“The house is so quiet and organic,” shares designer Stephanie Bradshaw, who was brought on to decorate this home renovation in the venerable Roland Park neighborhood of Baltimore. “It’s hard to capture in photos how beautifully grounded with the landscape it is. I’m a huge outdoor person and love bringing the outdoors in. This seemed like an ideal project for us and not one that comes up in Baltimore very often.”
The indoor-outdoor-living character of the beautiful site dictated not just the home’s structure, which was designed by Ziger|Snead Architects, but also the lifestyle for the family. Their commitment to the neighborhood had the four of them – the parents and their two boys – living in the pool house for a year while the main home was extensively refurbished.
“We focused on bringing the outside in,” describes Bradshaw of the design. “All the furniture and fabrics don’t compete with, but complement, the surroundings.” She is quick to credit the landscape architects, FORM Garden Design, for naturally blending the structures into the site and allowing her to enhance the living areas with her interior design. “They really renovated so beautifully, so as not to disturb a lot of nature.” The well-established Roland Park neighborhood is filled with mature trees, and keeping an existing rhododendron on the property, she notes, was “non-negotiable.”
With accordion walls that open to the outdoors, paths that wind around the home and various outdoor gathering areas, she emulated the flow and natural patterns of the site in the home’s main area. “We wanted the rooms between the kitchen to not have a stark delineation,” Bradshaw explains. “It’s all pretty warm tones in the living room.”
An amoeba-shaped, custom carpet between the living room and kitchen builds upon the open, flowing concept and extends the natural quiet of the house. It’s also a home where the two young boys play freely and can race around the backyard.
“Nothing is too precious,” states Bradshaw. “That was part of the directive. The house is very functional, as well as elegant.”
Photography by Jennifer Hughes.
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