FFOR MANY ARCHITECTS, SOME OF THE BEST PROJECTS ARE THE ONES IN which the home is fully completed with complementary interior design. So when architect Ruard Veltman renovated a Foxcroft home about a decade ago, and the homeowners never incorporated a full interior-design installation, the project felt incomplete.
It wasn’t until several years later, when Veltman received a call from friends who had purchased the home, that he finally had the opportunity to see the project through to completion. “It was a really clever architectural renovation,” he explains of the one-time traditional red-brick Colonial that was completely transformed by Veltman.
“The architecture was there; the setting was there. The furnishings just needed to be put in place.” Although the new homeowners loved Veltman’s work and didn’t want to change anything architecturally, they wanted to continue the same clean, minimalist, thoughtful design Veltman created into the home’s interiors. “We used to walk by this house all the time and remark how much we loved it,” says the homeowner. “It was really serendipitous because one day we noticed it was on the market, and we felt it was meant to be ours. We loved everything about it. It’s unusual inside, but it’s also extremely cozy, which we loved. We knew there wasn’t anything we’d want to change.”
Wanting to do everything to complement Veltman’s work, the homeowners enlisted his in-house designer, Julia Wood, to tackle the interior design. “They completely trusted us and really loved what was done with the renovation,” Wood explains. “They truly wanted us to see this project to the end.” With Wood taking the reins, the project spanned the first floor, maintaining the architectural details Veltman added years earlier. The family room features a long niche with a custom-designed upholstered banquette by Morgan Chair that the homeowners instantly became smitten with.
“They loved the niche for those big custom crawl-in sofas, which really set up that room,” Wood says. “There’s a lot of textural quality throughout the home. The egg-crate ceiling materials and the wood on the back of the niche are not finely polished. There are slate plaster walls. So the furniture continues that theme with wood and upholstery that’s very simple and serene, textured and layered, but not a lot of color or pattern.”
To really enhance the home’s architectural details, Veltman and Wood looked to local artisans to custom design furniture and lighting, such as the family room’s white-oak coffee table by Alex Dauwe with a finish by Tony Montognese. In the nearby dining room, a stunning table features a tabletop fabricated in rift-cut white oak by Jeff Franz, a high-gloss clear lacquer finish by Tony Montognese, and a dramatic fluted plaster base by Eric Cockrell of Mudwerk. “There are so many great craftsmen coming together in this one home,” Veltman says. “Just as an art gallery would showcase work from various artists and multimedia, this home is the same thing. That’s what makes this really special. It has great continuity throughout the house.” The formal dining-room table is such a stunning piece of work that the dining chairs are purposefully absent from the room so as not to block the view of the design. Similarly, so the dining room’s architectural details would not be overlooked, Wood forewent a typical chandelier. Instead, Veltman designed a custom niche above the fireplace to fit the homeowners’ existing artwork by Sarah Helser from Hidell Brooks Gallery. “It’s a fitting piece of art for this space because it’s of a chandelier,” says Wood of the ironic placement.
Artwork from local galleries Hidell Brooks and Hodges Taylor, lighting by Wood’s husband, Evan Wood, and custom concrete kitchen counters by Mudwerk and custom millwork by John Bryner of Blockhaus play a complementary role in the overall aesthetic of the home.
In the foyer, a collage of artwork by Geraldine Neuwirth that the homeowner purchased from Hidell Brooks is the antithesis of the rest of the home’s design. “The general aesthetic is more about texture and the materials, but it was nice to have that collage as a backdrop for this dark, moody dining room in complete contrast to the bright white, very animated foyer,” explains Wood of the decision to place the pieces in the home’s entryway. “We wanted the dining room to be sexy and more of a nighttime room, and then have this light, bright foyer with these cheerful collages opposite.”
But the art goes beyond furniture, lighting, architecture, and artwork. In the master bedroom, one wall features a wallcovering that ooks like three-dimensional pieces of paper pieced together. The wallcovering is actually a photo of hand-folded paper art by Italian artist Domitilla Biondi. “That wallpaper alone looks like a work of art,” says the homeowner.
The addition of the custom pieces and artwork throughout the home truly elevated the architecture as a whole, something everyone was hopeful for before beginning this project. “They were so trusting of us,” Wood says. “They said, ‘We want you to finish this home and to furnish it as you would have had you been able to finish it years ago.’ And I think we did exactly that."