Eclectic describes interior designer Noami DeVore‘s personality as well as her taste. And the interior of her Fox Hall Village home reflects that philosophy toward design. “I think that the way to create an interesting room is to use different textures and finishes,” DeVore said. “You don’t want it to look like you walked into Crate and Barrel or a furniture store and bought your whole house at once.
“By mixing the different finishes it gives it more of an eclectic look, as if you’re acquired things over time,” she said.
Where to start? DeVore said find inspiration in one piece and build upon that. “There’s usually something that inspires me, whether it’s the architecture of the house, a great chandelier or a great rug,” she said. “That starts the domino effect and it goes from there.”
A credenza accented with Chinoiserie provided the inspiration for DeVore’s nearly 20-foot by 17-foot living room. She saw it five years ago in the window of an antique shop in Georgetown.
“I fell in love with it but at the time I had no place to put it. I had no house. I would go visit it on a weekly basis. It was so unique,” she said. “I finally told myself that ‘One day you will have a place to put this and if you don’t buy it, you will regret it.’ ”
The day she went to purchase the piece, it was gone. “I was about to burst into tears when I walked into the store and learned that they had just moved it to the back. That’s when I knew it was meant to be.”
The colors of the chest, primarily green and yellow, are repeated throughout her house. Velvety emerald green drapes cover a wall of living room windows. Rattan accent chairs balance wood accents throughout. A contemporary chrome table between rattan chairs complements a large, square coffee table with a chrome base and custom-cut limestone top.
An Oriental-style 12-foot by 15-foot Timothy Paul rug pulls the room together with hints of gray, blue, pale green and yellow. Comfy sofas and chairs are upholstered in pale blue-gray chenille.
“Often I’ll do all the upholstery in the same fabric to neutralize a space. Then other pieces of furniture become accent pieces and you notice them more,” DeVore said. “If one chair was in a pattern it would become a focal point. Instead your eyes focus on the more interesting pieces in the room, like art work.”
In the dining room, Herman Miller chairs that DeVore found on Craig’s List are reupholstered in a gold patterned fabric. The chairs surround a large farmhouse table. A 9-foot-long Hollywood Regency-style server anchors the dining room and a pair of square, yellow pendants complement lacquered, lemon-colored lamps in a room just off the kitchen.
When planning to decorate, DeVore said it’s imperative to map out the entire house, not just one room at a time.
“When clients approach me and they don’t have the budget to do the entire house, but want to, I tell them, ‘Let’s come up with a plan,’ ” she said. “Because if you design room by room, by the time you get to the fourth room you either don’t like the first room anymore or it doesn’t look like the rest of the house. I like to come up with a cohesive vision so that when you walk through your house, it flows well.”
Noami DeVore,decorating,interior design
