Some collaborations are meant to be. In 2013, Alexis Dattoli—now a Norfolk-based interior designer and principal of her namesake firm—was working as a senior designer for a prior firm on a NVHomes spec model home in the luxury residential community of Potomac Shores. She forged a connection with Rian McClevey, her future client, who was working for the home builder at the time.
“Rian became my first big design client,” recalls Dattoli, who ended up spending a stint overseas in England with her husband, a naval officer, before she set up her own business when the couple moved back in 2017.
“Rian had lived in the house for several years with her husband, Matt, and their three kids, Logan, 5, James, 9, and Cole, 11,” says Dattoli. “They had wanted to update and refurnish for a while, and also renovate their kitchen.”
The circa-2002, five-bedroom, 5,400-square-foot house had good bones but featured builder-grade finishes; a muddy palette of tans and beiges; and thin, red-toned plank floors. The overall footprint remained, but all else changed.
“We labored over flooring choices for weeks but ultimately decided to go with 5-inch-wide planks of engineered hardwood. They have a textured, hand-scraped finish, which gave us both wearability and the warm, classic look we were going for. It also has a dark nut tone,” says Dattoli, adding, “They became the perfect grounding point for our design.”
Bringing cohesion to the ground floor’s public areas, and to the hodgepodge of furnishings McClevey had accumulated throughout her years working for home builders, was paramount to Dattoli. Coming up with a light, bright canvas came first.
“We painted almost everything—walls and trim—in Benjamin Moore’s White Dove; its creamy undertone makes it such a soft, rich shade of white,” she says of the unifying paint color.
The foyer, which contains the refinished staircase with new wrought-iron rails, is defined by a taupe color to lend it spatial definition and to showcase the stairs, but it’s the dining room, wrapped entirely—including the ceiling—in Benjamin Moore’s Wedgewood Gray, that stands out in the open floor plan.
“The homeowners love to entertain, so we wanted the dining room to be extra special. The color has so much depth and works equally well bathed in the natural light of day and in the moodier chandelier lighting in the evening,” she adds.
The dining room also contains a classic collection of blue-and-white ginger jars and a mix of furniture in different wood finishes, including white oak Chippendale-style chairs.
In the kitchen, new Shaker-style cabinets combine white cabinetry on the periphery with the warmth of wood on the island’s base. Hardware here is a mix, giving the feeling of a forever-there kitchen, with both crystal knobs and oil-rubbed bronze pulls. The kitchen also features a corner sink set in quartz countertops selected for their durability.
“Rian needed the home to be family-friendly, so that and entertaining became what dictated the design direction,” says Dattoli.
While a couple of older furnishings were kept, including the large china hutch in the eat-in area, new furniture started filling the floor plan.
“We focused on timeless, clean-lined furniture, bringing in some pieces with patina to lend history and life,” says Dattoli, referring to items such as the pair of chests, with an aged oak finish, flanking the sunroom’s opening. “The upholstery is mostly family-friendly, including Crypton fabrics, which are indestructible, and leathers that only get better with age.”
The front of the house is a bit more formal, with the living and dining rooms off the foyer, than the back of the house, with the kitchen and family room, which has a lovely light-filled sunroom off it. The sunroom features a hint of green in its ceiling paint, a play on blue porch ceilings.
“The blue accents of the front rooms slowly turn green as you get into the casual spaces, where we bring in some of the serene naturalness of the backyard by way of sisal rugs and home accents,” she adds.
All of this leads to a calm, cohesive and flowing design, a well-put-together home that McClevey and her family will enjoy for years to come.
“Rian kept telling me she couldn’t believe how pretty the design was and how it made their home easier to live in and enjoy as a family every day,” says Dattoli.
Now friends, Dattoli and her client continue to scheme up projects in the house, including completing the master bedroom and adding a screened-in porch to the back of the house.
This story originally appeared in our November print issue. For more stories like this, subscribe to our monthly magazine.
