When designer Kate Vogt stumbled upon a Colonial Revival house near the Potomac River, she had no doubt it was meant for her family.
Text: Marion Laffey Fox
Photography: Gordon Beall
Kate Vogt knew she had found something special when she spotted the 1940s Colonial Revival house that her family now calls home. “It was a memorable moment for me,” says Vogt of Katherine Vogt Interiors, who creates inviting, unpretentious nests for her clients. Before she even stepped inside the three-story structure, the designer started envisioning endless possibilities for it.
The family was in need of more space, so Vogt’s discovery seemed ideal: a tall redbrick house situated on two lots in a residential area called Palisades, northwest of Washington, D.C. The neighborhood had the added appeal of being only minutes away from the buzz of Georgetown’s shops and restaurants.
Soon after the purchase, Vogt hired Washington architect David Jones of Jones & Boer Architects, Inc., whose work she had admired through clients and friends, to design the structural changes.
“My main request was that the house would be filled with natural light,” says Vogt. “I wanted David to do something creative in the back of the house to bring in the light.”
The request proved to be a challenge because that area had been badly altered numerous times and was located on a steep slope.
Undaunted, however, the architect and the designer-homeowner determined they would find an imaginative solution that would maintain the character of the house while also opening up the back side.
