Designer Darryl Savage recasts his Annapolis home high above the Severn River into a stylish setting full of sparkle

By Linda Hales
Photography by Anne Gummerson
Interior Design: Darryl Savage, DHS Designs, Queenstown, Maryland
Spring 2006 Issue of Waterfront Home & Design

Antiques dealer Darryl Savage’s home on the Severn River is minutes from historic Annapolis, but the dazzling ambience is not indebted to Maryland’s past.

“Bling,” Savage explained. “I wanted the bling.”

He leaned against a loft railing strewn with twinkling lights. Behind him, an Italian chandelier dangled like an extravagant fistful of diamonds. It was suspended over an all-white salon, the centerpiece of the house Savage took over from his parents a year and a half ago.

A devotee of 18th-century Continental antiques, Savage had inherited contemporary architecture, with wraparound windows offering a picture-perfect vista of flowing water and woods. But the view has become almost secondary to the interior drama.

White walls and floors serve as a backdrop for a bold mix of furnishings, with plenty of modern classics and a few of Savage’s favored antiques. Objects and fabrics are mostly white, with graphic touches of black. Beams of light from newly installed high-tech fixtures bounce off strategically placed reflective surfaces—a 19th-century table encrusted with mother of pearl, a nugget of quartz and a smooth knot of alabaster sculpted by Savage’s sister, Diane Cary-Thomson.

As the proprietor of DHS Designs in Queenstown, on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, Savage might easily have turned this waterside retreat into a genteel period ruin. His firm is known widely as a source for singular, large-scale European antiques. He permitted himself an aging obelisk and a giant sphere, which strike classical poses amid the native ornamental grasses in the entry garden. Four stony warriors from a French chateau are stationed by the living room windows, as if they had just wandered in from the deck – or the 18th century.

But after experiencing the house for several months with his 11-year-old son, David, and 19-year-old daughter, Julie, now in college, Savage decided to keep his passion for patina in check. He has let the architecture define the terms of engagement. “I wanted it to feel like a gallery,” Savage says.

The house began life as a 1950s rambler in the Annapolis neighborhood of Epping Forest, which the designer says is "known for its winding hills, dense foliage and large trees...many of its early cottages were built in the '20's.” The structure was remodeled into its present configuration in the 1980s as a getaway for Savage’s parents. The lot, a wooded precipice 70 feet above water’s edge, defined the possibilities, then as today. Renovators popped the top and expanded gently in every direction. They wisely opened every room to views. The result is an elongated glass-walled aerie joined to the outdoors by a 100-foot -long wooden deck, which extends almost to the property line at either end.

Savage has found much to enjoy about the 3,400-square-foot domain, though he would not have created the “barn-like” roofline or trapezoidal windows, which have proved “quite a challenge.” But the size of the deck and its proximity to the water would not be allowed today, he says. That only adds to “the beauty of this house.”

Decorating sleights of hand and “a leap into modernity” have balanced visual excitement and serenity. “One of the luxuries I bestowed on myself was to live here, get acclimated and get comfortable first,” Savage says. “It took a while to understand what the setting wants to be. I had the luxury of moving in and figuring it out.”

Bedroom suites on either side of the living room and in the upstairs loft nicely accommodate the needs of a divorced father. But Savage converted the two-car garage into a 1,600-square-foot media, game and family room. “The trick is how to bring the house into today,” he says. “The answer is not necessarily to level it.”

The multi-purpose room is a stark contrast to the rest of the home. Walls and ceiling are lined with rough cedar planks. A 17th-century Flemish tapestry dominates one wall. A coyote throw covers one sofa and antlers are proudly displayed on another. Functional amenities include a pool table and drop-down movie screen. Savage calls the cozy enclave “my Aspen room.”

Other alterations have been modest, but effective. Savage raised doorways throughout the house to make the proportions more gracious. Metal awnings were added to the deck façade to give the 1980s architecture more complexity.

In the living room, a country-style stone fireplace was removed so the designer could create a black niche in which to install the right contemporary model. Ungainly transoms below larger panes were disguised by the construction of window seats. “Today, we would do floor-to-ceiling glass,” he says.

The master suite was all but perfect. It enjoys an unrestrained view from the bedroom, bath and home office overlooking a private corner of the deck.

“You can lie in bed, prop yourself up, read a book and enjoy the whole panorama,” Savage says.

Towering locusts filter the view of bobbing masts from the neighborhood’s marina, which, like Savage’s dock, is way down below. He is adding a gondola to improve access. The existing flight of stairs will remain. Savage describes the tram design as “a movable glass and steel folly.” “At this point,” he says, “that kind of thing is still allowable.”

Savage has strung lights in the trees. At night, their twinkle is mirrored in the braided strands entwined on the loft railing. Sparkle meets sparkle in the Italian chandelier, which Savage freed from a crate in which it had languished for eight years.

No part of the house is more glamorous than the upstairs bedroom Savage has created for Julie. Walls are “papered” with glass beads. The floor is tiled in seamless white marble. The impact of a glass and crystal chandelier over the bed is enhanced by the mirrored frame of the headboard, a custom design of pink panels layered with transparent metallic fabric. A pink sequined pillow, Lucite lamps and silvery custom stainless steel tables add to the magical glitter. The bedroom has its own terrace, which is reflected in a mirrored wall.

White-painted stairs take visitors down to the all-white kitchen, which overlooks the living room. Savage says he doesn’t cook. He has transformed the center-island into a showplace for exotic plants and seasonal still-lifes. Depending on the weather, meals can be taken in the party-ready space, or on the screened dining porch off the living room.

Savage acknowledges the design world’s recent embrace of color and pattern, but says, “I could not jump on that bandwagon. I tire easily of colors.” Against his backdrop of neutrals, he can add “a punch” of autumn orange, holiday red or luscious spring green, as the calendar demands.

Summer offers the fullest rainbow—call it nature’s bling—which may explain why that’s his favorite season. “It’s magnificent,” he says. “I pretend I’m on the French Riviera.”

Linda Hales is the design critic of The Washington Post. Photographer Anne Gummerson is based in Annapolis.