Designers Pamela Black and Don Love Create a Youthful, Worldly Residence in D.C.'s Foggy Bottom
When Washington, D.C.-based designer Pamela Black was entrusted with revamping a tired, out-of-date apartment for an 83-year-old bachelor with a lifetime of art collecting and travel under his belt, she knew the dwelling needed a punch of character as vibrant as her client. Black also thought to enlist longtime friend and collaborator, Don Love, to transform this residence that was desperately stuck in the '80s, from the worn parquet flooring to the salmon pink bathtub in the primary bathroom.
"I'd met Paul many years ago, and he was a dinner party circuit-type friend," says Black of the client for this project. "One of my girlfriends connected us, as he'd told her he was making a big move and was finally leaving the Foggy Bottom home that he'd had for 40 years. We went to meet him to talk about the apartment, and he wasn't wedded to keeping much, so that opened up a world for us to design something truly special for him."
However, the client's art collection was something both he and the designers wanted to bring over from his prior residence and utilize in a more powerful way. Love says once the project was finished, it was the first time some of these pieces were ever put on display.
"When we finally when through it, the collection had about 35 pieces of all sizes and we knew we wanted to infuse some new pieces into the home's design as well," says Love. "It was really about color and ambiance and how these pieces would feel in the space. We ended up featuring about 50 pieces in total."
From the client's print of style icon and actress CZ Guest to a piece of Swedish wallpaper from an antiques dealer in Georgetown to a magazine clipping from Love's own collection, this new home was bound to be layered, eclectic, and a visual portrait of the client's globetrotting life. Finalizing the direction of the design came after a trip to Halycon House, the now-closed antiques shop owned by John Rosseli's nephew, Jonathan Garigulo, where the pair stumbled upon a black chinoiserie console that Black says was just the spark the design duo needed.
"We knew where we were going right away when we saw that piece," says Black. "We knew then that we wanted a bit of West Indies, elephant motifs, and English-meets-Chinese design with hurricanes and pagodas, the whole bit." With a little help from Black's son, Robert, of Robert Black 5 Design, LLC., the team now had the architectural and custom furniture renderings to start putting the pieces of the puzzle together. Exquisite and transportive wallcoverings from Iksel, John Robshaw, Katie Ridder, and Michael S. Smith, among others covered the walls and this dated '80s space began to look like a whimsical wonderland of global treasures that felt both historic yet contemporary.
Since the rooms were so large, Black and Don installed many a built-in to create more storage space for the client's extensive collection of books and trinkets while also giving the spaces more dimension and a greater sense of coziness. Thanks to the enthusiastic client who was supportive in each step of the design process, Black and Don were also able to run the gamut in terms of fabrics and colors—the pair used fabrics from nearly 40 vendors and had about 20 lampshades created along with a number of lighting pieces by The Urban Electric Co. Lighting and ambiance were top priorities in creating a welcoming environment for the client and the fixtures certainly received star treatment.
"We always start from the prospective of what sort of emotional response or experience you're getting from a wallpaper, fabric, or when you turn on a light switch," says Love. "You start thinking about the views from the apartment and what you see specifically from each room and there were times, weeks later after moving in, where Paul would turn on the sconces in the TV room, for example, and experienced the coziness of the space differently depending on the time of day."
The pair says they wanted to client to feel at home but in a way that was a step up from his nearby former residence where he spent the last 40 years. They wanted to create something entirely new that still felt old and rooted in history, which is appropriate for the neighborhood that's a cultural hub of our nation's capital, as it's home to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, The Watergate, the Department of State, and George Washington University. Not only has this home encapsulated the inspiring neighborhood of Foggy Bottom but it represents the life and times of one of its decades-long residents: a Renaissance man who's had the privilege of traveling the world and wanted to infuse his favorite destinations into one comforting and charming space.
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