Reviving the Colonial Revival

This 1940's Washington, DC house gets a refresh for a new family.

- CHARLOTTE SAFAVI

After living in a Manhattan apartment, a young couple who relocated to Washington, DC, embraced the quiet setting of the circ 1940's red-brick Colonial Revival house they decided to make their family home.

"The home is in Forest Hills, a beautiful section of Washington, DC," says the wife, adding, "It's surrounded by mature trees and similar homes from the period."

The house, however, had been largely untouched over the years, and needed a makeover. To help the couple achieve their wish list, they decided to work with Anne Marie Hauer of Choux Designs, a boutique interior design firm, with a penchant for refreshing older, often historic, homes with a fresh British aesthetic.

"What the homeowners understood about us is that we design both to our clients' style and to the vernacular of the home. We are greatly influenced by British design, which tends to be a combination of traditional architecture and furnishings mixed effortlessly with modern, more clean-lined elements," says Hauer.