Erika Bonnell breathes new life right into a light Nice Falls house with recent type and traditional consolation
Set on 5 leafy acres in Nice Falls, the 11,000-square-foot, red-brick Colonial had a lot to advocate it. A pair with 4 youngsters turned up on the Eighties vicarage in 2011, looking on the considerably dated inside. They lived with the outdated areas for 10 years earlier than deciding to sort out a significant renovation. By then, their preliminary Tuscan-inspired décor selections felt a bit passé as nicely. “There have been so many issues that have been previous and drained,” remembers the girl, who’s presently pursuing a grasp’s diploma in inventive writing. “The home positively wanted a makeover.”
Enter designer Erika Bonnell, requested by the house owners to provide you with a makeover that will improve each kind and performance. Working with contractor SugarOak Company, the mission overhauled the kitchen, butler’s pantry and 6 bogs, amongst many different enhancements. “We gave the inside an up to date, conventional really feel,” says Bonnell. “Our aim was to honor the normal bones of the home, however maintain all the things very approachable. We additionally made some useful adjustments to help their life-style.”
Whereas a lot of the flooring plan was left intact, the designer repurposed current areas to higher meet the wants of her shoppers. For instance, the person, who has retired from the insurance coverage business, wished a spot to learn and show his books. So Bonnell reworked the seldom-used front room off the lobby into what she describes as “a cool, masculine, English library that appears prefer it’s been there endlessly.” Ground-to-ceiling built-in cabinets now line the again wall and wrap across the nook to fulfill the correct facet of the fireside.
Earlier than the kitchen renovation, a format that will accommodate a number of cooks was on the high of the house owners’ want listing. Though a few of the youngsters have fledged the nest, the brood prepares and enjoys meals collectively at any time when they’ll. “We’re a household of bakers and cooks,” the girl reveals. “We would have liked the kitchen to work for all of us. Cooking collectively is a part of our household tradition and it’s so rather more enjoyable to try this in a pleasant setting.”
Beforehand, an island cooktop had restricted preparation area. Bonnell reconfigured the plan and put in a professional-style Thermador vary alongside one wall. Aesthetics within the beforehand darkish, uninspiring area additionally vastly improved, thanks largely to white-painted customized cabinetry from Cornerstone Kitchen & Tub.
Since rising the kitchen’s footprint wasn’t an possibility, the designer additional eased congestion by erecting a separate bistro-style baking station in what she characterised as a bizarre passageway connecting the butler’s pantry and breakfast room. She additionally added a walk-in closet, accessed by means of a hidden door within the butler’s pantry, by borrowing 50 sq. toes of the storage.
Bonnell then turned her designer’s eye to inside structure. Within the entrance corridor, she complemented the prevailing plaster cornice by putting in the plasterboard beneath. “We had a good looking, heavy plaster molding, however then the partitions fell flat,” she remembers. “We actually wished to take the area to the following stage by including extra architectural element with the utilized molding.” The present marble flooring remained, however the beforehand deep gold partitions have been repainted in an off-white tone.
When it got here to defining a brand new look, as Bonnell relates, the girl requested for “one thing vivid and recent.” The redesigned eating room actually matches in with that. There, a Schumacher painterly paper changed the purple paint on the partitions. And tasseled swags gave method to easy drapes of uncooked silk on the home windows.
Bonnell sought out new furnishings with the aim of making “a collected, lived-in, snug feeling,” she says. For the household room, she designed an outsized sectional, in addition to a espresso desk the place two leather-covered ottomans will be tucked away at reverse corners when not in use. As she explains, “That is the gathering place for the entire household, so we wished to create a central seating space the place everybody may sit down.”
Fastidiously chosen accents permit her schemes to sing with out dominating, because the first-floor first flooring exemplifies. Quaint Schumacher wallpaper adorns the bed room, whereas floral mosaic tiles embellish the lavatory’s two curved vainness niches. “We like distinction and curiosity, however all the time in a supportive, non-competitive means,” says Bonnell. “The layers of element come collectively to create nice, non-jerky areas.”
The lady marvels at her designer’s inventive aptitude – and on the completed mission. “It is actually artistry,” she enthuses. “We could not have executed it alone. Erika has modified our lives for the higher.”
Inside Design: Erika Bonnell, Director; Emilie Bauer, Design Coordinator, Erika Bonnell Interiors, Sterling, Virginia. Renovation contractor: SugarOak Company, Herndon, Virginia.
