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The pedestal table was created by Richmond furniture maker Daniel Rickey. The grouping of Poulson pendants over the table was inspired by an installation of Poul Henningsen’s fixtures the homeowners saw at Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen, Denmark.
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The rear facade provides views from all levels of the wooded grounds surrounding the villa and features enclosed and open porches and steps leading from the common areas to the swimming pool below.
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The homeowners had the existing porch screened in and added heaters and fans so they could entertain family and friends year-round. Spending time there feels like you’re sitting in a tree house, they say.
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The workstation, built by Poem Furniture, is painted PPG Mint Leaves, green, inspired by the natural habitat outside. The Eames molded plastic armchairs are vintage, and the trio of Sierra Modern Flower Pendants are by Umanoff Design.
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The homeowner’s love of Los Angeles architect Barbara Bestor’s aesthetic led her to this Andy Warhol-designed flower wallpaper from @flavorpaper. The artwork at left is by Robert Walz.
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Vintage Cy Mann chrome lounge chairs were re-covered in velvet fabrics in shades pulled from the rug. The vintage coffee table is from Mid Century Morris. The homeowners purchased the rug on a family trip to Morocco.
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The homeowner hung a collection of baskets crafted by her mother from the ceiling as an art installation after artist Mickael Broth commented that the jumble thrown into a corner looked like a sculpture.
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Inspired by an oculus, the skylight was designed to maximize illumination during the winter. The diffuse light it provides is safe for art, which was a goal. The clear acrylic chandelier by Umanoff Design was created for the homeowner’s previous home and retrofitted for its new location.
Where most renovations start with walls, the Quarry House renovation started with collections.
“Everything you look at can become a fairy tale,” Hans Christian Andersen once wrote, “and you can get a story from everything you touch.” Here, carefully gathered treasures became the blueprint for a home that celebrates its owner’s collections and the stories they tell.
Before the first design was drafted, the homeowner inventoried everything she loved but had never been able to properly display: pottery from Nicaragua and Morocco, her mother’s paintings and handwoven baskets, quilts stitched by her grandmother in the 1930s from flour sacks and castoff clothing. She carefully measured and cataloged each treasured object alongside the furniture and fixtures she couldn’t leave behind, then she handed the list to her architect.
Jessie Gemmer of Acme Architecture designed the house around that inventory, working back and forth between the collections and the architectural plans. It was an unconventional approach, but it shaped every room. Gemmer reflects on the result, “This is a house of high design that looks like people live here. It’s not a museum. It’s filled with symbols of love.”
The list shaped more than Gemmer’s drawings, influencing everything from curation to construction. Lighting designer Wendy Umanoff of Umanoff Design was an essential creative partner, providing design consultation as well as select fixtures, many from her Flower collection.
Umanoff and the homeowner have worked together for years, and it shows. “Trust is so important,” Umanoff says. “When you have it, you stop worrying about whether you’re overstepping and make better decisions faster.”
Contractor Chris Kardian of CK Renovations brought those decisions to life with meticulous construction. Weekly meetings and virtual walkthroughs kept the collaboration seamless. “We had the very best team with Chris, Jessie and Wendy,” the homeowner says.
A centerpiece of the design is a soaring wall of shelves framing the kitchen, a curio case for the family’s collections. “I was inspired by Ariel’s cave in Disney’s [adaptation of Andersen’s] ‘The Little Mermaid,’ a room where all the objects you love are out for you to enjoy,” Gemmer notes. “You can sit and stare at that shelf wall and always find something new to appreciate.”
She credits Charlottesville-based Poem Furniture for making the complicated build look effortless. An artful skylight illuminates the display, and a student studying the design later noted its resemblance to the oculus over Ariel’s underwater grotto. “I wish I could say that was planned,” Gemmer says, “but maybe it was subconscious.”
Umanoff and the homeowner curated the display, grouping objects by color, shape and material while varying their heights to create rhythm. Paintings, photographs and sculpture were arranged to tell a visual story that anyone walking through the house can read and relate to.
The pairing of traditional and modern elements throughout the home continues the narrative. The arched doors and windows are echoed in the sleek kitchen island, where arches support a quartz countertop crowned by a modern fixture Umanoff originally designed for the homeowner’s previous dining room. A collection of inherited needlepoint, which could feel fussy, comes across cleanly through thoughtful framing and placement alongside contemporary touches. A small desk alcove, painted a vivid green with a custom floral wallcovering by Richmond designer Sarah Rowland papering the ceiling, is tucked into a bay of windows overlooking the trees.
The homeowner’s collections are as much, if not more, about feeling than form. A basket sculpture suspended from the primary bedroom ceiling tells a story of her mother’s handiwork. Her grandmother’s quilts, arranged neatly on the shelves of a vintage cupboard, include one made for her father that features his embroidered initials stitched alongside the year of his birth, 1933.
Her children’s artwork got a second life, too. She had her daughter’s drawings of cartoon characters and her son’s battle-scene sketches turned into wallpaper used in the laundry room and game room, respectively. “What a treat to be able to see those drawings,” she says, “and be reminded of the innocence and joy of childhood.”
Local artists are also on display. An anchoring piece over the living room mantel is by Richmond muralist Andre Shank. Other prized works have been collected over the years, many from Visual Arts Center events and 1708 Gallery’s Monster Drawing Rally. Among the artists represented in the collection are Sandy Williams IV, Mary Fleming, Hamilton Glass, Lisa Taranto, Kevin Sabo, Mickael Broth, Veronica Jackson, Frankie Slaughter, Robert Walz, Aimee Joyaux, Greg Holzgrefe, Louis Poole, Ed Trask, Matt Lively, Susann Whittier and Wendy Humble. Each piece was chosen because it was meaningful to the collectors.
“Collections communicate what people value and love. They are a translation of how we see the world,” Gemmer says. “Architecture is the stage for life, and in this case the stage is set for a life full of love, art and the love of art.”
Andersen never saw the Quarry House, but he would have understood it implicitly: Everything in it tells the story of something touched and deemed meaningful.
