With her handcrafted rug business, KES Collections, Morgan Bailey prides herself on creating a boutique experience, including custom-sizing her offerings and matching them to Benjamin Moore paint swatches. Supplied photo.
Morgan Bailey was tired of replacing the rugs she’d bought at big box stores every nine months (“thanks to my toddler and golden retriever!” she says), so when she moved into a new home in 2020, she took the opportunity to search for something durable, high quality, and family-friendly.
“I was searching for bright and colorful rugs but couldn’t find the right fit,” Bailey says. “After trying out various suppliers and facing some trial and error, I eventually found a few beautiful pieces.” So beautiful, in fact, that when her family and friends saw her new rug, they wanted one, too. And that’s when it came to Bailey: There might be a market for these in Charlottesville.
KES Collections (short for Keswick, where her business is located) launched in April of 2020. Bailey sources the rugs—which range in size from 2’x3′ to 18’x22’—from artisans in India or Turkey, always on the lookout for new ideas and designs.
“You can count on us to introduce two to four fresh styles every month or put a new spin on your favorite existing design in a new colorway,” she says.
Bailey prides herself on the custom touches she offers, like being able to order rugs down to the inch for a client’s own specifications. She hand-selects threads from more than 1,400 hues, many of them matching directly to a Benjamin Moore paint color. Customers can choose from a selection of in-stock rugs at one of four local retailers—Brigid and Bess and Flooring Fashions, as well as Gramercy Collective and Gild and Ash in Richmond—but Bailey likes it best when she gets to put her own personal stamp on a project. To that end, KES Collections offers 2’x2′ samples of most designs, as well as in-house design consultations.
“I love being able to meet and get to know my clients while creating a beautiful heirloom piece that will last a lifetime,” she says. “Let’s not just decorate your space—let’s craft a story.”
Pitsuda LaRussa believes that every journey begins with one small step—at least when it comes to living a more sustainable lifestyle. The Botanique & Co. owner started her own journey shortly after giving birth to her daughter. She began with a little switch, from conventional to organic food, then worked her way from plastic shopping bags to fabric, disposable diapers to cloth, and paper towels to reusable.
“I always inspire people to start one thing for each month or each week,” she says. “A little bit of daily routine change or switching things will become part of your life for the long term.”
Eventually, she began to wonder if there was a bigger contribution she could make. The Botanique & Co. opened in November of 2023, stocking indoor plants and offering a refillery service. From there, she brought in eco-conscious products for the kitchen and bathroom, as well as vegan cosmetics and organic skincare.
Her daughter’s favorite section in the store is the eco-friendly toys, and she says customers have responded best to the plants and the reusable cotton makeup removers. LaRussa, though, is partial to the self-care and beauty products.
No matter where in the store customers find inspiration, LaRussa hopes it makes a lasting impact.
“My goal is to help inspire you to do some little switch,” she says. “Every item could be a great gift for yourself to start a journey of sustainable living or even a zero-waste gift for friends and family to start their sustainable practice journey.”
The building at 105 Ridge St., which formerly housed the Music Resource Center,
will serve as Point Church’s newest campus.
Supplied photo.
A Christian church with locations in Louisa County, Pantops Mountain, and Waynesboro has purchased a key site in downtown Charlottesville for a new campus.
Point Church paid $1.3 million for 105 Ridge St., a structure originally built in the late 19th century for the Mount Zion Baptist Church. The property had previously been listed at $1.875 million.
“This is an amazing building, and just think of all the life changes that have happened here,” said executive director Chip Measells in a video on the church’s website. “You can’t get any more [central] than where we are.”
After the Mount Zion congregation moved to a new location on Lankford Avenue in 2003, the building became the home of the Music Resource Center in 2004. Previously, the center offered educational opportunities to teens in a practice space above Trax, a famed nightclub that was demolished soon after the University of Virginia purchased it for hospital expansion.
Point Church was founded in 2009 and is listed as being a Southern Baptist congregation. Their website states they expect to have the old church ready for worship services in April 2025. The purchase was a strategic one.
“We want to be at the center of everything that’s happening around our communities that are in poverty, that are struggling with financial hardships, and to do that we need to map the assets and collaborate and coordinate with all the other great work that’s being done,” Measells said.
One nearby opportunity for collaboration is the Salvation Army at 207 Ridge St. City Council recently granted permission for an expansion project that will allow an increase from 55 shelter beds to 114 beds. That includes seven two-bedroom suites for transitional housing, allowing families to stay together.
Measells said Point Church has an entrepreneurship academy that lasts 10 weeks and is followed up with Gospel-led mentorship.
“We are praying that God is going to make an extraordinary impact through this Gospel-centered path out of poverty,” said Pastor Gabe Turner in the video. “We are praying that the poverty level will decrease.”
The Point Church will continue to lease the basement space to the Music Resource Center. They also have a map indicating several satellite locations for parishioners to park. The few spaces close to the church are reserved for drivers with handicap tags.
Next door, Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer is marketing the former Greyhound bus station as a “rare development opportunity” that could take advantage of the new Commercial Mixed Use Corridor zoning. An encampment of unhoused individuals is currently living at the site.
Elsewhere in Charlottesville, plans to develop a portion of the Hinton Avenue Methodist Church in Belmont with affordable apartments fell through when the Church of the Good Shepherd paid $1.5 million for the property. That purchase allowed the congregation to move out of the space they were renting at 105 Ridge St. from the Music Resource Center.
The single-story office structure within the yellow boundaries will be redeveloped as a four-story mixed-use building with up to 15 apartments. Line and Grade via Albemarle GIS.
Twenty-three years ago this week, Albemarle Supervisors officially adopted a policy called the Neighborhood Model to encourage construction of a more urban fabric in the county’s designated growth areas.
“We were proud of the tremendous efforts put into developing the Neighborhood Model by a committee of local residents and staff,” says Sally Thomas, who represented the Samuel Miller District at the time. “It was ‘smart growth’ before that was a common moniker.”
Since that time, developers have gotten approval from the Board of Supervisors by demonstrating how their projects satisfy twelve principles intended to avoid suburban sprawl by using land more efficiently. Albemarle also created master plans for each area to signal to property owners what the local government would like to see happen.
Dr. Jay Knight operates his dental practice on a one-acre parcel on Woodbrook Drive near the intersection with Berkmar Drive in a building constructed in 1996.
“Our building pretty much needs to be updated at this point,” Knight says. “I have been thinking for some time about redesigning the office and the building and thought it would be a great idea to also be able to have some residential components with the property.”
According to the plans drawn up by the firm Line and Grade, the one-story building would be demolished to make way for a four-story structure with a footprint of 6,698 square feet.
“Currently the plan is for ground-level dental office space with three stories residential above, at up to 15 units,” reads the narrative for the application written by Line and Grade.
Knight is a native of the area who says he appreciates Albemarle’s work to limit development into the rural area to attain what he described as a “great harmony.” This property is designated in the Places29 Master Plan as “urban density residential.”
However, comprehensive plans are advisory and landowners must comply with zoning. The current classification for this property is commercial (C-1) so a special use permit is required for residential use. Two special exceptions to building placement rules are also requested to allow the site to be reused.
The property is adjacent to Agnor-Hurt Elementary School, and plans show an easement for a future pathway to the school should the county decide to build one. Knight said that came at the suggestion of planners in Albemarle’s Community Development during a preliminary meeting before the application was filed.
Albemarle has amended its Comprehensive Plan several times since 2001, including the addition of the Housing Albemarle plan. This plan has a clear goal for developers: More places to live are required for the county to support anticipated population growth. The Places29 Master Plan, adopted in 2007, called for an extension of Berkmar Drive north, and VDOT has plans to connect that roadway to Airport Road where it joins the UVA Discovery Park.
Another principle in the neighborhood model is to provide residential density in places where there are sidewalks, bicycle infrastructure, and public transit. People who live in the space would have access to at least one Charlottesville Area Transit route. Knight said residents could walk to the Rio Hill Shopping Center for groceries and could easily make their way to jobs.
“I think a concept like what we’re talking about would really fit in,” Knight says.
The permit and the special exceptions will need to go through the Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors. Knight hopes to be able to move to construction between two and five years.
For years, Crozet celebrated July 4 with fireworks at Claudius Crozet Park, but new homes built in the debris field means a new location is necessary. Photo by Jim Duncan.
Unlike Scottsville, Crozet is not a town, and decisions about land use are up to the six-member Board of Supervisors. The unincorporated community is in Albemarle’s White Hall District, and last year, incumbent Supervisor Ann Mallek narrowly defeated challenger Brad Rykal.
Rykal’s campaign argued Albemarle has focused too much development into Crozet without providing the necessary infrastructure. Even after losing by just 500 votes, Rykal and his campaign formed the group Crozet United and have continued to oppose new homes, such as the 122-unit Montclair development on Route 240.
This week, the Crozet Community Advisory Committee will take up a special use permit that is only indirectly related to residential growth. King Family Vineyards wants permission to hold the annual Independence Day celebration this year and into the future.
“The fireworks celebration has previously been held at Claudius Crozet Park,” reads the application for the permit. “However, after recent housing development encroaching on the park, fireworks can no longer be launched without endangering inhabited dwellings nearby.”
The 22.81 acre Claudius Crozet Park is privately owned by a nonprofit organization right in the middle of one of Albemarle’s designated growth areas. However, Albemarle’s fire marshal will no longer permit displays of fireworks due to the presence of new homes.
As of April 1, Albemarle’s Community Development Department lists 1,482 approved residential units in Crozet that have not yet been built, though that figure largely refers to 1,078 units still allowed at Old Trail Village, which is some distance away from the park.
The U.S. Census Bureau designates Crozet as a place, and lists the population as having grown from 5,565 in 2010 to 9,224 in 2020. The application for the special use permit suggests that a permanent home for Crozet’s Independence Day celebration will help create the future.
“It is a wonderful event that brings people together, both young and old alike,” reads the narrative. “It is an opportunity for people that have lived in Crozet for their entire lives and those who may have just moved to the area to share a common space and make memories together.”
The Crozet Community Advisory Committee meets at 7pm Wednesday in the Crozet Library.
Jim Duncan is a member of the CAC and realtor who has written about Crozet issues for years. He said that while he is glad King Family Vineyards wants to be the new venue for Independence Day celebrations, he laments the change of venue from Claudius Crozet Park.
“That was such an important part of life in Crozet for decades,” Duncan said. “So many were able to walk to the fireworks and see them from their homes and be part of the community in that way.”
Officials with Crozet United declined to provide comment for this story.
When the City of Charlottesville served a stop-work order at 521 Park Plaza, it discovered that this one-and-a-half-story home had already been demolished.
Supplied photo.
The City of Charlottesville issued a stop-work order on Friday, April 26, at 521 Park Plaza in the North Downtown neighborhood. When it served the document, the city discovered the three-bedroom house had been demolished.
At some point late last week, a yellow excavator smashed the one-and-a-half-story structure into pieces. City records listed the home, built in 1979, in excellent condition and without a basement.
The demolition took place despite the new owners having an approved building permit to proceed with a remodeling.
Carrie and Benjamin Yorker bought the property last August for $705,000. The house had been assessed in 2023 at $459,800, and that climbed to $677,700 this January. The home first sold in April 1980 for $59,000.
Benjamin Yorker is a development partner with the Charlotte-based firm Northwood Ravin, and focuses on markets in the southern United States. He has two degrees from the University of Virginia, including a master of business administration from the Darden School of Business.
The city issued a building permit for “interior renovations” on March 19 at what documents describe as Yorker Cottage. Sage Homes LLC is named as the contractor, and “remodel” was listed as the description of the work, with an estimated cost of $550,000. The plans clearly show the structure was to be remodeled, and there is no hint that demolition was pending.
The property is within the Residential-A zoning district, which means three new units can be built on the 0.11 acre lot under the new zoning.
City code defines demolition “as the razing of any structure above the existing grade, or the demolition of any structure below the existing grade.”
Neighborhood Development Services requires a permit for partial or full residential demolition, but it is unclear from the code what the penalty is if someone does not submit one. The cost to apply for a permit ranges from $75 to $1,500, depending on the permit.
The home at 521 Park Plaza is not within the jurisdiction of an architectural design control district, so permission from the Board of Architectural Review was not required. Penalties are much more severe for removing such a structure without the city’s consent.
The city has issued demolition permits this year for 710 Lexington Ave. and 600 Altavista Ave. Requests to take down 1105 Grove St. in Fifeville and 612 Harris Rd. in Willoughby are still pending, while another, 1003 Carlton Ave., is listed as “closed,” meaning the permit was rejected. (The demolition of this structure would allow Riverbend Development to construct a 130-unit condominium complex.)
“The demolition permit informs utilities and other service providers that all services must be disconnected,” says Afton Schneider, the city’s director of communications and public engagement. “The permit is not issued until those groups sign off that it is complete.”
Schneider also says the permit ensures that any hazardous materials, such as asbestos or lead paint, will be mitigated in the removal process. Coordination with erosion and sediment control takes place at this stage.
Anyone who takes down a building outside a historic district without permission must pay the $150 stop-work fee (this is charged per day that work continues without permit), pay double the demolition fee, and resolve any other site issues before new applications can be processed.
At press time, the Yorkers had not responded to a request for comment.
The BAR recently reviewed plans for a proposed downtown hotel that would feature 160 rooms for visitors, rather than more than 100 places for people to live. Image by NBJ Architecture.
The developer of a planned nine-story apartment building at 218 W. Market St. is considering building a hotel there instead.
“It’s a great opportunity to further expose the Downtown Mall to visitors coming into Charlottesville, and increase the vitality of our downtown,” says Jeffrey Levien of Heirloom Development.
In September 2020, City Council granted Levien’s company a special use permit for additional height and residential density for up to 134 apartments. On Tuesday, April 9, the Board of Architectural Review had a preliminary discussion on new plans that would instead see a six-story building with 160 rooms.
The BAR approved a demolition permit for the existing site in November 2021, but that authority runs out next March.
An official application has not yet been filed, and any new proposal will be reviewed under the city’s new zoning code. The Timmons Group developed a preliminary concept plan for a six-story building in which guests would be dropped off on Market Street. There would be 160 rooms in a 139,315 square-foot building. The new zoning does not require any parking spaces, but the structure’s plans include 116 spots in an internal garage.
The property is currently the home of a shopping center that still houses Artful Lodger and The Livery Stable. Last August, the Fluvanna County Board of Supervisors approved a rezoning for a new home for Artful Lodger at 2428 Richmond Rd.
Heirloom Development also created the 57-unit Six Hundred West Main apartment building that’s located behind the Blue Moon Diner. In addition, the company has plans to construct a similar residential structure next door, on the site of a former automotive repair shop.
Levien says that project is on hold while his company evaluates whether it may be better to proceed under the new zoning.
“It will take a considerable amount of design and costing and underwriting to figure that out,” he says.
If 218 W. Market St. does become a hotel, it would be next door to the Omni, which recently completed a $15 million renovation project. Elsewhere in Charlottesville, the 198-room Forum Hotel at the Darden School of Business opened last April, and the University of Virginia is constructing the 217-room Virginia Guesthouse as part of the Emmet-Ivy Corridor.
Last April, the burned-down husk of the Excel Inn was demolished to make way for a replacement seven-story, 72-room hotel. City Council approved a special use permit for that in October 2018, but the project has not moved forward.
There are currently no plans for anything to happen with the abandoned Downtown Mall shell, which is owned by Atlanta-based developer John Dewberry. It has now been more than 15 years since construction halted, and nearly 12 since Dewberry bought the property at auction for $6.25 million, and promised a luxury hotel.
The Altamont Circle apartments, which were built in 1929, have only a single staircase. Photo by Albemarle County.
Any structure erected in Virginia must conform to building codes created around a century ago to ensure safe construction methods are followed and that people inside can get out if there’s a fire. Such provisions spread across the country after the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in March 1911 in New York City that led to the deaths of 146 workers who were blocked from leaving the burning building.
Virginia updates its code every three years, and several advocates of reducing the cost to construct housing have been lobbying for deregulation of some aspects, such as mandates that multifamily buildings have two staircases and at least two ways out.
Last week, Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed legislation directing state officials to convene a group to study the possibility of allowing only one exit for apartment buildings up to six stories.
“This puts the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development in the best possible position to make positive changes in the building code to improve safety and affordability and allow the kinds of high-quality ‘missing middle’ designs common in other countries and Seattle and New York City,” says Charlottesville Planning Commission member Lyle Solla-Yates.
Both Solla-Yates and Planning Commissioner Rory Stolzenberg participated in a DHCD workgroup in the spring of 2022 to suggest reform. Neither is an architect or civil engineer.
In June of that year, Solla-Yates put forward a proposal to allow up to 20 units in a five-story building. He claimed the cost of requiring an additional staircase added $380,000 to the cost of a building. The idea had the support of a fellow workgroup member who works for the Home Builders Association of Virginia.
However, the minutes of the meeting indicate that several people from the state building codes office were not in favor, due to safety concerns and feeling that the issue should be discussed nationally first.
The proposal was listed officially as “non-consensus,” and the idea did not move forward in the code update that took effect in January of this year. Solla-Yates is glad the discussion will move forward with the passage of the bill.
“No consensus, no change, unless there is clear direction from the legislative body,” he says.
Virginia did not adopt a building code until the early 1970s, which means there are examples of single-staircase buildings in Charlottesville, such as the Altamont Circle apartments in the North Downtown neighborhood. Those were built in 1929, according to city property records, and there are over 20 units.
The stakeholder group is required to deliver their report to the General Assembly by the end of the year.
At least one stakeholder is prepared to make sure the deregulation doesn’t occur.
“The Virginia Fire Prevention Association has grave concern of the consequences of considering a six-story dormitory, apartment, hotel, motel, etc. [with] a single means of egress,” says organization president Gerry Maiatico. “This should not even be considered, let alone sent to a committee for discussion.”
Albemarle County seeks to rezone over a third of the land recently purchased to serve as a buffer for the defense intelligence agencies based at Rivanna Station. Image by Albemarle County.
Ten months ago, Albemarle County Supervisors authorized County Executive Jeffrey Richardson to proceed with the purchase of 462 acres around the Rivanna Station military base.
In late March, Richardson filed for a rezoning with the county’s Community Development Department to rezone just over a third of that land for economic development purposes.
“A key element of Rivanna Futures is the establishment of an Intelligence and National Security Innovation Acceleration Campus, a place for public sector organizations, private sector businesses, and academic institutions to work together to co-create solutions to the biggest challenges facing our nation and the world,” reads the executive summary for the request to convert the land to light industrial.
The county hired Line and Grade to make its case to staff and the Board of Supervisors, and the rezoning application builds off a previous study the firm conducted before the deal with developer Wendell Wood closed.
Albemarle paid $58 million for the land to serve as a buffer for the National Ground Intelligence Center, the Defense Intelligence Agency, and other related government agencies. Albemarle wants to improve the site’s marketability.
According to the Weldon Cooper Center at the University of Virginia, the defense sector is now the second-largest industry in the region, with an annual impact measured in 2023 at $1.2 billion. Albemarle sees development of a portion of the land as an investment in the future.
“Initial estimates suggest that when fully developed, Rivanna Futures could provide nearly 873 new jobs with median incomes of $81,000 a year,” the summary continues.
At this time, the county does not anticipate residential units on the land, according to an impact statement. Just under two acres of the land is outside of the county’s development area.
David Swanson is a Charlottesville-based peace activist who is troubled by Albemarle’s investment in the property. If the military wants protected land, he says, it should pay for it themselves.
“If anybody else wanted to buy land, for a hospital or affordable housing or a park or a nature preserve or a gas station, they’d have to pay for it themselves,” Swanson says. “Why should the county pay for the wealthiest institution there is?”
Albemarle already receives revenue as a result of the purchase. On Wednesday, April 3, county supervisors will appropriate $65,000 in rent from parking lots it purchased that had been owned by Wood.
Next steps for the rezoning application include a community meeting with the Places29-North Community Advisory Committee, before a public hearing with the Planning Commission.
Architect Rosney Co. Architects Builder Greer and Associates Interior design Jennifer Stoner Interiors Landscape architect Waterstreet Studio
As soon as I came up here and saw the view, I called my wife and said, ‘I’ve found the place,’” recalls Hugh Shytle. “I felt like I was on top of the world.”
Shytle and his wife Doreen had lived in New England and raised their children there, but when it came time to build their forever home, Hugh was drawn to central Virginia. As a remote-working partner in a Richmond-based real estate development firm, Hugh was familiar with the area, and the couple homed in on southern Albemarle County close to Charlottesville. When a colleague of Hugh’s called about a lot in Blandemar, he came to check out the site, took in the 360-degree view from the hilltop over rolling hills and the Ragged Mountains, and was hooked.
Photo: Gordon Gregory Photography
Hugh had already been networking with colleagues in the Charlottesville area for a design team. By the time the Shytles had closed on the site, they had an architect (Rosney Co.); a builder (Greer and Associates); a landscape architect (Waterstreet Studio); and an interior designer (Jennifer Stoner Interiors) lined up. “We had never built a home before,” Doreen says, “so it helped that we had a great team.”
Having the full team involved from the start “is really our preferred approach,” says Rosney Co. architect Keith Scott. And the site was a plus—not only for its “outstanding” views, but because working on the flat hilltop made construction easier (“steep sites are a budget killer,” he says). Scott says Hugh’s experience in the real estate business helped prepared the Shytles for the hundreds of decisions they had to make—and the many blips that can cause delays or changes in plans.
Photo: Gordon Gregory Photography
The couple had also given lots of thought to their forever home. Hugh, in fact, had a 10-page document listing everything the pair wanted. Top of the list: “maximizing the view with lots of windows.” Other have-to-haves: two home offices at opposite ends of the house (“Doreen doesn’t want to hear me on conference calls,” Hugh laughs); an owner’s bedroom suite on the first floor; lots of fireplaces; and a large screened porch. Doreen wanted a shingle-style house and a large open kitchen with a pantry; Hugh wanted geothermal heating, an outdoor kitchen by the pool area, and a barn. And, of course, room for their two children and family to visit.
Photo: Gordon Gregory Photography
As the design progressed and “forever” choices had to be made, the original plan for 5,000 square feet ended up at almost 7,000. The Shytles hadn’t originally asked for a full basement, for example, but “we were glad to have that [workout room] when COVID hit,” Doreen recalls. (The couple came to Charlottesville in June 2017 to oversee construction, and moved into their new house in January 2019.)
Photo: Gordon Gregory Photography
The finished home feels comfortable and human-scale, both spacious and well-organized, and the stunning views are everywhere. The main entry’s back wall is the staircase silhouetted against a two-story window. The wing to the left is the owners’ suite: a calm and private bedroom with fireplace and large windows west and south; a couple’s bathroom with separate vanities and a makeup table, heated floors, a walk-in shower, and a free-standing tub; his-and-hers dressing rooms with loads of cabinets and clothing spaces (including shelves for Hugh’s hats); a laundry room with built-in storage drawers, drying racks, and even a step on which to place the laundry basket.
To the right of the entry, past the formal dining room, is the high-ceilinged great room featuring a fieldstone fireplace and a two-story southwest-facing window. The comfortable furnishings are warm neutrals, with accents of wood, and nature-themed contemporary artwork. “Our house in New England was a colonial, with dark wood furniture,” Doreen says. “We decided to get rid of almost all of it.” (They did keep several lovely bedsteads and dressers for the upstairs guest rooms.)
Photo: Gordon Gregory Photography
Off the great room is the large open-plan kitchen with its own dining area and spacious windows running along both sides. This is Doreen’s domain: “I wanted a large but well-organized space, white but not sterile.” So the expanse of white cabinets is lightened up by opaque patterned-glass inserts, the counters are gray-streaked honed Montclair Darby marble, and the cabinet under the island is a neutral lined oak. One side of the island’s large counter is a half oval that gives people gathering on the bar stools more room. The handmade range hood of burnished nickel from Thompson Traders is set off by the chevron-patterned tiles in shades of gray on the backsplash. Tucked away off the kitchen are additional working spaces—a pantry/appliance room, and a butler’s pantry/staging area across from the dining room. And, as with any country home, there’s a good-sized mud room full of coat hooks and cubbies.
The Shytles got their other must-haves as well. Hugh’s and Doreen’s offices are on opposite ends of the second floor—with a guest bedroom suite, two bedrooms and a full bath, and a game room in between. The large screened porch, with its shingled columns, fieldstone fireplace, and large-screen television, functions as an all-season outdoor gathering space. Beyond the pool area (designed by Waterstreet and built by Pool Designs by Schultz in Lexington) is a two-acre wildflower garden with beehives from which the family harvests its own honey. And yes, Hugh got his barn.
“We had our list of what we wanted, and the team brought it to life,” says Hugh. “People ask what we would have done differently, and it’s really very little.”
Photo: Gordon Gregory Photography
Incorporating contemporary into classic
To prepare for decorating her new home, Doreen Shytle “spent hours on Pinterest,” she recalls. “I wanted a feeling of calm, light, airy.” Her research online led her to interior designer Jennifer Stoner.
“Doreen knew she wanted a Hamptons shingle-style house, but [for the interior] we started from scratch,” says Stoner. “I took them down to [the showrooms in] High Point, North Carolina, and she started gravitating toward more contemporary styles.”
Stoner keyed the design to the home’s stunning views: “I tried to bring in the greens and blues from nature, and focused on a warmer palette.” Choices like veined marble, textured glass, and patterned tiles in the kitchen, butler’s pantry, laundry room, and baths added warmth and texture (Cogswell Stone supplied all the stone in the home, and the patterned tiles came from Sarisand Tiles). In smaller spaces, like the butler’s pantry, the mudroom, and the powder room, Stoner and Doreen used tans and warm dark blues for the walls and cabinets.
Choosing light fixtures “was one of my favorite parts of the process,” says Stoner. Centered in the great room’s vaulted ceiling is a hanging fixture of interlocking gold-toned circles from Currey & Co. The dining room chandelier is a modern metal take on a classic candelabra, with matching wall scones in the adjoining entry. The stairway features large vertical wall scones and an unusual straight-line hanging fixture from Visual Comfort. Doreen admits she was hesitant at first, but has grown to love how they fit the space.—CD
