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Springhill Christmas House Features Plenty Of Local Design Talent

By Cynthia Fowler
Home designers from as far away as Richmond, VA, will exhibit their interior decorating expertise in the Christmas House Designer Showcase sponsored by the Springhill Center for Family Development in Crownsville. The Christmas House will be open to the public during the first two weeks in December.

Since 2005, the center has invited designers to decorate rooms or hallways around a specific theme that relates to the holidays. Designers generously donate their talent and time to benefit the nonprofit family center, whose mission is to “strengthen the fiber of family life and help families unite for a better society.” Last year an estimated 1,000 visitors saw the Christmas House, the brainchild of Cheryl Rabbitt, and this year Maura Kohlhafer, co-chair of the event, predicts twice as many will attend.

This year visitors must not miss the downstairs living room fireplace whose theme is “Christmas Time at Great Estates,” which was decorated by Marci Williams, Melody Mintz, and Jan Marie Goebel of Great Estates in Millersville. Additionally, clock lovers will enjoy the ample variety of clocks selected for the fireplace wall, the center of which features a 32-inch gold leaf round clock with Roman numerals and a crackle-finish face. The Great Estates team uses a palette of black, gold, and cream, signature colors of the company, to glamorize the fireplace.

Severna Park interior decorator Julie Bass, best known for creating traditional, gracious spaces with exceptionally beautiful window treatments, has designed an upstairs library in deep jeweled tones. This “gentleman's library,” inspired by the silk paisley drapery whose panels glow in peacock blue and gold, features a distinctive campaign desk with a tooled leather inlaid top. Faux-finished walls of teal suede draw one's eyes toward the ceiling, transformed with a mottled metallic faux finish.

“The metallic ceiling adds a little bling to the room,” notes Mary Claire Ricucci of Heatherstone Faux, Inc., responsible for the faux finish of the office as well as for a small upstairs hallway, whose theme is “Peace on Earth.” Of special interest is a “green" product she uses in the hall, Jadecor, new to the U.S., whose cotton fibers come from Egypt and do not “off" gas - that is they do not emit any toxic gas.

Lauren Russell and Mary Quayle of Russell & Mackenna, a Severna Park company specializing in handmade painted wood furniture whose signature piece is the hall “wave" table, have designed an upstairs den/living room entitled “Seven Starfish Swimming.” After seeing this room painted in a virtual rainbow of blue pastels, sherbet green, and melon yellow, visitors may never again paint a room in just one color. Mary comments, “Colors make you feel good; they're fun and happy.”

While touring the Christmas House, visitors should not overlook the halls, where they can find impressive art work such as the watercolor paintings of Severna Park artist Bill Jaeger, whose work is noted for its sparkle and clarity of color, filled with rich pigments and strong contrasts. Forty of his original works are on display - including florals and still life, landscapes and waterscapes, and scenes from Annapolis.

The beauty of Jaeger's landscapes points to the rural setting of Springhill's Christmas House, enhanced by the work of Quayle & Company of Severna Park. Hal Quayle, a landscape architect for almost 30 years, and Cathy Tengwall designed the brick entryway and patio, complete with sweet bay magnolias and weeping English yews.

The artistry, the expertise, the knowledge, the training that all these designers bring to Springhill's Christmas House clearly underscores the principle that “beauty from order springs.”

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