First Look: the Spring Valley House Tour

Exterior of the home of Sarah and Chris Cannova. The modern treatment of the front door hints at the offbeat interior.

The Cannova interior is a vivid exception to the beige-on-beige trend. The “prancing zebras” wallpaper is an iconic 1945 design from Scalamandre. The family worked with Jeff Akseizer of Akseizer Design Group of Alexandria.

Where the Cannova living room is “hot,” this sitting room is cool, cool, cool. The Cannovas worked with the Akseizer Group for their home’s interior.

Architect Ankie Barnes of Barnes Vanze designed a three-story addition to Bobbi and Dean Smith’s Spring Valley home.

The original section of the Tudor-style home owned by the Bronczek family was built in 1942, but it has been restyled, reimagined and resized several times.

The good life at Ashley and Matt Bronczek’s Tudor-style home expands to the large rear yard, complete with pool.

The Bronczeks’ little pup is dwarfed by the monumental French doors that lead to the terrace and the stone fireplace that anchors it.

SOME OF US go to open houses not to check out what’s on the market but to glean ideas for our own homes. Actually, probably most of us do that. But these days, especially when some houses are selling in a matter of days, sometimes without any open house at all, I get by with decorator show houses and house tours. The ticket price generally goes to a good cause, and the houses are inhabited by real people.

Granted, the “real people” who allow their homes to be invaded for charity have a certain self-confidence that the design choices they’ve made, often with professional help, will do them proud.

Eight such homes will be showcased at the Fourth Annual Palisade Village House Tour, this time focusing on the lush Northwest Washington, D.C., neighborhood of Spring Valley. The tour takes place on Saturday, October 15, 2016, 11am to 4pm. Tickets are $35 on the day of the tour, or $30 purchased in advance.

Palisades Village is an organization that provides services to seniors living in the Washington neighborhoods of Berkley, Foxhall, Kent, Palisades, Spring Valley and Wesley Heights.

—Nancy McKeon

Nancy is managing editor of MyLittleBird.com and wrote most recently about the D.C. Design House.