Home has taken on a whole new meaning over the past few months. Those of us who have been fortunate enough to stay at home will probably never view our living quarters in the same light again. The quarantine has crystalized for us any functional deficiencies. With so much sadness and unrest in our country and around the world, we are ready to bring more color and joy into our spaces too. At A. Houck Designs, we feel so blessed to be working on several projects right now that will create happier homes for our clients. Our bachelor pad design is a great example!
An Arlington homeowner asked us to completely re-envision two spaces in his 1960s bungalow — the living room and master bedroom. In addition, he wanted to refresh the entire main level by painting the walls, refinishing the wood floors and installing new lighting. The project expanded to include adding storage to an under-used alcove in the kitchen, which had been beautifully updated a few years before by Arlington’s Kitchen & Bath Factory. The goal throughout was to instill a clean, masculine vibe, while maximizing the compact footprint. And our client’s 120-lb. Mastiff, Isaac, figured prominently in the interior design process.
Mountain-Inspired, Masculine Design
The client loves nature and, specifically, the mountains (in fact, he also owns a Blue Ridge retreat). He requested earth tones and the mountains inspired our palette of lush greens and rich golds. For the living room, we chose two paint colors from the Sherwin Williams Rustic + Refined palette.
A deep, woodsy green (SW 9654 – Taiga) creates a dramatic backdrop on the long sofa wall. A serene gray-green (SW 9646 – Create) on the other walls tempers the drama.
Living Room Goals
The multi-tasking living room, which opens to the kitchen, is used for entertaining, lounging and TV viewing. Take a look at the layout we created:
Of course, scale played an important role in guiding our selections. The sleek, low-profile Ryder sofa from the Ray Booth collection for Hickory Chair will anchor the space. An attractive TV lift cabinet, which hides the television when it’s not in use, is a smart solution for a tight, hard-working space — or any space, for that matter. Here’s a glance at our design selections:
Notice that paint drop on the top left? That’s the neutral finish we selected for the side table, shown here in red. Beside it is the ombre, handmade Gabbeh rug we selected to unite our color scheme.
The client requested dog-friendly fabrics for his living room. We selected a caramel leather for the sofa and then mixed in linens and other textured wovens in earth tones. Take a peek at our scheme, laid out on the Gabbeh rug pictured above, for the living room and kitchen (more on the kitchen design later).
We saved the more precious fabric — an interlocking, geometric cut-velvet from Romo — for two accent pillows for the sofa.
The rendering below provides a general idea of how the finished living room will look.
We hit on the masculine, mountain vibe our client was after, while planning a comfortable and functional space.
Kitchen Plans
Although the kitchen was updated earlier, we will refresh the space with mushroom-hued paint, bottle-green glass pendants over the island and new bar stools covered in a durable, nubby woven. These design tweaks establish visual continuity between the kitchen and reimagined living room in this bachelor pad design.
The real magic will happen in the kitchen’s window alcove. We saw untapped potential there so we crafted a solution that adds tons of function and storage. The alcove design includes a bench with drawers below and a tall pantry on the right. Here’s a closer look at our plan:
Working with the team at Kitchen & Bath Factory, we will be able to match the espresso finish on the existing cabinets for a seamless look.
Bedroom Storage Solutions
We love the creative challenge of figuring out how to maximize the potential of smaller spaces (if you missed it, you can read about our functional space plan for a Bethesda kitchen redesign). The master bedroom in this Arlington bungalow certainly required creativity when it came to space-planning and storage solutions. As you can see, there’s room for a bed and little else:
My designer brain is always engaged and I am often inspired on my travels. A hotel stay during my pre-COVID trip to the NY NOW market got some ideas percolating on how a well-designed bed wall could function. This was my room in a boutique hotel:
I came home and created a Pinterest board to gather more inspiration images for our client’s master bedroom. Then we came up with a treatment for his bed wall that combines form and function:
Our plan adds a floor-to-ceiling storage cabinet to one side and open cubbies across the top. We’re working with the team at Closet Factory in Tysons Corner to bring our design to life.
The hanging pendants free up space on the nightstands. To further streamline the space and provide convenient connectivity, the nightstands will be outfitted with power grommets for multi-device charging.
We carried the nature-inspired color story into the bedroom design with this selection of richly textured textiles and a low-pile rug, as well as other design elements:
The wood chip on the left is the millwork finish; the small green square is a sample of the glass color for the custom, hand-blown pendants by Tracy Glover Objects and Lighting.
Bachelor Pad Design Gets Go-Ahead
Our client loved the proposal and we’ve already begun work to execute this mountainesque bachelor pad design. We will share more behind-the-scene images and, of course, the big reveal. Stay tuned!
Has the quarantine caused you to rethink your spaces? Or appreciate your home as a haven even more? For me personally, it’s been a little of both. I finally ordered the living room rug I had been dreaming about for over a year. But I also realize how fortunate I am to have spent the last few months in the comfort of my own home. We owe a huge debt of gratitude to the frontline workers and all the others who kept our communities going — and are still at the job — during the pandemic.
My Outdoor Living Area Takes Shape
