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" Frances Schultz: You were designing for an empty-nest couple downsizing from a five-bedroom house in the suburbs to a one-bedroom town house in the city. Was it as drastic as it sounds? Mary Douglas Drysdale: Yes and no. They also have a house in Cape Cod, where they spend as much time as possible. That&amp;#039;s where their family will gather and where they will eventually retire to. The key is getting down to what you really need. That&amp;#039;s a pleasure in itself. My client says this is her little jewel box. What sort of house was it originally? It&amp;#039;s one of a series of Georgetown row houses built around 1900 as living quarters for people who worked in the larger houses in the area. At first there wasn&amp;#039;t even a staircase to the second floor \u2014 just a ladder. There is a long, narrow room for living and dining, a kitchen, and two small rooms and a bath upstairs. The original bathroom was half the current size, so we removed the bedroom closet to make the bathroom larger. A skylight brings in a lot of light and creates a feeling of space. Where is the closet? We turned the other upstairs room into a dressing room with closets. So you&amp;#039;ve got the essentials. I always say, &amp;#039;The floor plan is the generator,&amp;#039; and because the space couldn&amp;#039;t be altered, the question became how to give it some refinement. You added simple moldings and gave special treatment to even the most basic elements, like walls and floors. I love spaces in which wherever you look there&amp;#039;s something to discover. After you&amp;#039;re in this home for a while, you see the striped walls and the patterned floor. In the bookcases, you discover the plates arranged in vignettes. It all keeps the attention of the viewer and makes it more elegant and interesting. Everything becomes a detail. I like that zippy Madeline Weinrib rug with the more sedate damask sofa and club chairs in the living room. It&amp;#039;s terrific-looking because it&amp;#039;s unexpected, and the pattern is actually close to the pattern of the damask, so it works. The strength of the color grounds and ties together the seating area. It also defines a little space at the front door for a foyer and, on the other side, allows a noncarpeted area for the dining table. The Venetian chair by the door is like a piece of sculpture. You can pull it up to the seating area if you want, but it&amp;#039;s also practical to put a purse or a briefcase on when you walk in. With the scale of a room like this, and because the door and curtains are where they are, it was like an ensemble that needed a pair of earrings or a scarf. That chair seemed perfect. The modern art is a nice bit of punctuation as well. The painting by Maryanne Pollock changed the flavor in the same way the rug does. It doesn&amp;#039;t take away from the comfort of the traditional pieces. It updates them and brings a new level of energy to the room. Let&amp;#039;s talk about yellow and white. It&amp;#039;s a combination I associate with you for some reason. Ha! I always laugh about that because I did a showhouse with these big yellow-and-white plaid curtains, and later I put them in my house. When Veranda featured my house in 1996, those curtains were on the cover. I&amp;#039;ve been associated with yellow and white ever since. It so happens my client loves this particular shade of yellow. She says it feels like the house is glowing, and when she comes home it feels warm and comfortable. I&amp;#039;d feel that way coming home to this bedroom, too. It has an almost coddling quality, like someone&amp;#039;s coming to sing me a lullaby and tuck me in. Yes, it is nostalgic and romantic and sweet. She had some furniture her grandfather painted for her when she was a little girl, and she really wanted to use it. We duplicated the flower design on an inexpensive bed, and we created a variation to paint on the walls. You&amp;#039;ve kept the furnishings and bedding very simple, in keeping with the spirit of the period. Was that the intention? Yes, and it&amp;#039;s a tiny room, only eight or nine feet wide. Mixing in the quilts adds another layer; they come from the same tradition of hand-painted furniture and decorative painting. It&amp;#039;s all a celebration of American craft \u2014 and memories, too, I guess. I love the old secretary that&amp;#039;s used as a linen press. That piece is an heirloom as well. This is a family that really values its history and uses the things that have been passed down. If one person can&amp;#039;t use a table or a dresser, he or she will find a sibling or a grandchild who can. It&amp;#039;s refreshing to see that today. And as you did downstairs, you&amp;#039;ve added a snazzy rug in the mix to keep the room from being fusty. It&amp;#039;s a sisal that I had painted with stripes. I love stripes. People expect a rug, but maybe not this one. How did you paint it? We just measured, taped it off, and sprayed it with acrylic paint. Is it wearing well? I just did it last year, and now other people have ordered them, so I think I&amp;#039;ll be doing a lot more. I&amp;#039;ll have to keep you posted. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.housebeautiful.com/design-inspiration/home-makeovers/tips/a1162/mary-douglas-drysdale-interview-0713/>