It had been a long time coming. Chris and Greg Menke have owned their house in Charlottesville since 1982, and they’ve made many changes and updates to it along the way. But there was at least one big project they hadn’t gotten around to. “A pool was always part of the plan,” says Greg. Though […]
It had been a long time coming. Chris and Greg Menke have owned their house in Charlottesville since 1982, and they’ve made many changes and updates to it along the way. But there was at least one big project they hadn’t gotten around to. “A pool was always part of the plan,” says Greg. Though […]
Second homes are all about contrast: the difference between the weekday place and the getaway. Tom and Jenny Becherer live in a historic neighborhood in Alexandria—a bustling urban environment where the homes are mostly a century or more old. Ten years ago, they found the spot that would provide the perfect foil: 21 acres in […]
Interior designer Marta Tice says she was fortunate to know what she wanted to do from an early age. “As a child,” she says, “I used to rearrange my room and charge 10 cent admission to view it!” She received a bachelor’s degree in interior design from American University and later considered pursuing a degree […]
News on the state of the formal dining room is conflicting. Some area designers see more and more people repurposing their formal spaces, while others insist a core group will always demand a place for nice meals. “We’re seeing the traditional buyer that has the heirloom piece and the formal set with leaves, and they […]
At first, Cole Burrell was hesitant to pursue landscape architecture. He’d spent his life (since childhood, when he was, as he says, “a bona fide science nerd”) studying botany and horticulture, nurturing a curiosity about nature that has since taken him all over the world to lecture on plants and ecology. But, eventually, an interest […]
The July issue of Abode is on stands now! Here’s what you’ll find inside: A Q&A with architect Julie Dixon, whose firm Rosney Co. designed this year’s Southern Living Idea House at Bundoran Farm. The 250 interchange (better known as Meadow Creek Parkway) was not without opposition, but the finished project is a success thanks […]
You know you have a special site when you hire a landscape designer and his primary goal is “Don’t mess it up.” That’s what John Meaney told himself when he contemplated the charge from clients Shahir and Nancy Kassam-Adams, who wanted to add a pool and poolhouse to their Nelson County property. The 51-acre site […]
Even in a well-loved city like Charlottesville, there are still hidden gems. Lynn Valentine had her eye on one that was just three blocks from her home on Park Street. “I’d walked by this property for years,” she said. It wasn’t the house—a modest brick Cape Cod overgrown with ivy—that attracted her. It was the […]
Born and raised in Charlottesville, renowned interior designer Bunny Williams didn’t start her career with a formal education, but rather with a job at prestigious Manhattan design firm Parish-Hadley—a job that lasted 22 years and helped build the foundation for Bunny Williams, Inc. Since starting the company in 1988, she’s built a bit of an […]
For years, we knew we wanted open concept living spaces—the kitchen spilling into the dining area, spilling into the sitting room —but we didn’t necessarily know why. It just felt right, and that was enough. Turns out, what we were working toward was universal design, a concept of making spaces usable by as many different […]