The open, contemporary interior of this Capital Hill townhouse belies its Victorian roots and exterior facade.
Laurie Sprung and her husband, Bill Mayer, spent a year exploring the possibility of selling their Capitol Hill townhouse and moving to a bigger home. But when all was said and done, they just couldn’t bring themselves to leave.
“We love the house, the backyard, the neighbors, the community…we even have a garage,” says Sprung. “We just couldn’t beat what we already had.”Once they made the decision to stay put, though, the couple had to face facts—the house just wasn’t quite working for them, especially with a young daughter, a 130-pound dog, and three cats in tow. For Washington, DC, the not-quite-2,500-square-foot house was spacious, but “it’s still an urban house,” says Sprung. An urban house built in 1894 at that.
Victorian—with a Twist
From the outside, the Sprung-Mayer home is a “perfectly pristine” Victorian rowhouse, says Sprung. Behind the front door, however, lay the results of at least two renovations to the home, made before the couple moved in six years ago. A 1970s-era renovation created an open floor plan and a lot of “funky” angles that the homeowners appreciated, “but it was done on the cheap,” says Sprung. Ceiling-high kitchen cabinets, for example, provided drama but were not so much cabinets as plywood shelves—by then warped—with doors.
The kitchen opens to the back of the house and a wall of windows that allows natural light into virtually every part of the home.
Another redo added a glass-enclosed, greenhouse-style room off the second-floor master bedroom, but since it wasn’t on the home’s central heating/air-conditioning system, it was only usable, “oh, about two weeks out of the year,” says Sprung.
There was a lot of wasted space in the house,” Sprung explains. The upstairs level of the house had two bedrooms, one bath, and a less-than-useful sitting room. “It was a great concept, and the house had great angles,” she says of the previous renovation. “The homeowners were ahead of their time, but the execution was really poor.” “I was after a master bathroom and wound up gutting the house,” says Sprung of the renovation that took almost a year to complete and saw the family move to a third-floor, one-bedroom, walk-up apartment nearby. “It was a family togetherness moment,” she jokes.
Renovation Challenges
To help reconfigure the upstairs as well as redo the kitchen, the couple called upon Stephen Vanze, partner in charge of Barnes Vanze Architects in Washington, DC, and the first decision soon became whether or not they should add a third story to the house. Vanze built two models for the couple to see, but faced with building restrictions on historic properties, and the fact that the Victorian-era house had no soil foundation—“we really didn’t want to see the house sinking into the ground,” says Sprung—both Vanze and the homeowners decided that keeping to two stories was the best choice.
The challenge, says Vanze, was coming up with a design that was in keeping with the neighborhood and the exterior of the house while incorporating the clean, contemporary interior lines the couple favored.
“We wanted to do something modern in a traditional setting,” Vanze says, adding that he tries to approach each project by responding to a particular problem without a predetermined solution.
An English basement was converted into a TV room, guest room, and office.
The new addition is both modern and “stylistically sympathetic” to the rest of the home, says Vanze. The glassy back wall of the house looks out on the newly landscaped, bi-level backyard from both the first-floor kitchen and second-floor master bedroom, and the initially unworkable second story now provides the family with two bedrooms, a playroom for daughter Colby, and two baths. An English basement was also converted into a TV room, guest room, and office.
“We got everything we wanted without adding a third floor,” says Sprung. “You feel like you’re giving up space—our closet, for example, became our daughter’s bedroom—but you actually get more. “It’s amazing what you can do…to get things to work for you.”
A Contemporary Flair
With the back of the house facing east, the couple is treated to “amazing sunrises,” says Sprung, who adds that with all rooms but one downstairs bath having natural light, the house is sunny throughout the day. “The master bedroom is such a retreat.”
The kitchen, with its maple cabinets, black granite countertops, and stainless steel appliances and accessories, is sophisticated and contemporary, but the heart pine floors and stained glass accents give the room a cozy glow. “The original elements of the house take the edge off, so it’s not too minimalistic,” says Sprung.“We like the surprise of the house,” she adds. “It’s a very modern space—more of a loft really—but very warm.”
Original details such as the stair rail, flooring, and brick harmonize with the clean lines of the new contemporary design. The 16' high interior doors are painted chocolate brown for a warm, dramatic effect.
Project architect Steve Schottler worked with the couple as well, pushing them to overcome their “fear of color.” While the interior walls are mostly white (with the exception of Colby’s pink—“of course,” says her mother—bedroom), strong color accents are found throughout, such as the 16’ high once-black interior doors that are now painted dark chocolate brown for a warm, dramatic effect and the sky blue accents that run through all the rooms.
The couple’s next project is to add a second story to the garage and use it as a combined office and storage space. “Now that we can really see the garage from the house and we’re spending time in the backyard, we realize how ugly it is,” Sprung laughs.But that can wait a while. For now, Sprung and Mayer are settling back into the house they couldn’t leave. “This is exactly our house, only better,” says Sprung. “And it’s even better than a new house, because we already knew how we lived in and used the space and how we wanted it to work for us.
“This house is so much more than it was meant to be.”
Carol Sorgen is a frequent contributor to ChesapeakeHome.
Contacts:
Barnes Vanze Architects: barnesvanze.com or 202-337-7255
Frank Saunders Construction, Inc.: 301-855-9453
Lobkovich Kitchen Designs Inc.: lobkovich.com or 703-847-0601
