Richmond Symphony League Designer House 2023

Historic Monument Avenue in Richmond, Virginia, was the location for 2023’s designer house. The 108-year-old Taylor Estate featured twenty-one designers. The second floor contained four full bathrooms, all connected to bedrooms. I designed the Jack and Jill bathroom joining the nursery and the children’s bedroom. The room featured 10’ ceilings and a huge window overlooking beautiful Monument Avenue. The home’s history was a key factor in my design scheme as most of the bathroom’s fixtures and architectural details (bath tub, toilet, medicine cabinet, subway tile walls, tile flooring, and Tiffany sconces) were original to the home. A period sink was sourced and added to complete the period details.

Whenever I start a design project, I ask the question, “Who lives here?” This is especially pertinent when designing for a design house space as there aren’t specific client needs driving the design scheme. The architectural details and period of the home drove the scheme and created my “faux client”, a free-spirited, well-travelled, young heiress, enjoying a Roaring Twenties lifestyle. “The Traveller” as I dubbed her, dabbled in tarot card reading, read racy books, visited exotic locales and European capitals, bringing back trinkets, mementos, and memories that found their way into her private sanctuary, a 1915’s lavatory.

Exotic Fabrics & Wallpaper set the tone

GP&J Baker Textiles

A hand-blocked East India style wallpaper with a chalky aqua floral design is paired with a whimsical window treatment fabric featuring emperors riding Caspian horses.