Storm’s Coming

As we all wait to see what Hurricane Earl will do to our beaches today, I want to send you off on the holiday weekend with this stunning — and stormy — shot of the Washington Monument that a former Washington Spaces photo intern, Matthew Dandy, shot from atop the W Hotel downtown. Happy Labor Day.

Dutch Boy in the Boys’ Room

Before I start in on this post, a little background: A got an intriguing proposal from the Dutch Boy paint company earlier this summer — coincidentally, at the same time we began to contemplate redecorating our sons’ bedroom. They contacted me, asking if I were interested in reviewing their paint on my blog in exchange for them providing the paint at no charge. They emphasized that they only wanted an honest review, and not an advertorial. So, since I was in the market for paint anyway, I agreed. Now I will proceed with the review.

Before Dutch Boy came into our life, here are the before pictures of our sons’ room, which my 8-year-old declared was too “baby,” and inviting his friends to the house would be out of the question until he had a more appropriate look. The 5-year-old didn’t seem to care one way or the other.

Now, here we go with the transformation. About a year ago, Henry (the 8-year-old) and I ended up at this cool little quilt shop in Sperryville, Va., called Beech Spring Gifts and Quilts. He spotted some really great twin-sized quilts in dark Navy blue and khaki. They became the inspiration for the new room. I also found the perfect new rug from Dash & Albert at The Red Barn Mercantile in Alexandria, in the “Tobacco Ticking” style — the colors are  great match to the quilts.

Those staples in hand, I went about choosing paint colors, with astute advice from my friend, designer Dana Tydings. Dutch Boy allowed me to choose four colors, which I did for the ceiling, trim, walls, and book cases. You can see the colors in my “after” pictures, but oddly, there are no swatch images on the Dutch Boy Web site.

I would say overall that the painting process went very smoothly. We especially liked the gallon-sized plastic jugs with a built-in pour spout and a twist-off lid. My husband wondered why every paint company does not do this.

The paint dries extremely fast, we found — which can be both good and bad. Good, because you can paint a second coat fairly soon after the first one, but bad, because it tended to glop up at times, forcing you to go back over details with a brush to smooth it out or pick off tiny glop balls. I would say this was the case when we were painting the louvered doors more than when we were rolling paint onto the walls.

I had never used Dutch Boy before, which is a division of Sherwin Williams, and I was pretty satisfied with the result — especially because I think the paint chips accurately represented the true color once it was on the walls.

The only problem we had was with the bookcases. Both had been painted before, so I will say that we didn’t use any primer. And maybe it was because we were painting in the hottest, most humid time of year. BUT: After painting the cases, we left them to dry for more than two weeks before we put anything in or on them. Nevertheless, items were still sticking to the surface — so much so that even now when I take a book out, it sticks. There are several scuffs in the paint as a result, which I have no intention of fixing, because they are under books and objects on the top surface.

I really don’t know if this was because of the paint quality or the time of year, but I just need to put it out there. More than a month later, I can now put my hand on the top of the case and not feel any tackiness on the surface. I should have heeded my husband’s advice to wait a full month before I put the books back, but I’m sure anyone reading this will agree with me in that I just wanted to get the room done!

So, I think for painting walls, Dutch Boy performed well, and I would certainly buy it in the future, considering its price points are much lower than other well-known competitors. Perhaps I won’t paint furniture with it though.

Here are some other notes on the room. I wrote an earlier post this summer soliciting advice on window treatments, and after considering all the comments, which were overwhelmingly in favor of white over brown, I finally found this fabulous “Primitive Stripe” fabric at Calico Corners, and it was on sale! I think the rough texture, along with the blue stripe, will go great with the room. I await the store’s semi-annual sale in September to have new Roman shades fabricated:

In addition, I was delighted to get some designer hand-me-downs for the room: I was recently at the home of another dear designer friend, Debbie Wiener of Designing Solutions, who had decorated the media room/ sports lounge for the Washington Design Center’s Design House in 2009.

She got some huge cardboard cutouts of DC sports figures from Fathead for the room, but when she had taken down the room at the end of the Design House, she took them home, and had simply leaned them against the wall in her office. I saw them there, and asked how much she wanted for them. She said she’d be pleased if I would just take them off her hands!

Here’s how they looked in Debbie’s Design House room (much better, I know!):

Thanks, Debbie, for letting the boys have the sports figures. And thanks, Dutch Boy, for kindly letting us play guinea pig with your paint. We had a great time with this room, and the new Roman shades, as a result of all your great comments, will cap it all off.

Working at The Washington Design Center

Who wouldn’t love to work in a place that is surrounded by beauty? This week, I became lucky enough to do just that. I started work as the marketing director at The Washington Design Center — a place I have always loved to go to see the quality and craftsmanship in more than 50 showrooms on seven floors.

In my first four days, I’ve only just started going to each showroom individually, but I’ve already learned some incredible stories, which we’ll share in more detail on THE NEW BLOG we’re setting up for the WDC Web site, in an effort to give designers, architects, builders — even consumers — a better glimpse into what’s going on.

But I’ll share a few nuggets here to whet your appetite:

First, Lee Jofa has a new partnership with fashion designer Oscar de la Renta, who has created fabric designs that I wanted to wrap myself up in the other day! (My blog buddie Susie Isaac of Maddie G Designs wrote a whole post about the parnership earlier this year, right here.)

Oscar created dresses and skirts out of the fabric, and there’s a video showing the fashion show in the Kravat/Lee Jofa showroom. Some of the actual skirts will be arriving here soon, which will ultimately be auctioned off.

And upstairs in the Century showroom, where Oscar also designs furniture, showroom manager Debbie Pegher showed me a stunning photograph of a bed frame upholstered with one of his new Lee Jofa designs.

I also spent time this week in the J. Lambeth showroom, where Ann and Jim Lambeth have been friends since I was at Washington Spaces. I adore all their lines, which include Barry Dixon’s fabric for Vervain,

and his furniture for Tomlinson/Erwin-Lambeth;

luscious pieces from the French furniture maker Grange,

and funky fabrics by Lucy Rose.

The latest news at J. Lambeth is that one of its brands, Fabricut, just acquired the venerable fabric house of Stroheim & Romann, which had its own showroom in the WDC. Now, there is major construction going on to combine the showrooms, so it will all be on the first floor, prominently located off the right side of the lobby. J. Lambeth, which has always been on two floors, will now be on one.

I also went to visit the J. Asher Carpet Couture showroom this week, where I learned that its carpets cover the grand auditorium of the Department of Interior (where I used to go to see the winning artists of the annual Duck Stamp contest!), the main house and 13 guest cabins of Camp David, and the Opera House and Concert Hall of the Kennedy Center, to name a few notable destinations. And the red and blue carpet going up the Capitol steps at each inauguration? Yup — J. Asher.

The showroom carries lines by Tufenkian, Alexa Hampton, Barbara Barry, and other lines known for their exquisitely woven designs. Here are some examples from its Web site:

I have obviously given short shrift to the many showrooms I didn’t mention in this post, which is why I’m so excited that our team is putting together a new blog for the WDC so we can celebrate them all on a regular basis.

I hope that any of you interested in stopping by to see what they have to offer will come visit me!

Furniture by Modern Rust

I really wish I had known about Shadi and Bahram Sadighian while I was writing my “Where Did You Get That?” article in this month’s Washingtonian. Their Modern Rust line of furniture, which the couple builds from scrap wood is, as the name suggests, modern and rustic at the same time.

The line came about naturally, from the Sadighians’ main company, Living Storage Quarters, which offers modern backyard sheds — another line I wish I had known about sooner.

So let’s take a small detour from the main story to gaze that these very cool little structures:

Construction of these sheds left behind a certain amount of scrap and unusable wood, but Bahram didn’t want it to go to waste.

“He would just bag them and bring them home — we had bags and bags of this stuff,” Shadi says. “We just starting making things around the house that we couldn’t find in stores.” Little by little, of course, people started finding out and asking for pieces of their own.

“Because of the [reasonable] price point, it sort of hit a chord,” Shadi says. And let’s not forget the handmade element — that custom quality that people prize so much these days, especially in a tight economy, where they want to spend their money on things that are meaningful.

Here are some more images taken from the homes of Modern Rust customers:

The work is just as meaningful to the Sadighians, who live and work in Alexandria. “It’s a lot more gratifying than anything I’ve ever done before,” Shadi says.

I’ll close with the endearing portraits of Shadi and Bahram. I’m so excited to add one more name to my growing list of local furniture makers.

Designer Dolly Howarth: From Billiards to Baubles

I have a story in today’s Washington Examiner about how designer Dolly Howarth made Lisa and Martin Standiford’s new house in Alexandria into their dream home. She served both their needs, from Martin’s love of pool to Lisa’s home office, where she designs jewelry under the name Lisa Latham.

“We wanted it to be so many things, but we just couldn’t make that first step in realizing our vision,” Lisa says in the article, right here. She adds: Dolly “is an amazing listener, and she just got it.”

The examiner only had room to use a single picture each of the billiard room and office, so here you can see all the other pictures of these spaces, which Dolly had photographed by Angie Seckinger and Morgan Howarth. I also have photos from the rest of the house, which illustrate the way Dolly extended Lisa’s love of jewelry into the living and dining rooms, and how she translated the couple’s mutual love of Italian villas in their contemporary kitchen.

The billiard room was the first room to be completed, and is a favorite of the couple’s guests, Lisa says. Martin liked it so much that it gave Lisa the license to decorate the rest of the house, starting with the office.

The rest of the house is filled with color, too. Every room contains a note of luminescence that echos Lisa’s jewelry.

The dining room glows with color, anchored by commissioned works from Laura Edwards, whose studio is in the nearby Torpedo Factory, and lush window treatments with fabric by Duralee.

The living room is a smooth take on mid-century modern. The riot of colors isn’t overwhelming — an effect we amateurs shouldn’t try at home!

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