T
he renovation was like peeling an onion—when
one problem was fixed, another problem would
reveal itself. And on it went for more than a year
after Jackie Perrins and her family purchased a
house in Northwest Washington that hadn’t
been updated since Kennedy was president.
Yet the chaos of construction presented an opportunity. While
walls and ceilings were ripped up and ductwork and electrical wires
exposed, the owners decided to bring in an interior designer who
could plan and decorate new spaces specifically suited to two cityloving parents and their four young children.
Perrins says she couldn’t believe her luck when she realized that
designer Lori Graham, whose work she had clipped from magazines and admired online, was based in DC. The two immediately
hit it off, and she praises Graham for fulfilling her seemingly contradictory design goals: “I love living in the city, so I wanted to have
an urban vibe. I also wanted it to be kid-friendly, and I wanted it to
have a lot of color.”
They were going for the edgy chic of a boutique hotel that would
somehow survive heavy kid traffic and multiple juice spills along
the way. And they had a strict budget, with no room for overruns.
Graham dove right in, working with architect Chris Snowber of
Hamilton Snowber Architects to redefine spaces and create interiRENOVATION ARCHITECTURE: CHRISTOPHER R. SNOWBER, AIA, Hamilton
Snowber Architects, Washington, DC. INTERIOR DESIGN: LORI GRAHAM, Lori
Graham Design, Washington, DC. CONTRACTOR: Horizon Builders, Crofton,
Maryland.
homeanddesign.com • NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2013 93
F_Graham_v2.indd 93
10/9/13 9:10 AM