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When one of the owners of the renovated Great Falls home couldn’t quite describe the color she wanted for her new front door, she looked at her nail color and said, “That’s it.” This shade of fire engine red is now a fitting introduction to the once ordinary two-story colonial that was transformed into an extraordinary farmhouse-style residence. Clean exterior colors enhanced by lively interior hues brighten the Duncan family home.
Dick Duncan, 46, and Teresa Duncan, 43, knew from the start that Great Falls’ convenient location and large homesites would be ideal for their family. But finding the house that fit their lifestyle was a more difficult task. “We didn’t want a large McMansion. We wanted a house with character,” says Teresa Duncan. “Two acres in Great Falls in a desired neighborhood in a house that doesn’t look like others” was just what they ordered.
Framing the Family Center
After recognizing that this outdated center hall colonial had the potential to be transformed into a charming family home with a country feel, the owners hired BOWA Builders Inc. to embark on the eight-month renovation journey, while they lived elsewhere.
With the owners’ clear vision of what they wanted, Joe Burke, certified remodeler design coordinator with BOWA Builders, drove the redesign of the undefined floor plan, which was typical of a home built 20 years ago. To open the kitchen to the natural light in the back and replace limited windows over the sink and the bay in the breakfast area, Burke configured a morning room with views of the expansive yard and French doors opening to the deck. Then an awkward peek-through into the family room became an arched entry with decorative columns and handy built-ins.
A Custom Mix of Comfort
The reconfigured entryway announces the bright family room, which now features white built-ins with wood access from the outside as well as concealed entertainment systems flanking the natural stone fireplace that gives it “more of an elegant farmhouse style,” Burke says. Starting with a base color of Benjamin Moore’s Snowfall White OC-118, Billet Collins Studio LLC in Darnestown custom mixed latex paints on site and layered four to five different colors to achieve the sunny Old World plaster sheen.
A Perfect Complement
Then a blend of oil glazes with universal tints give a linen look to the walls of the adjoining country kitchen. “I knew where everything was going” in the kitchen, adds the owner, who measured the island’s cabinets to fit placemats in drawers and to provide access to certain items along the lower cabinets for the children. Design Solutions Inc. in Herndon worked with the owners to achieve a complementary blend of distressed white cabinets in most of the space, narrower cabinets for a coffee station to the side, and a black built-in hutch where dishes are stored in a drawer. Duncan found a coordinating antique sideboard that she uses as a mail depot in this central gathering spot. English hand-painted tiles from Architectural Ceramics Inc. in Rockville outfit each corner of the teak island finished by Cigar Tree in Sterling, while commercial grade appliances perfect the cooking, congregating and congenial space.
In the Zone
A strange powder and laundry room configuration was changed to a family foyer or a “drop zone” for children’s books and sports equipment finished in Benjamin Moore’s Forest Moss walls, says Burke. The floor idea featuring river rocks bordering Brazilian slate came from a Neiman Marcus catalog, adds Duncan. A deep porcelain sink, secondary entryway and locker cubbies are visible behind double glass doors from the family room, while a built-in CD cabinet sits across from the new powder room.
Repeating a Pattern
The red walls above the dining room’s chair railing reiterate the bold tones. Black and white fabrics finish the chairs, while distressed wide-plank flooring in satin, which was chosen to endure the traffic of pets and little feet, completes most of the first floor and every bedroom upstairs except for the owners’ suite.
Favorite Places
Fashioned after a restaurant in St. Michaels, Maryland, the foyer showcases fabric found by Interior Designer Monika Sibert of MSID in McLean and made into drapery to create an intimate entryway. “I was thrilled to find a place where this works,” Duncan adds, especially with the new glass-front coat closets revealing the same fabric. Drenched in a mix of half Benjamin Moore’s Sundance and half Light Yellow paint, this receiving hall shows the owners’ love of color.
“Some things were planned, some were not,” says Duncan. One initial idea was the creation of the appropriate hallway for the owners’ bedroom and bath. By reconfiguring the sitting room or nursery adjacent to the suite, Burke added this elegant double-door entryway and an oversized laundry room finished in watercolor blue. Now the laundry center is “one of my favorite places,” Duncan adds. It features a preferred hue, which in this case is Benjamin Moore’s Blue Lapis. “I don’t mind being here,” she says.
Then the design coordinator and the owners took a fairly routine bedroom suite and “shook it up,” says Burke. This “uneventful” space, which included a single dormer and limited light, now offers a sitting area with triple windows and one of two walk-in closets.
Harboring Warmth
The owners’ bath presents a showplace of misty colored walls in Benjamin Moore’s Harbor Fog with a semi-translucent white ceiling, a pedestal tub under more windows, dual sinks with Herbeau faucets in custom cabinetry, and a shower with blue marble accents and Perrin & Rowe fixtures with preset temperature controls. Beautiful heated flooring, a second walk-in closet, a chandelier from Horchow, and a linen cabinet built in behind the bathroom’s door finish a suite complete with style.
Oil-rubbed bronze door hardware with crystal knobs from The Home Specialty Store in Reston decorates the special-order textured glass doors. These doors filter light into some bedrooms now featuring convenient alcoves for desks and floral and princess wallpaper. Purple and white tiles establish a buddy bath fit for royalty, while orange and black tiles in the second level’s third full bathroom show the fun side of the renovation.
Downstairs, Burke designed a wall for a big screen television, as well as an archway echoing the one in the family room. On this floor, the archway leads to a crafts corner. Also, a guest suite with large windows, a shimmering light fixture and a substantial bathroom opening to two spaces creates a versatile lower level.
Adding an Arbor
On the outside, BOWA Builders added carriage-style doors to the existing garage, plus built a separate detached garage with garden storage underneath and enough height out front for a basketball hoop. This area acts as a connector with arbor to the fenced yard with pool and covered corner patio. White siding, red doors, black shutters, stone along vertical posts and brick paving the way along horizontal paths create an outside that complements the redesign of the interior.
BOWA Builders won a 2004 FFL Monument Award, Award of Merit in the Customized Residential Remodeling category by the Northern Virginia Building Industry Association (NVBIA) for the Duncan home’s renovation on the main floor. In December, BOWA Builders also won a 2004 Contractor of the Year (CotY) award from the metropolitan Washington chapter of the National Association of the Remodeling Industry (NARI) based on its problem solving and craftsmanship, among other requirements, for the Duncan home redesign.
