DC Design House Sept. 30-Oct. 29, 2017

In my next home I want a Gallery! Grossmueller’s Design Consultants of Washington DC enhanced the formal entrance gallery’s towering double-barrel ceiling vault with lighting tucked inside moldings, wallpaper (with a bit of twinkle, the designers point out) and brass nailheads tacked along the ribs of the vault. / MyLittleBird photo.

Two enormous photographic self-portraits (only one shown) by Danish visual artist Trine Søndergaard make the most of the ample wall space in the drawing room designed by Josh Hildreth Interiors of Reston, Virginia, and dubbed the Collector’s Cabinet. Søndergaard collects antique headpieces and creates a quiet space for herself, and the viewer, by shooting the back of her head. They flank a rather small fireplace given a step up in grandeur with the addition of a majestic “Rothschild” antler mirror from Little Big Horns of White Oak, Texas. Hildreth managed to “lower” the lofty ceiling with pecky cypress planks that are actually hand-painted woodgrain. / MyLittleBird photo.

The opposite end of the Collector’s Cabinet is anchored by seating, an antique Chinese screen and antique embroidered hangings. It’s difficult to notice anything in the room except the Søndergaard photos, and this seating area is a good place from which to soak them in, as different in scale from a Vermeer as possible but possessing the same sense of timeless serenity. / MyLittleBird photo.

The dimensions of the master bedroom suite are enormous, and it’s testimony to the skill of Dennese Guadeloupe Rojas of Silver Spring’s Interiors by Design that the room feels tranquil and comforting while allowing some glamour in terms of texture and a bit of sparkle. Sign me up! / MyLittleBird photo.

Country Casual Teak says its new upholstered lounge chairs are inspired by Danish modern design, but to my eye they’re updated bergere chairs, with upholstered back panels as well as front and sides. Country Casual Teak is located in Gaithersburg, Maryland.

Caryn Cramer used to live in Denmark, where she learned to do very neutral interiors. But she also credits the country’s aesthetic with a playfulness that has found its way into her textile designs. Cramer, a Washington DC native, designed the delightful jumble of fabrics that covers beds, chairs, upholstered walls and more in the Guest Bedroom. / MyLittleBird photo.

Here Caryn Cramer’s happy textiles meet and somehow don’t clash while creating something bigger than themselves. / MyLittleBird photo.

The 10th DC Design House is located at 9004 Congressional Court, Potomac, Maryland. The showhouse features 23 designed spaces and is open from Saturday, September 30, 2017 through Sunday, October 29.

WHEN I VISIT a decorator show house I listen as the designers explain the concept for their assigned room, because be it a powder room, a drawing room or a butler’s pantry, there will be a guiding principle, a theme. It may be the color, or the textures, or the balance, or the zany sense of people at play, but it will be there.

But while the decorators are talking, I confess that I often “slip away” and try to experience the space in a more personal way: Does the space make me feel happy, does it energize me or calm me down, does it maybe make me feel more graceful, or wow, would I feel rich if I lived here!?

I definitely would have to be rich to settle into the $11 million Potomac estate that is the setting for the 10th DC Design House, benefiting Children’s National Health System, which opens on Saturday, September 20, 2017. And with 23 designed spaces there are opportunities for all sorts of reactions. So I went through the house with LittleBird Kathy looking for spaces to covet.

And I found them. In my next house I want a Gallery, just an arm of “wasted” space on the main floor that leads to all the principal rooms. I also want the Laundry Room devised by Paula Grace Designs of Ashburn, Virginia (we’ll have a picture of it in our next installment). I could sleep quite peacefully in the pale blue tranquillity of the Master Bedroom, designed by Dennese Guadeloupe Rojas of Silver Spring’s Interiors by Design. At the opposite end of the spectrum is the wildly colorful Guest Bedroom. I know I could sleep in it, but would I want to stop watching the magical march of Caryn Cramer’s hand-drawn designs?

Then there’s the room where I would happily live out the rest of the days allotted to me: the Collector’s Cabinet, which Josh Hildreth of Josh Hildreth Interiors of Reston, Virginia, has filled with treasures, all of which fade into the background, my attention seized by two enormous photographs by Danish visual artist Trine Søndergaard, who photographs herself, from the back, wearing exquisite antique bonnets made by women in past centuries insistent on leaving their mark.

They certainly left their mark on me.

The house is enormous; we’ll have more descriptions and photos over the weekend.

—Nancy McKeon

LittleBird Nancy is managing editor of MyLittleBird.com.