Latest home trends as seen in MoCo

Behind-the-Scenes Beauty 

The idea for a butler’s pantry in Melissa Abrams and Lewis Fermaglich’s 1918 Dutch Gambrel-style home in Chevy Chase came out of the design process for a renovation and extension they embarked on three years ago. The new addition, which includes a light-filled kitchen and breakfast room, a family room and a mudroom, was designed by Bethesda-based Muse Kirwan Architects and built by FineCraft Contractors in Gaithersburg.

The term “butler’s pantry” can conjure visions of old movies with domestic staffers polishing silver in the back room of a grand English manor. Today, with the sustained popularity of open concept floor plans and showy kitchens, the inclusion of an extra space to handle the inevitable overflow is gaining traction. Local homeowners are incorporating these hard-working spots into new home and renovation plans. “Requests for butler’s pantries have been building over the last decade, but rose in popularity in 2020, when people were spending much more time at home and buying [groceries] in bulk,” says Niko Papaheraklis, business manager and director of promotions and marketing at FineCraft Contractors.

A bold blue butler’s pantry
A bold blue butler’s pantry in Melissa Abrams and Lewis Fermaglich’s Chevy Chase home opens onto a hallway. Credit: Kaan Ozturk

A modern butler’s pantry, or supplemental pantry, can be the place for a second dishwasher, lesser-used small appliances, a juice or espresso bar, or storage for china, crystal, wine and cocktail supplies. Redirecting kids or guests to a supplemental pantry to grab a drink or a snack also keeps people out of the cook’s way. Whether it’s a dedicated room or a tricked-out passageway between a kitchen and dining room that’s used as a staging area for entertaining, a butler’s pantry is on a lot of people’s wish lists as the next residential must-have. 

The architects on the Abrams-Fermaglich project suggested converting the home’s original kitchen to a storage area with a wet bar. “The old kitchen is a logical place for a new supplemental pantry,” says William Kirwan, a principal at Muse Kirwan. The plumbing was already there, making it a perfect spot for the coffee station. The galley-style nook features quartz countertops, glass-front wall cabinets to display stemware, and an under-counter beverage refrigerator. A 48-inch-wide cabinet, with shelves up top and six pull-out drawers on the bottom, holds all of the family’s dry goods. “The [butler’s] pantry is the perfect size and is such a well-designed, functional space,” Fermaglich says. “With three kids, we all use it daily.” 

A bold blue butler’s pantry that opens into a white hallway
A bold blue butler’s pantry in Melissa Abrams and Lewis Fermaglich’s Chevy Chase home opens onto a hallway. Credit: Kaan Ozturk

The pantry opens to a hallway that connects the old and the new portion of the house. While the couple opted against closing off the pantry with doors, pantries can have traditional or pocket doors. “It all depends on how formally the clients want to live, and in this case they wanted visibility back to the new kitchen,” Kirwan says. 

Design-wise, pantries typically take cues from the style of the kitchen, but have a separate character and sometimes a touch of glamour. For the Abrams-Fermaglich home, designer Tracey Morris of Gillis Interiors in Potomac had the walls, cabinets and trim painted the same deep blue as the kitchen island, and used brass hardware and a hammered nickel bar sink. Abrams and Fermaglich wanted the renovated areas to connect with the age and style of the home, so Morris added more sparkle with an antiqued mirror backsplash. “It looks like a throwback, and I love it,” Fermaglich says. “It’s one of my favorite things in the house.” 

Dramatic Decor

Light blue wallpaper in a white and blue bedroom
Wallpaper is deployed to great effect in several rooms in the Carnegies’ home, whether as a statement maker or a subtler backdrop for other design touches. Credit: Robert Radifera Photography

This is a good time to be an interior designer: Post-pandemic homeowners, tired of staring at beige walls, are ready to embrace color, pattern and texture in their homes. Interior design trends often trickle down from fashion, and after years of minimalism, bolder styles are making a comeback on the runway and in the living room. “Designers are going bonkers with wallpaper, and consumers are embracing it,” says Sally Steponkus of Sally Steponkus Interiors in the Spring Valley neighborhood of Upper Northwest D.C. “It’s not enriching to live in a white box, and many people are realizing that they’d rather be surrounded by cheerful prints and color,” she says. 

Wallpaper in a blue-themed room with containers and cabinets
Wallpaper makes a statement in Theresa and Les Carnegie’s Bethesda home. Credit: Robert Radifera Photography

Even in a relatively conservative market like Montgomery County, homeowners are taking more interior design risks. Steponkus has worked with Theresa and Les Carnegie for more than eight years on their Bethesda home and was part of the team when the 51-year-old attorneys decided to add on. “They’re such trusting clients who have a clear point of view—or point of ‘blue,’ since the whole house is done in varying shades of Theresa’s favorite color,” the designer says. 

A growing number of Steponkus’ clients, including the Carnegies, are asking for wallpaper. “You get a lot of bang for your buck, and there are so many more options than there used to be,” she says. The wallpaper drove the color scheme in Theresa’s home office, where she works several days a week. The botanical print, dotted with birds, is soft, feminine and creates a pretty Zoom background. “I wanted to envelop her in a restful shade of blue,” Steponkus says. 

The ceiling is adorned with a decorative treatment to add interest and texture. Wood strips were applied in a traditional trellis pattern and painted in Farrow & Ball’s Parma Gray. Painting the trim the same color as the walls (or in this case, wallpaper) is also a notable trend. Steponkus had the French doors, windows, baseboards and crown molding all coated in Parma Gray. “It’s about saturating the room,” she says. Instead of the stark contrast of white trim, it’s a soft, seamless transition to the ceiling. 

A design in a small home office that includes blue wallpaper, curtains and a white desk
Wallpaper is deployed to great effect in several rooms in the Carnegies’ home, whether as a statement maker or a subtler backdrop for other design touches. Credit: Robert Radifera Photography

Steponkus employed a similar technique in the home’s walk-in pantry, transforming it into a little jewel box. The small one-off room was an opportunity for the designer to have some fun. “My plan was to make it outrageous,” Steponkus says.She covered the walls and ceiling in a graphic wallpaper, and had the cabinetry, molding and open shelving painted a matching French blue. “It’s almost like looking at a little blueberry,” she says. The light fixture and the freezer are also bathed in the color. “It can be closed off with pocket doors, so it’s not a public space, and we could be a bit more daring,” she adds.

The key to mixing prints within one room is balancing the scale so things don’t overwhelm the eye. “A good rule is to have one large, one medium and one small print,” Steponkus says. She also recommends taking one element from the wallpaper and repeating that shape in the curtains or pillows for a consistent feel. She collaborated with Silver Spring-based Aidan Design for the renovation and cheerful redecoration of the Carnegies’ laundry room. Steponkus chose a large-scale buffalo check wallpaper, a medium-size floral print fabric for the Roman shade, and covered the bench cushion in a tiny pattern. “Attention to detail, layering and carefully calculated coordination are important in making all of these schemes come together,” she says. 

Paint It Black

American neighborhoods are looking more colorful as homeowners opt for dark, rich exterior hues. According to paint manufacturer Benjamin Moore, deep blues, greens and charcoals are rising in popularity. “Dark siding, particularly black, creates a striking look, bringing a modern touch to a home’s exterior,” says Arianna Barone, color marketing manager at Benjamin Moore. “It feels understated and provides a nice balance for those who want to make a statement without shouting.”

A painted black home with large windows in Washington, D.C.
Isham and Olivia Ellis Randolph’s house in the Takoma neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Credit: Colleen Healey

Color played a major role in transforming the home of Olivia Ellis Randolph and her husband, Isham Randolph, from boring to bold. In 2012, they bought their 1,700-square-foot, 1928 white clapboard house in “as is” condition. “It lacked character and wasn’t our aesthetic,” she says. But they loved the neighborhood, just steps over the D.C. line from Takoma Park, Maryland, because it’s walkable and close to all the town’s amenities. 

The chopped-up floor plan and difficult transitions to the outdoors were problematic for the pair. Remodeling was always in the cards, but life moved on; they had two children in a short period of time and were busy with work. Isham, 48, is a documentary film producer, and Olivia, 47, is the manager of Takoma Radio (WOWD-FM), the community station in Takoma Park. 

Then came the pandemic. “COVID happened and we were trapped inside with two energetic small kids, and I couldn’t live like that anymore,” Ellis Randolph says. The renovation began in 2021, and architect Colleen Healey of Colleen Healey Architecture in Northwest D.C. reworked the floor plan, opening walls and creating easy access to a new front porch and rear screened porch. She used large single-pane windows to flood the interior with light and create the illusion of more space. 

Lots of windows let the sunshine in the dark patio design of this home
Lots of windows let the sunshine in. Credit: Colleen Healey

Healey was restricted by the home’s location on a corner lot, so she found ways to make small but impactful extensions to the two-story house—on the back and front and one side—for a total of 700 extra square feet. The result was a series of steep-pitched roofs with solar panels to take advantage of the most beneficial orientations. The roof forms are straightforward, but the homeowners and architect wanted to enhance the new façade’s modern simplicity by painting it black. 

Inside, Ellis Randolph painted the entire main level a warm peachy tone, so it wasn’t surprising that she was eager to make a color statement on the exterior. She was inspired by contemporary Nordic houses. “I’d see photos of houses with very dark siding and think, Can we do that here? We’re not in the woods, we’re not blending into anything,” she says. She wanted to go for it. 

But first, she had to get her husband on board. His priority was eco-efficiency, so the team debated whether a dark color would absorb extra heat and be counterproductive to their sustainability goals. “After some research, we concluded that the solar gain in winter would help warm the house and offset any heat gain in the summer, when we had an increased energy supply from the solar panels,” Healey says. 

The HardiePlank lap siding is painted in Benjamin Moore’s Graphite with no contrasting accent colors. The windows are black, the stair railings are black, and so is the hardware on the glass frame entry door. The look is sleek and subtle, and the front porch and massive windows offer a welcoming and friendly face on the street. 

Despite the dramatic paint choice, the home has familiar farmhouse-inspired roof gables and respects its surroundings. “The color isn’t stark—it’s uplifting and gives our home elegance and character,” Ellis Randolph says. Feedback from her neighbors has been positive, and the house elicits reactions from strangers, too. She catches people driving by slowly to gaze at the unique exterior. She considers it a compliment. “Our kids love it, too, and are so proud of it,” she says. 

Carolyn Weber lives in Silver Spring and frequently writes about architecture and home design. 

This story appears in the September/October 2024 issue of Bethesda Magazine.

If MoCo360 keeps you informed, connected and inspired, circle up and join our community by becoming a member today. Your membership supports our community journalism and unlocks special benefits. 


link

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *