In Northern Virginia, there are many builder-grade houses, and one of the challenges for homeowners is how to take such a house and give it its own personality. DMV designer Valerie Darden of Brexton Cole Interiors, who is also the author of the soon-to-be-released Beautiful Living coffee table book, has devoted her career to designing and elevating both older and newer homes. Her own circa-2022, four-bedroom, 4,070-square-foot house, which she shares with husband Jonathan and sons Brexton, 7, and Cole, 11, is filled with inspiring ideas and user-friendly techniques.
Whether adding moldings, trim or wallpaper, or switching out light fixtures or hardware, Darden knows how to bring architectural panache to a newer home. “Much of my main pieces are traditional in style — I shop antique stores or Facebook Marketplace — but I also love to mix in touches of modern furnishings around the home,” she says. “I’m also a big believer in details. That way the focus is not only on the larger pieces, but also on the smaller, often overlooked accessories.”
Read ahead for a tell-all tour of some of Darden’s artfully designed rooms.
Fine Dining
“In newly built homes, dining rooms are often big, white, boring boxes,” she says. Here, Darden selected a pastoral mural to envelope three sides of the square-shaped room that opens onto the foyer and front hall through a cased opening. She also added a chair rail and base moldings found at Home Depot. Those are finished in a contrasting Wedgewood blue paint.
“For lighting, I removed the builder-grade option and replaced it with a large brass lantern, and also added wall sconces that have a historical aesthetic,” she says. A traditional pedestal-based dining table is paired with white bamboo Chippendale-style chairs. The mirror is an older French piece above a sleek gold-and-mirrored console table.
Making an Entrance
“I loved the style of this entry because it was not a total open concept,” says Darden. “There is a hall, with my office and our dining room visible through cased openings.” This gave Darden the opportunity to apply wallpaper that stands alone, while complementing the two rooms. “The wallpaper was featured in the movie Gone with the Wind,” she says. “In other words, it won’t go out of style.” Darden balanced a smaller antique console table with modern abstract artwork, a pair of animal print X-stools, and a clean-line central marble foyer table.
Serene Bedroom
Darden’s favorite textiles include velvet, boucle wool, and jute. In her bedroom, she uses these to add texture and contrast, with a soft palette that ranges from cream to caramel. Wall paneling was added for depth and pattern on the clean walls, which went from white to ivory, and a glamorous chandelier now drops from the tray ceiling. “I paired some more modern furniture with vintage pieces here to create more interest and intrigue,” she says. The floral print Roman blinds are traditional in print with a neutral contemporary palette.
Living Large
In addition to layering in moldings and a contemporary beaded chandelier, Darden looked to improve natural light and connectivity to the backyard in this well-used room, which is on an open plan with the kitchen and eat-in. “I chose to replace the room’s three windows with larger triple French doors, painting their trim in black,” she says. Black is picked up both in the low-pile area rug that defines the seating area and in the sconces mounted above antiqued mirrors on either side of the fireplace. Furniture includes two timeless moss-green velvet sofas paired for conversing across the cocktail table.
Bold Bathroom
This bathroom took on a life of its own, as its floors went from builder-grade beige tile to French-style marble tilework. Darden replaced the vanity counter with black soapstone to dramatically blend with the black base cabinets. “I’m a huge fan of wallpaper, so I wrapped this room in a toile pattern.” She updated the hardware and lighting. A propped full-length gold mirror and whimsical artwork up the design ante even more.
Design Guide
Beautiful Living by Valerie Darden will be released October 29 and is available for preorder now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Walmart. “It answers every question you’ve ever had about how to make your home look like it was professionally designed,” Darden says of her book, which is filled with visual guides and photographs.
Feature image of Valerie Darden’s kitchen by Robert Radifera for Stylish Productions
This story originally ran in our September issue. For more stories like this, subscribe to Northern Virginia Magazine.
