Empty Nesters Give a Contemporary Kick to Their Home's Century-Old Charm

Virginia’s Pillar & Peacock design team helped their “life of the party” clients move from the suburbs to Richmond’s Museum District and a vivid, artistic new home.

By: Lauren Oster

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Photo By: Gordon Gregory Photography, Gordon Gregory Photography, Gordon Gregory Photography

Photo By: Gordon Gregory Photography

Photo By: Gordon Gregory Photography,

Photo By: Gordon Gregory Photography

Photo By: Gordon Gregory Photography, Gordon Gregory Photography, Gordon Gregory Photography

Photo By: Gordon Gregory Photography

Celebrate a New Life Stage With a Bold New Environment

With kids off to college and a transition from the suburbs to the city in their sights, the fun- and color-loving couple who purchased this 1910 home in Richmond, Virginia’s Museum District were ready for big changes. They turned to designers Adrianne Bugg and Brandeis Short of Pillar & Peacock to realize their dream of a bold new family headquarters.

“The house is older and they wanted to completely gut the first floor – mainly the kitchen area in the back of the house,” Adrianne recalls. “They wanted us to design the entry/hall, dining room, living room, and kitchen/powder room/breakfast room. We also designed the laundry room upstairs and lightly consulted on a few other spaces.” Going big was key: “They were willing to be more daring with color, which we loved. I would call their style classic-yet-effervescent, relaxed [and] bohemian.” Ready for an inspirational spin through one of Richmond’s newest works of art? Come on in.

Add Interest to a Traditional Staircase With Subtle Shifts in Color

The team darkened the stairs’ newel post and handrail with Farrow & Ball Purbeck Stone, a mid-grey that accentuates woodwork details, and created contrast on the millwork and balusters with Benjamin Moore White Dove, a creamy off-white.

To transform the heart pine and red oak flooring to create an integrated new look, in turn, “we had to go darker on the floor stain than originally planned in order to cut the red in those two wood species,” Adrianne recalls. “We worked with the floor finisher to mix several stain options on-site; I think we settled on a combination of Jacobean and Ebony.” The takeaway here? A bit of fancy footwork might seem excessive, but it can make all the difference in your space.

See More Photos: 20 Stare-Worthy Staircases We're Obsessing Over

Center Symmetrical Wallpaper Behind the Powder-Room Mirror

Based on an abstract painting, this Lindsay Cowles wallpaper makes an elegant statement that repeats across this narrow powder room (and multiplies beautifully in the golden mirror mounted above the vanity). The olive tone in the wallpaper picks up in the framed landscapes hung across from that vanity — and their soft, looping shapes don’t compete with the art as, say, a botanical print might.

Balance Bold Powder-Room Wallpaper With a Solid Vanity

“The paint color was a custom stain to match Farrow & Ball Pitch Blue [a strong cobalt with black pigment],” Adrianne says. Narrow, Art Deco-inspired frosted glass sconces above carry on the warm metallic tones in the mirror, sink and cabinet hardware (and provide maximum functionality in an itty-bitty footprint).

See More Photos: Our 30 Favorite Powder Rooms

When Art Won’t Fit, Embellish Spaces With Colorful Fabric

The charming, stained-glass demilune window is original to the home. Adrianne pulled its rich, warm tones into the ikat fabric on the upholstered entryway bench. “Our client loves colorful patterned art, as you can see throughout other rooms,” she says. “However, this narrow room was lined with windows, leaving no room for her large paintings. This fabric took the place of art.”

Bring a Traditional Space to Life With Bohemian Accents

This inlaid console table and the riotous print on the upholstered bench beneath it pack even more style in the foyer. Flanked with traditional chairs and topped with both delicate glass and a delightfully eye-popping table lamp, they add up to a layered vignette that celebrates the home’s past and speaks to its present.

Take Kitchen Storage All the Way to the Ceiling

The kitchen’s library ladder is charming, to be sure, but it’s also the linchpin of the space’s optimized-storage strategy. “A highly organized kitchen uses every inch of the galley-style layout — therefore we needed a rolling ladder to reach those uppers,” Adrianne says. Her team tucked functionality everywhere: “We even have drawers in the cabinetry toe kick for platters and placemats.” The drawers beneath the walnut-topped end of the island, in turn, conceal Sub Zero under-the-counter beverage storage.

See More Photos: 30 Small Kitchen Storage Ideas

Let Neutral Cabinets and Woodwork Anchor Your Flights of Fancy

Given the clients’ stated love of color, it may seem surprising that the kitchen features calm off-white tones — but that neutrality has an important purpose. The kitchen design “serves as a timeless, classic and grounding ‘base’ for the fun and lively fabrics we used on the furnishings and the graphic wallpaper on the ceiling in the dining room,” Adrianne explains.

The same goes for the foyer, where the team could have stripped and restored original woodwork… but opted to reimagine it as a blank canvas. “The homeowner’s furnishings and art are full of pattern — we needed a quiet shell for those to live in,” she says. “Painting out existing millwork allows us to curate any style by drawing your attention to more intentional design elements.”

See More Photos: 25 Dreamy Kitchens With Neutral Color Palettes

Extend a Range Hood’s Visual Impact With Lighting that Echoes Its Shape

The kitchen’s spectacular, bespoke range hood’s impact resounds throughout the space, thanks to glass sconces and sinuous pendants that extend its silhouette. “The hood design was first, made from burnished copper with brass straps — the double-compound chamfered front corners [that is, cuts that remove 90-degree angles] were a fun challenge for our metal artisan to fabricate,” Adrianne says. “He did an exquisite job on the shape and finish. We were lucky to find those somewhat quirky-feminine chandeliers in the same finish as the hood.”

See More Photos: 50 Stylish Light Fixtures for Your Kitchen

Reconsider Bright-White, High-Maintenance Kitchen Surfaces

Veined Calacatta Crema marble flows across the island, countertops and backsplash. “The cabinets are painted Cornforth White,” Adrianne says. The homeowners love to cook and entertain in their kitchen, and “a light warm neutral is much more forgiving and durable than white — which [they] originally had their minds set on,” she recalls. And it’s just as dazzling.

See More Photos: 58 White Kitchens That Are Anything But Vanilla

Pair Bold Prints With Neutral Window Treatments

Roman shades in a textural-but-tame organic material are the perfect complement to the painterly print that splashes across the seating in this nook. “We all fell in love with Lindsay Cowles’ indigo fabric for this spot and didn’t want to compete with that pattern,” Adrianne explains. “We highlighted it with a berry trim and pillows — pink is the homeowner’s other favorite color, [so] we tried to use touches of it whenever we needed that highlight or pop. But with those tall white walls, we needed other ways to add warmth — that’s where the natural woven shades came into play.”

See More Photos: 30 Beautiful Breakfast Nooks

Choose a Breakfast-Nook Table That Dazzles Without Linens

The hammered brass hardware that spreads warmth across the kitchen’s fixtures converges here in a gleaming round table that suits this space beautifully (and doesn’t need chargers or placemats to look luxe).

See More Photos: Kitchen Table Design Ideas and Options

Pair a Saturated Wall Tone With Lighter-Than-Air Furniture and Art

Inspired by moody Scottish skies, the deep blue-grey of Farrow & Ball's Inchyra Blue serves as the foundation for an explosion of bright and airy patterns in the living room. Many of those brights originate in the avian art on the wall, a beloved piece the homeowners brought from their previous home in the suburbs.

See More Photos: Cool Paint Shade Ideas We Love: Blue, Green, Purple and More

Accent a Velvet Armchair With an Intricate Pillow

The color story continues by the ornate radiator and mantel, where a deep, solid aubergine chair gives that delicate metal- and woodwork room to shine. A teardrop-printed pillow recalls the shapes in the unframed painting on the wall behind it, and a glass-topped occasional table provides just enough space for an amber vase.

See More Photos: 20 Living Room Seating Options & Ideas

Layer Neutral Seating With Bright and Textural Pillows and Throws

“We always love a combination of patterned pillows that pull colors in from the rest of the room,” Adrianne says. “And throws — we love a throw to break up the neutrals. It’s also practical and comfy.”

See More Photos: Proof Throw Blankets Can Transform Any Space

Use Handmade Paper to Cover and Display Books

One of the cleverest details in this console-table vignette is also one of the subtlest: the team used delicate, textural handmade paper to wrap and create a unified look for hardcover books above and beneath it. “We wrap books in handmade papers to fit a room’s palette. They are great fillers and add height to smaller accessories,” Adrianne says.

See More Photos: 30 Mantel and Bookshelf Decorating Tips

Create a Sense of Depth With Bold Color + Large Mirrors

These bespoke mirrored doors could be one of the hardest-working installations in this project: they conceal a washer and dryer, they amplify light from the window, and they make the narrow room feel much larger. “This turquoise hue is one of the client’s favorites, and this laundry and powder room is a saturated focal point at the end of the neutral stair hall,” Adrianne explains.

See More Photos: 5 Ways to Brighten Any Space With Mirrors

Crown an Eclectic Dining Room With Wallpaper

The teal, pink and coral shapes on the dining room ceiling express the home’s contemporary palette and sense of fun in a downright spectacular statement—and its pendant serves as the exclamation point. “The chandelier looks like a piece of boho jewelry — exactly the homeowner’s style. Fell in love with it instantly,” Adrianne recalls. “Its hammered brass droplets nod to a historic crystal chandelier that would have hung in this home originally.”

See More Photos: 20 Gorgeous Dining Room Lighting Ideas

Intersperse Canvases With Decorative Objects

Given that this home is in Richmond’s Museum District, one could argue that there could be no such thing as too much art in its rooms — but Adrianne’s team recognized the importance of mixing it up to keep things interesting. That’s where this skull and the feathered juju hat come in. “Dimensional artwork was needed to break up the homeowner’s large collection of paintings on canvas,” she says.

See More Photos: 20 Dining Room Wall Decor Ideas

Take the Time to Get Finishes Just Right

As you might imagine, the striking chairs at the head and foot of the dining table are custom upholstery work. There’s another bespoke piece in this vignette: namely, the carved white dresser in the corner. “It came surprisingly bright white, sort of a plaster finish,” Adrianne recalls. “We had it glazed by a local faux painter to soften the finish.” The result was worth the effort.

Empty Nesters Give a Contemporary Kick to Their Home's Century-Old Charm

Related To:

Shop This Look

Celebrate a New Life Stage With a Bold New Environment

Add Interest to a Traditional Staircase With Subtle Shifts in Color

Center Symmetrical Wallpaper Behind the Powder-Room Mirror

Balance Bold Powder-Room Wallpaper With a Solid Vanity

When Art Won’t Fit, Embellish Spaces With Colorful Fabric

Bring a Traditional Space to Life With Bohemian Accents

Take Kitchen Storage All the Way to the Ceiling

Let Neutral Cabinets and Woodwork Anchor Your Flights of Fancy

Extend a Range Hood’s Visual Impact With Lighting that Echoes Its Shape

Reconsider Bright-White, High-Maintenance Kitchen Surfaces

Pair Bold Prints With Neutral Window Treatments

Choose a Breakfast-Nook Table That Dazzles Without Linens

Pair a Saturated Wall Tone With Lighter-Than-Air Furniture and Art

Accent a Velvet Armchair With an Intricate Pillow

Layer Neutral Seating With Bright and Textural Pillows and Throws

Use Handmade Paper to Cover and Display Books

Create a Sense of Depth With Bold Color + Large Mirrors

Crown an Eclectic Dining Room With Wallpaper

Intersperse Canvases With Decorative Objects

Take the Time to Get Finishes Just Right

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