On the Inside, Looking Out

An updated old Potomac house savors its splendid site year round.

By Carole Ottesen

Photographer Omar Salinas

Like most places in their home, the Stouffer’s living room affords an enchanting view of the surrounding woods.

The first days of September can be as hot and sunny as any in July, and a garden can look much the same in the early fall as it has for the past two months. Petunias and geraniums can still bloom; lusty and ripe, red tomatoes continue to hang on plants that have burgeoned into wild, coarse shrubs.

Despite that, the first of September is a watershed. When August departs it seems to throw a switch, and all of Creation is ordered to slow down, cease producing, prepare for change. The world is turning toward the equinox. Soon it will be obvious in the low slanting rays of the sun and the bright flares of leaves turning orange and scarlet. In six to eight weeks, we will be on the inside looking out.

Summer inevitably turns to fall, and fall to winter. Yet, in spite of these faithfully recurrent seasons, few gardens are designed for the long months that their owners spend looking at them through frosted windows. The Stouffer’s garden is a welcome exception. Every room of Beth and Scott Stouffer’s Potomac home enjoys vistas of their spectacular property.

A Diamond in the Woods

Beth remembers that, while house hunting, she came upon this exceptional property “in a completely secluded area. I had lived here my whole life and had never been on this street.” At first glance, the 50s-era rambler and its beautiful site did not appear exceptional.

“The first thing you saw was the side of the house and a big ugly garage,” Beth explains. The experience of arrival was ambiguous. People would pull up and find themselves in front of a basement-level garage. To arrive at the front door, they had to negotiate a steep stairway. She found the experience of arrival so disconcerting and awkward that she was about to leave before even seeing the interior of the house. If she hadn’t noticed the living room’s handsome beveled windows, she might never have gone inside. But she did. And she discovered not only that the house had charm, but that the views looking out over the property were truly magnificent.

In spite of the need to update the outside, in spite of vertical siding on an addition that screamed “built in the early 80s,” the house had potential. Reminiscent of old Potomac and the houses Beth remembered from growing up in the area, it had the character that comes only with age, and it was situated on a fabulous six-acre lot.

“It was an interesting house,” she observes. “Things weren’t cookie cutter.” The Stouffers were confident that they could turn it into the home they envisioned. It didn’t hurt that Beth is a design consultant and principal of BKS Designs, LLC. In September, 2001, they bought the house and started to plan the renovation.

Preserving old Potomac

“With four kids and three dogs, there has to be livable space. When we set out to remodel, we needed a couple more bedrooms, and the outside lacked the beauty evident within. Casual elegance was what we tried to achieve here,” says Beth. “I wanted to keep that old Potomac look.”

The couple hired architect Jim Rill of Rill and Decker Architects to renovate the exterior and rework some of the inside. The idea was to enhance what was there.

Rill and his associate Kay Kim turned the old garage into two bedrooms and a shared bathroom for the couple’s 18- and 21-year-old sons. Rill also added exquisite architectural details to many existing rooms, modified the floor plan to provide more privacy, and added a spacious eating area to the kitchen. The Stouffers had set out in hope of “casual elegance.” Rill provided it in spades.

Using her expertise, Beth’s design for the interior hinged on inspirations from outside the house. The colors and textures prevalent outdoors needed to be represented tastefully on the inside. To do this adequately, the area surrounding the house needed to match the quality of the remodeled interior.

A Marriage of House and Site

The greatest change was the redesign of the outside of the house. The unremarkable entrance, with its period vertical siding and small porch, was utterly transformed. It is now framed by arched, brick walls, and a columned porch runs along the front of the house. To marry this newly redesigned house to its gracious site, the Stouffers called on Bob Hawkins of Hawkins Signature Landscaping.

“Construction had already started when I came on,” remembers Hawkins. Some problems had already been identified. Hawkins’ job was to make them go away. “There was trouble with the topography; there were retaining wall issues. There were existing naturalized walking paths.” All of this required consideration in the overall landscape plan. Another concern was the desire for family living space adjacent to the house with access to the pool level. Most noticeably, though, the existing driveway did not begin to address the stunning new entrance.

Unwavering Welcome

“I redid the entire driveway,” says Hawkins. “I wanted more focus on where you come into the house…so I shifted the whole driveway over. It’s in a totally different spot.”

It was an inspired move. The new driveway approaches the front door directly, but it does so gracefully—through a garden planted with great swaths of liriope, hostas, azaleas, hollies, and ferns. It culminates in a welcoming court with a new garage and space for guest parking. The columned porch that Rill installed takes visitors past antiques from India and Bali all the way to the front door. The gutters are fitted with Asian-inspired Rain Chains that keep the columns visible and add interest to a typically hidden aspect of architecture.

Throughout the renovation process, the architect, landscape architect, and owners understood that they were dealing with a uniquely beautiful site. Capitalizing on its natural assets and integrating site with house was important, but in some cases the natural assets were too much of a good thing.

Easy Outdoor Living

“Before the landscaping, the trees came up to the kitchen door,” recalls Beth. “There was no real family area outside.” If the dogs went out, they disappeared into the woods.

Good design of your outdoor living space is as important as the design of your indoor living space,” she explains. Now she is able to step out of the kitchen into a sunny and inviting outdoor room, a necessity for her active family. Here, the landscaping is composed of relatively undemanding plants—hollies, hydrangeas, junipers, and liriope. Annuals in containers provide color.

In addition to the area just outside the kitchen, the finished exterior offers eight more fully furnished places to sit and relax, each with a different, outstanding view of the site.

“We wanted low maintenance,” says Beth. “We have a second house; we travel.” The outdoor living area is highly visible from the kitchen, family room, and master bedroom. Hardy plants were selected to keep the landscape attractive whether the owners are home to care for them or not. They offer pleasant viewing from any part of the property.

From Inside Out

From the beginning, the landscaping needed to be designed so that it would not only complement the house from the outside, but also be enjoyable from within. Creating appealing views from the home’s many windows was “important to them and to me,” says Hawkins. “We walked every room of the house” to see how the landscape would appear.

Good planning paid off. “The long expanse of steps that descends to the pool and patio area was designed to eliminate the need for a railing that might obstruct vision,” says Hawkins. The clear view that results engenders a sense of spaciousness.

A Sylvan Surround

Around the pool, a colorful decking of natural stone seems to shine when wet. Within certain stones, the fossilized remnants of plants interest the eye. Beyond is an encircling swath of existing trees. To transition from the pool decking to the woodland, Hawkins added hollies, making the pool seem more like a clearing in the forest. Elsewhere, autumn ferns, Virginia sweetspire, and viburnums edge paving and step up to existing trees that “act as a backdrop” and provide “a sense of enclosure,” says Hawkins.

In addition to the backdrop offered by the woodland on the Stouffer’s own lot, the property also enjoys “borrowed scenery.” Forest on neighboring properties seems to flow unbroken toward the horizon. Gazing through one of many windowed views, it takes very little effort to imagine oneself deep in the Adirondacks. The notion of an Adirondack camp was suggested by Hawkins, who attended college in that region. The rustic style excited the Stouffers as well.

Natural Harmony

“I’m very much into the natural; I didn’t want a perfectly maintained, ornate look. Bob and I just immediately agreed on things. I just felt so comfortable with his vision,” says Beth. The feeling was mutual.

“It was a great thing working with the Stouffers—we meshed wonderfully,” says Hawkins. “Although I can do other styles, my forte is really a natural style—that’s what I really love.”

Building upon the Adirondack camp idea was a labor of love for Hawkins, who especially enjoyed creating a natural walkway that leads away from the house to one of the nine outdoor living rooms.

It ends in a stone outcropping overlooking a creek. If not for a couple of bright red-orange Adirondack style chairs, the overlook would seem like a set straight out of the movie, The Last of the Mohicans.

“I call it my Zen area,” says Beth. “Scott and I knew it would make a great lookout, and Bob made it happen. He is a wonderful person and a wonderful professional; he understood and was able to reflect our personalities and our family lifestyle.”

A final rustic touch can be found near the Stouffer’s barn, which houses a basketball court and batting cage. A stone bench that might have been lifted from the shores of Lake Champlain overlooks the creek. Built with uncut stone pulled from a field near the barn, it’s a great place for kids, tired from hours at play, to sit and enjoy the natural surroundings.

The entire Stouffer property is a great place to simply appreciate nature. The house is perfectly oriented to the property around it. The floor plan makes it easy to get outside, regardless of the weather. With the exception of two of the six bedrooms and the library, every room in the house opens to the outside by means of an adjacent terrace, deck, or balcony. And when the temperature cools, when the earth rotates toward the autumnal equinox and the leaves begin to flame, it’s easy to enjoy the outside from within. Visions of nature’s dazzling spectacle fill every window of the house.

Bob Hawkins, Hawkins Signature Landscapes, 301-440-0590, HawkinsSignatureLandscapes.com

Beth Stouffer, BKS Designs, 301-233-0741, BKSDesigns.net