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— TERRI L. JONES —
Sure, the brick might turn your head and the interesting roof lines may ignite a spark. But like any good love affair, what’s inside those good bones is often the stuff that’ll win your heart.
At the 57th annual Richmond Parade of Homes, October 5-19, builders will certainly satiate boomers’ thirst for style and amenities, as more than half of the homes are furnished and decorated. But while you’re “oohing” and “ahing” over the three-piece crown molding and the slate fireplace hearth, it’ll also be easy to imagine yourself kicking back on the sofa or entertaining friends in the spacious kitchen.
These showplaces are designed for comfortable, easy living.
A consistent theme in these homes is fabulous “flow”. Because boomers entertain often, many homes have very open floor plans and use columns to divide rooms, vaulted ceilings and even mirrored walls to accentuate their openness. According to Mary Garner-Mitchell, freelance art director and graphic designer for Gumenick Properties, a consistent color palette on walls and in décor also visually connects rooms to accentuate space.
But while most builders agree on the need for good flow, there isn’t such a consensus on formal dining and living rooms. In its model at Atlee Station Village, Colonial Homecrafters Ltd. has dispensed with these rooms altogether in favor of a larger eat-in kitchen and a sprawling family room with living and dining area in one large, open space. However, other builders maintain that boomers still want these formalities.
“Our market research indicates that even though boomers might be a smaller household, they still want to be the center for their families,” says Cindy Jez, director of sales and marketing for Gumenick Properties Homebuilding Group. As you enter the foyer at Grayson Hill, you’re greeted by a formal living room on one side and a spacious dining room with table set for eight on the other.
Extravagant — dare we say, indulgent — master suites provide busy boomers with a getaway within their own four walls. You’ll find sumptuous silk bedding, enticing sitting areas, jetted tubs, and real stone tile — there is even a grand set of double doors leading into the Grayson Hill suite. Sally Slate of Metropolitan Real Estate Inc., who decorated the Atlee Station Village model for Colonial Homecrafters with daughter Ashley Slate, says of the master they decorated, “Everyone walks in the master and says it looks fit for a queen” with its opulent swags of silk draped over the bed and ballroom-style drapes.
The master at The Villas at Grey Oaks is as richly appointed as the rest with a painted screen on the wall over the bed, an Empire-style pine armoire and a sitting area in front of the expansive triple window. However, Boone Homes Inc. has mixed in a little practicality with the aesthetics. “Boomers don’t want to climb up into a big bed,” David Owen, president of Boone Homes, says of the more understated bed in Grey Oaks’ master, “so this one is lower to the floor.”
Over the years, boomers have accumulated a mix of pieces and these homes reflect that eclectic sensibility. Stained woods are integrated with painted and distressed, traditional form furnishings are upholstered in the newest oversized-patterned fabrics, and intriguingly different styles and fabrics are paired in rooms. Even artwork ranges from oil paintings to African masks to imagery hand-painted directly on walls (check out the staircase wall at Grayson Hill).
And few pull off these contrasts better than Jo Anne Boone, an owner of Boone Homes and director of Boone Homes Interior Design, and her assistant, Laura Dobbins. In the dining room at The Villas at Grey Oaks, you’ll find a contemporary glass-top table on a base of stone Ionic columns surrounded by six very proper cherub toile-upholstered and skirted chairs. Off-white tufted sofas in the family room don’t feel the least bit stuffy in the company of a laid-back leather arm chair and fine Raffia table.
Is your heart going pitter-pat yet? After the Parade of Homes, you may not be signing on the dotted line, but you’ll certainly be returning home with a few new design ideas up your sleeve! IBl
Terri L. Jones is a Richmond features and advertising writer.
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