home has launched its first rug collection, designed by Rob Rizzo in collaboration with emma gardner design. The collection includes hilst, which puts a fresh spin on a classic geometric motif. All rugs are hand-tufted of Tibetan wool and are RugMark certified. Visit www.cobblecourt.com.
Pop Art for Floors
emma gardner design reinterprets classic motifs using new “pop art” color combinations in a line of bold, brightly colored rugs. They are hand-knotted of Chinese silk and Tibetan wool and come in standard and custom sizes. Spray is pictured in chocolate/blue; it’s also available in eggplant/pepper. All rugs are RugMark certified. Visit www.emmagardnerdesign.com.
Renewable Resource
Ann Sacks recently unveiled Mesquite Knot floor tiles, crafted entirely from Texas mesquite wood, a durable and renewable resource. By cutting the wood on its radius, the manufacturer achieves a random pattern that reveals the tree’s rings and natural irregularities. Visit the Web site www.annsacks.com.
Black & White
Part of Karastan’s Sierra Mar Collection, Kismet offers a new take on typical black-and-white. The rug features a sensuous, winding scrollwork motif in pure black vividly set against a rich ivory background. The rugs are woven with pure New Zealand worsted wool. Visit www.karastan. com.
Exotic Import
More than 30 natural stone products from around the world recently made their debut at Charles Luck Stone Center in Sterling, Virginia. Among the many that are exclusive to Charles Luck is Arcadia tile from Italy. The linear marble-and-travertine mix is available in multiple color palettes. Visit www.charlesluck.com
One of Mars’s challenges was figuring out how to integrate the structure with the pool in the back yard’s limited area. The solution minimized the use of space while maximizing the project’s cool factor: Mars abutted the structure directly up to the pool and installed a glass, automatic garage door to provide both a visual and a physical connection between the indoor seating area and the pool. Besides saving space, says Mars, placing the pool up against the house “also adds a lot of drama because the pool acts as a reflecting pool from the inside. You can also sit on the edge under cover.”
Built for entertaining, the pool house is equipped with a drop-down, rear-projection movie screen designed so that guests can watch films from the seating area—or afloat in the pool. Meanwhile, a TV pops up from the kitchen countertop. From the kitchen, a large pass-through window opens to the side terrace, which houses an alfresco dining area and built-in grill.
Though the body of the pool house is clad in brick to complement the main house, Mars and interior designer Stephanie Radomsky selected other materials that would establish a more modern sensibility, including stone floor tiles (heated for year-round use), stainless-steel stair rails and concrete countertops. The front exterior volume of the house is clad in granite. “The stability of the brick anchors the pool house but the stone adds a little bit of life and greater character and craft,” says Mars. They found just the right type of granite at Charles Luck Stone Center in Sterling; masons had to specially cut the Van Tassell granite on site for its application, which resembles a dry-stacked treatment.
The same granite was used on the seat walls throughout the landscape program, designed and built by Surrounds Landscape Architecture and Construction. The project incorporates hardscape, lush plantings, strategically placed boulders, a fire pit and a hot tub built into the rocks.
Both client and architect are thrilled with the outcome of the pool house; Mars is now finalizing plans for a renovation of his client’s main house that will reflect the modernism of the pool structure.
Though they are a small part of his practice, Randall Mars appreciates the playful nature of pool-house designs. “We’ve done several pool houses,” he says. “It’s a fun type of project. Function is important, but function always revolves around somebody having a good time.”
Anice Hoachlander is a principal of Hoachlander Davis Photography in
Washington, DC.
ARCHITECTURE: Randall Mars AIA, project designer; Kristen Uitto, project architect, Randall Mars Architects, McLean, Virginia.
GENERAL CONTRACTOR: Gruver and Cooley, Leesburg, Virginia. Landscape Architecture: Surrounds Landscape Architecture and Construction, Sterling, Virginia. INTERIOR DESIGN: Stephanie A. Radomsky, Fairfax, Virginia.
A dramatically pitched roof lends the structure
a modern sensibility.
The upstairs bedroom loft overlooks the pool.
From the kitchen, a large pass-through opens to the side
terrace, which houses an alfresco dining area and built-in
grill. A concrete countertop serves as a bar.
There’s no shortage of talented interior designers in the Washington area.
In fact, choosing one designer from the dozens of established professionals working in DC, Maryland and Virginia is no easy task. The choice is getting even harder, we are happy to report, thanks to a crop of young designers who are coming of age in the region. The six individuals featured on the following pages bring a fresh perspective to their work. They can’t be defined by any one look but, like all good designers, successfully articulate their clients’ style. They are experienced enough to have mastered the nuances of color, balance and scale, but are not afraid to break the rules. And they are proof that the future of interior design in our region is bright.
Interior designer Gwen Seidlitz had a clear vision of the look she wanted to achieve in her teenage son’s bathroom in her family’s new Great Falls home. She wanted it to be masculine and convey an Old World style, but also wanted to avoid anything too traditional or fussy.
Seidlitz turned to kitchen and bath designer Davida Rodriguez to help make her vision a reality. Given the architecture of the long, narrow space, installing a bathtub and a separate shower wasn’t an option. Seidlitz chose to forgo the bath, since there are several other tubs in her home, and opted for a spacious shower clad in textural travertine. To create interest, Rodriguez added a chair rail detail to the shower, above which she created a diagonal tile pattern on the wall. She also designed a diagonal pattern on the shower floor to complement the walls.
“The travertine is a new material from Turkey,” says Rodriguez. “There’s only one quarry that makes it. It just has this beautiful movement, which really adds a lot of interest.”
As the focal point in the room, Seidlitz selected double-vanity cabinetry by Habersham in a distressed wood finish. The natural material palette also includes an ebony-stained hickory floor, which is used throughout the house. Rodriguez suggested a Cosmic Black granite countertop to tie together the dark floors and the travertine, which has dark striations.
Plumbing fixtures in a dark, “live” finish are the final touch. “They actually change tone and develop a patina over time,” says Seidlitz.
INTERIOR DESIGN: Gwen Seidlitz, Sage Interiors, Great Falls, Virginia; Bath Design: Davida Rodriguez, Davida’s Kitchen & Tiles, Gaithersburg, Maryland; photography: Bob Narod, Sterling, Virginia
RESOURCES: Vanity: Habersham. Plumbing Fixtures: Rohl. Travertine Tile & Countertop: Davida’s Kitchen & Tiles.
The grandson of Jacques Yves-Cousteau, this present-day explorer and environmentalist carries on the family business with 21st-century flair. At 29, he is the president and CEO of EarthEcho International, a Washington, DC-based nonprofit that he and his sister, Alexandra Cousteau, founded to encourage people to help restore and protect oceans and freshwater systems through the power of the media and personal experience. He has lectured on sustainability at Harvard and the United Nations and also runs Azure Worldwide, a strategic “green lifestyle” consulting firm. And then there’s his television career, which keeps Cousteau on the road (and out to sea) for weeks at a time.
On the rare occasion that he’s in town, he enjoys relaxing at home. “I love design,” says the tall, navy blue-eyed Cousteau, who has spent two years finding just the right mix of furnishings for his bachelor pad. Honing in on a “classic contemporary” look, he has selected clean-lined pieces that convey an Asian aesthetic. Red accents embolden the neutral color palette in the main living space. It opens to his home office, where he works from a sleek glass-topped desk. A world map dominates one wall, while black-and-white photographs of his grandfather adorn another. In his bedroom, a Lumeo bed by Ligne Roset evokes a Zen-like vibe.
Throughout his home, Cousteau displays a treasure trove of artifacts from around the globe. Many of these mementoes were collected by the father he never knew. Philippe Cousteau, Sr., traveled the world to direct, film and produce more than 30 films for “The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau.” Tragically, he died in a seaplane crash just seven months before his son was born.
Being home, Cousteau says, “kind of reminds me of where I come from and where I’m going. All the things from my father and the things I’ve collected over the years have a lot of significance. They connect me to those places and remind me of the importance of the work that we’re doing.”
Born in Los Angeles, Cousteau grew up in the U.S. but spent summers in the south of France. He earned a master’s degree in history at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.
By the time Cousteau was old enough to go on expedition, his grandfather had traded active duty aboard the Calypso for the life of an “elder statesman,” says Cousteau. Though they never explored together, Cousteau remembers “everything from tasting wine with him—he was a wine connoisseur—to talking about the environment. It was a broad dialogue and that really influenced my sister and me in terms of how we have looked at our work.”
It was his father’s friends, explorers and scientists, who took Philippe, Jr., on his first expeditions. “I got my first exposure to travel exploration and filming,” recalls Cousteau. “And I loved it.”
Philippe and Alexandra Cousteau founded EarthEcho International in memory of their father, in order to take his work to the next level. “My grandfather really opened people’s eyes to images that we take for granted today,” says Cousteau. In turn, Philippe, Sr., studied man’s impact on ecosystems. “Now that we understand a lot of that interplay, how do we take action? That’s the third generation,” Philippe, Jr., says. “We’ve expanded our horizon not just from exploration and oceans, which are kind of the hook and which are sexy,” he continues, “but then how do you translate that into a dialogue with people about a new lifestyle ethic? We’d like people to change their behavior overnight, but that’s not going to happen. It’s really important to take baby steps.”
Cousteau does not own a car; he takes Metro. He buys organic, locally grown food whenever possible. His cleaning supplies are toxin-free. His sheets are organic cotton. And he vows that his next home will be a loft in a green building. All of these choices, he says, help make a difference.
Cousteau’s documentary career dovetails nicely with EarthEcho’s mission. In Animal Planet’s “Ocean’s Deadliest,” which Cousteau co-hosted with the late Steve Irwin, he made the claim that the deadliest creature in the oceans is humankind. In “Oceans,” he has witnessed the horrendous practice of shark-finning in Mozambique, investigated the invasive lionfish in the Bahamas and looked a sperm whale in the eye in the Sea of Cortez. June will find him in the Arctic—the last journey in a year of filming the eight-part, hi-def series. “Oceans” will air in the U.S. in late 2008 or early 2009. Until then, Cousteau faithfully shares adventures and insights from the field in his blog at EarthEcho.org.
One posting made last November upon arrival in Africa for the first time in his life reveals this explorer’s intense passion and purpose: “Trepidation, excitement, joy and wonder have all combined into a tight ball of energy in my stomach….This is going to be quite an adventure and as my father once said, ‘Adventure is where you lead a full life.’”
Photographer Lydia Cutter is based in Arlington, Virginia.
Toto's Ethos Collection
Toto’s Ethos Collection pays tribute to great American cities. Celebrating New York’s Art Deco movement, the Design N II Pedestal Lavatory and Widespread Faucet shown here are sleek and simple but sophisticated enough to work in any style of bathroom. The faucet is polished chrome with contoured lever handles. Visit www.totousa.com.
Available in brushed nickel, the eight-inch Sunray showerhead plays to the whimsical side of shower lovers’ tastes. It features five adjustable shower spokes that radiate from the center spray hub; it mounts to any standard shower arm. Visit www.danze.com.
After introducing the square WaterTile shower spray last year, Kohler debuted the WaterTile Round Shower Spray in 2008. Both products were designed to eliminate the visual clutter of multiple showerheads. The round tile covers the same basic footprint as its square counterpart, comes in two spray intensities and can be adjusted up and down and in all directions. Visit www.kohler.com.
JACLO’s Rain Canopy is designed to transform the mundane shower into a luxurious day at the spa. Rain canopies are available in round, square, oval and rectangular models and in a range of sizes from 12 to 20 inches. Visit www.jaclo.com.
Los Angeles-based Alchemy Glass & Light recently introduced the Celestial Series of sinks, which are crafted from geometric shapes reminiscent of a meteor shower. The Mosaic sink shown here incorporates glass shards and pebbles in a brilliant spectrum of color. Visit www.alchemyglass.com.
Perfect for a powder room or compact bath, Stone Forest’s space-saving Slab Vanity marries a Carrara marble top with a sleek stainless-steel stand. The top is also available in honed basalt. Visit www.stoneforest.com.
Kohler’s new Revival wall-mount faucet creates a clutter-free countertop space that is easy to clean. This wall-mounted version is a new design of one of the company’s most popular faucet collections, perfect for both traditional and transitional settings. It is available in several finishes, including brushed nickel, gold, bronze and brass. Visit www.kohler.com.
THG’s latest line of faucetry is made of Bernardaud porcelain, emulating the finest French dinnerware. The Capucine Mauve motif shown here combines painted purple butterflies with a gold finish. Other styles are stamped with metallic accents or drizzled with garlands of black and gold bay leaves. Visit www.thgusa.com.
The Sirius faucet by Danze makes a sleek, sculptural statement in the bath with its ribbon-like spout. Available in brushed nickel and chrome, the Sirius collection includes a full line of accessories, including shelves. Visit www.danze.com.
Freshen up for spring with Waterworks’
newest line of bathroom accessories. The collection includes toothbrush holder, lidded containers, tank tray and wastebasket (not shown) in iceberg and crepe. Visit www.waterworks.com.
Ann Sacks’ new Mirror tiles bring a modern aesthetic to the bath. The product’s smooth surface and metallic effects—available in silver or copper—convey a minimalist vibe. Intense polishing imparts these porcelain tiles with their reflective surface. Visit www.annsacks.com.
