At Home with DHS Designs’ Darryl Savage

Whew — it’s oppressively hot out there today. That’s when I start dreaming of large bodies of water, such as the Severn River, which forms Darryl Savage’s backyard near Annapolis.

What a way to wind down after a long day at work!

Darryl owns DHS Designs in Queenstown, very close to the outlets at the 50/301 split that we all pass on the way to the beach. He does lots of business for the second-home crowd, and his specialty is antique garden wares — especially in the heavy stone variety.

Another view of Darryl's deck, with items from his store, a converted 1940's dairy barn.

Darryl is an interior designer by trade, but he does less design these days as he focuses more on buying items for his store. His home gives you an idea about where his tastes lie, which are mainly in bringing the outside in. Here is a magazine picture that was taken of his soaring interior:

Here are some other (dreamy) views of his welcoming outside spaces:

Darryl has a marvelous collection of wares, from antique French mantels to art to an abundance of garden furniture and statuary. Here is a smattering of some of my favorite pieces he’s got on offer — they are so much more interesting than what you’d find at the Queenstown outlets, if you ask me.

Now that it’s summer, he’s got a huge collection of urns from Anduze, France, in Provence:

I also love these garden goddesses, representing the four seasons:

And this faux-bois Chinese garden bench:

This would be so great across my dining room wall: a triptych photograph on canvas of the Vizcaya Gardens in Miami. It’s like a dream scene.

And these framed 19th-century French wallpaper panels — also marvelous:

These Louis XVI armchairs call out my name — I love the color combo of olive velvet (which needs some TLC) and the turquoise frame. They’d also be excellent re-upholstery candidates.

And this quadruple pedestal table is just completely fabulous:

I’ll part with a final vignette from Darryl’s house, which combines his knack for garden scenes and antiques. His talents make the sweaty outdoors seem nearly bearable!

Visit Darryl’s store, DHS Designs, right here.