HOUSE TOUR | Inside Megan Hopp’s Virginia Home

foreign [Music] you're watching homeworthy where we believe every home has a story like And subscribe for more hi homeworthy I'm Megan and welcome to my Alexandria Virginia home come on in [Music] my name is Megan hot Patel and I am an interior designer and founder of Megan hop design we work on residential spaces here in the Washington DC area in New York City and all over the country virtually foreign [Music] I have always loved interior design for as far back as I can remember my first sort of entry point into the design world was definitely through garage sailing I grew up in California where the weather was pretty good most of the year which meant year-round garage sales and every Saturday I would get my little Ziploc bag of one dollar bills ready and wake up at 6 a.m so we would be first to the sale and I bought an eight piece dining set when I was 13 years old and luckily my parents let me store it in the garage until I was in college and had a use for it so I was constantly you know redesigning and recalibrating my bedroom as much as I could but obviously you know had not a lot of financial means to do so so second hand things were absolutely at the start of my design journey I am still a garage sale lover estate sale lover thrift store lover while you beautiful curated antiques are you know wonderful and enticing nothing beats a two dollar find um so you know I am in my happiest place when I am in a thrift shop or at a garage sale I live in Alexandria Virginia which is a town um just outside of Washington DC sort of a DC suburb uh but it's a really old town with a lot of beautiful historical architecture a lot of history um sort of a tourist destination in and of itself I came here sort of uh on a whim during the pandemic Peak pandemic you know when uh people who were living in New York City were sort of scrambling to figure out where to go and what to do my husband and I were living in a 600 square foot apartment in Brooklyn and the only door in the entire apartment was to the bathroom and so when we had to get on a video chat or whatnot you know one of us would be sitting on the toilet and the other would be in the living room um so that wasn't very tenable um and we were looking for places to land um and once it became clear that we didn't need to be in commuting distance at least for a while of the city we decided to come to Alexandria where we had a good group of friends there was a lot more space you could get you know more for your money frankly um and it felt like a good place to be uh you know fast forward the pandemic was still going on we got married we had a baby and it felt like let's extend our stay and maybe even buy a house so we ended up purchasing a home in the same neighborhood as some of our really good friends it's a colonial style townhouse but it was built in the 60s so it's old but not super old and it's a lot bigger than say you know a house built in 1750 so for modern kind of functional purposes um it has that perk as well I participated in a Bravo design competition show a few years back called best room wins um I never really expected to be competing on television so that was definitely something that I was going into you know really green and not knowing what to expect I will say you know my main commentary about the experience when asked about it is like how real is it how real is it to be on a Bravo reality show and truly they were like here's your rental car you have four days go you know it was I expected so much more manipulation behind the scenes and set up um and it was a true competition so um but I had a really really positive experience um you know a wonderful crew and producer and the family that I was designing for like couldn't have you know received sort of like better teammates in that regard um it was really intense it was pretty stressful um I was proud of the space I did glad I won um but I don't see myself competing on television in the future welcome to my foyer it's not huge but I've never had a foyer before so it feels like a lot to me um the sort of inspiration or starting point for this space in particular was of course the wallpaper um that's really the starting point for every space I design but I felt like it was also the starting point for the entire home um I knew I wanted to do something really graphic I knew I wanted to do blue and white because I love blue and white and I knew I wanted to do something stripy because that is also a favorite thing so um I found this wallpaper it's a grass cloth it's not a classic stripe you know it has a little bit of a mix up with the vertical and the horizontal lines um but it really was kind of the first decision I made in the entire space and I sort of took it from there um you know with that when I first moved in it was like dark dark dark dark dark dark dark so it was a black door it was like a dark slate floor and so I just knew I wanted to like brighten everything up um there's not a ton of natural light in this little Nook right here the floor is you know sort of a Standard Tile very classic not hard to find um but because of that you know I was able to sort of source it at kind of a big box store for a really reasonable price as to something more expensive um but the impact I think is huge because before it was sort of just this like dark pit that one fell into and now you walk in and it's this really bright Pop um and then it also really lets the wallpaper do its thing it doesn't compete with that um you know there's not a ton of space for furniture in here but you know a nice little Nook for a console and a mirror somewhere to you know drop your keys drop your stuff look at your face you know before you exit uh the house um this console has kind of a fun story it's just an old CB2 piece um but it's something that I bought uh for a former client back in New York like I don't know eight years ago or something like that um and she ended up becoming a really good friend and she moved to a different space and she was like hey do you want this console I know you've always really liked it and it's not available anymore and so she helped me carry it like you know 15 blocks from her apartment to mine um and it's just like a really nice reminder of her um so yeah that's sort of the foyer and we can kind of head on over to the left into the kitchen so the reality of my home buying journey is that uh there was some drama along the way uh we had agreed to purchase a home through a private sale that was another home in the neighborhood uh while I was pregnant um and about four days before I went into labor um the seller pulled out and we were in a position where all of our stuff had already been packed and was in storage I'm smiling about it now but at the time you can imagine it was incredibly stressful and hardly ideal so we were in a total state of flux but also just trying to focus on like having a healthy child and you know getting through that but pretty much immediately after we started hitting up open houses again so my son's like first sort of social interactions were all with Realtors and going to open houses uh you know within the first week of his life essentially um so as this house in the same neighborhood became available we just jumped on the opportunity to see it as fast as we could and the sellers were just really awesome people who kind of you know weren't looking to squeeze every last thing out of us and just wanted to make a fair deal and were able to you know sort of sell it to us rather quickly and the house was in great shape they took beautiful care of it it wasn't my aesthetic in terms of the design decisions that they had made but I could appreciate how well the maintenance had been and I could just instantly visualize how quickly and easily I could kind of you know shift The Narrative of the home and from a design perspective and so you know it was it was an opportunity that we couldn't pass up [Music] um as you can see here we just stepped through a baby gate when you live in a townhouse with a toddler you invest you know half your life savings in baby gates you need them at every turn so you will notice a lot of those in the home you know right here I have something that's kind of fun it's a menu from the night my husband and I got engaged my husband is not really the most uh surprise oriented uh you know kind of celebratory in a Cheesy kind of way sort of person so I thought that I had a very clear understanding of how our engagement was going down I kind of thought we like already were engaged um but he surprised me with this like whole trip and our friends flew in and our family um it was it was it was amazing so um you know it's a cool memory and then right below it is where we put our mail so you know practical and a nice memory the kitchen was maybe my greatest challenge but also feels like my greatest Triumph in the redesign of this home um I knew it wasn't in the budget by any means to just like start from scratch do a gut run out Etc um I also personally don't love super modern kitchens like my dream kitchen is from like 1935 and has like built-ins Galore and tile countertops and it's just like really Charming um this kitchen was like a super bizarre mix of old and new um you know they had done the new granite countertops and stainless appliances um but you know original cabinets from 1969. um so it was just very disjointed uh to me and just you know had a lot of fixtures that I was not a fan of um so I sort of landed on what I knew I could could do and could afford which was like paint and wallpaper and lighting primarily um so I decided to kind of try and make all the gray in the space with the backsplash tile and the countertops feel less gray and more grayish you know a little warmer um a little more creamy uh so it felt less harsh less sterile um so the cabinets used to be a really stark white I painted them a much kind of softer warmer color it's called French canvas it's from Benjamin Moore I had them professionally painted like real deal sand them down off-site you know spray them and that made all the difference so it was definitely an investment but uh you know versus me kind of you know roller and paintbrush which I have done many times don't get me wrong also a good way to go uh but this was something I was excited to do and I think they turned out great and I kind of love that they're original um swap the hardware original hinges though I thought those were cute um and then oh the other thing I didn't hear that I felt very proud of myself for thinking up was this Hood so this was not original when we moved in um there was this hyper modern stainless glass Hood above the stove that just looked absurd frankly um it just was so out of place uh not my style at all um but I didn't want to like spend the money and also just kind of like throw the baby with out with the bath water or however you say it um on a perfectly good working Hood so I was able to kind of um work with my contractor and Carpenter to build around the existing hood and create this sort of facade that matches the cabinets to create something you know much prettier much more seamless I think it looks like it's original to the cabinets was so happy with how it came out um and then you know it's sort of a small kitchen but again coming from like my past life of New York City living it feels like pretty enormous to me that I can you know walk from one side of the room to the other um we even have space in here for a small kitchen dining table which feels like straight out of a sitcom to me and I really enjoy this is one of the actually this is the first piece of furniture I bought off of Facebook Marketplace in the Washington DC area so this will always hold a special place in my heart um I got it for 50 bucks it's really cool because it has this sort of enamel table top and this actually lifts up and then it has leaves that pull out and so you can make it even bigger so yeah I've used it as a desk I'm using it as a breakfast table you know you could use it for a lot of things um I think it's really Charming really love it chairs I got at Goodwill for like three bucks each you know can't go wrong there um and these are my most favorite bamboo shades that I recommend to like everyone on the internet and many of my clients um you can get them on overstock.com and they are wildly affordable and you can order them by the inch and I think that they they look great they come down super easy no cords um and that is my ringing endorsement for my favorite bamboo shades I get asked a lot what my personal design aesthetic is and it always feels like a very challenging question to answer but what I've landed on is a sophisticated circus um I really like to try and use as much pattern and color as possible I don't shy away from that I like to mix a lot of new and old things a lot of really interesting shapes and textures but I never want anything to feel thematic or like a joke so you know I like to take things just to the line of feeling you know like super bold and and really leaning into design decisions without it becoming kind of you know silly or over the top leaving the kitchen we are in the dining area um this is one of I think the cooler pieces in the house this was another thrift store find found at the Salvation Army um it was a monster to attempt to get out of the Salvation Army and into my home but well worth the effort I would say um you know I was looking at pieces like this online you know these sort of more curated vintage sites and they were going for well over a thousand dollars and um I got this for 200 so I feel really good about that um but it's it's really nice because it's able to house my milk glass collection um and for those of you who are not familiar with milk glass this is milk glass it's white glass um very mid-century most of this actually comes from my grandmother who's since passed um she was like the best woman in the world to me um and you know every year she would kind of like give me a piece or two uh and I never had anywhere to put it so it was sort of always like tucked away or living at my parents house in California um so it was really cool to move into a space that like had somewhere to put a piece like this to put things on display um and then just like layered in or other things that I found at either thrift stores or you know or gifts um this was another piece for my family yeah and I think it's just sort of this really makes me feel like a grown-up I'm like oh here are the the nice pieces you know so um so that's been really fun moving into the dining area again like the running theme is like never thought I'd have a dining table you know um so let alone one with an extension that you could uh you know sit like eight to ten people at you know I wasn't really sure initially kind of what type of piece I wanted to do here um I had one of these dining chairs right here which are these caned chairs um you can get them you know sort of several different vendors a very iconic style um which I had been using as a desk chair for a really long time in previous apartments and I loved it and they're super comfortable I use them in client projects all the time too uh so I was like okay well I want to use what I have that's like a big kind of sort of philosophy I would say I live by is like well how can we make what we have work you know um as opposed to just starting from scratch so um I actually kind of started with the dining chairs um and then I just love a sort of like faux bamboo Chippendale torticey like all of those things you know that kind of mid-century style is is something that I'm really attracted to uh so I found this table second hand um this was more of an antique kind of thing so it wasn't a super good deal but it was like way more affordable than buying something new um and I just you know I love to buy second hand um and then I was able to kind of you know round out the end chairs or at least right now and chair right here um with this piece that's an old Restoration Hardware chair but also again running theme got it second hand um and then you know over here is where my son sits so he's at the head of the table in his high chair for now um but yeah I mean it's it's kind of amazing we have dinner here every night I love that it's sort of like in and out of the kitchen with ease it feels you know not too formal but also like an event um and that's the dining space and then all in the same room we move into our living area um and the kind of designed theme or sort of goal within this home and within this room specifically was that I wanted it to feel in line with the architecture of the home I didn't want to come in and like kind of just ignore what was happening around me and design a space that was just you know coming out of my brain without paying attention to my surroundings a lot of my work for clients is a bit more modern but you know this home is a colonial style home and I didn't ever really imagine myself living in a colonial style home but here I am so let's embrace it um so I wanted to create a space that felt like colorful and Lively and pattern forward but not fighting against you know the real skeleton of the home again I started with the wallpaper I am a real fan of a block print that is something that I uh I'm always attracted to in terms of you know aesthetic and pattern um and so I was like okay we're gonna do that space in here but because all the rooms are kind of connected to one another I knew that everything had to play really nicely in terms of all the different patterns I was using so you know there's one point in the home where I think you can see like four different wallpapers all in one spot um so you know I I had already selected the entry wallpaper this one was kind of selected on top of that and then if you look up we have the grass cloth ceiling which turned out to be by far one of the best decisions I made in sort of the redesign of this space um I think it makes the home feel like just so much Cozier and it creates this sort of like architectural feature and element without actually having to like add any architecture you know it wasn't the easiest to install I say that like I did it myself I did not a professional did it but it just like turned out so so wonderful I think and it's something that like people comment on when they come to visit as you know just something they would never think to do but they think is so cool the lighting in this space I would say is something that I really kind of splurged on uh with furniture and decor you know I could really go second hand a lot of the time but with lighting I had some fixtures in mind that were pieces I had used you know time and time again with clients and just like had in the back of my heart as something that I so wanted to use in my own home but could never really justify the price on in rentals prior um these lights right here it's called The Clark flush mount they are just like some of my absolute favorites uh they just look like a golden egg to me you know and who doesn't like a golden egg so uh you know I was really excited to kind of put those up uh there wasn't any Lighting in the ceiling here initially so I think that was a really nice kind of addition to the space as well this little table and chairs right here uh now used by my son initially was used by me and generations prior it was actually built by my great great grandfather for my great-grandmother when she was a little girl um and you know has just been passed down through each generation um I feel like really lucky that my mom is quite good at sort of saving everything and sending it my way um and so you know it's just been fun to watch him sit in the same chair that like so many people have sat in Prior um and you know I think it also was like from a design perspective you know a lot more interesting and Charming than say like you know just something plasticky that you would just grab you know off the internet or something so I'm really happy to have that in the home um and then moving over here to the fireplace area we decided we did not want to put a TV in this room and just kind of like contain our TV watching to like one you know full-on space um so you know went for a piece of art above the fireplace instead um this is a print that I've used in like the last three homes uh that I have lived in I think art is very complicated in terms of size and scale and price and it's something that I deal with with clients all the time um you know teeny tiny art is usually not the solution for a lot of spaces when it comes to you know building an interior but it's a hard nut to crack because you know I'm certainly not going to be spending five thousand dollars on a piece of art uh so I'm a big fan of framing uh like posters or you know sort of uh inexpensive prints um and that that's what this is so this is essentially you know like an artist photograph and it's it's just a poster the framing costs more than the print itself um but you know ultimately I think you're left with like a really nice looking piece that feels like very thoughtful and customized um but for a fraction of the price and then as we move over here this is our sort of bar area this bar cabinet is cool because it's on Wheels so you can kind of fully roll it around and the back is completely finished and then the top of the bar opens up so essentially you can turn it into like a working bar in your home if you want to like you know really create the experience um but this was a piece uh that I got at an outlet store of a major retailer and the doors had become unattached so it was sort of in pieces so we were able to get it you know for not very much and then our friend who's very handy uh helped put the doors back on as sort of a you know very lovely gesture um so you know again like in case it hasn't you know come across like the theme of my personality is kind of you know trying to turn garbage into gold and make it work and you know uh kind of a little bit of Labor goes a long long way and then as we move into here uh you know I want to talk about like this window and mention these curtains because these curtains are kind of I think like the eyes of the space um they are you know window treatments can be so wildly expensive and complicated and they're really hard to do right um and I was looking for solutions to have like what I think is a really substantial you know which I I feel like I achieved with this drapery look um but you know do it in a clever way do it in a way where you know I wasn't spending half my budget on my window treatments um and I came across a company called pepper home which is an online retailer where you can order custom curtains and pillows and things like that um you know for a lot less than if you were using a more traditional service and you can you know sort of customize the top so I did a pinch pleat at the top I added this sort of velvet border tape right here and then you know this is not a standard length that these curtains need to be but I could order them so that they were like absolutely perfect just us the floor always want your curtains to just dust the floor um and I just think they turned out so great um and I I you know I'm just such a fan when asked what I love most about my home you know there are a lot of things uh but I will say what comes to mind immediately is the fact that we can fit a king-sized bed and an enormous dresser in our bedroom which was just something that never even felt in the question uh in Brooklyn or New York um you know just that the sheer square footage just feels enormous and something that I really hadn't even considered you know when we left New York City it wasn't really planned and it wasn't really something we had you know foreseen in the near future um so when all of a sudden you're considering a living situation where you can fit a you know legitimate dining table and you have more than one toilet in your home and you know Suburban living um it's just a level of sort of like comfort and ease that uh I can't say that I hate so as we head upstairs you know same wallpaper as the foyer I think it's just like so Dynamic going up the stairs with these super high ceilings again it has the nice grass cloth texture um so let's head on up foreign [Music] and coming into the primary bedroom um you know here's that king-sized bed I was mentioning which I am a big believer in um you know some people say like I'll sleep when I die I'm like no I will sleep right now um as much as you can with a toddler uh but so having a big nice bed is very important to me and it's you know just brings me so much joy um and also with that uh you know larger nightstands with actual storage and you know these are all just things that um I I just never would have had in a smaller New York City Apartment that have been really like a lovely thing especially in pandemic times where you're you know living your whole life at your home um also speaking of big uh this dresser right here was a secondhand find from Restoration Hardware and it is like the biggest dresser I've ever owned it's the most storage I've ever had um and it was very very difficult to get upstairs but we found some movers who were just like absolute superheroes and they were so skilled and so strong um and they did it and it was like such a Triumph um so I'm grateful to them every day when I put something in the drawer um this is uh one of my favorite Decor pieces uh I have a few of these lamps they're sort of these vintage Alabaster lamps um again like not so hard to find but they sell for you know like a considerable amount of money um but you can find them at thrift stores or garage sales Etc so you know got this one for like ten dollars um and I just think that like it's so beautiful and and I really love kind of collecting them so in terms of the color palette of this space um I really wanted it to feel light and Airy and kind of you know spa-like in a way not that I'm like going to spas or anything in my life but um you know I wanted my my space to feel you know really uh sort of free and and and and and crisp as opposed to something more traumatic or more dense um but I really didn't want it to be like boring sterile white on white on white on white um so I kind of landed on this like sagey green Ivory sort of combination um and again you know the wallpaper uh was a really good starting point for this space um it's sort of textured um it really kind of creates a different sound quality in the room because of that um and I think it's you know it's like neutral but it's like a colorful pattern neutral um which you know I think is really the way to go and then I could kind of bring the Green in you know obviously with these really nice velvet drapes they're very like rich and textured um also from pepper home you know they just obviously like do wonders for the windows um you know same bamboo shades that I love as always um and then you know just sort of Pops of green with the pillows and um you know other little Accents in the space this piece of art is an illustration of the restaurant Joseph Leonard in the West Village and it is where I have had many exciting moments in my life but also it's where my husband and I had our first date um so he gave that to me as a gift and it's just nice to have a little piece of like the old neighborhood in in the home as well as um you know obviously like sort of a pivotal memory in my life I guess so now we're gonna head all the way down to the basement uh to check out the den slash office so follow me okay so moving into the basement we're also sort of moving into another decade an era um the rest of the home has really traditional sort of finishes and Architectural details like crown molding um dental molding Etc this room did not sort of much more streamlined much more kind of indicative of a cookie cutter mid-century build um and so I wanted to kind of you know again follow the architecture the other component of that is that my husband loves mid-century modern design I uh you know as lovely as this chair is it's not my my go-to but I did really want to create a space that honored that for him and this is uh you know sort of the hangout area of the home we also have a designated workspace in this room um and so I really thought that it was a great opportunity to kind of do my version of like a mid-century wood paneled basement so obviously kind of the most striking thing in the room would be the walls uh and you know sort of part of the ceiling here um this is a wood veneer wall covering so it is actually wood um but it does go up kind of like a wallpaper I think it is one of the coolest things I've ever seen uh it's something that I had had a sample of for a really long time and had pitched to a lot of different clients it's from a company called Tebow and you know everybody was always like nah I don't know that seems a little weird that seems a little crazy um and I was like of course it's going to be me who gets to use it uh-huh so you know I think that it really you know just brightened the space so much while also creating something that was just like super stylized really special and unique um and I love it in this room we really wanted it to be like super family friendly really cozy um I re-carpeted the entire space uh and did all furniture that like a child could throw their body on and you know seemingly not injure themselves um this is a sofa that I use with clients often it is a slipcover sofa machine washable super easy to maintain so you know people will always ask me like you got a white couch with a kid like what are you thinking you know but I also love the aesthetic of a white couch and there is nothing that can achieve that other than an actual white couch so I I think a washable slip cover is by far you know sort of the smartest way to go um and it's a sofa that is sort of tried and true in my book you know I'd used it many times and I knew what I was getting so I was excited to kind of implement that into my own home so then moving over here um this is sort of the miracle of white paint the wall and the fireplace were untouched when we moved in so it was sort of this like dark wood dark gray painted walls red brick fireplace I heard someone once say like everyone has this preconceived notion that you need to be really precious about brick and like brick from the 60s is not really something to feel bad about painting um so you know definitely went with that kind of mentality and you know threw some paint on top of it and it just like completely changed the lighting in this space we do get pretty good natural light in this room because it is on the ground floor uh but you know it was just like a dark Cavern before and now you know it feels really sunny and like a really nice place to be and hang out and then as I come this way there was sort of this perfect little Nook to set up a nice workstation um this is sort of a line of furniture from Crate and Barrel that again you know I'm familiar with from my work and it's something that I knew I would like and knew I did like um and it just so happened to be like the perfect width for the space so it feels almost custom but it's not it's great and Barrel um so you know this is a great workspace and it's also nice living in a townhouse you can kind of be on very different floors and not hear each other so much um but you're also you know right next to the windows so you get really good natural light as well so you know coming up with how to lay out this space really did stem from the fact that I wanted to put the desk area into this defined Nook so The Dominoes sort of fell um after that decision was made uh I knew I didn't want to put my TV above the fireplace just for practical reasons and I don't know it just didn't feel like the right thing to do um so you know the question was sort of which wall do I put it on we could put it on this wall uh which is how the previous owners had it um but I decided I wanted to kind of float my sofa in the middle of the room facing this wall with the back to the fireplace which maybe isn't the most kind of like logical thing one would initially think to do but I like that it defines the space as sort of this is the den seating area that is the workspace um and the fireplace kind of feels like it lives in both worlds um and it is a working fireplace uh so you know if and when we want to do fire as we can home to me means a place that you have ownership of and that you feel most yourself in you know ideally we walk out into the world and we have the ability to kind of keep this through line of who we are and what we stand for and um you know have a consistency in how comfortable we are but the reality is is that you got a lot of obstacles thrown your way as you sort of like move through the world and I think coming home is a safe space that you can create that's just really representative of you that really caters to your preferences and your needs um and that can just kind of like give you that sigh of relief and that place to you know be the real purest form of yourself thanks for watching for more homeworthy content be sure to like And subscribe

Channel: Homeworthy

Views: 81,783

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Id: 3fuBw7cIix8

Length: 40min 8sec (2408 seconds)

Published: Sun May 07 2023