When interior designer Ana Djevenica recently set out to transform the main level of an Alexandria home from traditional to “elegant with a jazzy twist,” she faced some major limitations.
The main one: No walls were coming down and no structural changes were being made to the 1997 home in the Rose Hill neighborhood. This metamorphosis was done purely with the magic of décor.
“If you’re a family who is renting or maybe doesn’t want to make large renovations to your home because you’ll be moving in a few years; you can do so much in your home just by changing up the furnishing and painting the walls,” says Djevenica.
In this case, Djevenica’s inspiration started with a simple buffet cabinet.
“There was this one piece in the dining room that our client really wanted to keep, but she wasn’t fully satisfied with the way it looked, so we had it refinished and painted,” explains Djevenica. “It actually ended up in the living room, but it’s always fun when a client has a piece that we can use and sort of mold the design inspiration around.”
Next, she set out to choose a color scheme.
“For the dining room, the color scheme was darker tones with dark woods, and then we incorporated a lot of orange and gold,” says Djevenica. “So since those colors were kind of dramatic, we wanted the paint color in that room to be fairly light. We chose an off-white that gave it a really nice, creamy look and made the room lighter and brighter.
“We also painted the ceiling and the crown molding a dark brown, which is something that I like to do just to add more elegance to the room,” Djevenica says. “It’s something different and looks unique rather than a traditional white ceiling.”
Multiple light sources were added to create optimal lighting for the client, depending on the setting and occasion.
“When I had first entered the home, I noticed that the living room had a lot of natural light, which is great, but that is only during certain parts of the day,” Djevenica explains. “And then the dining room had hardly any natural lighting at all.”
To help with this, Djevenica’s team installed multiple light sources, from reading lamps and ambient lights to dimmers and chandeliers. “In addition to ambience and mood setting, it also helps make the house look much larger,” she says.
Because this remodel was a high-end project, Djevenica says they tried to incorporate a lot of natural elements in an effort to make it feel warmer and homier with an organic, relaxed vibe.
“We created moody rooms with a lot of personality utilizing natural textures like distressed wood, marble, rope, leather, contrasting finishes, and cozy-to-touch velvet fabrics,” says Djevenica. “We also implemented floor-to-ceiling drapery that just adds so much richness to the living room.”
Feature image by Jon Barnes
This story originally appeared in the April issue of Northern Virginia magazine. Subscribe for more stories like this.
