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A bright blue dhurrie rug from Guinevere London lays overtop a herringbone brick floor, practical for wet feet and towels. The entryway niche was outfitted with hooks for hats and tote bags, a bench, and a pleated curtain made with Penny Morrison fabric to hide sandy shoes.
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A collection of America’s Cup yachts, ship lithographs and seascape paintings tell a story up the front staircase, and woven baskets made of wicker, rattan, seagrass and more add intrigue and texture to nooks beneath the stairs.
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Adjacent to the kitchen, a nautical rope railing leads up the front staircase with an indoor-outdoor runner from Stark underfoot. Beneath the steps, a special bamboo tray is outfitted for morning coffee.
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The kitchen is the perfect shade of dusty indigo mixed with airy fabrics — a Sarah Vanrenen print at the windows, Schumacher ticking in the cabinets and a Peter Dunham indoor-outdoor print on the Palecek counter stools.
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A Sarah Vanrenen stripe frames the view to the beach, while a Lee Industries sofa covered in Thibaut performance fabric is ready for sandy feet. Underfoot, an Ernesta rug with a cotton dhurrie from Etsy overtop reflects the living room’s color palette and the palette waiting outside the windows.
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A Lee Jofa wallpaper envelops the dining room, where a painted cabinet found at auction was filled with blue-and-white china from Replacements. The woven chandelier is by Currey & Company, and the rug is by Jennifer Manners. Gingham slipcovers from Pierre Frey give new life to an existing dining room set.
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Layered with prints from Thibaut, Sarah Vanrenen and Pierre Frey, the living room offers multiple seating areas for family and guests, with a built-in banquette for cards, games or cocktails.
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A hand-block print from Schumacher and framed America’s Cup yachts are the perfect backdrop to this twin guest room, with bamboo beds from David Francis Furniture, a campaign desk from Etsy and an upholstered stool from Chairish.
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In another guest room, a pair of twin beds from Lee Industries are upholstered in a Schumacher floral and framed by a contrasting Samuel & Sons trim. Canopies were created in a Schumacher pink stripe and fastened with a rope detail. The bedside table is vintage Ralph Lauren found at auction.
When Charlottesville-based couple David and Susan Landin were searching for their weekend getaway, warm feelings of nostalgia drew them to Virginia Beach. Along the North End, they found a house originally built in the 1950s — the perfect place to spend summers with their growing family and create memories for generations to come.
To give their property a refresh, New York-based interior designer Chrissy Ritter, who designed their Charlottesville residence while working for interiors icon Charlotte Moss, was the natural choice. The new assignment for Ritter? A lived-in beach house; inviting, comfortable and not overly done.
Having seen how the Landins lived, Ritter understood there was more to the assignment than just beautiful schemes. “All of my projects begin with questions about functionality; I wanted to understand how they used these spaces and, more importantly, what wasn’t working for them that I could fix,” she says.
What she found was that, after undergoing multiple renovations and changes over the years, a more formal foyer was the one piece the house had always been missing. With the help of Charlottesville-based architect Roger Birle and Virginia Beach-based builder Matt Hylton, Ritter set out to create an entry with a strong sense of place. Keeping some of the original elements of the house in mind, they started with a French terra cotta herringbone floor that matched the exterior brick and mimicked the original wall paneling. “You walk in now, and it feels otherworldly,” she says, “but also pays homage to the architecture of the home.”
The Landins were looking for a house that felt lived-in, with the warmth of brown wood and comfortable upholstery. Ritter combined their desire for unique, functional spaces — nooks for puzzles and games, TVs hidden behind curtains and workspaces in every bedroom — with an eye for detail and unusual pieces. “Collecting furniture and materials from different countries was important to me. We have British colonial, painted, tortoise, Scandinavian, matchbox, bone inlay and English pieces which make the house look and feel curated, yet coastal,” says Ritter.
Upon entry, visitors are greeted at the front staircase by a collection of America’s Cup yachts, ship lithographs and seascape paintings. After finding several of these pieces scattered around the house, Ritter scoured auctions for additions to create a story up the stairs. “I wanted to take what they had and start a collection, and I left room so they could continue to add over time.”
The biggest challenge Ritter faced was that the downstairs was all one, long room, “but with the addition of paint, wallpaper and a little bit of added moulding, we were able to make the rooms feel more intimate as you walk through them,” she says. Because of the open concept, each space needed to have its own story and definition, starting with the dining room. When contemplating the color scheme, she thought, “every beach house does need a blue-and-white room, so I leaned into that. Now it feels like its own space.”
The approach followed with the living room, the family’s natural gathering point on the way to the beach, and the furnishings reflect its purpose. Ritter selected fabrics and rugs for their ability to withstand climbing toddlers as much as their natural beauty. To give the room the separation it needed, Ritter chose a true blue green for the walls that now acts as a neutral. “For me, it’s an updated shade of seafoam that you might find in a classic old beach house,” she says. It was also the perfect backdrop for a collection of beach-themed oil paintings the Landins had spread throughout the house. Here, positioned above the sofa as a streamlined gallery wall, these pieces were another opportunity for Ritter to create a special story for the room.
When it came to designing the bedrooms, Ritter shared her ethos that each room should be enticing, offering a “come and stay awhile” energy. This is evident in her use of playful prints, comfortable textures and collected dual-function furniture. Thoughtful, personal touches such as custom notepads, charging stations, luggage racks and “Camp David” beach totes have been specially curated for the rooms. “To me, every guest room should operate as a mini hotel suite, ready with anything you might need,” Ritter says. Other bedrooms reflect the surroundings as well; the wall colors are interpretations of sand, shells and waves, all elements you’d find along the water. “I think whether conscious or unconscious, when it comes to schools of thought, you take your cues from the architecture and what’s waiting for you right outside the windows.”’
“I still draw a deep sigh of satisfaction when I hear the surf, feel the breeze or even witness a big thunderstorm over the water,” David says. “For our extended family, ‘Camp David’ is a place to relax, play board games and leave some sand where it shouldn’t be. Chrissy’s work on things large and small has left her stamp and created a shared sense of place that we all treasure.”
