After more than a dozen years of enduring dull white living room walls, a baby blue palette in the master bedroom and a haphazard furniture arrangement, Barbara and Bob Christin decided it was time to call in a professional.
“I had never painted anything, and I could not decide what colors to pick,” said Barbara, a government lawyer. “Bob kept saying it was driving him crazy and he wanted me to pick something, but I didn’t want to make a mistake.”
So she put the word out among her friends and family, who hooked her up with Nancy King, a Bethesda interior designer with extensive experience giving home interiors pleasing makeovers.
The Christins told King they loved their three-bedroom Washington Grove home where they raised three children amid busy law careers. Besides updating the kitchen with light-colored wood cabinets and black granite countertops, the couple had not done anything to liven up the living room and the den that served as the family’s main gathering spots. Also on the to-do list was a plan to spruce up a cozy reading nook on the second floor with built-in bookcases and turn the master bedroom from barely functional to charming and romantic.
“Bob loves vibrant colors; most men want dark colors, dark green or gold, but Bob didn’t, so I knew this was going to be a fun project,” King said. “I gave them color boards that had paint upholstery and drapery swatches. They went with the gold combination, and red turned out to be a color that they really wanted too.”
The couple chose to cover the living room walls in a golden yellow color that complements the deep red paint they used in the den.
“I loved it as soon as they were finished painting,” Barbara said. “Even without the furniture arrangement.”
The next challenge was coming up with a cozy furniture arrangement in the living room, a long room that Barbara referred to as a “bowling alley” with two focal points — the television and the large windows that allow the couple to enjoy the view of their shady front yard.
King took a love seat the Christins already had and placed it along the wall under the window in the den that now had red walls. The colors — gold and red — complemented the red walls perfectly. For the living room, Barbara and Bob picked out a sectional in red, green and gold tweed fabric. They also bought a swivel chair and placed it in the left corner, allowing someone to swivel one way to watch television or the other to join a conversation. A square leather ottoman from the original furniture arrangement now functions as a coffee table.
“If the room looks good and comfortable, then it will be used,” King said.
Lavender paint and a comfortable new queen-size bed with a sleigh-style frame made the drab master bedroom on the second floor relaxing and more sophisticated.
“I wasn’t sure this was going to work,” Barbara said. “But I just love it. I trusted Nancy, and she has been right every time.”
