“I tried every aspect, every avenue possible, to get her to move,” says designer Tracy Morris about an Oakton client. Morris went as far as looking at other houses, but the homeowner loves her children’s schools and the lot where her traditional colonial stands. A year passed and Morris heard from the client again. “She said, ‘I want to renovate the entire first floor, completely.’”
The transitional-style renovation took eight months. The goal: Create a relaxed setting where the blended family with five high school– and college-aged kids could entertain.
Priority No. 1: Space to Sip
The floor plan needed to change to create a cocktail room, a top priority for the owner, Morris says. The new design borrowed space from an office for the entertaining spot. “We flipped them,” Morris says of the office and unused living room. “We moved the wall, shifted everything around, and created a cozier office and a larger cocktail room.”
In the office, she added built-in bookcases and adjustable Stokes accent lighting by Hinkley. The
cocktail room is decorated with four rust-colored velvet chairs and an eye-catching floating disc chandelier. It’s next to newly installed French doors that lead to a new screened-in porch.
“They were very big Virginia Tech fans, and they wanted to be able to watch football on the weekends out on the screened porch in the fall. And so that’s what we did,” says Morris, owner of McLean-based Tracy Morris Design. “If it was a little bit chilly or the weather wasn’t great, you could have people outside in cold weather gear, watching the football game.”
The cocktail room’s color palette takes inspiration from its rug and resonates throughout the main floor. “The rug goes with everything else in the house, deep blues and wood. It’s camel tones. There’s a lot of wood tones in the house, and then there’s this warm, rusty color. We pulled that out of the rug,” Morris says, adding that the textured wallpaper also has a brown tone. “All of that blends together with the rug, and especially the kitchen and the dining room.”
Dining in Style
“We created a dining room that has a wine bar for wine storage and cocktail making, and it’s
really such a beautiful feature of the dining room,” Morris says.
A table that expands to seat 10 is situated below a Visual Comfort Rousseau Grande 10-light articulating chandelier in the space that features Phillip Jefferies wallpaper. It differs a bit from other homes where there are simple dining buffets and sculleries or butler’s pantries.
“I typically do not do such a generous bar area in a dining room, especially built-in,” Morris says. “They really wanted storage in their dining room, and it was a great way to bring in additional storage for platters and extra serving pieces. … They can throw together a party quickly, and everything is at their fingertips.”
Morris adds that, unlike some homeowners who rarely use their china or crystal, “These folks use their home. They drink their wine. They use their plates. They really just live life. And it’s refreshing.”
Seating Solutions
Of course, the homeowner faced the quandary many do during the holidays: a lack of seating. To solve that dilemma, Morris says a foyer table easily converts to a children’s table at Thanksgiving. And in the great room, she made sure everyone could relax in recliners and comfy chairs.
“The family can really stretch out and get comfortable in that space. And then the homeowner herself, she likes to have a cup of coffee, read the paper, and that’s why we put a separate sofa at the back of the room with a chair, so that she could stretch out,” Morris says.
Setting the Mood
The revamped kitchen went from dark and nonfunctional to a spot suitable for evening gatherings with its muted blue-gray cabinets, a white oak island, quartz counters, AllModern kitchen pendant lights, and a much larger refrigerator.
“The homeowners really wanted it to feel cozy and welcoming, but have a little bit of attitude,” Morris says. “We gave it a little bit of a moody feel with the super dark blue, and then added in a rye-colored oak.” Details include banding around the refrigerator, a metal strip at the bottom of the hood, and an easy-to-clean creamy crackled subway tile.
Royal blue Macaubas Fantasy quartzite added on an accent wall behind the range gives a “fun pop” of color that “pulls all of the cabinetry colors together,” she says.
Clean and Colorful
Another unexpected color splash comes in the laundry room/pantry. “The homeowners really wanted to have some fun, so we added this deep blue, sort of swirled vinyl wallpaper, so it can easily be wiped off. It just adds an element of surprise and fun. And I think that’s sort of an encapsulation of the homeowners. They really are so incredibly fun. They have to be so polished and super professional on a daily basis, so at home, they get to let their hair down a little bit and have some fun.”
Feature image of renovated Oakton kitchen by Anice Hoachlander
This story originally ran in our November issue. For more stories like this, subscribe to Northern Virginia Magazine.
