Designer Michael Stehlik embraces the classic roots of his Nineteen Seventies Hollywood, Maryland getaway
After a two-year seek for a waterfront escape lower than an hour from their D.C. row home, inside designer Michael Stehlik and his companion struck gold on their manner dwelling from a New 12 months’s weekend on the Japanese Shore. Whereas one drove, the opposite searched actual property apps for listings alongside the route. All of the sudden, a uncommon Nineteen Seventies gem popped up within the quiet hamlet of Hollywood in St. Mary’s County.
The pair took a detour to discover a four-story vacant abode in a two-acre wooded cove on a tributary of the Patuxent River close to the Chesapeake Bay. Within the type of a tall lantern, the trendy home instantly caught the attention. “We fell in love and stored driving again over the weekend to see it,” recalled Stehlik. “Ultimately we began bringing picnics and sitting on the deck.”
The duo determined to make the leap, and upon shifting in in 2016, found that the two,700-square-foot discover was much more extraordinary than that they had imagined. It had been designed as a private weekend retreat by Lynford Snell, an architect who had moved from Seattle to DC for a authorities job. Like Frank Lloyd Wright, Snell’s program embraced natural supplies in addition to rigorously orchestrated conceptions of nature. It’s stated that Snell and his spouse accomplished a lot of the development themselves. Though the architect handed away, she stayed in the home till the steps turned a burden after which put up for sale. “We’re solely the second proprietor”, Stehlik marvels.
Primarily, he and his companion had landed an unadulterated late ’70s time capsule, full with a sunken lounge, two-sided stone fire, Mexican Saltillo tile flooring, customized cherry wooden cabinetry, and dealing lighting fixtures designed by the architect.
Except for making a number of repairs, changing fixtures and home equipment, and refurbishing woefully outdated loos, the brand new house owners determined to maintain the retro vibe of their getaway. “We actually benefit from the classic really feel. It is meant to be an informal house that takes us away from DC and all the pieces is ideal,” explains Stehlik. “I do not need it to seem like me or my work. I really feel it is my job to maintain the architect’s imaginative and prescient and reply to it with enhancements and furnishings that match the bones of the home.
As he ushers a visitor into the compact lobby, the designer rapidly invokes Frank Lloyd Wright. “In my thoughts,” he says, “this seems like Wright’s philosophy, the place he takes you to a closed entrance after which lets it widen to no matter you need to get pleasure from probably the most.”
The doorway corridor results in an open plan dwelling, kitchen and eating room the place home windows present views of the river and forest in a rigorously organized method. In keeping with Stehlik, the symmetry was intentional. “I instantly seen how attentive Snell was,” he notes. ‘The home stands on a grid of 1.20 meters excessive and is oriented precisely to the south. Deep overhangs on all flooring assist with warmth acquire in the summertime, whereas we profit from the solar within the winter.”
On the highest stage, mates can collect within the ethereal sunroom, sunken lounge, or suspended log loft above the place the couple watches TV. “It is a hangout that I’ve to consider Swiss household Robinson‘ says Stehlik. The second and third flooring are devoted to the visitor and proprietor suites respectively; every includes a renovated toilet and a balcony. A fourth-floor observatory is surrounded by home windows and gives a scenic 360-degree panorama.
Stehlik furnished the house with new and classic items befitting a mid-century physique of labor. A blue Room & Board part provides a splash of shade to the dwelling space. “I usually would not select a vibrant shade for myself,” explains the designer, “however I felt like the home wanted some power.”
One change the house owners made lately was coloring the cedar siding and decking black. “We had been impressed by different fashionable properties clad in shou sugi ban wooden,” says Stehlik, “and thought we may maintain the outside in a end that permits the textured wooden to indicate by with out a main expense.”
Swapping the hustle and bustle of Washington for the serenity of the coast virtually each weekend, the couple usually entertain visitors. They kayak across the bay, touchdown on Solomons Island for dinner after a 15 minute motorboat trip. Additionally they get pleasure from a detailed relationship with the native wildlife, watching the osprey return to roost every spring and the chestnut oaks turning sensible yellow every autumn. “It is enjoyable to acknowledge the rhythms of nature,” says Stehlik.
After a busy week, each companions start to loosen up throughout the journey to Hollywood. “We all the time deliver an enormous bag of labor that by no means will get opened,” admits Stehlik. “As soon as we get there, we notice that stability has worth. It provides us new power and makes us excited to return to DC on Sunday night time.
Inside and Rest room Design: Michael Stehlik, Stehlik Design, Washington, DC. Rest room Renovation Contractor: DMV Kitchen & Tub, Inc., Gaithersburg, Maryland.
