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Three close friends recently collaborated to create a smart-looking penthouse in Bethesda, MD. Sherry Davis and Camille Saum have been “friends forever,” Saum says – their children grew up together. Linda Cafritz and Saum both attended Woodrow Wilson High School. In 2001, Davis sold a house to Cafritz, and later purchased one of her paintings.
After living in the same four-bedroom house in Bethesda’s Edgemoor neighborhood for 24 years, Davis decided to downsize. Her children were grown, she no longer needed a big yard, and a certain penthouse happened to come on the market.
Davis, a real estate broker for Washington Fine Properties LLC, had assembled the land for the development of Edgemoor at Arlington, a Bethesda condomium with 11 residences, so she was intimately familiar with the building. When the first owners put the two-bedroom, 2,600-square-foot penthouse up for sale, she jumped at the chance to buy it. “It had these two wonderful [and expansive] terraces,” she says. “I thought, what are the chances that I’ll find another apartment with two terraces? Before I bought it, I had Camille come over and look at it,” Davis says.
“There was no fireplace,” Saum, owner of Camille Saum Interior Design, notes. “There was no lighting and Sherry was dead set against recessed lighting.” Saum persuaded Davis to add both, which she now adores.
Saum’s forte is working with color and texture, but in this case, she kept the furnishings neutral. “I did neutral furniture because she’s not going to be redoing this. I like to explode with the art,” Saum says. Enter Linda Cafritz, an abstract artist.
Energizing Art
“Color was the most important thing to me,” Saum says. “But when you start directing an artist, you interfere.” Rather than suggesting colors, Saum specified sizes – 72 inches by 68 inches – for the two pieces Davis commissioned from Cafritz, who works in acrylic and collage. “Camille had all the drawings and swatches of fabrics,” Cafritz says.
As for the furnishings, “Sherry likes things very tailored and simple, and needed something Max would be able to be on and move freely,” Saum says, referring to Davis’ 13-year-old Welsh terrier. “In the spring and fall, I can leave Max on the terrace with water. He has a shady place on each side,” Davis adds.
She describes her new space as a soft contemporary. “Sometimes contemporary can be cold with [sharp] angles. I wanted it to be inviting and warmer than a contemporary, so we rounded the arms on the sofas and chairs,” Davis says of her custom-made furniture. An ottoman in front of the sofas gives Davis a place to set a glass of wine on a tray as she relaxes before a fire or to put her feet up and watch TV at day’s end.
Unlike in her house, where Davis had rooms she never used once her kids moved out, she uses every room in her condo. She loves her new penthouse. “It’s serene, it’s uncluttered, when I get home finally, my mind is clear,” Davis says. “I’m so stress-free in this place.”
