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The large den is clad in horizontal pine boards painted in Benjamin Moore Azores. The rare late 19th-century hooked rug is of Hero, the Libby Prison bloodhound who befriended the Union soldiers being held captive there during the Civil War. Antiques include the long English dresser on the far wall, circa 1750; the hanging walnut cupboard made in Pennsylvania, circa 1780, and the walnut Rowan County, North Carolina, chest on frame, circa 1820.
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The 12-foot-tall tripartite window in the den was designed by their architect, Charles A. Aquino. The 11-foot flocked Douglas fir is covered in decorations, many of which came down through the homeowners’ families. The “table” resembling a tree trunk is a ceramic garden seat.
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(From left) Michael Maddix and Douglass Moyers at the front door to their early 1920s home designed by noted Richmond architect Otis Asbury.
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The scenic floral wallpaper in the dining room is by Gracie, circa the 1970s, found in a period house in north Georgia and moved to Richmond. The antique Serapi rug is from Persia; the chandelier and sconces are French, circa 1820; and the Duncan Phyfe-style dining table and upholstered chairs are contemporary.
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The Duncan Phyfe sideboard was made in New York, circa 1815. Moyers found the portrait of Alabama planter Col. Joseph Walker, dated 1851, at an antique show behind a lot of junk and had it restored in its original gilt frame.
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The library walls are covered in chocolate grasscloth. The small black-and-white box on the mantel with compass rose patterns is from North Carolina, circa 1820. The painting over the fireplace by German painter Edward Beyer depicting the Spears Farm in Botetourt County, signed and dated 1856, was acquired through Richmond antiques dealer Robert C. Crawford.
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The ebonized 1906 Bluthner piano from Germany was considered a “chamber grand” by the maker, Moyers says. Antique furnishings in the living room include an Oushak (Turkish) rug; a Duncan Phyfe sofa made in New York, circa 1815, covered in burgundy horsehair; and a wing chair made in Philadelphia, circa 1775.
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The horizontal pine board paneling in the new kitchen entryway is painted Farrow & Ball Pigeon, the ceiling is pickled in Benjamin Moore Kentucky Haze, and the flooring is Belgian bluestone. A large framed piece of antique floral cross-stitch dominates the wall.
Christmas brought Michael Maddix and Douglass Moyers together.
Nearly a decade ago, Maddix, who stages and flips houses, was helping a friend decorate her Monument Avenue home for the holidays. She mentioned that Moyers, who was renting an upstairs apartment at the time, might benefit from decorating assistance for a party he was planning.
“I was actually inside [Moyers’] apartment before meeting him in person,” Maddix says with a laugh. “We both are sort of Christmas nuts; we enjoy the decorating.”
Now partnered and the owners of an Otis Asbury-designed Georgian Revival house that celebrates its centennial in 2025, Moyers and Maddix share holiday duties. Moyers decorates the 10-foot Christmas tree in the family room using a fraction of the dozens of ornaments that were given over the years to his late father, a Baptist minister, by parishioners. “There were enough decorations for half a dozen trees,” Moyers says. “My sister and I divided them.”
Throughout the house, vintage toys and collectibles from the couple’s childhood homes embellish the year-round decor. Byers’ Choice Caroler figurines perch atop shelves displaying 18th-century Canton porcelain. Tabletop trees are tucked into corners. Greenery adorns mantels, the staircase railing and centerpieces.
“We both have a lot of Christmas things from our childhoods,” Maddix says, noting that the house’s attic and his off-site warehouse provide a home for holiday decor out of season. “This house does Christmas really well.”
“Some people believe that less is more, but at Christmas, we think more is more,” Moyers adds.
The couple purchased the house in February 2021; since then, they’ve undertaken two significant projects: refreshing the original interior and expanding the home by nearly 1,500 square feet. “Our friends laughed at us,” Maddix says. “They said, ‘What, 4,500 square feet weren’t enough?’ But we had a huge, formal house with a kitchen that wasn’t functional, no family room, no breakfast area.”
The refresh, completed in spring 2022, included painting, wallpapering and cleaning the dramatic black-and-white tiles that fill the center hallways. “The house has that old-era feel,” Moyers says. “And there’s a real wow factor when you come in. One-third of the first floor’s square footage is in those two halls.”
The tiles were stripped and repaired — “We didn’t realize how much brighter [they] would get,” Maddix says — and for the walls, the couple employed multiple approaches. “We kept the center part of the house white on white, which keeps the focus on the pretty details,” Moyers says.
Color abounds in the rooms ringing the center hallways. The formal living room, which houses Moyers’ 1906 Blüthner piano, is painted Farrow & Ball’s Vert de Terre, a soft green; the front sitting room sports a rich brown grasscloth; and the dining room is wrapped in a Gracie scenic floral wallpaper, sourced from a house in north Georgia. Because the home’s dining room is larger than the room where the Gracie paper had originally hung, the couple hired a decorative artist to replicate the pattern on a section of the wall that would have otherwise been blank.
Construction on the addition concluded in October 2023, paving the way for the couple’s first 150-person Christmas party last year. The couple worked with Richmond-based architect Charles A. Aquino, who made the most of the wide but shallow lot. “We literally went as far to the lot line as we were allowed,” Maddix says.
The goal was for practical, usable square footage. “Other spaces in the house have smaller versions of this gathering space, but we loved the concept of a big eat-in kitchen that feeds into the family room,” Moyers says.
The family room also sports windows that stretch from the floor to the 12-foot ceiling. On the wall facing Byrd Park, the windows have arched muntins to frame the view and provide visual interest. “The design is really different,” Moyers says. “It really catches people’s attention.”
Furnishings throughout include Moyers’ collection of American and English antiques, which he began to acquire in the 1990s. “I wanted to focus on Southern [pieces], but there’s so little of it because so much was lost in the Civil War,” Moyers says. “I think of this style as ‘established traditional,’ because I hope guests feel like they can sit on any chair.”
“We wanted [the house] to be very traditional but also very comfortable,” Maddix adds, noting that his contributions usually come about as a result of his work.
“He’ll call me and go, ‘I’ve found the most awesome thing,’” Moyers says, pointing to the chairs around their kitchen table, which came from a local resale shop, Class and Trash, and were significantly less expensive than those Moyers had seen elsewhere.
At last year’s Christmas party, guests were in every room of the main floor, which was the point, the pair agreed.
“We looked at a lot of houses, and they were pretty, but the level of detail [here] with the woodwork and arches is crazy,” Moyers says. “You see all these cool design things on the front — columns, wing walls with urns — and then you come inside, and it’s even better inside.”
