Richard Leggin Architects
Designers frequently give us pictures of individual rooms they’ve designed, and we’ll feature those pictures as examples of their work, as we did in my recent story on color in the Spring issue of Washington Spaces.
All photography of this home is by Michael Kress
Fiona Newell Weeks supplied this photo by Michael Kress for that story, so it was really cool to hear recently from Architect Richard Leggin, who designed the whole-house renovation of which that room was a part.
He sent me photos of the rest of this glorious house in Potomac, MD, which he designed around the homeowners’ inspiration from the Louisiana governor’s mansion.
Here’s the Potomac home:
And here’s the governor’s mansion:
“They kept coming back to that [image] time and again for inspiration,” Leggin told me. And beyond the façade, he did a significant amount of work to update what used to be a tired, ’60s-era home. “We really did pretty much of a whole-house gut,” he said. Here’s the result:
The front doors were made to look old, down to their new “antique” wavy glass panes.
The stairs were reoriented from near the front door to create a formal stair hall beyond a small entry foyer.
Most of the rooms in the old house had low ceilings. Leggin created varying heights in different rooms in the remodel, such as this nine-foot ceiling in the family room.
The homeowners used their country home in Virginia as inspiration for the kitchen cabinets, which Leggin designed and The Master’s Woodshop in Hagerstown, MD, built.
The old study had “kind of a ’60s ski-chalet style,” Leggin said, with red walls, dark mahogany cabinets, and a “pickled” cathedral ceiling. The updated version, with a mantel and millwork designed by Leggin and built by The Master’s Woodshop, is much more pleasing to the eye.
The new garage leads to the house through a breezeway. Leggin also designed all the landscaping.
The pool and pergola – I wouldn’t mind being there just about… now.