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Rachel and Owen Howlett removed a wall to create an arched opening that lets light flow into their living room. They added the arched shelf to enhance the space. The curve at the top mimics the radius of the original pilaster arches in the entryway and also relates to the curved cornice on the antique secretary in the adjacent room.
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Inspired by a paint treatment they saw in a boutique hotel in North Carolina, the Howletts extended the Portola Paints Limewash in Potters Clay paint from the ceiling to the picture rail. Rachel says she loves the softness and depth it gave the east-facing dining room.
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Owen’s father, F. Carey Howlett, conserved the antique Sheraton-style sideboard, circa 1810. The Khal Mohammadi runner is from Rugs.com, and the alabaster lamp is an antique. The walls are painted Sherwin-Williams Pure White, and the trim is Sherwin-Williams Peach Fuzz
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The Maxwell sofa from Interior Define is covered in Amber Performance Linen Weave. The Painterly striped linen bolster is from Lulu & Georgia, and the sconce is from Rejuvenation. The dark green portal is painted Sherwin-Williams Rookwood Dark Green, and the trim and shelf are Sherwin-Williams Cascade Green.
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The bed is from West Elm, the Invitation bench is from BluDot, the Poire linen duvet is from Lulu & Georgia, and the cotton crocheted bedskirt is from Greenrow. The Pembroke striped linen sheets are from Piglet in Bed, and the throw pillows are from Citizenry, DWR, and Lulu & Georgia. The walls are painted in Sherwin-Williams Slow Green, and the trim is Sherwin-Williams Kind Green.
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The couple added quezelle shades to the restored antique chandelier in the sitting room. The antique Moroccan rug is from Rugs.com, the Arum sconce is from Ferm Living, and the Bernard Lounge chairs are from HAY. The live-edge coffee table is a custom design inspired by George Nakashima’s midcentury designs.
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Inspired by classic English kitchens, the couple incorporated antique furniture pieces including the mid-19th-century pie safe and the circa 1840s curly maple drop-leaf table. The countertops are honed Arabescato marble, the cabinets are Conestoga by Cabinet Joint, and the brass rails are from Devol Kitchens.
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The Art Nouveau-style Poppy Flow wallpaper in the nursery is from Borastapeter, and the Candice mirror is by Regina Andrew. The mini low lounge chair is a vintage Savo rattan chair by Monika Mudler for Ikea, and the Flowerpot lamp is from &Tradition. Sherwin-Williams paints in the room include Pure White on the walls, Rivers Edge on the trim and Rose Tan on the fireplace niche.
Early morning sunlight streams through the east-facing floor-to-ceiling windows of Owen and Rachel Howlett’s dining room.
A lime-washed ceiling in rich terra cotta meets a lighter peach-toned trim, warm white walls and yellow pine floors to envelop the space in a cozy glow that extends throughout the couple’s Oregon Hill home.
Good interior design is dependent on the balanced, rhythmic use of color and texture to create a harmonious environment. Faced with restoration of a circa 1910 house, the Howletts employed color to maximize the light signature of every space in their home and establish a cohesive, welcoming composition.
“One of the interesting challenges we had was to create a color palette system that pulls things together,” Rachel explains. “It’s not simply that the palette for room A is color A, or that room B is color B. It is a dialogue of colors.”
The couple — who own their own design firm, Studio Howlett — are drawn to more natural colors. They selected the warmth of terra cotta and peach tones paired with shades of green to coat the walls and trim throughout their three-bedroom house that shares a boundary with Richmond’s park-like Hollywood Cemetery. “We chose colors that provide a connection to the plant life. They’re not neutral or subtle colors, but they still feel natural and organic,” Owen says. “We chose them in order to make it feel harmonious.”
While the rich colors are applied throughout the rest of the house, a neutral palette of buff trim set against creamy white walls greets visitors in the entryway. “We didn’t want a fun house of color,” Owen says with a laugh, explaining that the entry, stairway and halls provide a restful visual transition between floors and living spaces.
An early-19th-century Sheraton-style sideboard dressed in birdseye maple veneer with bone inlay and a vintage Norman Cherner chair share space between the dusty blue front door and the staircase, where double arches delineate the foyer from the hallway.
“We like to mix antiques with contemporary pieces,” explains Owen, whose father, F. Carey Howlett, is a nationally respected historic furniture conservator based in Richmond. Antiques such as the sideboard and a cherry secretary tucked in a corner of the dining room reflect the family’s reverence for historic decorative arts.
The living room, which adjoins the dining room, introduces various tones of green set against white walls. Originally separated from the hallway, the living room let in limited light from west-facing windows. The Howletts removed a wall, creating a portal that allows light to stream down from the home’s second floor.
The portal’s custom archway is wrapped with pale green shelves that mirror curves on the nearby secretary in the dining room. Fluted millwork spans the inside of the arch; its unique texture is emphasized by the deep green paint that also matches the couple’s kitchen at the back of the first floor.
“We had these goals for a color palette in different rooms to create a real diversity of experience in the house between these nice green tones and warm terra cotta tones,” Owen explains. “When we got to the shelf system, it took us some time to figure out how to use that as a transition. That’s why we have the inside of the portal a darker color. It emphasizes the transition, and we like that unique attribute.”
The Howletts layered depth and softness to shape mood and guide spatial experience throughout the house. The custom-made ladder in the kitchen is painted Sherwin-Williams Cascade Green. The wallpaper is from Borastapeter, the pleated pendant light is from Devol Ceramics, and the antique brass hardware is from Rejuvenation.
It’s a technique employed throughout the home to play with light and spatial perceptions, particularly in the older home’s small rooms, alcoves and passageways.
“Often as a starting point, when you’re thinking about how to approach color in trim work, the idea is to just be consistent. While that’s good advice, we sometimes like taking risks,” Owen says.
Another arch mirroring the proportions of those at the base of the stairway leads into the kitchen, where the same dark green of the portal has been applied to the cabinetry and trim. Lush botanical wallpaper from the Scandinavian firm Borastapeter, applied sparingly, picks up the paint’s warm, earthy tones. Creamy Arabescato marble countertops, white oak herringbone floors, open shelves and a reeded Carrara marble surround installed over and above the stove provide cooler, lighter counterpoints.
Lighter green shades take a back seat in the kitchen, where they are subtly employed in the custom wallpaper, the glass-fronted cabinetry shelving and a handcrafted library ladder used to access upper storage. A trio of petite, scalloped porcelain pendants unobtrusively provides light over the sink and counters.
Custom hexagonal tile that mixes light and dark green tones against a sea of white covers the floor in the pantry. The same tile is also used on the home’s second-floor bathroom, where it is paired with wainscoting in the dark green shade from the kitchen and living room portal.
Inspired by a tour of the John Marshall House museum, the couple’s bedroom features two shades of a seafoam green seen in the Marshall House dining room. The dark hue with lighter trim that dominates the space is flipped in the alcove that houses their bed, which instead sports light green walls and dark trim. “You don’t realize it’s inverted,” Rachel says, “and it adds depth to the room.”
Saturated peach tones cover trim in the couple’s daughter’s room and frame a skylight inside a vaulted ceiling detail in the guest room.
“Using these two colors provides a unifying feeling as you’re moving through the house,” Rachel explains. “Crossing the boundaries of spaces with the same colors, where they’re dominant in one and tertiary in another, [allows] a different color to lead.”
