Home of the Week: A symphony of scarlet and saffron

"The Hardesty family developed the community next to ours. They are Civil War buffs and named the streets for key events during that war," explained Michael Darrow, a lawyer and semiretired partner in the Annapolis-based law firm Hillman, Brown & Darrow. The home he shares with his wife, Beverly, is located on a rear parcel of the Idlewilde Estates community, separated from the rest of the houses by a creek running through a deep, wooded gorge. So the Darrow property is accessed, instead, through Hardesty Estates.

The Darrows used to live around the corner from their current home in a white stucco, 7,000-square-foot house perched on 19 acres. They've downsized to their current 4,820-square-foot home on five acres, which comes into view at the end of a long driveway. It is the fourth home the couple has built together during their 30 years of marriage, and Michael has served as the general contractor on all of them.

The two-story brick home has a full, finished basement, five bedrooms and seven bathrooms. It is modern with a hint of history.

A broad, open porch with brick flooring wraps around two sides of the home. The porch is shaded by a copper standing seam roof supported by slender columns. A row of rocking chairs sway in the wind behind the wrought-iron railing topped with a hardwood handrail. At the rear of the home, a wide Trex deck with a hot tub and a spacious screened porch draw the Darrows outside most of the year.

Pointing to one of more than a dozen terra cotta planters brimming with yellow, purple and red annuals near the porch and on the deck, Michael said, "Beverly planted all of these wonderful little gardens. She does it every year. She designed all the landscaping, too."

He noted his wife was shy. Upon hearing a Capital reporter and photographer were en route, Beverly did the sensible thing: She went shopping and left her husband to do the talking.

By design

Praising his wife lavishly, Michael described how Beverly took a basic home plan they purchased online and completely redrew it. The two then worked with Frank Lucente of Timberlake Custom Homes to construct their residence.

Afterward, Beverly personally designed every nook and corner of the home's interior. She selected its unifying color palette and each piece of furniture and objet d'art, and decorated the home herself.

She did not ignore technology, either: Plasma flat-screen televisions are found throughout the home, along with a sophisticated sound system.

The lower walls of the home's front hallway, stairwell and dining room are painted a shade of scarlet and are accented with white molding and chair rails. The upper walls, also accented with white molding, are a soft saffron.

"Beverly is into reds, yellows and roosters," Michael said.

The front door opens onto a high-ceilinged foyer with a grand staircase spooling upward on the right. Tucked behind the spiraling banister is a towering arrangement of silk flowers set upon a Chinese rooster-patterned brocade cloth.

High on the wall overlooking the foyer, is a 6-by-10-foot Renaissance-style needlepoint tapestry of a field of flowers.

A fat, gray, moving rug pads by. That's Rascal the cat. Another one, Leroy, slimmer and all black, basks in the sun. Hiding in the two-car garage is a big orange cat, Pumpkin. All three were adopted from the SPCA.

The dining room, off to the left, features examples of marquetry and parquetry. A wooden column purchased in Sorrento, Italy, is inlaid with a veneered marquetry of several woods depicting a bouquet, while the dining room tabletop has a veneer resembling a tiled parquet floor. The column is topped with a Japanese geisha holding aloft a parasol lampshade, and several large antique Chinese ceramic urns and bowls are on display around the room. More from their collection are on view throughout the home.

Also on view in nearly every room is Beverly's collection of unique crucifixes from around the world.

The front hall sweeps into a loft-style room encompassing the kitchen, a dining area and the living room.

"Beverly wanted a big kitchen with lots of room," said Michael, extending his arms wide. "It's an open space for entertaining. We can jam 45 to 50 people in here, seat 14 in the dining room, and eight more at the kitchen table."

In the kitchen area, four can sit at the long granite countertop to watch the cook at work or view the woods beyond the deck. There is recessed lighting above and under the white wooden cabinets, making it easier to cook - or to enhance the atmosphere at a cocktail party. More recessed lights form a runway on the oak floor - making it a snap for Michael to find a soda in the fridge at midnight.

Beverly's real work space is behind the kitchen in the laundry room-office. There she manages the household from her desk while the dryer whirs.

Moving into the living room, the elegant couches and chairs are placed to maximize conversation and comfort. The gas-log fireplace is turned on frequently in the colder months, and an entertainment center is tucked discreetly behind built-in cabinets.

Beyond the living room is the screened porch, or rather a living room without walls. Michael said he and Beverly frequently eat dinner in the large, airy space punctuated with sunroof windows. In cooler months, the porch has a wood-burning fireplace that warms the room and a suspended swing to kindle romance.

Off to one side is Michael's office, which looks like Professor Henry Higgins' library in "My Fair Lady." It has floor-to-ceiling wood paneled walls and library shelves filled with oft-read volumes.

"I've read every one of these books," Michael noted. One of the older tomes is a vintage Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary with a 7-inch-wide spine, used to play a game called "Mr. Webster."

On one wall hangs a framed sketch of Clarence Darrow, the famed Scopes Trial lawyer. "He's my first cousin, removed two generations," Michael said proudly. "My grandfather used to go raccoon hunting with him."

Behind Michael's desk in an open case lies his alto saxophone.

It's all very masculine, but "this isn't my man cave," he declared. "That's downstairs."

The man cave

In the basement, Michael has collected a variety of table games. His son, Paul R. Darrow, 25, a contractor with Tri-Con, built the foosball table. There's also a pool table, a pingpong table, a chess board and a Golden Tee arcade game.

A second room holds the "man cave" - a state-of-the-art home theater built by Paul with a wall-sized, high-definition projection TV screen. Eight black leather recliners with cup holders rest on two tiered levels. "These are butt shakers!" Michael said. "They're hooked into the sound system and shake in sync with the action on the screen."

Looking around the basement party room, he said, "We wanted the kids to party here - and they did."

They still do, though not as often. Paul has his own apartment nearby and Samantha, 21, a senior at St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia, already has a job when she graduates.

On the second floor, Samantha's room awaits her visits home. Several Russian angel nesting boxes are stacked neatly near her door. The oversized scarlet gingham-check spread on her bed complements the scarlet and white floral 18th-century print on her pillows and window treatments.

Paul's room has a clump of electrical equipment awaiting his attention, and a guest room features two twin beds with trundle beds underneath.

The color scheme carries into the master suite, located near a second stairway. The four-poster bed, draped with a solid red, hand-stitched quilt, is crowned with a pile of coordinating pillows in a crazy-quilt combination of patterns.

Steps from the bed is a sitting room where Michael likes to read a book by sunlight in an easy chair. A double-sided gas fireplace separates the two rooms.

Just off the bedroom, Beverly has a closet most women dream about. It's her space, and Michael has enough sense not to pile any of his possessions in there.

In the master bathroom, Michael installed a shower lined with tiled bench seating and six shower heads. An electric pump downstairs "pushes up the pressure," he said. He'll stand in the shower for 10 minutes after a rough day.

Outside, the Darrows installed a French drain system around their home to slow runoff from the house. Beverly also has hung dozens of birdhouses and feeders.

"We see lots of birds back here," Michael said. "The feeders attract everything from ravens to pileated woodpeckers. There are doves, finches, cardinals, blue jays and hummingbirds.

"In the woods, there's a stream that flows into the Patuxent River. Beverly and I walk through the woods back there and watch the stream flow by."

Would you like to see your house, townhome, condo, apartment or cottage featured as The Capital's Home of the Week? To nominate your home, e-mail Wendi Winters at wendi@quantumstep.com. Include your contact information and details about your residence.