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Eugenie Calderón’s eclectic living room is a study in intentional maximalism. “Most of these pieces I’ve had for so long, and I feel like as I move from place to place, they just find themselves in different locations across my home,” says the decorator. She found the botanical prints at the High Point Market. The vintage midcentury lamps were a gift from her mother.
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Eugenie discovered the rug during a visit to High Point Market, loved the colors and had to design a room around it. She says that rugs — which she likes to layer to define spaces — and art are among her favorite things.
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“I absolutely adore this textile,” Eugenie says of the wall hanging that anchors the bed. “I was trying to figure out a way in this room to add something that works with these pitched ceilings, and I stumbled upon yet another Suzani, which are thrown all over my home. But they just have such a high impact.”
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From the first time she saw the Phillip Jeffries raffia wallpaper, Eugenie says she envisioned it installed overhead with her sculptural light fixture. Her 4-year-old daughter, Luisa, sees it as “a rug on the ceiling.”
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A cheerful pitcher by Corinna Cowles discovered at Foyer Gallery sits in front of the abstract painting Eugenie inherited from her grandmother. She says the family spends much of its time around the Suzani-covered dining table, given to her parents as a wedding gift. Tech Painting Co. lacquered the ceiling.
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Luisa (standing) looks on as her older sister, Emilia, shows off some of her beaded bracelets. Emilia’s room is enveloped in soft pink, cozy with layered textures and patterns. A pair of vintage art deco nightstands — Eugenie’s first big purchase — flank the bed. “I love it,” she says. “They were in my bedroom, now they’re in hers.”
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“She’s got this cute little blonde [haircut] and this really fun little attitude, so I went with more of the less girly elements in her room,” says Eugenie of her daughter Luisa. She painted the lamps yellow to add a pop of color. The small prints on the wall were in Eugenie’s mother’s room when she was growing up.
When Eugenie Calderón left her native Richmond to live in Washington, D.C., and then New York, she never envisioned her next step would be to return home. “I moved back here expecting to leave Richmond again once I figured out my life, as one does in that quarter lifetime,” she says. “And then, I met my husband, Jose Calderón, who’s from Bogota, Colombia, and he loved Richmond, so we decided to stay.”
The couple started looking for a house after getting engaged. Eugenie, who grew up nearby on Cary Street, says it was Jose who first saw the potential in the house they chose and its location, and he was right; they love living there. “For us, convenience was king. … To be near my family and to be near the schools and the grocery stores and the playgrounds ... all these things make life here easier,” Eugenie says.
As a decorator with her own firm, Eugenie Calderón Interiors, Eugenie says she was also drawn to the idea of reimagining the house to suit their lifestyle. They bought the property in 2018 and got started by replacing the small front porch with a new one that spans the entire facade, upping the curb appeal.
After the birth of their second child, they embarked on a full renovation and expansion of the house. The original structure stopped where the dining room ends. “We basically gutted the entire downstairs and reconfigured all of this,” Eugenie explains. “The upstairs pretty much stayed the same, except we blew out the back of it. You would not recognize the house had you walked in here before.”
Eugenie says she loves the butcher-block top on the kitchen island, handcrafted from reclaimed antique wood planks by James Schmidt, a woodworker in Montpelier. Another highlight is the butler’s pantry and adjoining mudroom painted in a treasured shade of pink. “It helps to keep us organized.”
Eugenie says she thinks some guests are at first taken aback by the color, textures and boldness of her interiors. “Everything that I do design-wise is rooted in the foundation of color and pattern and texture and kind of having that ‘wow’ moment, because I think every room should be a conversation piece. Your home tells the world so much about you.”
The beauty of art is in the eye of the beholder, she says, talking about the collection of works that greets guests as they enter the foyer and continue through the house. Some pieces were inherited, including the abstract painting in the dining room by a celebrated New Orleans artist, which once belonged to her grandmother. Others are from local galleries such as Crossroads Art Center, Quirk Gallery and Foyer Gallery. A few were found on the sidewalks of New York.
“When my grandmother passed away, she left me an abstract painting because it was her favorite and I was her namesake. I put it in the dining room, where I pass it every single day. I feel like the basis of design for my entire home was that piece of art. Just the colors and the shapes and the unexpectedness of it I just found to be so captivating.”
I think every room should be a conversation piece. Your home tells the world so much about you.
—Eugenie Calderón
A pair of antique wood pillars found at North Carolina’s High Point Market add a vertical element to the living room. A vintage Louis XVI-style settee upholstered in a kilim rug provides a bit of glamour and unexpected pattern, paired with a long bolster that Eugenie handpainted. She says the curtains are totally the wrong shade of white, but she loves the subtle way the off-white color pops against the white walls. An ottoman upholstered in a pink polka-dot fabric and a bold Suzani throw draped across the white sofa draw color through the space. Multimedia artworks — many by Eugenie’s mother, Richmond artist and designer Deborah Valentine — add dimension.
In the dining room, where her grandmother’s painting holds center stage, an old Mr. Brown chandelier Eugenie repainted white suspends from the chartreuse lacquered ceiling, echoing the white walls. A colorful Suzani cloth covers a vintage table that once belonged to her parents. She discovered the drapes in their attic and repurposed them for the room.
Large-scale graphic wallpaper from Design Legacy by Kelly O’Neal adds an unexpected element to the kitchen — grounded by the light color of the large butcher-block top on the island, the country white wood floors and colorful Moroccan rugs — while the full-height turquoise tile backsplash calms and colors the space.
“My mother has this amazing skill of walking into a room and seeing it almost upside down,” Eugenie says. “Growing up, my house was constantly being flipped upside down. What she taught me, and I will forever take this, is that doing what everyone else is doing in your home isn’t a reflection of you; it’s a reflection of what everyone else expects of you. When you’re in your home, it should be a place that you love.”
The Calderóns’ Westhampton home will be open to the public on the Historic Garden Week Westhampton Tour on April 23.
Historic Garden Week 2026
April 18: Ashland
April 19, 20: Historic Berkeley, Westover and Shirley plantations
April 21: Richmond - South Gaskins; Petersburg
April 22: Richmond - Church Hill
April 23: Richmond - Westhampton
April 24: Richmond - Kent-Valentine House; Virginia Executive Mansion
