Traditional Design...Circa 2025

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Updating an already exquisite home interior to reflect the new owners’ personalities

THE PROJECT: Perception was key to the new homeowners who viewed this house as perfect in terms of good bones and room to grow for their two young daughters. However, the interiors, while still lovely, were showing typical signs of age and were not reflective of the owners’ personalities and unique needs. The kitchen was meticulously maintained over several decades, but had so much present-day potential, they would re-work the entire room to optimize flow and utility. And a fresh approach to cabinets, flooring, and fixtures, would be required to align its aesthetic with the sensibilities of the people who now call this residence home.

THE PLACE: A prime suburban community in Severna Park, that offered every amenity a young family could want, starting with their own gorgeous exterior landscape and broadening out to offer the family access to an optimal quality of life with its community-provided beach, pavilion, playground, and that all-important water access via boat slips to the Severn River. 

EXECUTING THE PLAN: The couple were fortunate to have found their interior design professional through mutual friends who deemed them highly qualified and knowledgeable in their respective areas of expertise. Samantha Lane of Ann Lane Home in Baltimore would be tasked with refreshing the entire home for an interiors standpoint and taking a staid traditional aesthetic to the next level. This would include converting a main level office and re-imagining it into a stylish utility and mudroom.

The line in this home’s recent real estate listing stated, “Meticulously maintained all-brick Colonial home,” which for its new owners spoke to the traditional aspects of design that they were seeking both inside and out. The 3,600-square-foot residence definitely scored big points with its buyers for its timeless curb appeal and its superb location.

“Overall, we wanted to update the house while preserving its style and charm which was a delicate balance between modernizing some elements and respecting others,” Lane explains. 

“We kept a great deal of the architectural finishes that define the era of the home, like woodwork, crown molding. and the fireplaces. We refinished the floors and added hardwood where there wasn’t any. We paid special attention to adding modern finishes and touches that reflect the house’s time period such as a Carrara marble and a slate floor in the mud/laundry room.”

Jeffrey Joy of Joy Remodeling, also of Baltimore, would bring more than 20 years of experience in the commercial and residential construction and remodeling industry to the project which included the kitchen upgrade, remodeling several bathrooms, and relocating a home office from the main level of the home to a previously unfinished attic space. 

“Our clients lead a busy life and wanted a home that could accommodate both everyday living and entertaining,” Joy explains. Their key priorities included a more functional kitchen for hosting, a cozy yet sophisticated living area, and updated bedrooms and bathrooms that provided a spa-like retreat.”

A Big Before-and-After

While the entire home has substantial “before and after” bone fides, it is in the kitchen where the upgrades are most impactful. So, a charming 1980s-era kitchen with powder blue cabinetry, chair rail and patterned wallpaper with border, and a room-dividing peninsula were swapped out for the 2025 iteration of that kitchen. The homeowners were so impressed with the former owner’s taste that they wished to pay homage to her by choosing a very similar shade to set the tone in the kitchen. The big non-negotiable in the room was the protruding peninsula.  

To further enhance the feel of one free-flowing space, the past-its-prime tile-patterned floor would be replaced with red oak, to match the original flooring in the rest of the house. This was a conscious cost-cutting measure that made the most sense because red oak takes easily to stain and was in this case re-stained with a warm walnut shade to balance the cool of the blue cabinets and make the extra thick quartz countertops pop even more.

The cabinets were custom fabricated by Joy’s in-house millwork shop. Storage space that was lost when the peninsula was removed was easily resolved with a new wall of integrated cabinetry that includes the refrigerator opposite the window wall, and in the new statement-making island. 

The addition of a banquette framing the window and side wall makes in-room dining comfortable and cozy with its round Downing breakfast table from Serena & Lily, and Carter counter tools from the same manufacturer at the island, allow space for the children and utility for Mom while they are doing schoolwork or projects. 

“The blue I think is a traditional color, the Carrera (marble) backsplash is traditional, but we did kind of have fun and do some juxtapositions,” Lane says. “If you notice, the lighting over the island is pretty modern.” They selected Yeon custom pendant lights from Rejuvenation. 

Just the most subtle of veining was all the pattern that was required in the Carrera Marmi quartz, for the fresh, understated look they wanted to achieve. The overall aesthetic is fresh, fun, and playful.

Designer Bath Showcase

This residential home remodel included upgrades to three bathrooms, including the primary suite, the daughters’ Jack and Jill bath, and a powder room. While two of these rooms required some floorplan tweaking, the vibe of each room was significantly upgraded from “meh” to marvelous. Using smart new papers, luxe quartz, and next-level subway tile treatments, traditional retreats become more welcoming and personalized. And while small spaces, like powder rooms, have their challenges, they also present opportunities for big ideas. “Powder rooms in general, I think, are just fun places to have a really fun pattern. You can close the door, so I don’t necessarily feel like they constantly have to have a perfect connection to the rest of the space,” Lane says. The pattern is almost linear. Because it was a really small space decisions focused on maximizing height, which is what this pattern does. It helps maximize the height in that space, which doesn’t make it feel so small.

Rooms to Evolve

The existing floorplans of the dining and living room were perfect for the couple, so they concentrated on what they could do to provide a fresh, traditional take in these rooms that allows for their style to evolve as they grow with the home. 

Bucking the trend away from conventional dining rooms, the young owners prized keeping the space just as it was, adjacent to both the kitchen and living room. This gives them an opportunity, as their personalities change, to change with the room without having to re-haul it. The chairs were moderately priced and so was the buffet. So, if, for example, they want to change out the buffet or the rug, those opportunities exist.

Other intentions for the room would reflect the homeowner’s light, sweet, and traditional inclinations. A Highland House table, for example, exudes North Carolina history. 

The neutral palette, again, allows for personality changes to update the room more easily.

Both the dining room and living room came with their own classic elements of design, like dentil crown molding, that would only enhance what would come next in the rooms.

To that, Joy’s team added the delicate touch of a wainscoting panel to each wall in the living room to elevate the space. Each was painted to match the matte white of the walls creating an element of urbanity suitable for the subtly more formal space. 

The fireplace was left exactly as it was, but was then flanked with Highland House accent tables on either side as a pull-through and complement to the adjacent dining room table. 

The room’s conversation area was furnished with two, super-cozy, skirted scoop-arm chairs and a sumptuous, custom couch and pillows by Century Furniture. The draperies are also custom fabric, 100 percent linen with birds and a subtle blue hue. A glass table was chosen for its fresh and light aspects. This aligns with the homeowner’s desire to have this room feel very different than the family room.

Project Notes

Overall, the goal of remodeling this home was very intentional in the sense that the new interiors needed to be updated in such a way as to reflect the traditional aspects of its exterior. 

“I don’t think it does anybody any favors if you immediately pick something that’s on trend, even though the exterior of the home looks entirely different. So that was very intentional, to stay true to the exterior,” Lane summarizes. 

The approach to each individual space addressed the overarching desire to have a traditional vibe with a fresher take, balancing elements of modern touches with very classic timeless pieces.