House Tour: A Beautiful Bachelor Pad Done in Fifty Shades of Gray

One of Ivy Lane’s latest installations has been one of our most fun: a bachelor out in McLean who wanted our help pulling his house together to feel cool, comfortable, and inviting in a practical but creative way. The lady of this house is actually man’s best friend and a loyal companion, a beautiful and sophisticated six-year-old Weimaraner pup named Landry. She could almost be called the muse behind the design aesthetic since her warm gray, sleek coat was the color chosen to weave through the spaces.

The great room is a large, wide-open room approximately 30′ X 20′. With this kind of scale, you must be sure to offer a floor plan that divides the space into more intimate conversational areas without obstructing the feel of openness. With that challenge, as well as accommodating a bachelor’s lifestyle, we thought outside the box to come up with the best design concept.

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The bookend walls were built with beautiful paneled woodwork and provided a great textured canvas. Walls are drenched in a soft gray. There are large windows that give a great view to the lush and expansive backyard. High but angled ceilings made a lighting plan a bit tricky. Our first goal was to offer a cozy living/family room-style area for conversation and television watching. The room is designed to be used not just for entertaining, but more importantly for everyday living.

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We put in upholstered pieces and window treatments in both wools and linens, incorporating an iconic Eames lounge chair in black leather. We lined the wall with a more glamorous long, wood-textured media cabinet to help ground the floating television. There is a light stone and iron sofa console table that serves as a simple visual division in the room, which also provides a hard surface for practical use on both sides.

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Behind that grouping we created a gaming area, appointed with a gray/blue custom-colored pool table, which is adjacent to another conversation area where we placed his existing Barcelona chairs around a gray stone-top cocktail table.

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We furnished this great room by mixing both traditional and modern pieces with cozy fabrics in neutral but contrasting tones. There were warm grays that leaned more towards taupe, and cooler darker grays that gave a hint of blue and charcoal contrast. We mixed metals, woods, finishes, and styles to layer the entire space, giving greater dimension to the open floor plan.

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We selected one large, lush rug to visually unify the room, to which Landry gave her delighted opinion as she leisurely lounged. She actually pranced around in delight as the installers were hard at work. Our bachelor owns a great, interesting art collection, along with a few personal accessories, which helped bring that personal touch to the space with shots of unexpected color.

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Just off of this great room is a small wine nook, a small niche beside a butler’s pantry bar, a place to relax and enjoy all of the many varietals he has collected from various places to which he has traveled (thus keeping with our guiding principle and design mission statement that your home should tell your story). This wine nook will serve as a great spot to unwind after a long day of work or a perfect place for a before or after dinner drink.

This was the first phase of this house project and we look forward to showcasing his other spaces as they come together, both inside and out. It is a special piece of property that deserves to shine…and now a man and his best friend can enjoy it together!

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Alex Deringer and Courtney Cox combine their formal training in design and fashion with their renowned sense of style in Ivy Lane, a full-service interior design firm that curates casually elegant family dwellings that are elevated by a unique spark. Whether an entire house renovation or a one-room makeover, Alex and Courtney’s extensive experience and collaborative dynamic inform a successful design philosophy: thoroughly understand the client’s lifestyle, bring a thoughtful spatial perspective, and enliven the space with the freshest aesthetic interest.

309C Cameron Street
Alexandria, Virginia 22314
studio@ivylaneliving.com

703.566.6582

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