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Summertime
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HOUSE RULES Homes with Style
Designer Jana Abel.
ABOVE : The living
room of a home
designed by Abel
WILLING & ABEL
This designer’s childhood aspiration: to make your dream home come true
BY JENNIE NUNN PHOTOGRAPHS BY GREG POWERS
B
Decades later, Abel—now based in Potomac,
y the time Jana Abel was just six years
old, she was already sketching elaborate Maryland, and out tting everything from a
oor plans adorned with parlors, indoor three-story penthouse in DC’s Residences at the
roller-skating rinks and libraries with secret Ritz-Carlton to a Midcentury Modern home in
doors. “When I was a little girl, I recall sitting on Bethesda—has turned a childhood hobby into a
my bedroom oor in our Miami Beach home full- edged profession. Most recently, she comwith an enormous drawing pad,” she recalls. “I pleted a project on a brand-new 8,500-square-foot
had drawn and labeled each room, from a grand stucco home in Northwest DC for a prominent
parlor to a servants’ hallway and nursery. Maybe local family with two children. “They are a modI was inspired by the nursery in the movie Mar y ern, fashion-forward family, and the couple has a
Poppinsor the von Trapp mansion i n The Sound of strong design sense. They love to entertain,” says
Music. Whatever it was, I knew at that age that I Abel of the inspiration for the resort-like home.
found something that really excited me. I would There’s a children’s reading nook, de ned by
always want to go shopping for furniture for my a giant custom daybed and pillows by John
dollhouse, and walk into a home or a hotel and Robshaw; a glamorous bubblegum-pink-hued
imagine what I would do if I could decorate it.” girl’s room, with a shiny black chandelier and
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PHOTOGRAPH
BY GREG POWERS
( VAHHABAGHAI )
HOUSE RULES Homes with Style
68
CAPITOL FILE-MAGAZINE.COM
FROM TOP LEFT : The
private study in the owner’s
suite; the family kitchen; the
bedroom designed for the
clients’ pre-teen daughter; the
custom-designed banquette
eat-in area; a custom console
designed by Jana Abel,
below Orange Form by artist
Andres Tremols; a gift from
the designer to the client—a
cast stone reproduction of an
original Greek sculpture from
the Cyclades dating to around
2600 to 2400 BC
BY MAXWELL MACKENZIE
( EXTERIOR );
PHOTOGRAPHS
LARRY RUGGERI
GREG POWERS
( BACHELOR PAD );
( HANDBAG )
CLOCKWISE
Queen Anne mirror by Jonathan Adler; and an
indoor basketball court. “They wanted a contemporary, clean-lined, luxurious home,” she
explains. “On the other hand, the house had to be
livable, unfussy and spill-proof for the children.
It’s virtually indestructible.”
Other highlights include a private master
den with a warm palette of earthy tones; a replace; sand-hued sofas; brass metal lamps; and
a kitchen with white marble countertops, a custom banquette with European vinyl upholstery,
shiny silver Suspension lamps by Aquatinta and
a reproduction of a Tulip dining table by Eero
Saarinen from Knoll. “It’s a retreat, and every
person in the family has a passion. The boy has
his gym downstairs, and the girl is a ballerina.
Everything has a place and everything is wellthought-out,” says Abel, who is now busy with a
farmhouse on the Eastern Shore, a classic colonial in the District and a grand bungalow-style
home in Chevy Chase. “I love having a vision,
putting it on paper and watching this series of
how it will all come together,” she says. “The best
part, though, is being a part of the family and
[hearing] the client say, ‘This is it. You get it.’ It’s
the most rewarding thing ever.”
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