DC by Design Blog» Real Estate

Great Model Home Design at the Brownstones of Brambleton

Jennifer — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 11:24:52 +0000

WOW, model homes in large developments are getting really hot these days — developers are hiring savvy designers to decorate their models to be idea factories for really cool interior design. Ever since I found out that Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams decorated a model home in Hyattsville a few years back, I think there’s been a trend toward design-conscious model homes and home staging.

So I was psyched to see these gorgeous photos of two models at The Brownstones of Brambleton in Ashburn, VA, decorated by Carlyn & Co.out of Great Falls and developed by Miller & Smith of McLean. The architect on record is Lessard Design of Reston.

The architecture is "a clear example of the recent trend towards replicating city life in suburban communities," the press release says.

It does look like someone plucked up a half-block of row houses from the city and set them down in the ‘burbs, but the prices are definitely more Ashburn than Dupont Circle. Now let’s go inside…

This was my OMG moment. I mean, who does this kind of retro lounge look in a model home? The only thing model-y about it might be the wall-to-wall carpeting, and those big bamboo poles, but I’ll forgive them for that — I’m not even sure what I would put there instead. I might use a more interesting cocktail table, but I LOVE the pendant in the corner – I think more people should try that in living rooms. And , the art and the wall covering gives a real sense of movement to the room, balanced against the neutrals of the furniture.

I adore this bright and happy breakfast room. I can see putting all my cookbooks on those shelves, and maybe a flat-screen TV on the wall instead of the mirror? I also think using that looong sofa as a banquette is the greatest idea — you can either sit by the table and eat, or sit near the end and read the paper. Brilliant. And I just love the MCM style of the sofa and chairs, covered nonetheless in contemporary fabric. The yellows and greens in this room seem to bring summertime right inside.

I covet all those windows. But besides that, Carlyn & Co. designed a fresh, up-to-date kitchen but softened the white and granite not only with the hardwood, but with those delightful industrial stools, which give it a really personal flavor. And WHAT I wouldn’t give for all this great cabinetry:

Here’s a more expansive view of the living/dining/kitchen area. I think in a “real” home it could be personalized with some better area rugs to define each space, but the open flow is great:

OK, and check out this bedroom. Anyone can take the idea of running wallpaper up the wall behind the bed and onto the ceiling to define this space, and the pendant makes it really special. I mean, that’s just a quick weekend project! So clever.

And we’ve seen this idea in shelter magazines, but it bears repeating: In a small space, use a desk as your bedside table and make it do double duty. The industrial chair here is adorable. Another small-space idea at work: running the window treatments up to the ceiling to make the room look bigger.

And here, while the green is a little wild, I think a teen would feel right at home:

First, we all should be so lucky to have that many windows in our bedrooms. But I’m LOVING the accent chair and lamp on the bureau. And the designers make really clever use of wall adhesives that have become so popular — see the little black birds flitting around above the windows? So whimsical.

There’s a distinct green theme in some of these rooms, which probably would bee too much in a single house, but as individual room ideas, they’re great. Here is a laundry room that would make me so happy to do the wash:

And because most of us can’t afford to do a custom bathroom with snazzy tile and top-of-the-line hardware and cabinetry, here’s a wonderful idea on dressing up your basic builder-grade white:

Adding these punches of color is as easy as a one-stop trip to Target or Bed, Bath and Beyond. But the best tip to be had from this room is running the shower curtain up to the ceiling, just like a window treatment. Totally makes the room.

Stepping outside, here is the terrace off the living/dining/kitchen area — would that we all could have an outdoor fireplace!

The sectional, the rug — even the art — all really good ideas for decorating outside. And I’d love to know where those little blue poufs came from. The squirrels? Model-y. Oh well. But here’s where the designers did absolutely right: they oriented the seating area to look back into the house — and not toward what looks like a parking garage in the distance! We all face negatives in our back yards — the Dupont Circle dwellers have alleyways and rats, while suburban residents have parking garages. Very few of us have the bucolic rolling yards of the shelter magazines, and I think the designers here did a great job of dealing with the situation.

The upside, of course, is that these homes are obviously in walking distance to Brambleton Town Center, a mix of restaurants, business and retail.

According to the press release, there is a waiting list on “future releases,” but if any of you live nearby, the model is worth a visit for design ideas alone.

Design Inspiration at 22West

Jennifer — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 02:50:42 +0000

There is a bit of a trend going on with condos using interior designers to decorate their model units in an effort to show buyers the best potential of their living spaces. 22West, the new, glass-and-steel condo across from the Ritz-Carlton in the West End, has pulled out all the stops. The first model units were designed through Vastu and Contemporaria. Next came a unit outfitted by Baker Furniture. And now, designer Vivian Braunohler of Braunohler Design Associates in DC has completed another model unit.

The sofa table was made locally through Salvations Architectural Furnishings. The sisal rug was intended as a counterpoint to the smooth, sleek fabrics and materials in the living room.

Eastbanc, who manages sales for 22West, asked Vivian to create a space “that would appeal to a market segment having a design taste that might be drawn to a more eclectic approach” than the other models, according to Matt Hagan, a spokesman for 22West.

Vivian responded with “an in-town retreat … using tailored and classic furnishings — new, vintage and antique.”

The dining room gives a sense to prospective owners of how they can live in the space, using not only dining chairs but a linen-covered settee as well. The table is on casters to suggest a library feel, so it can be used for meals, work, or playing games. The birch logs on the terrace were arranged in planters by Jay Watkins, a local flower designer.

Vivian used a soft palette throughout of taupes, ivory, camel, and accents of soft mauves and lavender — all of which gave her a blank canvas against which she could showcase the furnishings and art.

Local artist Michael West created the art over the sectional sofa in the den. The sofa also serves as pull-out bed.

As an aside, Vivian reports that she got this assignment at the beginning of the year, and had just 45 days to complete it. “Only key furniture pieces that were readily available could be considered. All fabrics had to be in stock, and to top it all off, all of the selections had to be made during the major snows we had in February!” she writes. “The Design Center was closed for a few days, and for a few days we had no power in the office. It was a creative challenge, to say the least.”

Taffeta draperies in the bedrooms add a note of elegance to the understated decor. The lamps and wingback headboard give a tailored, architectural quality to the master bedroom.

The guest bedroom.

To give you an idea of the design mix Vivian’s work joins at 22West, I’ll leave you with images of model units from the other designers.

Contemporaria:

Stylized artwork of famous Washingtonians by Mike Weber.

Vastu:

Baker Furniture:

Robert Gurney’s Winning Design at the Wyoming

Jennifer — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 20:12:17 +0000

The world of DC design is so small. When I was writing a story on a Hugh Jacobsen house in McLean last year, I met Raed Alawadhi of Apartment Zero, who helped with the house’s redesign. Fast forward many months, and I hear that Raed now lives in Miami, while his partner, attorney David Smith, stays back to sell their apartment.

And what an apartment — it’s won no fewer than five architecture awards.

The elliptical ceiling is not only cool, but the dropped ceiling on its border hides all the essential ductwork.

This unit, in the Wyoming Building in Kalorama Triangle, was a “dump” when he bought it, David says. He hired architect Robert Gurney to gut it and completely revamp the design in this traditional Beaux-Arts building.

“I turned it over to him,” David says of the architect, giving him a blank slate to work his modern hand.

The kitchen includes ash wood panels dyed red and blue. It also includes mahogany cabinets, Brazilian cherry floor, and granite counters.

Stainless cabinets match the appliances.

Gurney told me he enjoyed finding creative ways around the building’s non-negotiable infrastructure, such as creating the dropped periphery around the living room ceiling. “It shouldn’t inhibit, but spur creative design,” he says.

The master bedroom has a wall of textured stainless steel -- and the built-in TV conveys.

I love the Metro map in this master bath.

teases the guest into the house instead of showing you the drama the minute you open the door,” David says. “]

You can see the foyer through a small opening in this cabinetry. "like how [Gurney

The apartment is listed through Sotheby’s, right here, for $869,000.

My New Gig at DC Urban Turf

Jennifer — Wed, 12 May 2010 21:29:28 +0000

I’m very excited to announce that I will now be making regular contributions to the “Unique Spaces” section of the DC real estate blog, DC Urban Turf. Every two weeks, they’ve asked me to write a post on a space that is, well, unique — not necessarily on the market, although it helps, but a space that has an interesting pedigree or history. Previous posts have included a houses that had former lives as a restaurant, carriage house, or livery stable.

Here is my post that went up today, about a modern house in an Arlington neighborhood known for its diverse architecture. The house, which the original owners designed themselves about 11 years ago, is a departure from Arlington’s reputation as a haven for brick colonials.

To illustrate how different the architecture is in the Arlingwood neighborhood, take a look at these other houses for sale on the same block (all are listed through Washington Fine Properties):

A log cabin built in 1921:

And a renovated farmhouse, which was previously owned by NBC Weatherman Willard Scott:

The listing information for the contemporary house is here.

The log cabin is listed right here.

The farmhouse can be found here.

A 70s-Modern Gem in Clarksville

Jennifer — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 16:22:47 +0000

To anyone who passes off DC/Baltimore suburban architecture as traditional blah, take a look at THIS:

My jaw completely dropped when Margaret Korz sent me these pictures of her house in Clarksville, MD, a suburb of Baltimore and about 45 minutes from DC. I immediately wanted to know which preeminent architect designed it.

None, she responded in an e-mail. Would that be a problem? Turns out, when she and her husband were looking for property in 1970, they found these five acres in what was then the Boondocks. They had a modern sensibility — Margaret grew up 20 miles from Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin — and, she said, “I’ve been an architecture buff since I was child. I always loved houses.”

They initially investigated purchasing a pre-fab Deck House, but it turned out to be too expensive. So she and her husband designed their own dream house. Forty years later, it still looks completely new and fresh. And Margaret is so passionate about it, she wrote me a three-page, single-spaced e-mail describing her influences, inspirations, and the way it was all constructed.

Inspirations for the house included Philip Johnson's Glass House in Connecticut and Mies van der Rohe's Farnsworth House in Illinois.

“Continuing in the vein of warmth and natural materials, we committed to the best quality materials — handmade brick with natural colors [in the rear of the house, not shown] since we couldnt’ afford stone — and clear red oak hardwood floors which we thought were easier to maintain than carpet.”

And rather than buying up lots of art, they clad the house in as much glass as was structurally possible, so the changing seasons of their gorgeous property provides all the visual beauty.

The plan of the first floor is completely open. The only door on the entire floor leads to the power room.

The house was constructed during the 1974 energy crisis, another era where “one could not help but think green,” Margaret wrote in her e-mail.” All that glass is tempered and insulated, and the largest glass wall is oriented toward the woods, which gets cool shade in the summer and, when the trees are bare, warming heat in the winter. They also incorporated more insulation than was necessary between the floors, behind the walls, and around the HVAC ducts.

The spiral staircase runs spans the house's three floors. There are built-in bookcases throughout.

When it came to planning the kitchen, Margaret told me, “I did not want dark wood [cabinets]. I did not want stuff with arches carved in the front of the doors. I wanted something that was light and durable.” That’s why she chose St. Charles cabinets, made of white metal. (In fact, that’s how Margaret found me, when I blogged about St. Charles last month.)

The kitchen includes two sinks and shelves that roll out -- common details in today's kitchen, but rare in the 1970s.

Upstairs, they created bedrooms virtually enclosed in glass, so their kids could live like they were in a treehouse. Margaret also includes lots of huge storage closets, because she was so frustrated by how every other house they had looked at had such puny storage space.

Ignore the furnishings for a moment, and check out those totally awesome hanging ball lights for the bedside tables! There is also another huge window to the left of the chair.

Now, if you are reading this post and thinking, “Wow, I really want that house,” guess what — you can have it! The Korz’s are putting the house on the market, as they are downsizing since their children have grown in moved out. Margaret is a real estate agent, and you can find all the details on her site right here.

She said it was really hard to make this decision, but it will give a chance to some lucky person to snap it up.

“Generally, everyone — whether guests are repairmen — have this kind of wide-eyed jaw-drop upon entering, and often rush to the windows,” she wrote in her e-mail. “The house seems to energize people — I think that feng shui must be right.”

Selling Modern in a Traditional Neighborhood

Jennifer — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 20:43:42 +0000

Ron Ginsburg is a serial builder and seller of homes. Not content to be a homebody, he’s quick to move on even after he’s created a masterwork such as this:

The house in DC's Forest Hills is selling for $6.5 million. Photograph by Bob Narod

“I do this for fun. This is my fourth one,” says Ginsburg, an investment and real estate executive. But with this style, in this economy, the house has been on the market for eight months — unusual for his record. “This is the first time peple aren’t knocking down the door.”

He invited a mix of brokers and bloggers to his home last night in an effort to drum up more interest. He is already in the planning stages for his next home in the DC area — he wouldn’t say where — where he will build a structure such as what you would more likely see in Miami rather than the Mid-Atlantic. It will be an airy, multi-story beach house with a pool on the roof that has a see-through bottom.

Ron Ginsburg, left, sits with the team that designed and built this house, and will stay on to do the next one. From Ron's left: Josh Rosenthal of Rosenthal Homes; Architect John Coplen of Alter Urban LLC, and his intern from Germany, Fabian Achenbach.

Ron bought a small piece of property in an established neighborhood filled with classic architecture and historic homes. The property, in fact, had once held the caretaker’s cottage to a large turn-of-the-20th-century manse across the way.

“I didn’t want to be the poor little stepchild of the neighborhood,” he says. I think he got what he wanted:

Photograph by Curtis Martin

Ron says he was pleased to find a local team of architects and builders (although his interior designer, Sam Ewing, comes from Winter Park, Fla., where his family lives). They include John Coplen of Alter Urban, Josh Rosenthal of Rosenthal Homes, and Thorne Rankin of her eponymous landscape firm. “I thought I’d have to go to Seattle or Chicago to find contemporary,” he says. For more on the house, see the big feature it got in Home & Design Magazine last year, right here.

So the question becomes, why sell now, in such a down market? “I’m totally crazy,” he says, matter-of-factly. “I like building things and getting rid of them. Building something new is part of the fun. I guess I like collecting things and disposing of them as much as I like living in them.”

But he’s not so crazy as to start on the next project before he sells this one. “I can only handle one giant mortgage at a time,” he jokes.

I took some of my own pictures yesterday of elements I absolutely love — it’s the details that count, right?

The rocket-ship doormat is on either side of the front door. It's Ron's personal calling card, and it's repeated everywhere in the house, from napkins and cups to the night light in his bathroom. "I love kitschy '60s cartoon sci-fi," he says.

Don't you love the trashcan? No really -- I love that the catering kitchen has a space under the sink for a huge trash bin for parties -- genius.

Ron had glass put on all the cabinets in the catering kitchen so anyone could see what's inside without hunting around. .

What an adorable sink for a tiny powder room -- and Ron thought enough to purchase soap and lotion in dispensers that match -- bestill my heart!

I have never seen Maya Romanoff wallpaper in person -- gold with glass beads, a powder room to impress any party guest.

The door to the golden powder room -- what a brilliant idea to have a "vacant/occupied" lock, especially at big parties when tipsy people aren't likely to knock.

It's the little things that count -- a purse drawer in the huge front-hall closet, which also has shelves where you can recharge electronic devices. This guy thinks of everything.

A great decorating tip -- if you don't have a budget for fine art, decorate huge walls with sconces. The effect here is so cool. Photograph by Curtis Martin

Who said men where slobs? Photograph by Curtis Martin

And alright, if I had $6.5 million to spend, this house would be worth it for nothing else other than this 2,600-pound, egg-shaped marble tub. Even without water, it’s so comfy that I didn’t want to get out.

Photograph by Josh Rosenthal. Frog by Prince Charming.