Home of the Week: Unique vintage look, 21st-century comfort

But the petite woman didn't just move in and roll out the welcome mat. With the same energy as the cardinal who recently built a nest of sticks in the crown of a column on the house's wraparound porch, Debby planned extensive improvements that burnished the home's original charm while enhancing it for 21st-century living.

"I was my own designer, architect and contractor for this house," she said with a smile. "At one point in the renovations, I had to sleep on a sofa in the front room. The sink in one bathroom worked, as did the toilet in another. I did my laundry at a neighbor's house."

The three-story house sits on a corner lot. It was originally built in 1918, and a large addition was constructed on the rear of the building in 1985. The stucco exterior is painted a pale, creamy shade of olive, highlighted with white trim and accented with a touch of claret red.

One feature that draws the eye is the "jerkinhead" roof, a clipped gable on the rooftop which means that, instead of ending in a point, the top of the roof is a horizontal line.

Another feature is the sculpted lawn that has nary a blade of grass. Instead, flagstone stepping stones meander past a low flagstone wall and well-tended shrubs, flowers and ground cover plants. Shaded by a tall dogwood tree, the wide herringbone-patterned brick walkway ushers visitors to the porch stairs.

Debby was qualified to take on her home's renovations. She is a semiretired kitchen and bath consultant who handles interior design and whole-house renovations for her clients.

"This house has a really good bone structure, a good sense of scale," Debby explained. "The moldings were original. It had a lot to work with because it had not been overrenovated."

A delicious kitchen

The kitchen is Debby's pride and joy. It is delicious to gaze upon, yet is an efficient work space that easily holds three busy chefs. The kitchen boasts a warming drawer, a pot-filler - a cold water faucet at the stove - a gas cooktop, an indoor gas grill and a micro-convection oven. The stove is bracketed by two wooden waist-high columns which are really vertical drawer pulls. Give one a gentle tug and out rolls a fully stocked spice cabinet, handy yet hidden. Nearby, a taller panel slides out to reveal a wine and liquor cabinet.

Beneath the stove are slide-out drawers containing pots and pans. Underneath a nearby counter are more drawers that slide out to reveal serving pieces.

The countertops are topped with pale Costa Esmeralda granite and the tiled backsplash is reminiscent of 1920s tile work.

To achieve this airy work space, Debby had to move a window and several walls, plus demolish a closet that enclosed a refrigerator. All the cabinets, sinks, countertops and appliances were replaced. The unifying details and occasional bits of whimsy are all part of Debby's design.

Warm welcome

Entering the home through the front door, a visitor standing in the small foyer can see the kitchen and the family room beyond. The foyer is decorated with a mix of 19th-century family heirlooms and artwork created by Debby's talented mother, Lillian Heller.

The walls of the foyer and stairwell have been papered with a striking bamboo print. Debby is not shy about using unusual prints on the walls - and she does so in several rooms in the home, to great effect.

To the right, past an open archway framed with columns, is a cozy living room. A needlepoint rug covers, but does not conceal, the original heart pine wood floors. Pipsqueak and Cat Stevens, her catty companions, are sprawled in a sunbeam.

The wood-burning fireplace at the opposite end has been transformed from a plain-Jane brick fireplace to one with a high, wooden Arts and Crafts-style mantelpiece. On either side is a new set of built-in bookcases.

Debby's been an avid collector throughout her adult years, though "I'm trying to quit," she said. In addition to the family heirlooms, she's found surprising pieces at places as diverse as high-end antique galleries, T.J. Maxx and eBay. Her mother's paintings are found throughout the home, as are more than a score of her beautiful, sinuous, fired-clay vases and sculpted masterpieces.

Among Debby's finds are vintage handmade lace and tatted textiles, Victorian piano shawls, antique Japanese embroidered gift-wrap that has been reborn as decorative bed pillows, and 19th-century hand-painted leather screens.

"I have an appreciation for the workmanship that went into these handmade pieces," she said.

Down the hall, en route to the basement stairs, is a small powder room that looks like an enchanted forest. The walls are covered with a dense, dark, woodland scenic wallpaper, the better to showcase three of Lillian's terra cotta pottery pieces. The sink - a white bowl - rests on a tiny wooden circular table beneath a mirror wreathed in metal vines.

Dining in style

The dining room has three doorways. One was created during the renovations using salvaged nine-piece casing molding from another doorway. The walls in this room are papered with a bold trompe l'oeil print resembling limestone blocks. Soft lighting in the room radiates from lights hidden behind cove molding near the ceiling.

The family room, part of the 1985 addition, was completely redone. To create symmetry in the room, she had the windows on one side enlarged and those on the other reduced in size; large French doors were removed and replaced with smaller glass-paned doors. A series of shelves was installed along one wall to hold Debby's TV, objets d'art and books.

A mix of wicker armchairs, a casual sofa and vintage pieces create a comfortable space. Adding a wry touch are the life-sized crocodile carved from a single block of wood that sprawls between two armchairs and the stuffed raven staring down from its perch atop a tall grandfather clock.

Over the fireplace hangs a pair of carved wooden panels depicting slightly raised curtains. "They were the wheel covers of a horse-drawn, 1830s hearse," she explained.

Debby also extended the rear of the home with a screened porch with a clear roof of twin-wall polycarbonate, creating a space filled with soft, diffused sunlight.

"Norman," the longhorn steer skull, hangs on the back wall, an informal guardian of the laid-back space. A few feet away stands an outdoor shed that Debby has decorated with colorful artwork.

"Why should I have to look at a bare wall?" she asked rhetorically.

The second floor

Heading upstairs, the first room is a sitting room that contains more of Lillian's amazing art. Under Annapolis tax codes, a room is not considered a bedroom if it has no built-in closet, so Debby removed the door and put in an open, columned archway.

She calls the room next to the sitting room the Tapestry Bedroom. Installed on one wall is a floor-to-ceiling antique needlepoint tapestry depicting a picnicking trio in 18th-century pastoral attire. A smaller tapestry is used as a window valence. An aged, paneled triptych rises behind the bed like a tall headboard.

The walls have an unusual, rustic look. Did it take days for a muralist or sponge painter to create this effect? No. Debby removed two layers of old wallpaper. The original layer was fabric-backed. Once the paper was peeled off, only traces of the old wallpaper paste and the blue chalk marks of the paper hanger remained. It was perfect.

The clue to who uses the next bedroom dangles from the pair of windows - two giant wooden diaper pins. Debby has two grandchildren and one more on the way. She's outfitted the space with a crib and lots of stuffed toys for her visiting grandbabies. Tucked against one wall is her sewing table and supplies.

The final bedroom is Debby's. A length of hand-crocheted fabric is tented over the four-poster bed, which is lavished with pillows made of vintage embroidered silks. A shawl that once decorated her great-grandmother's piano now graces a small, round, glass-topped table near a window. In another corner, a tripaneled screen of hand-painted leather, decorated with a swag of silk ivy, conjures up memories of Miss Kitty and U.S. Marshall Matt Dillon.

The floor's two bathrooms are miniature pleasure palaces - places to luxuriate in elegance in either a claw-footed bathtub or an indulgent shower. Designing both rooms taxed Debby's ingenuity and patience, though.

To create extra room for both bathrooms, she reduced a large laundry room to the size of a broom closet. For the guest bath, that opened up an alcove large enough to house the tub, which has its own old-fashioned shower head and oval curtain rod.

The master bathroom was more of a challenge. She had to seamlessly integrate three levels of flooring and different ceiling heights, but she did so beautifully. Furnished with art, antique furniture and marble-topped counters, it is a place that invites lingering.

Don't forget to duck

There's one more floor.

Ascending the attic stairs, one is suddenly transported to a Swedish country cabin. The imagery is inspired by the log cabin print wallpaper on the stairwell walls and the side walls of the fanciful room under the eaves.

"My oldest granddaughter loves this room," said Debby. "I call it the Royal Dacha in her honor."

There are statues of ducks on the stairwell "to remind you to 'duck' so you don't bang your head on the low ceiling," Debby said with a laugh.

A trio of wrought-iron chairs with wood plank seats and backs have been bolted to the floor's edge, acting as a railing. A whitewashed clay duck is nestled on each chair. The two "headboards" on the wall behind the twin beds are actually verdigris metal garden sculptures she discovered in a T.J. Maxx home decor department.

The whitewashed wood floors, white dormer ceiling, plus the snowy hand-stitched quilts and linens on the beds and armchairs contribute to the gentle, sun-washed look of the cabin - er, room.

"I'm proud of the work I did here," Debby said softly. As she should be.

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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.