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The first floor of Anne-Marie and Paul Queally’s Richmond home is an open space designed for entertaining family and friends. “We want everyone to come together in one gathering space,” Anne Marie says.“It’s a very easy house to live in.”
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The Queallys refer to the house as their “treehouse cottage.” Interior designer Susan Jamieson used this as an inspiration point for numerous touches throughout the home, such as the tree branch-inspired chandelier from Ironware International.
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The classic white kitchen offers ample room for informal entertaining during football season. An arched window opening mimics the home’s distinctive central eyebrow window.
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The 3,300-square-foot home features three floors and was inspired by English cottage architecture. Architect Pat McClane of Smith + McClane, which has worked on buildings at the University of Richmond, incorporated the school’s signature brickwork into the design.
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A small two-story Cape Cod style house sat on the property originally. The Queallys hired architects Smith + McClane to design a new, three-story home using the same 1,100-square-foot footprint.
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Architect McClane worked with Kenneth Lynch and Sons in Connecticut to design and fabricate the ornamental bronze spider plaque that accents the front exterior in a playful nod to the University of Richmond’s spider mascot.
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The serene master bedroom features two opposing eyebrow windows, each with a diameter of 12 feet. “We wanted a space that had much more light than you would get with a single dormer,” McClane says of the dramatic feature.
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The back window looks out onto the heavily wooded lot, providing a feeling of living in the treetops. The walls are painted a pale blue-green, Pia, by Bridget Beari Colors, interior designer Susan Jamieson’s line of paints.
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A round window, placed high on the wall, illuminates the bathroom while maintaining privacy.
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The third floor features a cozy office space decorated in soothing hues of cream and blue.“I tried to make it look like it was collected so it didn’t feel like it was all brand-spanking-new,” says interior designer Jamieson.
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One of the two lower-level guest bedrooms features a subtle University of Richmond theme, with a navy-and-red palette and fun spider artwork. “Without being too literal, I wanted to embrace their love of U of R,” Jamieson says.
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Upstairs, a cozy daybed features a luxurious collection of custom pillows, echoing the colors found in the artwork above by Isabelle Abbot from Page Bond Gallery.
University of Richmond graduates Anne-Marie and Paul Queally of New Canaan, Connecticut, graduated from the University of Richmond in 1986 and have maintained close ties to the university ever since, as major donors, active alumni and Spiders athletics fans. When they found themselves increasingly spending time in Richmond — Paul is a member of the university’s board of trustees — the couple began looking for a part-time home here.
Chief among their requirements was proximity to the University of Richmond. In 2014, they found the perfect house, or at least the perfectly situated lot, within walking distance of their alma mater. Though the small 1940s Cape Cod was not exactly their dream home, the location was too good to pass up.
“We were looking not for a project but for a place that was close to campus so that we could walk to football and basketball games if we should choose to and enjoy the proximity of all of the events on campus,” Anne-Marie says.
“The idea was to build a house that was an extension of the campus.” —Anne-Marie Queally
The Queallys decided to take on the challenge of transforming the outdated home into an open and gracious spot for relaxation and entertaining, enlisting architect Pat McClane of Smith + McClane Architects, a firm that has worked on numerous building projects on the UR campus. Warren Montague of John W. Montague Jr. Inc. was the builder.
“The idea was to build a house that was an extension of the campus,” Anne-Marie explains. “[Smith + McClane] was a great marriage for us in our building project. … We wanted it to feel like it could be a little cottage right at the very edge of the university.”
The new home occupies the same footprint as the original house, but everything else was demolished with the exception of the basement foundation walls. Because the site’s topography, which slopes dramatically to a creek in the back, did not allow for expansion, “there was no place to go but up,” McClane says. The new house is three stories, with two guest bedrooms on the lower level, one large open living space on the main floor, and a master bedroom suite and office on the third floor. The master bedroom features two opposing arched window openings that are each 12 feet wide, providing the feeling of being suspended in the treetops.
“The detailing was a lot of fun.” —Pat McClane, architect
The Queallys requested that the main living space be combined into one large room. The entrance is located in the center of the house and leads into an expansive space that features a wall of windows at the back of the house, which opens onto a deck that extends into the heavily wooded lot. “We have named it our ‘treehouse cottage,’ ” Anne-Marie says.
A large, classic white kitchen, central dining area, and living area equipped with comfortable, overstuffed furniture and a large TV are designed for casual entertaining. “The idea is that when you walk in, it is one room and everyone is all together,” Anne-Marie says. “We didn’t put TVs in the other rooms. We didn’t want people holing up. We want them to come together into one gathering place. Between the kitchen island and the dining table and other seating, you can fit many people easily.”
Once they got past the preliminary design, McClane says the Queallys gave him a lot of creative freedom. “It was a very fun project to do,” he says. “We were going for an English cottage style,” he explains, “similar to the [University’s] Westhampton Center. It’s more of an Arts and Crafts look than the collegiate Gothic architecture.” The home’s Flemish-bond brickwork, with a decorative belt course, mimics that found on many of UR’s buildings, and a decorative bronze spider plaque is a whimsical accent on the facade. “The detailing was a lot of fun,” McClane says.
“I wanted to embrace their love of U of R.” —Susan Jamieson, interior designer
Interior designer Susan Jamieson of Bridget Beari Designs also enjoyed working on the project, incorporating subtle tree- and bird-themed touches such as a branch chandelier and artwork featuring nests, butterflies and other nature-based subjects, much of it from Page Bond Gallery. Jamieson also sought to reflect the Queallys’ love for the University of Richmond, “but in a subtle way,” she says. “I used hints of blues and reds and a blue-green throughout the house, without being too literal, to embrace the treehouse theme and their love of U of R.”
The Richmond theme is most evident in one guest bedroom, with a navy, red and white color scheme, and fun spider-themed art.
“Because we’re both Spiders — we both graduated the same year and got married soon after college — the university not only provided us with a great education but also a beautiful marriage and family,” Anne-Marie says. “We have always loved the university and have made wonderful memories here.”
