Completed last year in time for Thanksgiving, her new home enjoys panoramic views of rolling pastures, shimmering ponds and the Blue Ridge beyond. “The water has its own peace and its own grace, but to be in the mountains and see the land unfolding before you is a totally different head,” she says. “It is so peaceful and yet so powerful here.”

For Rieger, the time was ripe not only for a change in locale, but also in architectural style from both her “cottagey” bay-area bungalow and her ultra-modern apartment in CityCenterDC. “I wanted my new home to be everything they were not,” she vows, adding, “I didn’t want a farmhouse.”

After putting her other properties on the market, Rieger tapped Flint Hill, Virginia, architect Jay Monroe to design her country escape. She envisioned a home modest in size yet large enough to host guests in comfort. She pictured airy interiors that would capitalize on the grandeur of the views but still feel cozy and intimate.

The 30-acre site consists of woodland sloping down to a former pasture. “It made sense to tuck the house up against the woods rather than place it in the field below, to give it a sense of protection,” Monroe says.

To kick-start the design phase, Rieger shared photos gathered on Pinterest and in magazines with Monroe and her builder, Joseph Keyser. They developed a plan for a two-story, modern cottage that nods to Scandinavian style. It contains an open kitchen and dining area, living room and guest suite on the first floor; the second floor harbors the master suite and a second guest suite. The architect clad the home in stucco and added Western red cedar pergolas for texture. Dormers on the second floor break up the lines of the standing-seam metal roof.

“In Rappahannock County, we pride ourselves on letting the landscape be the art,” says Monroe. “We keep houses fairly simple and clean.”

More than 60 windows, their wood frames painted black, strike an industrial note. “They speak to the area without getting too ‘white board-and-batten,’” quips Rieger. She took interior design inspiration from spare, Nordic style and authentic local art. “I really want to support local artists out here,” says the journalist, whose collection includes a sculpture by noted blacksmith Nol Putnam and what she calls an “explosive” painting of a night garden by Ruthie Windsor Mann.

The living room and kitchen span the rear of the home with a dining nook and built-in bar between them. During construction, Rieger made an unusual request for windows behind the range hood. “I cook a lot when I’m here and wanted to look out at the woods,” she explains.

Upstairs, dormers were put to good use. The master suite and guest room are furnished with custom daybeds. “On a rainy day, who doesn’t want to curl up with a book on a daybed?” Rieger reflects. A wooden desk inset in the center dormer serves as a home office where she writes, a photo of NBC4’s late Jim Vance by her side.

When in Rappahannock, Rieger (who stays in an apartment in DC during the week), checks headlines every morning but eludes nonstop news cycles. “I have two TVs in this house—and they’re not plugged in,” she admits. She and her boyfriend, who visits often, enjoy biking on Skyline Drive and hiking on nearby trails.

Now 64, Rieger surmises that escaping from the Washington scene on weekends has kept her grounded during nearly 40 years in broadcasting—32 spent at NBC4. “I joke that it’s the only successful relationship I’ve ever had,” she remarks. “I wouldn’t be in this house if I hadn’t worked for Channel 4. They’ve been very good to me and I’ve been good for them.” The three-time Emmy winner currently anchors News4 at 5, DC’s top newscast in its time slot. In 2005 she pioneered a “Going Green” segment that aired around the country and later inspired a series on NBC Nightly News.

Rieger also took her new home in a sustainable direction. “I wanted to live what I’ve espoused and kept the footprint as small as possible,” she explains. “The house is heavily sealed and the way it’s oriented on the land, I barely have to run the heat even on the coldest nights.”

Rieger looks forward to giving back to the community near her new country home and remains awestruck by the beauty surrounding it. “I think I have one of the best views in the county,” she muses. “I was drawn here by the enormity of it.”

Architecture: Jay Monroe, AIA, ASLA, Monroe and Crocker, PC, Flint Hill, Virginia. Builder: Joseph Keyser, Joseph Keyser Construction, Washington, Virginia.

Where did you find inspiration for your furniture collection?
I was inspired to design things I would want in my own home. When you design what you’re passionate about, it shines through. My collection is modern but warm, minimal but not too minimal. It’s all about mixing the right materials to make modern, clean-lined pieces feel warm and inviting.

How do you define a well-designed home?
A home that is well-designed functions well. I always first worry about how a room needs to function, then I worry about how it’s going to look. A well-designed home makes your life easier, not harder.

What do you love about your own home?
I love the views. Our house isn’t big, but it’s perched up on a hill where we have 360-degree views of L.A. There’s a lot of glass so nature is part of the home.

What’s happening in design that excites you?
Colored cabinets are something that I’m really loving. Painting the cabinets is a great way to modernize your kitchen without spending a lot of money, and colored cabinets just look cool. In Season Four of Queer Eye, I did a yellow kitchen with open shelving that has been one of my favorites.

What do you want viewers to take away from Queer Eye?
Your spaces can affect your mental health and how you interact with your friends and family. If your phone doesn’t get a good charge, it’s not going to make it through the next day. It’s the same with you. I want people to really realize that your home has a huge effect on that. The show allows me to help way more people than
I would ever have been able to help before.

This is intentional. Commissioned in 1930 by Anna Dodge Dillman, the widow of auto tycoon Horace Dodge, it is the precise replica of a 1704 palace still standing in Paris today. Dillman tapped French decorators to fill the home with Louis XIV and Louis XV Revival furnishings and decorative objects, then gifted it all to her newly married daughter—who departed when her husband died soon after the marriage.

Even more interesting than these personal details are those of the house itself. For many years, the impeccably designed mansion was said to have been built by Horace Trumbauer, a popular Gilded Age architect. Yet it was actually designed by Julian Abele, an accomplished architect on his staff whose work remained uncredited throughout his life because he was African American. In fact, the contributions of Abele—who also designed much of Duke University (though he never saw the campus in person due to Jim Crow laws) and other illustrious American landmarks—have only been acknowledged since his death.

With such a colorful history, it’s not surprising that the current Belgian ambassador, Dirk Wouters, and his wife, Katrin Van Bragt, both refer to “the soul” of the residence when describing the magical experience of living there. “It’s such a blessing for Belgium to have this house,” Van Bragt says simply. “It’s a warm place for all of Washington to come to.”

The Dodge family sold the mansion to the Belgian government in 1946. Today, its interiors are remarkably preserved, from the sumptuous architectural ornamentation on its walls to many of its original, ornate furnishings. A restoration begun in 2006 by DC-based Quinn Evans Architects updated the building’s infrastructure, replacing antiquated electrical wiring and installing new heating, cooling and humidifying systems. The job also entailed repainting, double-glazing windows, cleaning sculptural elements and more.

The ambassador and his wife arrived in Washington in September 2016 and will complete their stint in the fall of 2020. As they see it, the stately house has provided the perfect backdrop for diplomacy.    “A country the size of Belgium needs assets to mark its identity on the power scene,” observes Wouters. “The first is a prestigious embassy. If you also have a beautiful residence at your disposal, then you have everything you need as a diplomat. It is a perfect asset to promote the capital of Europe in Washington, DC.”

The residence hosts 4,000 to 5,000 visitors a year for events ranging from working breakfasts and lunches to dinners for 27 in the elegant, Louis XV Rococo-style dining room and buffets for up to 75 in the Grand Salon. A reception each November 15th attracts 350 guests for King’s Day, a celebration honoring King Leopold I, Belgium’s first monarch following its independence from the Netherlands in 1830.

Along with the storied setting, adds Wouters, “We use gastronomy as a tool for diplomacy. Belgian cuisine is recognized; it stands for refinement. We like to make every guest feel at home, to give them a retreat from work life and a touch of Europe in the U.S. The cuisine allows us to host people in a way they will remember.”

Hired last fall, chef Timon Michiels serves up the classic fare of his native Belgium, influenced by local produce and lightened by nouvelle elements. Among Michiels’ recent offerings: a savory waffle paired with salmon (not locally fished around Belgium) and ice cream flavored with Belgian beer.

Diverse events held at the residence not only introduce Belgian culture to the U.S. but also forge connections. Presentations by experts of note—from Nobel Prize winners to authors, politicians and economists—are popular; these “Belgian salon” evenings include up to 80 guests and are followed by dinner for a select group. Concerts with the Washington Bach Consort, Washington National Opera and Embassy Series are held in the Grand Salon.

Among the ambassador’s favorite moments have been those honoring American veterans who fought in World War II. “People 90 to 100 years old come to the residence from all over the United States for a yearly reception,” he explains. “Last December, I brought several of them to Europe to commemorate the last battle of the war in Belgium. It was emotional and powerful.”

This final year of Wouters’ tenure in DC has already seen the relaunch of a direct flight from Dulles to Brussels on Brussels Airlines. And in late March, the residence will welcome Her Royal Highness Queen Mathilde of Belgium for a two-day visit, during which she will accept a leadership award, speak on poverty and sustainable development and dine with guests at the residence.

For Van Bragt, the draw of the Embassy residence and its rich architectural legacy is powerful, whether or not visitors are experiencing it for the first time. “Some people know more about the house than I do,” she explains. “Maybe they were here 40, 50 years ago. It’s part of their memories and creates a bond.”

Ambassador Wouters agrees, “The house connects you to the people who visit. This feeling of connection adds to the great experience and honor of living and serving here.”

“It’s not the huge kitchen that you’d think I would have as a chef,” muses Robert.

“It’s not fancy and modern,” Polly adds.

“That’s all,” Robert concludes, during a long conversation in which each spouse finishes the other’s sentences.

The Wiedmaiers enjoy all the accoutrements of a big kitchen for entertaining at their sprawling weekend retreat on the Chesapeake Bay, where they host most of their get-togethers and holiday meals (see the September/October 2014 issue of Home & Design online). They furnished their Kensington home, on the other hand, to be warm and intimate for time spent with sons Marcel and Beck (whose names each grace an RW restaurant) and close friends.

“It’s a perfect size for us,” says Robert. “When you come in, it’s country-feeling and very comfortable.”

Though the couple has done little to the home’s original layout, they’ve repurposed its main spaces to revolve around cooking and dining. A former family room attached to the kitchen is now a large dining area, where a 12-foot farm table takes center stage underneath framed family photographs—and a signed print of the makings of an apple tarte tatin created by the late chef Michel Richard.

The home’s former dining room, meanwhile, is a rich, chocolate-brown lounge that Robert and Polly call the “cookbook room,” since it contains more than 150 volumes, many signed by prominent chef friends. Robert’s favorite is a 1973 tome called The Auberge of the Flowering Hearth. “It’s a story of two sisters who live up in the Alps and what they cook every day,” explains Robert, who identifies with the quotidian comforts of simple cuisine described in the book because of his own upbringing in Belgium and Germany with his Francophile mother. “I was with her in the kitchen all the time and I got into cooking because of her. There’s nothing more nurturing than cooking for people and making them happy,” the chef reflects.

“Home is a special place,” adds Polly. “It’s where you get together and talk and eat. It’s important for us to sit down and spend time together.” Polly, who works from home as RW Restaurant Group’s chief marketing officer, usually helms the kitchen because Robert works most nights. She prepares family staples like chicken tarragon and potatoes au gratin; when Marcel, 21, is home from college, chicken tortilla soup is on the menu. But since she switched to a mostly plant-based diet last year, Polly admits to ordering “meat and potatoes” from a meal-kit delivery service several times a week for 16-year-old Beck while she makes a separate dinner for herself and Robert.

“There’s a big push on eating no meat,” says the health-conscious chef, who at press time had gone meat- and egg-free for three weeks. He notes that his wife’s new diet has also inspired more vegetarian and vegan entries on his restaurant menus,
like the Modern Lunch salads and grains at Mussel Bar locations in Arlington and Bethesda.

The past year brought other changes to their restaurant group: After closing the Michelin-rated Siren in DC’s Darcy Hotel, Robert continues to look for a new location for its revival. And last April, he opened the popular Keystone Korner jazz and dinner club with jazz master Todd Barkan in the former Mussel Bar space in Baltimore. “Keystone Korner is the most exciting thing we’ve done,” Polly affirms. And sure enough, along with hearty entrées offered at the critically acclaimed restaurant and music venue, the menu includes vegan tacos.

The couple, who recently celebrated their 50th anniversary, have lived in their countryside home north of Baltimore since 1974, when they bought it from Pat’s parents. It was her childhood residence, and hosted the reception after she and Bob wed in 1969.

“We always loved this property,” Pat says. “It can’t be beat.”

Her husband—called Bob by friends and Dowell, a childhood nickname, by family—agrees, “The property is beautiful.”

Over the years, their four acres grew to seven, cocooned by Gunpowder Falls State Park and Prettyboy Reservoir. And the Parkers’ original three-bedroom, two-bath rambler, perched atop a winding roadway, blossomed eventually into a two-level residence with four bedrooms, four baths and two wine cellars. Each is crammed with bottles from floor to ceiling—including a 27-liter behemoth of 2003 Sine Qua Non Grenache that’s the size of a baby. While Bob won’t put a number on his collection, suffice it to say that the Parkers won’t run out of wine anytime soon.

Pat estimates there have been 15 renovations to the house where they raised their now-grown daughter, Maia. Most projects were completed without an architect, and the result is a succession of flowing rooms. The kitchen is a favorite hangout.

The duo has welcomed numerous culinary icons to their table, including chef Daniel Boulud, owner of the Michelin two-star restaurant Daniel in New York, and Yannick Cam, chef/owner of Bethesda’s Bistro Provence.

Bob also hosts charity wine dinners at local restaurants such as Magdalena in Baltimore and Vito Ristorante in Cockeysville, or occasionally at his home. He plays an active role in each affair. “I confer with the chefs and provide all the wines,” he explains. With dinners bringing in $25,000 to $150,000 apiece, Bob estimates that they have so far raised $3 to $4 million for groups such as U.S. Navy SEALs, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and the T.J. Martell Foundation, which supports cancer research. “It’s one of the more gratifying things I can do,” he says. He’s currently discussing a possible charity dinner with DC chef and humanitarian José Andrés that will take place in the Parker home in the coming months.

In fact, Bob’s altruism is one of the reasons he founded The Wine Advocate in 1978: He wanted to provide independent reviews about vintages, vintners and grapes without accepting advertising. He also devised a 100-point system to guide consumers in their choices—a rating system now used around the world.

But Bob’s love for wine emerged even earlier, when he traveled to Paris to meet Pat, then his high-school sweetheart, who was taking her junior year abroad. During this six-week sojourn, the couple sampled new wines every day—and he was hooked. After returning to his studies at University of Maryland, Bob devoured books on wine and immersed himself in tasting groups. Though he initially practiced law, he left the field in 1984.

The Wine Advocate began as a mom-and-pop venture; Pat, a former French teacher, was the copy editor and worked for the guide that now bears her husband’s name—Robert Parker Wine Advocate—until 2012. Though he traveled several months a year to vineyards around the globe, Bob settled into his home office to write and conduct tastings—minus the three-piece suits. “There was no dress code,” he says with a laugh. “It was nice to be freelance.”

The business was a low-key affair, with offsite writers contributing content and three assistants handling other duties from a house on the Parkers’ property. Bob produced the magazine at home until 2015, when a Napa Valley office was opened. By that time, he had sold a major stake in the company to investors.

After nurturing The Wine Advocate into one of the most respected wine journals in the country, Bob officially retired in May, when Michelin assumed 100-percent control after having acquired a 40-percent stake in 2017. “It’s time for the younger generation to take over,” Bob reflects.

The Parkers still lead busy lives. Bob is contemplating a memoir. And Pat, a master gardener and liaison for the Federated Garden Clubs of Maryland, takes pride in her home landscape. Ornamental trees, seasonal flowers, a koi pond and whimsical outdoor sculptures dot the property, along with a chicken coop that Pat gave to Bob for his 70th birthday.

As the evenings grow crisper, the Parkers, both 72, end their days in the TV room by a crackling fire with their three dogs. They don’t see themselves living anywhere else. “I’m going to die in this place,” Bob quips. But before then, there’s more wine—and life—to enjoy in their home.

“We both have very hectic lives and it’s important to know we can come to this sanctuary and leave our professions behind,” says Graves in a voice  both gentle and resonant. “When we arrive here, I feel like we can exhale.”

Graves grew up in Southwest Washington, singing in school and church choirs. The daughter of a single mom who worked three jobs, she discovered opera as a 14-year old at DC’s Duke Ellington School of the Arts.

After studying music at Oberlin College and the New England Conservatory, Graves hit the world stage in 1995 when she landed the lead in Carmen at The Met. She has dazzled audiences around the globe ever since with her awe-inspiring vocals and commanding stage presence. In Washington, Graves regularly lends her voice to events of national importance—from commemorations of the 9/11 attacks at the National Cathedral to the 2018 Kennedy Center Honors.

Offstage, however, Graves defies the stereotype of a prima donna. “My profession is glamorous, but that’s not necessarily who I am,” she admits. By 10 a.m. on a November morning, she’s walk the dog & teach dog new commands and started a 72-hour turkey recipe that daughter Ella requested for Thanksgiving—all while quietly crooning a medley of arias.

Graves met Montgomery—a pioneer in transplant surgery—on a flight to Paris. After a long-distance courtship, they wed in 2009. Uniting her daughter Ella with Montgomery’s three children, they became a family of six.

They settled into a Bethesda home but later traded it for the farm to be closer to Johns Hopkins, where Montgomery worked. Set on 74 pastoral acres, the family’s current farmhouse replaced their original, 19th-century home on the property, which was destroyed by fire in 2012.

Maryland architect Timothy Sanders designed the new retreat in the spirit of a traditional Southern estate, with wraparound porches and prime views of the landscape, where the family raises alpacas. Despite the home’s classic exterior, the owners envisioned an open and airy layout. “I wanted the house to be like a large studio where there weren’t separations or walls, so we could all be together,” explains Graves. On her wish list: a spacious kitchen with a bead-board ceiling, a music room and a closet large enough to store the collection of 75-plus gowns she’s donned on stage over the years.

After Montgomery left Hopkins to head NYU’s transplant institute, the couple acquired an apartment on the Upper West Side. “In New York, we hired a decorator and our home is very fancy,” says Graves. “But here, we didn’t officially decorate or buy anything new.” She did select “rustic” elements, such as barn doors outside the kitchen and iron gates salvaged from a French castle enclosing the music room. Treasured possessions include a bust of the late Julius Rudel in the foyer. He was the Kennedy Center’s first music director and one of the singer’s trusted mentors. She muses, “He’s still with me, saying, ‘Keep it together, Graves.’”

Just as many teachers coached Graves before she reached opera’s highest echelons, the award-winning diva now imparts their wisdom—and her own—to voice students as a distinguished faculty artist at Baltimore’s Peabody Institute. She also volunteers her time helping young people discover the power of music and learning. “If you look at everything that’s going on in the world today,” she reflects, “the most important issue is education.”

Even during long weekends at the farm, Graves rehearses three hours a day. Her 2019 calendar includes two New York concerts in January, appearances with the Annapolis Opera and Richmond Symphony in May and later performances with the Washington National Opera and The Metropolitan Opera in New York.

When asked how it feels to move an audience to tears, she deflects the praise. “These composers were trying to convey an emotion through music. My job as a singer is to get out of the way and be a vessel for this music to speak through. We’re servants to it.

“It does come through my experience, though,” she continues. “It’s not just sound, but it passes through my intellect and my heart. The stage is a magnifying glass and everybody knows if you’re lying.”

Though she’s performed for presidents and prime ministers in the world’s most prestigious venues, Graves is most touched by experiences of another kind. During a stint in St. Louis, for example, she was asked to sing at a prison. Initially reluctant, once she accepted the invitation she decided to give it her all. “These hard faces lightened up and people started smiling and laughing,” she recalls. “And I thought, ‘Denyce, now you’ve done something.’”

Graves also reflects on the night her mother chartered a bus to transport friends and family members to her Met debut in New York. “They didn’t know a thing about opera. But they knew what it took to get from here to there,” Graves remembers, her eyes bright. “They were there because ‘our girl’ made it to this pinnacle.”

Architecture: Timothy Sanders, Sanders Designs Architects, Cockeysville, Maryland. Kitchen Design: Carefree Kitchens, Baltimore, Maryland. Builder: Bob Krieger, RHK Builders, Monkton, Maryland. 

Christened “Dream Catcher,” the four-story abode—one block off the ocean—is the fourth bespoke home Oursler has crafted for herself. Each one has brought her closer to the shore and her ultimate vision. “I’ve always wanted to see the ocean from my bedroom,” she reveals. “You learn from every house.”

The opportunities have been ample. When Oursler is not renovating beach cottages for her television series, she’s designing and constructing waterfront retreats through Marnie Custom Homes. She also co-hosted “HGTV Dream Home 2018,” a show that aired in January; it featured the transformation of a waterfront abode on the Puget Sound that she also helped renovate. Still, her present 6,300-square-foot roost remains a proud accomplishment. “I use this house as a model and bring my clients through it,” says the builder.

She designed the layout and specified all the interior architecture. “A lot of thought goes into traffic patterns, how you’re going to use the rooms," explains Oursler, who lives alone but welcomes frequent guests to her beach house. “I have friends and family here all the time. There are people constantly coming in and out.”

An inverted floor plan capitalizes on the views, with guest suites on the second level, a great room on the third and a fourth-floor master suite. The entry level boasts a spacious foyer and game room. The kitchen—a collaboration with Jennifer Gilmer of Jennifer Gilmer Kitchen & Bath—features a glass-mosaic backsplash that evokes the azure sea.

Oursler decorated the house herself, painting the walls in sandy hues that combine with natural materials—from the great room’s natural-stone fireplace to the master bedroom’s reclaimed-wood accent wall—for added warmth and texture. A whitewash over both elements softens the effect. As Oursler notes, “The colors in the house are the same colors you see when you walk over the dunes.”

As a fifth-generation builder, Oursler comes by her construction know-how naturally. The Fairfax, Virginia, native grew up working on job sites alongside her father, Marvin Oursler (often seen extending sage advice on her TV show). “I’d pick up trash, sweep houses, eat lunch on an upside-down drywall bucket,” she recalls. “It was miserable. But that’s how I learned the business.”

She entered it by a circuitous route, however, starting at the U.S. Naval Academy, then transferring to East Carolina University to study education and information technology. She moved to Bethany Beach after her 2001 graduation and landed a tech-support position in a real-estate office.

Oursler soon purchased a fixer-upper, renovated it herself and flipped it. Her next move: building her first house (she was selling vacation homes by then, but ready for a change). When her craftsmanship impressed a local couple looking to build anew, Oursler bid on the project. “I got the job,” she recounts, laughing. “Then I realized, ‘Shoot, now I’ve got to start a company.’”

So in 2007, the petite novice joined a male-dominated industry, unfazed. “I’m clearly not as strong as most men in the field, but I have a work ethic you can’t compare,” says Oursler, sporting an orchid-pink sweater and jeans. Today, she designs conceptual plans for clients, creates blueprints, then works with a local architect to execute her plans. She is famous for her coastal style: Her open plans are functional and modern with a vintage, beachy vibe.

Oursler earned an MBA at Duke in 2013. After watching her accept a Gold Stevie Entrepreneur of the Year award for women in business that same year, a TV producer offered her, in his words, “a feel-good show,” on DIY Network. Soon after, “Big Beach Builds” was launched.

On each episode, the camera follows Oursler recasts an outdated cottage near Delaware’s coastline into a modern escape while preserving its vintage character. Season 2 debuted in early April.

Oursler pays her success forward by selling Marnie Custom Homes merchandise through her website using woo-commerce marketing techniques and donating the profits to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, among other charities. “It’s a nice way to give back,” she maintains. During her downtime, she entertains a wide circle with ease. “We grill seafood and sit on the porch,” she says. “You get the breeze right off the ocean.”

Interior Architecture, Design & Contracting: Marnie Oursler, Marnie Custom Homes, Bethany Beach, Delaware. Kitchen Design: Jennifer Gilmer, CKD, and Meghan Browne,  Jennifer Gilmer Kitchen & Bath, Ltd., Chevy Chase, Maryland.

The exterior—with its wrap-around porches and clapboard façade—complements its Cape Cod-style neighbors. But inside, Jinich’s home extends the warm embrace of a rustic hacienda. Shades of burnt orange and pale ochre weave a common thread through rooms filled with artisanal furniture, hand-painted tile, ceramics, and art from Mexico. The house has been as ideal a location for Jinich and her husband Daniel to raise their three sons (ages 11, 16 and 18) as it’s been a backdrop for her show, now entering its seventh season.

The kitchen is the hub of the action, whether Jinich is testing recipes, whipping up weeknight carnitas (the boys’ favorite) or entertaining. “If you come into our home,” she says with a winsome smile and a lilting accent, “you’re coming in as a family.” Laid-back parties start in the kitchen, with Jinich prepping appetizers around the island. In the dining room, meals are served family-style on a table that belonged to Daniel’s grandmother in Mexico City—where Pati and Daniel, who works in finance, grew up and married before moving to the States in 1997.

The Jiniches tapped architect George Myers of GTM Architects and Sandy Spring Builders to design and build their five-bedroom home in 2009 when their third son was on the way. On a trip to Mexico, they gathered family heirlooms and ventured to the town of Tlaquepaque to buy furnishings for their new abode. “We went crazy, ordering doors, chandeliers, tiles, and lamps and had it all sent in a container,” Jinich recalls. The finished home brims with reminders of Mexico. “Every piece in our house, down to a wooden spoon, has a story that’s meaningful to us.”

Little did she know when the home was under construction that she would eventually host a cooking show in its kitchen. In 2005, Jinich earned a master’s degree in Latin American Studies at Georgetown and soon landed her dream job at a prestigious Washington think tank. But she quickly realized that her mind was elsewhere.

“I always wanted to be an academic, but also always loved food,” Jinich muses. “I became nostalgic for Mexican dishes. When I was asked to do a paper comparing Peru’s and Mexico’s democracies, I started researching the differences between Mexican and Peruvian ceviche. I decided I needed to switch [careers].”

So she resigned and enrolled at Maryland’s recently shuttered L’Academie de Cuisine to learn the technical skills she needed. “I didn’t want to be a chef,” she reflects. “I wanted to continue what I was doing as a political analyst but in the world of gastronomy, to break myths about Mexican food and our history and legacy.”

The culinary grad was soon hired as a resident chef at the Mexican Cultural Institute in Washington. There she launched a series of tasting dinners that, after 11 years, is still going strong. When a WETA producer attended one and approached the charismatic chef to create a television pilot, the seeds of “Pati’s Mexican Table” were planted.

Every season of the show delves into a different region of Mexico. In April, the seventh season will take Jinich to Baja. “The cuisine of Baja is influenced by California, and ingredients there are very Mediterranean because of the weather,” she marvels. “They’re making fabulous wines, pressing amazing olive oils and the seafood is insane.” The Baja season debuts on PBS in September, and will eventually join previous seasons streaming on Amazon.

After filming on location in Baja, Jinich will shoot the cooking segments in her home kitchen, designed by Potomac kitchen designer Amy Collins. “I love my kitchen because it’s totally workable,” says Jinich, whose favorite tools are her eight-burner Viking range and Vitamix blender.

While planning episodes, the self-described “book nerd” conducts painstaking research in her home office/library. She has also written two cookbooks, Pati’s Mexican Table and Mexican Today, both published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

The educational approach Jinich takes on her show provides a refreshing diversion from the travails of reality TV. “I try in my work to be a platform for real discovery,” she reflects. “The core of what I do is building bridges between individuals, families, communities and, hopefully, countries because there are so many myths and misconceptions on both sides. Interaction in the kitchen is the noblest way to do it. It’s an easy way to connect with other people—and nobody’s going to say no to a fabulous plate of carnitas.”

If Maupillier—a five-time semi-finalist for a James Beard Foundation Best Chefs in America award—wasn’t already one of the capital’s premier chefs and restaurateurs, he could be in public relations touting the advantages of city living. They are even more abundant when you live over the shop and your workplace is a short stroll away: His popular restaurant, Convivial—where Swaney is sous chef—is located on the ground floor of their apartment complex, City Market at O.

“It’s like living in a hotel,” Maupillier enthuses. “Everything is convenient. We can access the largest Giant in the region without leaving the building. The roof feels like a park, with a pool, dog park where dogs play around but when they get bored they chase their own tail or display dog dominance signs (initially I used to wonder why do dogs chase their own tails then I realized they do it out of boredom), barbecue and fire pits.” And, he notes, some of the best bars and restaurants in town (besides Convivial) are nearby: The Dabney, Kinship, All-Purpose, Chaplin’s, Beau Thai, Smoked and Stacked, Espita Mezcaleria and The Columbia Room.

Maupillier originally came to the U.S. from his native France in 2003 to work for Fabio Trabocchi at Tysons Corner’s now-shuttered Maestro. At Citronelle, he worked as executive sous chef for the late, renowned Michel Richard, who was his mentor. In 2007, he opened Richard’s much-ballyhooed bistro, Central Michel Richard—winner of a James Beard award for the best new restaurant in the U.S.—and began making a name for himself. He became executive chef at Mintwood Place in Adams Morgan in 2011—and soon achieved superstar status on DC’s culinary scene.

Once at Mintwood Place, Maupillier adjusted his sights. “After a year, I wanted to see what ownership was all about,” he recalls. “I wanted to be freer, more independent.” Mintwood restaurateur Saied Azali approached him with an offer: a majority partnership in a new eatery,
Convivial, to be located in DC’s trendy Shaw neighborhood.

Maupillier envisioned an outpost that would live up to its name: a casual spot where people could come for a nibble, a cocktail, small plates or a full-fledged meal. It opened in November 2015, featuring Maupillier’s clever riffs on French bistro food—for example, garlicky escargots “in a blanket,” wrapped in crunchy pastry tubes.

Maupillier and Swaney worked together first at Citronelle, then at Central. “We spent so much time together in the kitchen that it didn’t make sense not to be dating,” Maupillier jokes. Swaney joined him as sous chef at Mintwood Place, then moved with him to Convivial. The two married in August 2017 with the French Alps as a backdrop.

Today, the couple works about 70 hours a week at Convivial (Maupillier remains executive chef at Mintwood as well), leaving little room for fine dining at home. “I want pizza after work every night, but Dawn doesn’t let me,” says Maupillier ruefully. “She says, ‘Have a salad.’”

Even with their hectic schedules, Swaney does manage to cook at home twice a week, recently serving a clam chowder topped with poached oysters and mackerel that Maupillier deemed “fantastic.” Their fridge boasts mostly staples—beer, Champagne, Perrier, butter, yogurt, cheese, milk and deli meats. Yet despite the proximity of a very well-stocked larder nearby, they scrupulously do not borrow from it. “We never take things from the restaurant and never drink there,” Swaney avers.

Personal touches abound in the newlyweds’ apartment: a picture of the couple sailing on the Potomac, Maupillier’s extensive collection of cookbooks, paintings bought from an artist outside Paris’s Pompidou Center last summer, family pictures—and a stunning drawing of a tree Maupillier found at a store in Adams Morgan. “We don’t have the money to buy art,” he says, “but it made me think of Dawn.”

Also on point: the sets Zappulla and her team craft for this Emmy Award-winning drama.

On a recent tour sponsored by the Washington chapter of the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art, Zappulla offered a behind-the-scenes look at how the series’ dystopian world takes shape. When they’re not shooting on location around Baltimore, the 200-plus cast and crew members work 12- to 14-hour days on production and filming in cavernous warehouses north of the city. In the set decoration warehouse, antiques, lamps, mirrors, and props cram floor-to-ceiling shelves. Upholsterers, carpenters and seamstresses fashion sofas, chairs and draperies in open work areas. Reproductions of original artwork, hand-painted by scenic artists, hang in waiting for their moment on screen.

Behind a bare dividing wall, a labyrinth of spaces including the Situation Room, the Press Briefing Room, the Roosevelt Room and the Oval Office were primed for Season Six, which would begin filming in October.

“House of Cards” revolves around the roguery of President Francis Underwood and First Lady Claire Underwood (Kevin Spacey, Robin Wright), both driven to dominate Washington at any cost. They hide their scandalous ways behind a polished veneer of respectability—and tastefully conservative interiors that convey both power and restraint. “By the time Francis and Claire got to the White House, they were both pretty nefarious,” says Zappulla. "It was about de-saturating the colors and showing their dark sides.”

She and her staff base their work on painstaking online research and intelligence gathered on tours of the actual White House. “We are slaves to detail and meticulous about keeping the proportions correct,” says Zappulla, who has also designed sets for HBO’s “Veep.”

After “dressing” space, she photographs it to assess how well it reflects her subjects. “The sets are a very important supporting actor,” she explains. “You can create a beautiful space, but if it doesn’t make sense for the character, you’ve missed the target.

“There’s never anything in these rooms that are filler,” Zappulla adds. “It’s all very thought-out.” For instance, in a nod to Francis Underwood’s Southern heritage and affinity for the Civil War, his Oval Office displays miniature cannons, pineapple motifs and tobacco jars from his home state of South Carolina.

Channeling Claire’s character, Zappulla landed on birds, which grace the First Lady’s boudoir. “Birds look so delicate,” she reasons, “but they can fly. That’s Claire.”

A vast amount of what’s seen on set is produced by the show’s own artisans. Their creations range from upholstered sofas and 24-foot-long conference tables to sculpted busts, acanthus leaf and rosette moldings, faux-marble floors and “brass” torchieres. There’s even a working cooktop in the White House kitchen fabricated for a scene that called for Claire to fry an egg in full camera view.

What they can’t make Zappulla purchases on frequent shopping sprees around DC and Baltimore. “We take a lot of pride in this being a Maryland-based show and do as much as we can to purchase here,” says the Baltimore native. “When we’re filming, I inject close to $60,000 into the Maryland economy every 10 days.”

The decreased demand for antiques, also known as “brown furniture,” has been a plus for the show. “We’re so fortunate to be in this area and have benefitted quite a bit from that shift in design taste,” Zappulla says. Her go-to emporiums include Cornerstone and Clearing House, Ltd., near Baltimore and Goldsborough Glynn in Kensington.

Given the sinister plot twists on “House of Cards,” the designer benefits from another decorating trend: the rise of all things gray. “That palette is so popular now,” says Zappulla. “I have beautiful options at my disposal.”

She also frequents the Washington Design Center, where she recently splurged on Scalamandré fabric for a couple of entry-hall chairs. “The [real] White House is full of Scalamandré fabric, but my budget is not full of Scalamandré,” she laments. “But I’m a purist and had to be able to say we have Scalamandré in our White House too.”

Zappulla acknowledges that her department is one of many focused on nailing every “House of Cards” scene. “It takes the right lighting, the cameraman, everyone working in unison, to create what you see on TV and hopefully what you enjoy.”

Ultimately, the goal is to blur the lines between truth and fiction. “We want the audience to believe the cast is sitting on Air Force One or in the Oval Office,” Zappulla says. “If it starts to look like a set, then we haven’t done our job.”

The custom residence was designed by McLean architect Mark Sullenberger of Custom Design Concepts and built by The Galileo Group. When its original owner sold the property less than a year after its completion, the Zimmermans acquired it and moved in just before their two-year-old daughter, Mackenzie, was born. Their second daughter, Hayden Lynn, was born on June 2, 2016.

The couple turned to designer Alice Busch of Great Falls Distinctive Interiors for help furnishing the six-bedroom home. They wanted the décor to reflect the overall beauty of the residence, but practical considerations such as growing kids and their two dogs also came into play and they also wanted their home to be fully pet-proofed. For knowing what one needs to consider while pet-proofing his home, visit Bored Cesar.

Busch captured the comfortable, transitional look they were after with statement-making light fixtures, custom rugs and draperies and oversized, clean-lined furniture. “They wanted it to be functional first, not intimidating—and warm,” she explains. “They didn’t want anyone to feel it was so fancy they couldn’t sit, enjoy and put their feet up. Uncomplicated is who they are.”

The owners also had a home design game plan of their own to ramp up the home’s fun factor. The wish list included a man cave for Ryan featuring a wine cellar, gym, and home theater; a playroom; and an outdoor pool and pavilion. Busch and builder Matt Trunnell of Distinctive Building Group orchestrated the interior upgrades while Charles Owen of Fine Landscapes began the exterior makeover.

A chic entry foyer, which serves as a formal living room, greets guests on arrival. Along the rear of the home, a light-filled gallery leads to the dining room, kitchen and family room on one side and to Ryan’s study, the master suite and a nursery on the other.

The master suite opens to an outdoor terrace. From there, stepping stones lead to the infinity-edge pool and pavilion. “The materials of the pavilion take cues from the main house,” says Owen. “We used the same type of stone and slate roofing.” Decked out with a fireplace, distressed stainless-steel bar, grill, pizza oven and changing rooms, the pavilion makes a clutch party venue. Last year, the Zimmermans hosted a team dinner here to kick off the 2015 season and this summer is planning another cookout for players and their families at their home.

A Virginia Beach native, Zimmerman was an All-American third baseman at the University of Virginia. In 2005, he became the first draft pick in Nationals history and, along with Alex Ovechkin, is one of the longest-tenured athletes on DC’s four major-league sports teams.

Zimmerman represents the Washington community on and off the field. He recently supported a Nationals Dream Foundation initiative to build a turf field for Little League players in Southwest DC, and on April 9, threw the first pitch at Ryan Zimmerman Baseball Field with young players and Mayor Muriel Bowser in the stands.

A diehard sports fan, Ryan unwinds in his man cave—his “pride and joy,” says Heather—where he can watch the action on multiple TV screens at once. On display are signed mementos from his favorite pro athletes, including a collection of baseball bats hanging on a custom rack. Trunnell designed the rack and also built the fully equipped gym where Zimmerman works out with a trainer in the off-season.

Zimmerman is one of the few Nationals players to live in the DC vicinity year round. “Heather and I both love what this area has to offer,” he says. “Washington is a lot of fun, with everything you could want. At the same time, where we live you’d never know we’re only 15 miles from the city. And it’s so nice that Heather’s family lives in the area and my family is close by in Virginia Beach.”

Zimmerman’s mother Cheryl was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis when he was 11. To help combat the disease, he launched the nonprofit ziMS Foundation in 2006. Through its annual fundraisers, the group has raised more than $2 million for the cause. “I have the platform to help find a cure, not only for my mom but for the many people affected by this disease all over the world,” says Ryan.

When he retires, Zimmerman plans to host ziMS Foundation events at his home. But for now, this peaceful spot offers the Nats star a welcome break from 2016’s grueling, 162-game schedule. “Because Ryan is in the public eye all the time, we wanted a little vacation at home and that’s what we found,” says Heather.

“The season is a grind,” Zimmerman admits, “so to be able to escape and get away from that every now and then is huge. The work we’ve done both inside the house and to the property truly provides a place to ‘get away.’”

Photographer Geoffrey Hodgdon is based in Deale, Maryland. 

INTERIOR DESIGN: ALICE BUSCH, Allied ASID, Great Falls Distinctive Interiors, Inc., Ashburn, Virginia. RENOVATION CONTRACTOR: Matt Trunnell, Distinctive Building Group, Ashburn, Virginia. LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE: CHARLES OWEN, principal, and DONALD SMITH, project manager, Fine Landscapes, Ltd., Sterling, Virginia.

RESOURCES
Throughout  Landscape Maintenance: rossenlandscape.com. Pool: townandcountrypools.com. Home Automation: atlcontrol.com.

Living Room Sofas, Coffee Table & Small Table: lillianaugust.com. Custom Rug: gfdii.com through silkroadcarpetandrugs.com. Painting, Floor Lamp & Table Lamp: johnrichard.com.

Dining Room  Table: artifactsinternational.com. Chandelier: curreycodealers.com. Chairs: Custom by gfdii.com. Mirror: theodorealexander.com. Sideboard: lillianaugust.com. Table Lamps: johnrichard.com. Custom Rug: gfdii.com through silkroadcarpetandrugs.com.

Kitchen  Bar Stools: theodorealexander.com. Table, Benches & Armchairs: lillianaugust.com. Armchair & Window Treatment Fabric: romo.com. Custom Window Treatments & Host Chair: gfdii.com. Chandelier: curreycodealers.com. Ceramics: globalviews.com.

Master Master Bed, Night Stands & Corner Chest: lillianaugust.com. Custom Bedding, Drapery & Ottoman Fabric: kravet.com. Lamps: johnrichard.com. Rug: dixie-home.com. Draperies, Custom Chairs & Ottoman: gfdii.com. Chair Fabric: robertallendesign.com.

Master Bath  Chandelier: curreycodealers.com. Wallcovering: yorkwall.com.

Nursery  Crib: brattdecor.com. Rug: dixie-home.com. Floor Lamp: johnrichard.com. Custom Chair & Ottoman: gfdii.com. Chair & Ottoman Fabric: duralee.com.

Play Room  Rug: helioscarpet.com. Custom Sectional & Cabinetry Design: gfdii.com. Sectional Fabric: kravet.com.

Fast-forward to 2013, when the couple—who have owned several boats and five homes in the area over the years—purchased a decrepit property sandwiched between other houses on a narrow lot in Eastport, an historic community on the Chesapeake. The circa-1880 house was literally falling down, but Sandy Brock, an interior designer by trade, could see its potential. “I have roots in Maryland,” says the Silver Spring native. “I loved that it was a waterman’s house. The challenge was exactly what I wanted.”

The couple hired Annapolis architect Scarlett Breeding to overhaul the home. They wanted to retain its sense of history while introducing modern elements: an open plan, lots of light and easy access to the backyard, which overlooks the bay. Breeding, project manager Angela Phelan and Sandy embarked on the project together. “The house is in a historic overlay district, which required that we save 50 percent of the existing structure,” Breeding explains. “We basically took down everything but the front façade and one wall, jacked them up to build a new foundation that would give them a basement level, and started from scratch.”

“We had a great partnership with total trust,” Sandy says. “I knew exactly what I wanted. I sketched designs and Scarlett made them sing.” Modern and historic elements blend seamlessly, inside and out. For example, while the front façade retained its 19th-century appearance—Breeding even recreated a porch, long gone, that had been original to the house—expansive windows in back opened the whole rear façade up to the water.

Inside, hand-hewn, reclaimed-wood beams and stone walls were juxtaposed with refined moldings and a floating staircase that curves up to the top floor. To bring in light, Breeding designed a three-story window wall beside the staircase, with a floor-to-ceiling scrim of fine fabric to conceal the neighboring house, located only 10 feet away. “It creates a light shaft between the two houses,” she explains.

The open plan encompasses living, dining and kitchen areas that spill out onto a porch overlooking a pool, croquet lawn and the river beyond. A paneled core in the center of the home holds storage and an elevator. Upstairs, the master suite faces the water, while a guest room at the front of the house reflects its history with original wood floors. Zoning regulations prohibited the construction of a full third story, so Breeding tucked a half-story into the dormers to house the senator’s home office. With views of passing sailboats, it provides a welcome spot for working. “The only trouble is you get captured by the spectacle,” he comments.

The open floor plan suits Brock and his wife, and works well for entertaining, which is something they do often—for philanthropic and occasionally political purposes, as well as for family and friends. They recently threw a surprise birthday party for their daughter, Julie Cram, who served in the George W. Bush administration as deputy assistant to the president and director of the Office of Public Liaison. They also hosted a lunch in honor of  former FBI and CIA Director William Webster and his wife, which was attended by Howard Wilkins, Jr., former ambassador to the Netherlands.

Following four terms in the House and one in the Senate and a stint as chairman of the Republican National Committee, Brock served in the Reagan administration, first as U.S. Trade Representative and then as Secretary of Labor. Though he left public office in the late 1980s, Brock, 85, remains active in public affairs, serving on four boards for which he travels extensively. He is a trustee and counselor for the Center for Strategic and International Studies, where he chairs the international policy round table. “I still care a lot about two primary issue groups,” he says. “One is international trade and the other is education reform. CSIS lets me do some of both.”

After 50 years in politics, he notes a sea change in the way Washington works—and doesn’t. “Instead of challenging people’s ideas, we are challenging their motives and values,” he observes. “In my time, we didn’t put a party label on everything. We listened to each other.”

Still, Brock can’t imagine retiring. “I’d be bored silly,” he says. Yet he and his wife prioritize spending time with their family of six grown children and 17 grandchildren. Luckily, three of their six kids live in the Annapolis area—so when the others visit, there are plenty of places for them to stay.

“The house is perfect for our needs,” Senator Brock comments, reflecting on its transformation. “Sandy was so good and Scarlett was just magic. We know how blessed we are and we’re grateful for it.”

Photographer David Burroughs is based in Annapolis.

ARCHITECTURE: SCARLETT BREEDING, AIA, and ANGELA PHELAN, RA, Alt Breeding Schwarz, Annapolis, Maryland.  INTERIOR DESIGN: SANDY BROCK, Sandy Mitchell Designs, Annapolis Maryland. CONTRACTOR: DAVID CARLISLE, Bayview Builders, Annapolis, Maryland. LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE: KEVIN CAMPION, ASLA, Campion Hruby Landscape Architects, Annapolis, Maryland.

They are enjoying some last days of calm before the planned winter openings of their highly anticipated restaurants, Kinship and Métier, both located in a 1907 building near DC’s Mount Vernon Square. The former, seating 87, will feature à la carte dining in a casual setting; the latter, accessed by a discrete elevator, will be a 36-seat dining room offering formal seven-course tasting menus.

The couple’s house is a white-brick, split-level Colonial with a columned two-story porch, black shutters and a black front door. When you first glimpse it, your mind might wander to the moment when young Natalie Wood lopes from the car at the end of Miracle on 34th Street, having found the picture-perfect home.

“It looks like Virginia,” says Laurent. “The neighborhood is quiet and there is lots of light, which is super important.”

The couple met in 2003 in California, where Ziebold was chef de cuisine for Thomas Keller at the famed French Laundry. Laurent was preparing for a position as director of special events at Per Se, which Keller opened in Manhattan soon thereafter. Ziebold also wound up at Per Se, where they worked together. It was only after the Iowa-born chef moved to DC in 2004 to open CityZen in the Mandarin Oriental Hotel that the couple started dating, and a five-year, long-distance romance ensued.

Laurent finally moved to DC in 2009; she and Ziebold married in 2012 and bought their three-bedroom house in 2013. The split-level layout appealed to them. “The downstairs bedroom is very private for guests and will be good for our daughter when she gets older,” Laurent says.

Other selling points centered on entertaining—not surprising considering the couple’s fine-dining bona fides (Laurent’s impressive restaurant-management resume includes Restaurant Daniel in New York and Le Diplomate in Washington). A large patio off the lower level is as perfect for al fresco dining as the equally spacious upstairs living/dining room is for indoor parties. The garage is deep enough to house the duo’s extensive wine collection in a custom-built cellar.

“We gave a series of dinner parties over the summer as research and development for the new restaurant and had our guests sign the wall next to where the wine is stored,” Ziebold explains. The menu for one summer dinner included okra salad, heirloom tomatoes, lobster French toast, roast chicken en panade and cheesecake bavarois with plums.

Ascending a small stairway from the main entrance, a front room intended as the dining room is now a cozy salon. A built-in bookcase separates it from the living/dining room. Pale green walls; billowy, white-linen curtains; a comfy, white-linen slipcovered sofa; and light-stained hardwood floors lend the open space a Provençal quality. A simple rectangular dining table and ecru-linen side chairs have a weathered, birch-colored finish that adds to the room’s breeziness.

“We like an older patina on our furniture,” says Laurent, who hails from Arcachon, an oyster-producing bay on the Atlantic coast of southwestern France.

The same aesthetic will appear in Kinship and Métier. Ziebold and Laurent are involved in every detail of the restaurants, working closely with DC designer Darryl Carter on their interiors. Spread out on their dining room table are items being considered for each space. Among them: a block of wood flooring with a milk-wash finish, antique glassware, Laguiole knives and custom ceramic plates.

With so much time and energy spent launching the restaurants, furnishing their home has been an organic process—by preference as well as necessity. “We are not of the mindset of rushing to the store and filling the house. We prefer to find just the right piece. And we will pair something from a flea market with something modern, a mix of high and low,” Laurent says.

“We bring things back from our travels. A grill from Tunisia was probably not my brightest idea,” adds Ziebold with a wry smile.

The result is an elegant blend of small-town warmth and big city sophistication. In other words, tout à fait chic.

Artwork abounds. Says Laurent, “My mother is a painter, so I’ve been surrounded by artist friends since I was young.” Works by several of them, such as Christian Babou, Elizabeth Barbosa and Henri Boixel, adorn the walls or rest on the floor, awaiting placement.

Over the sofa, a Keith Haring lithograph holds special meaning for Laurent. “It’s of the inside of the elevator of the contemporary art museum in Bordeaux, where I was born,” she says. Next to it is a Warhol lithograph of Elvis Presley in cowboy gear.

“Nothing is of great value,” says Laurent. “Just for fun.” Joie de vivre permeates every corner of the couple’s charming home.

Writer David Hagedorn is based in Washington, DC. Geoffrey Hodgdon is a photographer in Deale, Maryland. 

Kelley has lived in this remarkable spot since she purchased it in 1977 with her first husband. While the three-story, pre-Victorian home was always grand, with high ceilings, elaborate moldings, and three fireplaces, it required a serious update; Kelley recalls “no air conditioning and a toilet attached to the outside brick wall.” For 22 years, the home had belonged to Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan, who wrote many landmark opinions there. “I’ve always felt the house has good karma because of Justice Brennan,” Kelley says.

When she remarried in 1992, her second husband, allergist John Zucker, moved in and they redecorated again, going for lush opulence with “swag and chinoiserie everywhere,” Kelley says. The couple collected drawings by Matisse (one is a study for a painting, Reclining Odalisque, that hangs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art), two Chagalls and a fanciful work by Raoul Dufy. These were interspersed with 1920s-era European posters in imposing gilt frames.

Sadly, Zucker passed away in 2011. A couple of years later, Kelley reached out to interior designer Sharyn Corry to help her redecorate. “I think I did it because I had a book to write and I was trying to put something in my way,” she laughs.

The two quickly developed an understanding. “Kitty knows exactly what she wants,” Corry comments. “So I would go out and get it for her, then figure out how to make it work—tastefully!”

Corry persuaded her client to go neutral, with a cream-and-beige palette to offset her vibrant artwork. Existing furniture was repurposed with textured fabrics, and a new custom sofa was made for the living room. “I had seen a picture of a Mark Hampton sofa and I drove poor Sharyn crazy till I got it customized with a camelback,” Kelley recounts. She had the back of another sofa built up to create a camelback for the wood-paneled library, too. “I love curves,” the writer explains. “Sharyn said, ‘Kitty, they are so out of style!’ I said ‘Well, so am I.’”

Kelley brings a sense of fun to her home’s interiors, which are formal yet welcoming. In the hall by the staircase, a six-foot brass giraffe stands sentry, and the powder room is adorned with framed satirical newspaper clippings and cartoons Kelley’s books have elicited over the years. “Guests look for excuses to go to the bathroom,” Kelley says, recalling a time when her sister emerged marveling at how Kitty had selected only the “bad stuff” to showcase. “My husband told her, ‘It’s because there isn’t anything good!’”

This irreverence was borne of necessity. Since her first unauthorized biography of Jackie Onassis in 1978, Kelley’s books have been roundly criticized for their salacious details—even as they’ve climbed the bestseller lists. Her subjects have included Nancy Reagan, Frank Sinatra, Elizabeth Taylor, the Bush family and Oprah Winfrey. “I choose living people who’ve had a lasting influence in our culture,” she says. “I’ve always been fascinated by people’s backstories.” Since each book requires years of exhaustive research, she selects her subjects carefully. “I was asked to write an unauthorized biography of Donald Trump,” she recalls. “I said no because I just don’t want to spend three or four years with Donald Trump.”

In recent years, Kelley has assumed a new authorial role. After inheriting the archives of photographer and close friend Stanley Tretick, she penned two well-received books: Capturing Camelot, which showcases Tretick’s collection of Kennedy photographs; and Let Freedom Ring, which depicts the 1963 March on Washington. She also supports charities such as Reading is Fundamental and the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, and hosts frequent fundraisers in her home.

Kelley is now under contract to write a biography of Georgetown itself—both the people and the place. It’s a perfect fit for the longtime resident, who keeps an office near her home. “I have always been attracted to Georgetown,” Kelley says. “The cobblestones, the history. It’s full of charm.”

And she revisited one of her most celebrated subjects—Frank Sinatra—to commemorate his 100th birthday this year. Her 1987 biography His Way will be re-released in November with a new final chapter by Kelley that delves into the ways in which Sinatra’s children “are merchandising their father.”

As far as new celebrity subjects go, there are none in Kelley’s sights. “I think the time for unauthorized biographies is passed,” she says. “It’s all out there already.”

Photographer Bob Narod is based in Herndon, Virginia. 

INTERIOR DESIGN: SHARYN CORRY, Washington, DC.

As does her four-year-old boy, whose father is her former husband, CNN anchor and chief national correspondent John King. Bash lives with her son in the house she purchased in 2007 on a sleepy block in Northwest DC. Built in 2001, it combines clean lines and modern amenities with traditional elements like wainscoting and a stone fireplace. It also offers plenty of space for a very active child to run around.

Though Bash loves the house, she was originally drawn to the land, which accommodates a patio, swimming pool, and lawn, plus blooming shrubs and brimming flowerpots. “I wanted to live in DC but still have the benefits of suburbia,” she says. “I’m very much an outside person, so the garden was important to me.”

Bash lived in the house for a number of years before deciding to decorate. She had purchased it from a designer who also sold her the classic Niermann Weeks chandelier and massive mirror that still occupy the living room and front hall, respectively. “There was enough there that I liked, so I just left it alone and didn’t add a lot of ‘me’ into it,” she says.

When she was finally ready, she hired designer Melissa Broffman, whom she knew because Broffman had worked at CNN in a previous career. Together, they tackled the house in stages. “Dana’s very decisive. She could do it all by herself; she just doesn’t have the time,” Broffman observes.

Bash characterizes her taste as “classically contemporary with a little bit of glam.” Broffman helped her choose pieces that fit her style, including a Donghia sofa paired with a gilt wall sculpture by Christopher Guy for the living room. A plush chaise in her bedroom conveys a chic but understated vibe. While Bash didn’t relinquish all the decision-making, she explains that she was confident that “Melissa knows me and would understand what I wanted.”

Throughout the house, artwork picked up during her travels clearly reflects Bash’s aesthetic—as well as a sense of whimsy and playfulness. A vibrant painting of a flower by her boyfriend, L.A.-based actor Spencer Garrett, stands front and center in the dining room, while a series of celebrity portraits by artist Richard Zarzi recently acquired in London, hangs in the living room. Numbered prints by Theodor Geisel (a.k.a. Dr. Seuss) add punches of vibrant color. A Jonathan Adler pillow depicting Jackie Onassis sits on the living room sofa, and a poster of Audrey Hepburn as Coco Chanel graces the upstairs landing. “I like empowered women who are classy and chic,” Bash says. “I like to be inspired by them.”

The daughter of Stuart Schwartz, a longtime producer at ABC, the New Jersey-born Bash moved to DC to attend George Washington University and never left. “It wasn’t about politics at the time,” she recalls. “My dad likes to joke that I graduated from college without knowing there were three branches of government! But I caught the bug pretty fast. My whole childhood, I said ‘I’ll never go into TV news—you have vacations taken away, you work crazy hours.’ Then I stopped fighting my DNA and went with it.”

Bash joined CNN right after college and has been there ever since. As a top political correspondent, she will soon be on the road covering the 2016 election. “My favorite part of the job is witnessing what will soon be history up close and personal, being part of the action,” she comments.

For Bash, downtime these days means relaxing at home with her son, who, she says, has pretty much taken over. Minutes before the camera crew arrived, “we had a rollercoaster going through the living room under the Niermann Weeks chandelier,” she laughs. “That’s why there’s no rug. My son likes it better that way! “This house makes me so happy,” she continues. “It’s the most rewarding thing for me these days, just being at home with my son.”

INTERIOR DESIGN: MELISSA BROFFMAN, Allied Member ASID, Melissa Broffman Interior Design, Arlington, Virginia. LANDSCAPE DESIGN: CHARLES DALTON, Dalton Ventures, Inc., Middletown, Maryland.

After Morgan and Winston married in 2009, they bought a new four-bedroom home in an upscale Upper Marlboro development. Though it was a far cry from breezy, laid-back California, Morgan appreciated the fact that the house wasn’t a “boring” Colonial. “I didn’t want a cookie cutter that looked like every other house,” explains the actress, whose natural warmth and radiant smile are as captivating in person as they are on screen. “I wanted a sense of comfort, where you could relax and throw your feet up. I didn’t want rooms decorated just for show.”

When a friend introduced Morgan to interior designer Lorna Gross-Bryant, the two immediately clicked and started transforming the house—then a blank slate—into a stylish, comfortable home. “I have my own ideas, but I like to have a second eye,” explains Morgan. “Sometimes Lorna gets me more than I get myself.”

Starting with the library, Gross-Bryant honed in on a style that reflected her client’s personality. “Debbi is sophisticated, but there’s something very natural about her,” says Gross-Bryant. Neutral colors and organic textures—such as the woven jute rug by Stark—are dressed up with glamorous details, from the gold metallic paint treatment on the dining room ceiling to crushed velvet drapes in the family room.

“I think the color is really what warmed the house up dramatically,” explains Gross-Bryant.

Now that the main floor is complete, designer and client plan to decorate the lower level. “I want it to be comfortable, but also to have a very sexy look to it,” says Morgan. A two-story addition with a sunroom and loggia are also in the works.

“My home is truly my sanctuary,” observes Morgan. “It’s tranquil, it’s peaceful and it’s like a warm hug.”

Home has always been important to the actress, who was born in North Carolina and raised in Harlem. As a teen, she performed in school plays and later joined the New Federal Theatre Company in New York. Her career took off with numerous roles in stage, film and television productions, including “Roots: The Next Generations.” She is the only African American woman to receive a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress (1989) for “All My Children.” Her many film credits include roles opposite Samuel L. Jackson (Coach Carter) and Denzel Washington (The Hurricane). 

Morgan considers her award-winning portrayal of Mozelle Batiste in Eve’s Bayou (1997) to be her most challenging to date. “I was scared to death,” she admits. “But I was dealing with fears in other aspects of my personal life and making giant headway. I had to do the same thing taking on this role. It became a personal triumph for me.”

Off camera, Morgan has long grappled with the trauma of witnessing both her mother and grandmother suffer as victims of domestic violence. The actress reveals how she finally overcame these demons in her memoir, The Monkey on My Back (Simon & Schuster, New York; June 23, 2015; $16). The book “helped me come to the realization that I was actually stronger than I gave myself credit for,” she says. “I hope it will encourage women to seek therapy.”

In August, Morgan will perform a one-woman play based on the book at the 2015 National Black Theater Festival in North Carolina—which she will co-chair with her “All My Children” co-star, Darnel Williams. She will also appear on Oprah Winfrey’s “Where Are They Now?” and has a new television concept in the works.

Between trips to New York and L.A., Morgan couldn’t be happier in her adopted home. “I love going into DC to restaurants and the Kennedy Center and Warner Theatre,” she says. “And my best friend on the entire planet lives right around the corner. Between her and my husband, I couldn’t ask for anything more.”

Photographer Angie Seckinger splits her time between Potomac, Maryland, and Spain. Jesse Snyder is based in Huntingtown, Maryland.

INTERIOR DESIGN: LORNA GROSS-BRYANT, ASID, Lorna Gross Interior Design, Bethesda, Maryland.

On a dusk-lit, screened porch just off the kitchen, Guas’s wife, PR maven Simone Rathlé, sets the table with cobalt blue camp plates, sky-blue Mason jar glasses, a whitewashed picket basket of napkins depicting street maps of the couple’s native New Orleans and a birch vase of cheery sunflowers.

______________________________

David Guas’s Family Barbecue Menu

Grilled New Orleans-Style BBQ
Shrimp on the Cowboy Cauldron served with Stone-Ground White Corn Grits
Cast-Iron Cornbread
Lemon-Lime Icebox Pie with Almond Cream
Iced Tea with Cucumber & Lemon

______________________________

Considering his calm demeanor, you wouldn’t know that Guas is in the middle of opening a second Bayou Bakery (this one on Capitol Hill) and promoting a new cookbook, Grill Nation (Oxmoor House, New York; April 28, 2015). He is as cool as the cucumber that his other son, 12-year-old Kemp, slices to add some zing to lemon iced tea. (The cookbook is filled with simple-to-prepare dishes and tips for home cooks and was inspired by Guas’s TV show, “American Grilled,” which aired on the Travel Channel last year.)

Guas’s home kitchen is small, especially by chef standards, but efficient. The Viking four-burner range, Bosch refrigerator and dishwasher form a tight work triangle. A panoply of pots, pans, and utensils hangs from racks over the sink. On the blond granite countertop is a collection of salts, honey and sorghums, with even more of those things packed into the maple cabinets above. (Guas is the spokesperson for the National Honey Board.)

Guas and Rathlé met in 1998 at the construction site of Washington’s DC Coast restaurant. Chef Jeff Tunks, who had previously been Guas’s boss at the Windsor Court Hotel in New Orleans, lured Guas to DC to take the opening pastry position. Not only did the couple have New Orleans in common, but the hotel, too—Rathlé had once been its in-house publicist.

The two married in 1999 and moved into a small house in Arlington. Once Kemp was born in 2002, they realized they needed a larger abode. They bought their 1950s five-bedroom, 4.5-bathroom rambler, set back on a spacious wooded corner lot, on Mother’s Day in 2003.

The furnishings of their home reflect an eclectic country style centering on comfort, tradition, and memories. “We love to go picking,” says Guas. “We bought all the furniture together. The two hutches in the dining room, the church pew next to the living room. We found someone to make the dining room table (from reclaimed oak barn floor planks) at the Georgetown flea market.” Adirondack chairs around the table came from a furniture maker near Lake Placid, where Rathlé once had a client.

Paintings by Rathlé’s father, Raymond, hang on the walls and many of his Persian carpets adorn the floors. The hutches display treasured gifts from Guas’s mother, among them plates from the Roosevelt Hotel and Galatoire’s in New Orleans.

The garage is filled with acquisitions for the new Bayou Bakery that Guas and Rathlé purchased last summer on a trip along the Civil War Trail from New Orleans to Vicksburg and onward to Washington. The bakery’s building on Pennsylvania Avenue, SE, was a carriage house for the first Civil War naval hospital (now the Hill Center), whose land Lincoln sanctioned. A centerpiece is a large metal chandelier custom-made in Alabama that bears a lesser-known Lincoln quote: “I can make generals, but horses are expensive.”

New Orleans’s trademark symbol, the fleur-de-lis, makes numerous appearances in the Guas home, as do red-combed roosters of various sizes and ilks: porcelain vases, straw baskets, painted goblets, metal sculptures, glass figurines, lamp shades.

“Roosters are signs of hospitality,” says Rathlé. That is something in great abundance at the Guases’.

Writer David Hagedorn is based in Washington, DC. Geoffrey Hodgdon is a photographer in Deale, Maryland.

Though it has grown to include 24 guest rooms in the original structure (which also houses the restaurant and public spaces) and several outbuildings, the Inn still recalls another time and place. Inspired by notable European properties, O’Connell’s fanciful creation centered on the main streets of rural Washington, Virginia (population: 150), transports guests into a world where walls are painted in monkey motifs, cheese is served atop an anatomically correct cow sculpture and ceilings are bedecked in kaleidoscopic cutouts of designer wall coverings—and that’s just for starters. No two guest rooms are alike.

“What is lacking today [in hospitality] is a sense of place, an identity, an authenticity, a personality,” says O’Connell. “We want guests to feel like they’re in someone’s home and we want it to look as if it has been here a long, long time.”

To O’Connell, nailing the ambiance and timeworn patina is just as critical as serving an impeccable foie gras. “Your eye can never be bored, just as your palate can never be bored,” he says. “It’s all parallel, to keep guests intrigued and amused and to sustain that fascination.”

O’Connell grew up in “big” Washington, where he studied theatre at Catholic University. One could argue that he hasn’t strayed far from his first calling. In his forthcoming book, The Inn at Little Washington: A Magnificent Obsession (Rizzoli, New York, April 2015; $50), O’Connell reveals that in his mind the Inn is a “healing cocoon” and a “folly and stage set for whatever drama is being played out” in guests’ lives.

If the Inn is theatre, O’Connell’s leading lady is Joyce Conwy Evans, a London-based set designer who has decorated every room on the property—most of them sight unseen. After she receives a blueprint of a new project, he explains, “Joyce goes into a trance and starts painting a rendering in watercolor. She has a vision and then steps into it. It’s been a wonderful collaboration for over 35 years.”

In addition to guest quarters, Evans also collaborates with O’Connell on his private residences on the “campus.” One of these was Claiborne House. After O’Connell purchased the 1899 “eyesore,” he hired Alexandria architect Allan Greenberg to transform it into a stately, two-bedroom cottage that would look like it had always been there. The architect’s plan created a kitchen, library, media room and veranda and gave the house presence with a front porch and two-story foyer.

Named for a frequent guest, food writer, and critic Craig Claiborne, the cottage was O’Connell’s own home until 2006 when he moved into 1885 Victorian he’d purchased nearby. Soon after, Claiborne House became the Inn’s presidential suite. In addition to its namesake, the retreat has hosted Al and Tipper Gore, Warren Beatty and Annette Bening, designers Carleton Varney and Charlotte Moss and many a celebrity chef.

In the design of his current home, O’Connell and Evans are following their proven approach. “Each space, each piece of architecture, has a narrative that it needs to have told. It’s a little like raising a kid; it can’t necessarily be exactly what you want it to be. You follow its orders—and try not to go broke doing it,” O’Connell quips. Once they find a “clue,” whether it’s a piece of furniture, a color or wallpaper, everything falls into place. While his master bathroom is done (heated floors, marble-slab walls, Waterworks tub), the residence remains a work in progress.

However, readers will soon be able to survey the rest of O’Connell’s domain in his handsome and eloquent new book. “People who have worked here for 10 years have never seen it all,” he says. “The book is a window into the extent of the nuttiness.”

Chef, proprietor, co-designer and star of the show, O’Connell has clearly found his oeuvre. “My love,” he concludes, “is the art of transformation. Transforming anything. Like a turnip into something incredible, or a tear-down into something magical.”

Photographer Gordon Beall is based in Bethesda, Maryland. 

Portrait by Michael Ventura

The home is set on four acres with a narrow street presence expanding into wider gardens. As a symbol of the relationship between the U.S. and Britain, Lutyens married elements of a Queen Anne country house with those of the Williamsburg vernacular. The building originally housed both the residence and embassy, which was located in a U-shaped wing facing the street. However, growing pains forced the embassy to move to its current, less elegant quarters in 1960, built on additional land the U.K. had purchased next door. 

Over the years, the residence has welcomed a steady stream of luminaries, from presidents, prime ministers and royalty to movie stars and rock legends. There have been solemn wartime tête-à-têtes, lavish state dinners and garden parties literally fit for a queen. The Beatles stopped in after their first U.S. gig at the Washington Coliseum and, recently, the home was abuzz with heartthrobs of another kind: the cast of “Downton Abbey.”

Every year, 12,000 guests visit the residence, where they may find a great hall with a checkered marble floor, a ballroom displaying Andy Warhol’s portrait of Queen Elizabeth and manicured English gardens inspired by the work of Gertrude Jekyll, a close friend of Lutyens. The residence itself was cause for celebration earlier this year when today’s Ambassador Sir Peter Westmacott and his wife, Lady Westmacott, held receptions to mark the publication of The Architecture of Diplomacy: The British Ambassador’s Residence in Washington. Written by historian Anthony Seldon and Daniel Collings with photographs by Eric Sander, the book offers a fascinating history of the home and an in-depth look at how Lutyens’s plan took shape. Lady Westmacott, who noticed a dearth of material written about the residence upon their arrival in 2012, spearheaded the project. 

When they are not entertaining, Lady Westmacott spends time in the sunny drawing room while the Ambassador enjoys quiet moments in his paneled library. 

“It’s fun when we have family and grandchildren running around here, but you don’t live in a house like this—or you shouldn’t—if you don’t get pleasure from sharing it with other people,” the Ambassador says during an interview on the terrace. “This house earns its keep by doing a lot of things for the United Kingdom’s interests and to promote relations between Britain and the United States.”

He found one particular encounter in the residence most rewarding. “When the new president of France first met the British prime minister, they were in the drawing room in this house,” recalls Westmacott, who was formerly Britain’s ambassador to France. “The beginning of a new relationship—not between the U.S. and Great Britain but between Britain and France—took place here.” 

No doubt, Lutyens would approve of the myriad ways in which the house is used today. “To design something 85 years ago for a pre-electronic age, where the beauty and elegance and sense of proportion still enchant us today is, I think, a supreme achievement,” concludes author Anthony Seldon. “To me, this is simply the greatest ambassadorial residence of any country in any capital. It just works to perfection.”

Photographer Eric Sander is based in Paris. All images copyright of  The Architecture of  Diplomacy: The British Ambassador’s Residence in Washington; Flammarion, Paris; 2014. $65.