Welcome to Annie Lou from DC; a blogger trying out for a place on the Apartment Therapy editorial team as a House Tour Contributor. Enjoy her work!
Name: Randy & Gladys & Bobby, two almost identical but unrelated cats.
Location: 16th Street Heights — Washington, DC
Size: 3,000 square feet
Years lived in: 1
Randy bought his 1920’s Wardman-style row house last year from the relatives of the original owners. The seller told him that in the attic they found books written by Teddy Roosevelt and inscribed to the first owner, who was Roosevelt’s butler at the White House. There’s no way to prove this but either way it fits in with Randy’s love of historical tidbits and objects.
After just a little tweaking the place is perfect for Randy’s great dinner parties and his collections. Though he plans to renovate the kitchen, as it stands now with its Julia Child-style pegboard it’s just big enough for equipment and room for him to cook (using lots of throw-back recipes). The dining room invites lingering over long meals and exploration of his readily-at-hand books. And his collections of old portraits, paint by numbers, animals scenes, and commercial signs have the run of the house and blend in well with the feel of the original moldings, layout, and general character.
Randy has a great eye and just as good a sense of humor, which is apparent here. Around very corner and on every surface is something slightly or subtly funny and even though not one spot is left unfilled Randy has arranged it all in such a way as to still give an atmosphere that’s open, orderly, and intentional.
Apartment Therapy Survey:
My Style: Flea market eclectic
Inspiration: Old photos of artists studios and salons; lodges; Victorian smoking rooms and dining halls; I like things that are solid, have passed the test of time, and feel like they will last for generations more.
Favorite Element: HI like just about everything my dining room—the mismatched bookcases; the “baronial” table which opens to 8 feet; the animal and landscape paintings
Biggest Challenge: Having patience to do one project at a time and only what I can afford
What Friends Say: One of my friends has a “man room” in his house – he and his wife day that my whole house is a “man room”; someone else once told me that they thought my taste was “Hemingway’s attic”
Biggest Embarrassment: When I moved in the entire kitchen – walls, ceiling, cabinets, and doors were painted high gloss neon pink. The pink is mostly gone, but I’m stuck with the pink marble formica and forty-year old appliances until the next round of renovations.
Proudest DIY: Installing wooden blinds on 9 windows without a power screwdriver (may also be my dumbest- and biggest waste of energy-DIY).
Biggest Indulgence: The kitchen – when it happens. I love to cook and the kitchen will be central to the social space of the house.
Best Advice: I’m doing this out of necessity, but I think that it’s really important to live in a space before you begin to renovate and change it. There are a number of things that I thought would be good ideas when I moved into the house that I wouldn’t consider now.
Dream Sources: I love Goodwood, the Georgetown Flea Market, estate sales in DC area.
Resources of Note:
PAINT & COLORS
- • Exterior, I have no idea what brand the painters used. I had them match Farrow and Ball colors. Interior, The only rooms that I have painted are the green room upstairs, the kitchen and the blue room downstairs. They are all Mythic matched to Farrow and Ball colors.
FURNITURE
- • Literally nothing is new in my house except for the mattresses. The majority come from Georgetown Flea Market, Upscale Resale, Good Wood, Craigslist
ARTWORK
- •All over the place --estate sales, 26th street Flea Market in Manhattan, Brooklyn Flea, Miss Pixies, Broadway Antique Market in Chicago, Edgewater Antique Mall in Chicago.
Thanks, Randy!
Images: Annie Lou Berman
• HOUSE TOUR ARCHIVE Check out past house tours here
• Interested in sharing your home with Apartment Therapy? Contact the editors through our House Tour Submission Form.
• Are you a designer/architect/decorator interested in sharing a residential project with Apartment Therapy readers? Contact the editors through our Professional Submission Form.
100 DIY Ideas for the 3-Day Weekend
Danielle's Charming, Classic Walk-Up
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
White Enamel Flatwa...
How To Make Perfect Bacon in the Oven
Perfect Summer Cocktail Recipe: Honey Bourbon Lemonade
Neat old house, but I think the owners could use some suggestions for sheets on that bed.
I enjoy how everything has nice patina from age and use...
...I don't even mind the pink formica laminate.
But the bedding: Oh, that's just depressing.
that oven is actually persimmon with brown at the edges
we had the same one when i was a kid - with matching cooktop, fridge and sink!!!
From what I can see, the house looks great and lots of fun. I have to compare this with yesterday's tryout entry of a rowhouse, and say that I prefer yesterday's (Brooklyn Rowhouse) b/c I really got the layout and flow there, where I don't here. I can't tell how the rooms relate or flow together, so it's hard to get a full picture of the place. These just seem like a bunch of rooms, rather than photos of a whole united house.
Nice place, but please get that Turkish chair reupholstered! It's too awesome to have it looking so ratty.
Actually, I love the bedding -- also the use of tomato and green, and most of all the respect for wood. I've painted a lot of wood in my day. but would never touch wood with this warmth and depth.
Never did see the two almost identical cats. I don't usually look at house tours of homes this large, but I wanted to see those kitties! I'll tour again.
Oh, the 2nd and 4th pics, if that is a cat on the table.
I like both shades of green in the walls and how it's paired with the red accents. But all I can think of is how dusty that place must get--and how difficult it must be to dust it. I also can't get over the fact that it's 3000 sq feet. It's hard to be inspired by spaces that are three times the size of my own.
I think there are a lot of very interesting and fun things in this house. The trouble I have is that I can't see a huge connection between all of them. Not that I have to see one, it's not my home. It just feels like a lot of stuff to me, like a shop.
And the bedding makes me sad.
This reminds me of my uncle's apartment, of which I am a huge fan. The close-up of the bookshelves makes me worried though. How do you find anything! Actually, my uncle's bookshelves are the same way. Ah well.
love the house! it is one of those homes that has a lot of stuff in it, but I actually didn't feel claustrophobic! I can see the continuity of design from room to room.
I have to agree that the bedding is depressing :( but other than that I love the warmth of the home :)
Hemingway's attic is a perfect description.
PLEASE tell me the name of the paint color in the kitchen! I want to put it on everything.
I appreciate that every item is not pristine and new (like the living room chair) it brings it down to a more realistic level. I don't have an endless budget, but I bet I could manage something like this. This house is fabulous, and comfortable. It looks like someone actually LIVES in it. I love it.
And I love the sheets.
I like the feel of this place very much -- the dark warm palate in many of the rooms, especially the dining room with its great collection of bookshelves.
I don't think I'd want to shelve my book in that crisscross pattern however, although I probably is an effective way to cram maximum number of book into a shelf.
I enjoyed the old rotary phone --- hope it is still functioning.
Neutral on the bedding question -- it doesn't bother me but probably could have more interesting selection. What I do like very much is the tryptich of landscapes over the headboard (but it bothers me a little that the one frame doesn't match.)
Lots of interesting furniture, rugs, pictures, books here and one could spend most of the time just curled up in a chair exploring.
Even though it's not exactly my style--couldn't live with so much stuff--I love this house! It's magical. Love the strange oven in the kitchen; the illuminated globe in the dining room & the crammed bookshelves--the bookshelves of a real reader. I especially love the "extreme patina" of the leather chair--it's beautiful & interesting to see. Reminds me of some houses I've seen in New Orleans where the owners just let some pieces of furniture decay--it adds a touch of decadence.... & The Victor Hugo piece is haunting me--where did you find it?
3000 sq ft? Apartment Therapy? VP @ NatGeo?
Love the house tour and the patina of all the pieces. But, sorry Annie, if you are trying out for a job as a writer, check your content. I saw at least 3 typos that ended up being the wrong word for the content.
This home doesn't seem to be well-designed so much as well-filled. It's clearly comfortable and boasts a lot of beautiful items, but they don't always cohere. It's almost as if it needs someone to come in and simply rearrange the existing pieces.
As for the tryout, the writing is good. The photos are a little on the dull side, lighting-wise, but at least we got a reasonable feel for the layout of the house.
@mirandajane --- I've seen homes in New Orleans like that, too! Somehow it works there...they have a real feel for "wabi-sabi".
Love the photo of those bookshelves... so real - it really brings me into their lives!
i love this place and the way things are arranged--it looks like the home of an adventurer! love esp. the kitchen & the interesting art. love the photo of the bookshelves too.
I have to agree, as I often do, with surfjack. It's your space and you should do it as you like it. It does seem a bit antique shop-ish... many found objects that stand on their own but don't lend to a cohesiveness. However, it may just be me. I'm a big modern guy. I dig the shade of red on the front door... nice and rich. I really like to picture of the chef's tats.
This home (and it is a home, not just a house) has tons of fun things to examine and interesting rooms to explore, but it doesn't seem that comfortable or relaxing.
Echoing the others, I would have liked to have understood the layout of the home, as well as a photo of the entire facade of the home. 16th Street Heights has some beautiful historical houses, yet remains one of the lesser known neighborhoods in NW DC.
looove this home... would love to explore it on a rainy afternoon.
request: please include floor plans with all house tours.
the house: Shows a strong sense of the owner knowing exactly who he is and what he wants. Makes me think of a gentlemen's club from the days of Sherlock Holmes, with room after room of smoky wood and layers of wonderful, old souvenirs.
The bookshelf: My bookshelves always look like that too, and I like the wonderful surprises and odd juxtapositions that happen.
The blog tryout: I liked the selection of photos and vignettes better than i liked the brownstone. For what it's worth
Wonderful! Absolutely wonderful!
Sorry, but a wall of side by side mismatched bookcases (here in the dining room) drives me crazy. Its not just here. I see it again and again in clients homes (usually left over from college days). I have seen it several times here on AT as well. People, for the love of God!!! If you insist on holding on to books (most of which it is very unlikely you will ever read again), PLEASE, at the very least put up some tracks and make a proper bookshelf. As a designer I have to say that is one of the easiest ways to tailor your home.
Auction House/College Dorm Chic isn't all that chic.
Yeah, I would like to echo the 3,000 square foot question. I live in an almost identical rowhouse close to 16th Street Heights and mine is nowhere near 3,000 sq feet. It is about 1700 sq feet for the upstairs and downstairs. I suppose if you included a finished basement and maybe the attic it could get close to 3,000 but even that is a stretch. And my house is wider than a lot of rowhouses.
With that being said, I like the deep colors - especially in the sunroom. And that is an interesting switch of the living/dining rooms.
I love this place - it just feels homey and eclectic and INTERESTING. Nothing bores me more than a sterile, over-designed home.
I would completely move in, kiss the kitties, and read every single one of those books. Aaaaaaaaah.
But I MUST have the name of that green on the walls. MUST! It sings to my soul!
This has been a couple of days of non mid-century design...and I must needs say, I am absolutely in love.
@thequiltmaster - Classic Wardman houses, which are all over DC, are two floors with a basement, an attic with a low roof, and a two-level sleeping porch. The two finished floors, which is what you get when you rent a Wardman that hasn't been thoroughly renovated, are maybe 1500 square feet. Then, if you add in the basement, attic and sleeping porch you get close to 3,000.
It's too cluttery for my personal taste, but the objects in the home were so interesting that I actually love this home. I wished it belonged to someone I knew so I could visit them often.
I want an update when the kitchen is finished!
Thank goodness I'm not the only one who loves Oriental rugs! Instant sophistication, quality, and softness. And they clean up so nicely (and hide stains).
Love how much light you got in here - in AT terms, it's not terribly bright, but for DC, it's positively greenhouse-worthy.
The true reason I didn't buy a rowhouse...
Randy, these comments are fascinating! And so many of them. You've caused quite a stir. These photos give me a much better idea of what your new home looks like. It's so you and very handsome. I loved your inspirations.
Congrats, I love you!
dana joy
I completely disagree about the mismatched bookcases, although I can see that this is not everyone's style.
They are all in darker wood, all glass-front, all of uncertain but advanced age--that lends a sense of cohesion without being "tailored" and matchy-matchy. While I do enjoy a lot of the fresh, tailored, matchy-matchy designs, my goal is to achieve something that looks more collected and soulful, like this home. And to do that with the whole appearing to cohere is a much greater design challenge in my experience.
This house's elements do cohere, but I agree with the comment about the lighting--the lack of good lighting in some photos harms the presentation of the house.
My favorite room is the library/reading room cum dining room.
Cursory review of post: content offers interesting and charming details; selection of subject is very smart (the home's decor challenges the main aesthetic of the site's readers, and the size challenges the site's mission); the photos are a bit dodgy, but there are a couple good ones (#24 for example).
Love this house -- its humor, its aesthetic, its personality. The bookcases are fab. And I have to say, in reading the comments, that I feel sorry for anyone whose only response to an inspired interior is based on how to dust it... unless they're allergic or hyper-sensitive to dust, which is something else entirely. Randy is obviously willing to put in the work to keep the things he loves tidy. Bully for him!
The richness of the various colors and woods makes it feel decadent but the clutter and well-worn materials and items brings it down to earth. Very nice!
Ooo, this man needs to find two awesome products: steel/aluminum cleaning powder and copper cleaning powder. (The alternative is to use some really strong stuff like NH3 or strong acids which can damage your lungs... and your pots.)
Not every grocery store carries these powders. They are sold under "Revere" brand (like the cooking pots).
They not only work like a charm and you won't be embarrassed about those dark rings on display for the world to see--they'll also improve your cooking and save energy because that oxidized layer reduces thermal conductivity!
Interesting home, like I would expect a "gentleman's club" to look like. A little dark for my taste, I'm a sunlight girl, but I salute your bravery in mixing the greens and reds. The long green couch looks unbearably uncomfortable, but I love the lighted globe. Is that an Art Deco piece?