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Adrianne Bugg says she instantly fell in love with the abstract portrait by Anne Darby Parker when she and Brandeis Short — Bugg’s good friend and partner in Pillar & Peacock Interior Design — discovered it at market. The moody palette echoes colors in the wallcovering and upholstery, adding depth and emotion and serving as the perfect anchor for the space.
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The painting is by Chelsea McShane. The vintage dining chairs have been re-covered in a Kravet tweed, and the pendant light is from Visual Comfort.
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Adrianne says she loves the curved sofa and the way it creates an intimate and defined gathering space paired with chairs covered in a graphic Peter Fasano fabric.
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The built-in planter in the window of the stairwell — an architectural detail often found in midcentury homes — is an immediate conversation starter, Adrianne says. Light from the window illuminates a triptych by Richmond artist Kiki Slaughter.
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One of Adrianne’s favorite spots, the entryway is wrapped in a Phillip Jeffries wallpaper that she says hints at the texture and movement found throughout the house.
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“In the warmer months, you’ll find us out here for most meals,” Adrianne says. “The table comfortably seats 10, though during summer crab feasts we often have even more friends gathered around, sitting and standing together.”
Visiting Adrianne and Tripp Bugg’s home on the Rappahannock River feels a bit like going to summer camp: Zip lines and mountain bike trails wind through the 13 wooded acres. There are tree swings, a campsite and a dock with jet skis.
It’s exactly the quiet outdoor retreat they had in mind when they bought the home in 2020.
Two decades ago, the couple were living in Richmond but splitting their time between the city and Irvington, where Tripp has a law practice. In 2009, after several years of commuting back and forth, the Buggs decided to commit to full-time life at the river.
They bought a house in Irvington but hoped to move to a home on the water one day.
“We wanted our kids to have this idyllic, free-range experience growing up,” Adrianne says, “one where they could run around, jump off the dock, have their friends over.”
In 2020, they were beginning to look more seriously when Adrianne saw a listing in the window of a friend’s real estate firm.
“It had the ugliest picture I’ve ever seen,” she says. “The house was yellow and brown. It was a little bit ’80s, a little bit midcentury. It was bizarre. And it really piqued my interest.”
Adrianne, an interior decorator, was itching for a challenge. She wanted something that wasn’t a cookie-cutter design, a property that they could make completely their own.
The house is perfectly positioned to take advantage of spectacular views of the river and woodland. Adrianne says they discovered the original stone steps when they began clearing the overgrown landscape.
The house is cantilevered over a pond and set among the trees. It has an upside-down layout, with the bedrooms on the ground floor and the kitchen and main living spaces upstairs. Huge windows overlook the river.
To begin the transformation to a modern oasis, Adrianne turned to the team at Pillar & Peacock, the interior design firm she co-owns with partner Brandeis Short.
One of the first things they did was trade the yellow exterior for Farrow & Ball’s Black Blue. The deep color elevated the aesthetic and helped the house recede into the landscape. Inside, they painted the walls and ceiling of the living room the same shade.
“Your eye goes straight to the beautiful view,” Adrianne says. “It also creates these beautifully intimate, cozy spaces. It feels like you’re tucked into the woods.”
That moody feel was the basis for much of the design, which also features natural materials including limestone and wood flooring and a stone fireplace. In the two-story entryway, the Buggs added live tropical plants inspired by the courtyard plantings and foliage of New Orleans.
Outside, family and guests naturally gravitate to the fire table and dining area on a second-story porch that extends over the pond. Downstairs, a second porch provides a gathering space for the kids and their friends. In the side yard, they’ve added gardens and space for corn hole and volleyball. And when the Buggs built a dock, they added enough room at the end for four chairs and a coffee table.
The Buggs have since named their residence “Camp,” a reference to the home’s retreat feel — and its glamorous touches.
“Camp was this fashion movement known for really cool, over-the-top details,” Adrianne says. “I thought it would be fun to nod to the activity on the property and the fact that the house isn’t what you would expect. It’s a little more elevated than you would think for a river house. ‘Camp’ made sense for that duality.”
