Featured Homes
Bountiful Elegance
An urban town home is layered in warmth and timeless beauty.

“I love looking through the French doors and feeling the energy of my urban neighborhood.”
– Dee, homeowner


Carolyn Grove, interior designer

Carolyn’s Design Tips
-Placing select pieces at an angle adds more interest to a room.
-Dee’s dining table is placed at diagonal for intrigue and to accommodate more guests.
-Go overscale when selecting chandeliers – the more (adjustable) light, the better.
-When considering moderately priced upholstery for the body of your sofa, “punch it out” with exceptionally rich fabric on the pillows.

“Don’t be afraid to infuse your space with color and unordinary accessories and treasure finds.”
– Carolyn Grove, interior designer

-Don’t underestimate the power of crown molding – use it often and use it big!
-Group favorite photographs into a cluster to make a unique design statement.
-Use mirrors extensively in most all rooms to brighten and reflect light. “You can’t beat a mirror to lighten up a space!”

For a homeowner with three college-age children and an affinity for fine art and antique furniture, living in the diverse, culturally rich Washington University neighborhood couldn’t be more ideal. “I love the atmosphere – the students, energy and the location in the city,” says Dee, living in her University City town home for just a year. Its picturesque setting is energized with a blend of established homes amidst new construction, and it is just the location Dee wanted when she built a home that she happily explains is, “big enough for people to gather, yet intimate at the same time.” Busy with her practice (Dee is a physician), she thoroughly enjoys the domesticity of being a homeowner. Her home represents a blend of comfort, elegance and charm with a cozy European feel and is a home-away-from-college for daughter Nelsy and sons Andrew and Alex.

Dee enlisted the design expertise of interior designer Carolyn Grove to enhance her home’s worldly aesthetic. Carolyn worked closely with Dee in coordinating the design process, beginning with the cabinetry, flooring, granite, lighting and architectural details. From there, Carolyn presented a design palette, including fabrics, paint and wallpaper that would coordinate well with Dee’s antiques. Carolyn suggested a wall color for the kitchen and hearth room in a shade that she refers to as “pumpkin” to add a fresh backdrop and work in juxtaposition with the rich woods of the mossy green cabinetry and Dee’s predominately French and English antique pieces. “Go for the unexpected,” says Carolyn, whose philosophy encourages fresh, original design, and in Dee’s home – a style that is uniquely her own.

For Dee, finding a home with ample wall space for her larger pieces and extensive art collection was crucial – and the University City town home easily met her space requirements.

Having lived in Richmond, Virginia, Dee developed a taste for traditional decorating. Over time, she developed the confidence to buy what she likes and advises, “Buy what speaks to you.” She recommends living in a space for a while, and then it will become apparent where pieces should go. “You get to the point where you’ve developed the taste and the confidence to fill your home with pieces that you know you love,” says Dee.


Dee’s 4,200-square-foot town home is strikingly spacious with an intimate, worldly ambience, due in part to Dee’s gorgeous, ever-expanding collection of antiques from her historic 1926 Georgian home on Wydown Avenue. She recalls one of her sons saying, while living at their previous home, “We can all be in the house together and not feel like anyone’s home,” and it was this sentiment that was the impetus for building a home with room enough for all the kids and their friends, but not as rambling as their previous Clayton home. “I love having a home where everyone is welcome,” says Dee, who became increasingly aware that all of her children would soon be leaving for college, and she needed space for them to come home and bring friends. With four bedrooms on the second floor and a guest room on the lower level, the town home is both warm and welcoming. And Dee has been pleased to have her mother come for a month-long visit.

If you ask Dee to name her favorite spaces, she includes the kitchen (she loves to cook) and cozy hearth room. “It’s where the family spends time, and it has a serene, relaxed feeling,” says Dee. Her much-loved collection of brown-and-white antique English transferware and English majolica has evolved over the years. An antique French Provençal sideboard hutch displays Dee’s collection of majolica.

“The spaces are a European blend – a little French, a little English – from Old World countries,” says Dee, who has an eye for quality antiques.

She recently hosted a brunch for 50 as a send-off event for her college children, and the party extended out onto the deck. And with a love for decorating, gardening and flower arranging, Dee is currently transforming the outdoor living space to capture the feeling of the European countryside. It will be the pièce de résistance for Dee – uniting her home’s timeless beauty with nature’s delightful, ever-changing palette.