Outtakes from Bethesda Magazine

I am LOVING the cover treatment of a story I wrote for Bethesda Magazine called Houses of Style, where they took a chair and rug from different rooms in a home designer Annie Elliott decorated in Bethesda and used them with a model for the cover shoot:

The feature includes four fab homes in Montgomery County, filled with fantastic images (of course). But one thing that tends to get left out of design stories is the kid’s room—unless the story is about kids’ rooms. Three of the houses I covered here have adorable kids-room designs, most of which wasn’t included due to lack of space.

SO, here are some outtakes—and I urge you to click on the story above to see the main rooms in these houses that have such different styles.

First, Annie decorated this house in Bethesda for a modern-minded couple who found themselves in an Arts & Crafts-style home. Let’s face it — there’s not a ton of modern options over there. Annie went to work creating a thoroughly modern interior, and the spread offered this tease of the baby’s room:

Super cute, huh? Well, this baby boy has two older sisters:

“The little girl wanted blue, and the parents wanted a room that would grow with her,” Annie says. “We chose a run aqua —not baby blue — for the walls and grounded the room in green with FLOR carpet squares. I love FLOR for kids’ rooms, not only because you can replace individual tiles if necessary, but also because you can get a wall-to-wall effect without installing carpeting.”

“We chose a colorful, fun pattern for the Roman shade on the larger window. It would have been too much pattern to use that fabric on all three. We kept the smaller windows fairly neutral with white Roman shades and green trim to make them feel tailored.” (The light fixture is by Stray Dog Designs and the bedding is from Land of Nod.)

“This room could belong to a young child, a teenager, or a young adult. The grass green walls and white rug make it a very versatile space,” Annie says. “We went for a pink and green palette when we decorated the room, but if the bedding and pink accessories were replaced by, say, Navy blue, the room would have a different vibe.”

 

Next, I profiled a home Marika Meyer decorated in Chevy Chase—just about the cutest thing I’ve ever seen:

Two young girls inhabit this house, which shines all over in bright hues of blue and green. It’s no different in the girls’ rooms, either.

“Our main goal was to make a space that could transition with them over a period of time. The headboards and bedskirts—along with furniture—are classics; and the paint, shams and accessories can be changed as the girls age,” Marika wrote in an e-mail.

I’m particularly in love with their craft room, swathed in wallpaper by China Seas. “It has such a fun energy and the girls LOVE spending time in there. If you are creating a second floor play space it is very important to make it feel special so it becomes a destination,” Marika wrote.

Marika transformed the attic space into a guest room, but it has this huge “stage” in the large dormer area, which is also a destination for the girls. I’m all over that wallpaper by Thibaut!

 

Bethesda designer Lorna Gross overhauled a house in Potomac for a family that had lived in Kenya for 20 years. They wanted to bring some of Africa with them as they settled into the States:

This part of the story features all the kids’ rooms. The girls—Savannah (above, next to her father) and Gisellah (next to brother Dilan) have beds and side tables that Van Rampelberg also made.

Not pictured in the story was a space adjacent to Gisellah’s room “where she can hang out, read and have private time,” Lorna tells me. “Every girl/woman should have one of these!”

 

This is Savannah’s room:

And not pictured is her enviable desk area:

“This desk is such a great example of how a little can go a long way. The desk looked uber-traditional with polished gold brass hardware. When I added the butterfly pulls, the fuchsia lamp and desk accessories, the desk immediately had personality,” Lorna says. (This is the time when I wish I had daughters!)

Dilan’s room was also pictured in the magazine, and I’ll show it to you again, because of that amazing bed, which his parents had custom made in Africa from cedar that was harvested from a Kenyan tree farm:

Can you EVEN? Well, let’s just say my boys’ beds don’t exactly look like this.

But Annie, Marika and Lorna give us all some incredible inspiration for all the whimsy that is a child’s room. Here’s the article link to read more about the rest of these homes, PLUS Chef Robert Wiedmaier and his wife Polly’s home in Kensington. Enjoy!