It’s a great day for an interior designer when a project comes along with beautiful architecture—the logic being that the decorative finishes elevate the structural features and together everything sings. Arlington designer Ame Gold found herself in this situation when James B. Sowell came calling in 2023.
Sowell, a newly divorced principal in the tax practice of a Big Four accounting firm, had just purchased a 1938 Tudor in Lyon Village and he needed help with, well, everything. Luckily, a remodel by Arlington-based Spring Street Development about a decade earlier had preserved the home’s finer architectural details and added some new ones, including tall ceilings and large windows. Gold’s charge was to complement those assets.
“A Realtor and his partner had owned the house, and he had done a big renovation where he bumped out the whole back,” Gold says. “They did a really good job of honoring the Tudor architecture, and the addition felt very seamless. My client called me and said, ‘I’m bringing no furniture to the new house.’ The only thing I bought quickly was a sofa.”
The move was a homecoming of sorts for Sowell, who had lived in Lyon Village in the early 2000s. The vibrancy of the area lured him back. “There is a great sense of community,” he says. “Many of the residents have been there for a long time—multiple decades. [It’s] very walkable vis-a-vis restaurants and shops in Clarendon. Easy Metro access also was important.”
As excited as he was to be back in the neighborhood, he was equally thrilled about the house, with its classic stone and shingle facade, swooping roof gable and interior details such as archways, transom windows and chair rail molding. “The house is well organized and has many modern features while largely retaining the character of the original 1938 construction,” he says. “The living area has very high ceilings with great light.”
The home did have some minor shortcomings that the designer and client wanted to correct, starting with the cherry red kitchen countertops installed by the previous owner. Gold believes they were one reason the house sat on the market longer than it should have.
“People just couldn’t see past it,” she says. “We got rid of those and [went with] black to neutralize everything and keep in context with the historical kitchen renovation.” She also swapped out all the light fixtures, many of which were inappropriately scaled, and introduced brass-finish lighting with crystal or burled wood details.
Another key move: resurfacing the living room fireplace mantel (not shown) in Carrara marble. “There was some really dated tile, and they had painted it green,” Gold says. “We took that out and put in the classic marble to clean it up.” The marble matches the tile in the bathrooms.
With those modifications complete, Gold turned her attention to furnishings. She wanted to make it personal for her client. His interest in art was a starting point.
“I didn’t have an art collection when I bought the house,” says Sowell, who vacations in Maine and is partial to images of New England landscapes, seascapes and birds. “Ame was very helpful in coordinating the art that I liked with the furniture design.”
After purchasing several paintings by Maine artists, Gold and Sowell brought all of the art to the house and designed the spaces around specific works. “We went through the collection and talked about what pieces he wanted to prioritize, and where we saw those pieces being hung,” she says. “He really wanted a house that felt kind of calm and airy, so we jumped off of some of the blues, but really everything else around it stayed incredibly neutral.”
Textiles and soft furnishings complement the artworks’ palette of blues, persimmons and greens. Rugs, curtains and cushions in natural materials, such as wool and linen, not only jibe with the aesthetic but are easy to clean, Gold says.
All of the furniture was made to order, down to the frame and the fabric, with traditional lines that were pared back to match the architecture. “Tailored might be a good word,” Gold says. “He wanted things that fell into the traditional vein of the home and his taste.”
In the living room, tall window treatments accentuate the 11-foot ceilings and 8-foot patio doors while also adding warmth. “The ceiling height is really nice, but if you don’t put any draperies around them, it feels a little cold,” Gold says. “I always say that draperies are kinda like a warm hug.”
The dining room’s lower ceilings (8 feet) warranted a different approach. A lightly textured wallpaper creates a feeling of intimacy. The crown molding, chair rail, built-in cabinets and fireplace mantel are painted a pale blue that harmonizes with the wallcoverings, while the ceiling is white to keep the space from feeling too closed in.
Sowell couldn’t be happier with the final result. “The design came together exactly as I hoped it would,” he says. “It is comfortable, the colors are relaxing, and everything fits together well. This is a testament to Ame. I certainly do not have any talent or vision for this kind of thing, but I don’t struggle with decisions. She got to know my taste, gave me limited options, and I chose from those options. I think we worked together quite well.”
Freelance writer and DIY remodeler Nigel F. Maynard lives in a fully renovated 1909 Victorian in historic Hyattsville, Maryland. Follow him on Instagram @products_hound and
@custom_home_hacker.