Shotgun Domicile: Speed Decorating in the District

By Beth Herman

On your mark, get set, go! It’s like a round of speed dating: learning all you can about a candidate, usually over a 10-minute glass of wine, before moving on to the next table. Those who’ve done it say an uber-sized glass of Pinot Grigio helps, but knowing the right questions to ask will get you what you want.

For interior designer Beverly Glover-Wood, of Glover-Wood Interiors, the right questions came in handy as the speed part remained, though the “dating” word became “decorating” (sans the wine) when the call came from a proper Bostonian. Poised to head up a D.C. commission with an eight-week countdown to lift-off, the client needed a home in the District fast. Choosing an apartment in the Penn Quarter’s prized Lansburgh, 425 8^th Street NW, she would be spending six years in Washington in her new role and abode, though jetting home to her old life, family and friends in Boston on weekends whenever possible.

“I had a commission to do this quickly and not too expensively,” Glover-Wood said of the relatively temporary 744 s.f. residence, affirming the client would be maintaining dual households for the duration of her term. Noting that typical decorating protocol involves time to get to know the client—perhaps even shopping with her, a tight schedule in another city precluded this. “We had one conversation where she talked about what she liked,” the designer said, which was articulated by the two of them combing through catalogues. Preferring “clean and simple,” Glover-Wood said her client did not want this objective manifested in a severe environment, but rather a shabby chic look– slipcovers and comfort so she could just come home, relax and get away for a while.

In true stopwatch form, Glover-Wood did a quick run-through of all the places people shop in the District where things can be obtained relatively quickly. With Pottery Barn, Crate ‘n Barrel, Mitchell Gold and Bob Williams, Ballard Designs, Upscale Resale, Home Goods and Room & Board topping the list, Glover-Wood peppered her client with dozens of photographs she’d taken on a spin through each venue (Ballard’s was strictly catalogue and web, however). The final design was determined to include a red, yellow and blue palette “to keep it cheery and soft,” with the client’s favorite sage green reflected in bathroom features and a feminine bedroom desk.

Deliver dilemma

With furniture choices taking anywhere from 7 days to 12 weeks to ship (predicated on in-stock colors vs. other design requests, Glover-Wood explained), and in an effort to expedite things under the circumstances, the outgoing tenant offered to leave behind his furniture, with the designer choosing what was suitable and donating the rest to D.C. nonprofit organization A Wider Circle. Though a remaining sleigh bed was to be the focal point of the bedroom, the client wasn’t thrilled with the furniture in general because it was all very dark, Glover-Wood said. The challenge, then, was to involve selecting light and lively fabrics, lighting, art and other pieces to offset the space’s existing complexion. At the proverbial 11th hour, however, the dark bedroom pieces went too, opening the bedroom to prettier possibilities but leaving even less time to fill it.

Accordingly, the designer found an antique white headboard from Pier 1 Imports. A Terrific Trio glass top table was obtained from Ballard Designs, with a cloth cover in "celery" from their fabric selection. A white wicker desk and chair for under $50 from Upscale Resale were spray painted deep hunter green, with the desk also serving as a bedside table (Glover-Wood said the client appreciated having a desk tucked into the bedroom). Two framed prints of old Harper's Bazaar magazine covers flank the head of the bed, and a voluminous window dressing and ruffled shams add elegance and tranquility to the space.

In the 273 s.f. living/dining space, Glover-Wood purchased a table and chairs from HomeDecorator.com and consulted with Ballard’s to acquire two bamboo folding chairs in a tortoise shell hue for extra seating. In the compact but adequate 80 s.f. kitchen, a bar encircles the room and faces the dining room, and a couple of bar chairs will effectively utilize the space.

Though two sofas were left behind by the previous tenant, they were donated and a sleeper sofa from Mitchell Gold and Bob Williams (winners, according to Glover-Wood, in the “how fast can you ship?” contest) was obtained to accommodate occasional visits from the client’s two 20-something children. A floral rug in front of the sofa with reds and oranges from Home Goods reflects the wood hue of the dining room chairs, knitting together the two spaces.

Over the dining room table, a standard chandelier with adequate light remained and a large glass slider channels abundant light throughout the living/dining space. “I think lighting is pretty inexpensive as it is, but you want it to be decent,” Glover-Wood said of the question of fixtures and lighting accessories, adding one can purchase a good lamp for $125. To that end, she explained a lot of really inexpensive lighting has low wattage, which inhibits reading, so she opted to spend a little more for two substantial reading lamps and a floor lamp.

Revealing there are buried (and not-so-buried) treasures in D.C. and Maryland consignment shops such as Gallery St. Elmo and Upscale Resale, Glover-Wood said she frequents those entities for furniture, accessories and art. Decorative plates for the kitchen wall were discovered on one particular expedition, and suitable art was obtained from Capital Consignment, as well as Ballard’s and Art.com.

“The client had a wonderful attitude, saying all she really needed was a bed,” Glover-Wood said of the mandate to design like Nike: the goddess of strength and speed. “Hers was surely a unique situation, but overall if you’re coming in and trying to set up quickly, especially as young people often do, it’s nice to know about all of these places you can go.”

A Black Belt in Kitchen Design

By Beth Herman

In the ever-evolving, big-ticket world of kitchen renovation, particularly in the toniest of D.C., northern Virginia and suburban Maryland neighborhoods where the average culinary redesign can cost $50,000 - $200,000, eviscerating the kitchen is not for the faint of heart. At the apogee of kitchen reinterpretation, former North Carolinian Beverly Glover-Wood of Bethesda-based Glover-Wood Interiors has spent the last decade transforming tired and/or inefficient kitchen spaces, emulating trends while simultaneously honoring timeless, traditional style (an admitted favorite).

“I love houses and hunkering down,” Glover-Wood said of her passion for residential design. “I love what dwellings give people: They’re a place of refuge. I love the solace a house gives you.” As for her deep-sea dive into kitchen design, Glover-Wood said at the outset of her design career in 2001, she’d envisioned doing everything residential work required – every room in the house, which is still the thrust of her business. However because clients continue to be centered on kitchens as seminal gathering places, creating spaces that reflect both the heart and hearth of the homeowner is often the direction of her work.

Pen to Panache

Leaning toward more classic design herself, Glover-Wood revealed that her father, an architect who retired only last year and is currently 88 years old, is every inch a contemporary architect and many of her kitchen (and other) designs are a confluence of different time periods. With an interior designer-mother and a sister also in the design world, Glover-Wood’s immersion into the industry was admittedly exciting and comprehensive (as a child she accompanied her father to some of his jobs), though unwitting.

“I didn’t go into design first and was actually an English lit major who worked as a writer and editor,” Glover-Wood revealed. “As a writer, you’re inner-focused because you’re creating in your brain. But as a designer, you’re always noting design out in the world: how buildings are designed; arrangements of furniture; color - which is wonderful. It’s a different kind of creativity.”

Applying her own creative stamp to kitchens, the designer has observed a shift in the last few years away from the “more is more” modus operandi back to thinking less is more. “Because our economy was booming, we were always going up, up, up and people were doing more and more grandiose things with their kitchens,” she recalled. “They had to have top-of-the-line everything: faucets; sinks; stoves – everything kept getting bigger.” She added that one can only have a kitchen that’s so big, because pretty soon it’s no longer a workable space.

Heat of the Moment

To that end, and with energy efficient appliances always paramount, many of her clients are moving away from the commercial stoves of the beginning of the decade into more practical appliances. Some of that may have to do with condo living in the District and retirees and empty nesters downsizing, she surmised. “Once you’ve had a 42-inch stove, with so many burners, and you’ve done all that (she added the mammoth stoves are harder to clean), you learn that you can do just as well with a 36- or 30-inch stove today. Viking and Wolf make more traditional products, with Dacor a little more contemporary, but all with special features perhaps not even available 10 years ago. “You can get a 30-inch GE glass top electric stove that has five burners and one that can handle a grill,” Glover-Wood said, also speaking to the age-old gas vs. electric debate. “I’ve always loved gas because it’s very quick,” she explained, “but the new electric cooktops are phenomenal in that they’re about as fast – or faster – and probably just as hot.” GE’s Advantium oven promotes what the manufacturer calls “speed cooking,” with features that include convection and microwave options.

Baby, It’s Cold Inside

Where refrigerators are concerned, Glover-Wood referenced a 19^th Street D.C. row house redesign where a neglected basement became the centerpiece of an active family’s home life. “It was a perfectly good basement (structurally) that walked out into the back yard with a hot tub,” she said, where the family did much of its entertaining. The basement was accordingly gutted and made into a play space for the children, as well as into a little kitchen to complement the primary one upstairs. “I was able to get small but really good appliances,” the designer said, noting the ice maker and tiny Viking stove, as well as a Lieber refrigerator – very narrow, to acclimate to the small space. “I’m also seeing a lot of under-counter refrigerators,” Glover-Wood said. “Doing two refrigerators but putting them under the counter works well in a small space.”

Trend-wise, in full-size spaces many people are opting for “counter-depth” refrigerators as opposed to the older 31-or 32-inch models. Explaining that a counter-depth refrigerator has a trajectory of only 25 inches from the wall (the handle may contribute to an extra inch), and the counter itself is 24 inches, aesthetically it works better “…and you don’t have a chance to grow green things in the back because you’ve forgotten about them,” the designer said. Revealing that she likes the look of stainless steel juxtaposed against warmer wood elements in so many kitchens today, the designer said stainless steel is better on a large appliance anyway so people don’t have a big wood refrigerator. “It’s a clean, contemporary look in the middle of a traditional kitchen,” she explained.

Counter Culture

“Some people are actually coming back to Formica and Wilsonart for countertops and saying, ‘It’s not so bad; maybe we should go with that,’” Glover-Wood affirmed, citing a digression from expensive granite. “I do think granite is dying out. It’s not quite as popular as it used to be,” she said. Acknowledging that so many products are in use today, she noted people are still using marble though at one time the industry thought it might phase itself out because it’s a softer material. “The British have been using it for eons, and I see it creeping back into kitchens,” she said, adding that quartz products such as CaesarStone, Silestone and Zodiaq have also remained in vogue. “People do want new things, but they are a little more balanced about how they spend their money,” she said, adding that the trend in islands – even small ones that respect a smaller space – can serve to eclipse a long trip from the sink to the refrigerator and may therefore be a practical investment. “I put a small, 18-inch-deep island into a 12x14-foot kitchen (in a new house, an island is generally 4X7 feet), where we only had 3 feet to walk around on each side, but that’s all you need,” she said.

Declaring that paint, for her, “is the be-all, end-all,” Glover-Wood said that if somebody just wants a new look, paint can entirely change the space. Whether you do it yourself or hire a professional, she explained, painting 1980s townhouse kitchen cabinets, for example, will refresh and modernize that space without spending thousands of dollars.

“I think the thing today is that everybody really wants a workable kitchen,” she said. “As designers, even with everything that’s out there, it’s our job to keep it that way.”