It all started with broken blinds—the ones covering the 11-foot windows in the Arlington townhome Chip Read shares with his partner, Greg Jones. “I said we should get new window treatments,” Jones says, “and it went from there to, Let’s just do the whole thing.”
Read lived in the town house for 13 years before Jones moved in. He’d had it professionally decorated in the ’90s, but now the maroon-and-hunter-green palette felt dated. So he was happy for Jones to orchestrate a refresh, starting with the window wall. Enter Arlington designer Nicole Lanteri.
“When I walked in, I instantly thought of drapery, floor to ceiling,” says Lanteri, a former lawyer who found her calling as an interior decorator and launched her own business in 2009. She specified dramatic columns of gray linen against walls painted in Benjamin Moore’s Electric Orange, a combination in keeping with the couple’s desire for a midcentury-modern look.
“It automatically evokes a feeling of the 1960s without having to be so literal in the style of furniture or patterns on the wall,” she explains.
Taking a color-block approach, Lanteri had the dining table lacquered in a contrasting royal blue. Then she went high and low, splurging on Stark carpet and Romo wallpaper in the entry hall and stairwell while shopping retailers like Crate & Barrel and West Elm for furniture. Colorful accent tables and poufs complete the mix. “The idea was, you can move things around for extra seating or to put your feet up,” she says.
This versatility has worked well for a couple who entertain frequently. “Nicole rejuvenated an interior that was not aging very well,” Jones says. “She did more with the space than I thought possible, making it feel elegant and fun at the same time. It really pops now!”
Project Credit: Nicole Lanteri | nicolelanteri.com