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In the family room, a souvenir of The Greenbrier is displayed on a side table. The custom bookcase is painted in Benjamin Moore Ocean Tropic.
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In Dawn’s office: a pair of custom, hand-painted panels by de Gournay, polka dot wallpaper and a tiger stripe in a rosy hue
Doug Blackburn visited The Greenbrier resort in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, for the first time in the early 1970s. Since then, Blackburn, who grew up in the southern part of the state, has returned often, enjoying the luxe aesthetic created by American designer Dorothy Draper — who also designed the interiors of the Grand Hotel on Michigan’s Mackinac Island — and fostered by Draper’s successor, Carleton Varney.
Dawn Blackburn has never visited The Greenbrier — a trip planned for December 2020 has been rescheduled for later this year — but she also favors a vivid design aesthetic that incorporates pinks, reds, blues and greens.
“Doug got me a Dorothy Draper book,” Dawn says. “I saw what she had done at The Greenbrier and at the Grand Hotel, and I loved it.”
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Layering pattern, color and texture a la Dorothy Draper: a velvet Chesterfield sofa with bullion fringe, chintz pillows and bold graphic patterned drapes
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A copper sink and a Roman window shade in a Schumacher chintz provide subtle pops of color in the overall neutral kitchen.
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In a guest room, a pillow embroidered with “Shh, it’s sleepy time,” is a nod to signage found at The Greenbrier.
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The front door is painted Benjamin Moore Exotic Red, sprayed with a Fine Paints of Europe gloss finish.
The couple, who married in December 2018, decided to renovate Doug’s existing home, a Georgian built in the mid-1990s, rather than move elsewhere. They worked with Richmond interior designer Ashley B. Hanley for a complete overhaul.
“I liked that [Hanley] was young and [had] fresh ideas,” Dawn says. “We wanted to be bold with color and patterns, and we needed somebody open to that.”
Doug recalls that in their first meeting, Hanley asked if either he or Dawn could describe a space that had impressed them. Doug immediately shared his memories of The Greenbrier’s Victorian Writing Room, done in dark green and featuring a dramatic Federal mirror over the fireplace mantel. Now, Doug’s office has dark-green grasscloth walls and its own Federal mirror. “I actually went to The Greenbrier with grasscloth samples and found the perfect Ralph Lauren sample [to use],” Hanley says.
The family room is also dark green, with a comfortable reclining leather chair just for Doug and new built-in bookcases, made possible by closing one of the two arched openings into the sunroom. “Now I have a place for all my books, which had been in boxes for 30 years,” he says.
Rather than try to fit what they had into their new vision, the couple started fresh, working with Richmond organizing firm Minima to identify what made sense to keep, both emotionally and practically. Hanley then sourced new furnishings. “Sixty percent [of what we had] went to Goodwill,” Doug says.
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In the main bedroom, there's a sumptuous half tester bed inspired by the luxurious bed and bedding found in The Greenbrier’s Presidential Suite.
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A vintage turquoise blue-glazed Foo Dog adds a note of chinoiserie, a signature element in any Draper-inspired space.
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Initially, Doug was unsure of the color used on the Chippendale-style wainscot; he’s “beyond thrilled" with the end result.
Dawn was especially happy to claim a small formal living room as her office. Resplendent in bright pink and green, it features gold and mirrored accents, a dramatic Visual Comfort floral chandelier, and a lacquered ceiling in light pink. “No one had been in that room for 20 years,” she says. “We want to use all the rooms, to have them be comfortable, inviting and welcoming.”
Hanley says the goal is to strike a balance between comfort and impact.
“It's even better in person.” —Dawn Blackburn
“With this project in particular, some of the challenges were making sure we incorporated specific pieces that provided function, comfort and color,” Hanley says. “We kept the foyer calm and quiet, and the kitchen a neutral palette. With all the spaces, it’s finding the right harmony between the different colors and patterns, and making sure the scale of the different patterns work with each other.”
While the overall effect is certainly Draper-Varney inspired, Hanley says she aimed for a fresh and unique feel.
“We didn’t want [the house] to be too literally a replica of The Greenbrier,” Hanley says, noting the Draper influences of chinoiserie, blue-and-white porcelain pottery and Staffordshire dogs — even vintage “little Greenbrier things” to adorn shelves. But there are also modern touches, such as the vinyl grasscloth-wrapped coffee table in the family room. “The key is grounding rooms with more masculine colors or furnishings that make it feel less feminine,” she says.
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Draper-inspired details in the dining room include unmatched chairs and a cluster of flower-filled blue-and-white Chinese porcelains on the table.
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Inspired by the Victorian Writing Room at The Greenbrier — Doug’s favorite — his office features a Federal-style bullseye mirror and green paint on the woodwork.
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The brilliant color palette and Greenbrier theme flow throughout the house, as in this powder room, which features a Manuel Canovas floral wallpaper and a coral cabinet.
Dawn, who gave Hanley lots of pictures to use as inspiration, couldn’t be more pleased with the end result. “It’s even better in person,” she says.
Doug adds, “We can’t recommend [Hanley] enough. We think she’s wonderful. We were putting together two families and did a remodel, and she survived all that.”
“My goal was to literally knock their socks off and wow them with a design that would become a marriage of their two styles,” Hanley says. “It’s a fun house … one of the coolest projects I’ve done to date.”