SECOND CHANCE

With a little imagination and a lot of hard work, a new chapter unfolds for a dilapidated D.C. rowhouse—and its owner, Meaghan Rose Smith.

“Itwas a mess,” Meaghan Rose Smith says, laughing, when describing her 1909 Federal-style brick rowhouse in Washington D.C. “Plants were growing through the brick walls and 2x4s were holding up the kitchen ceiling. Years of neglect had sadly left the house deteriorated, but as soon as I walked in, I began imagining what it could be.”

Meaghan first came to Washington to work on Capitol Hill as a Press Secretary and Communications Director in the U.S. House of Representatives, the Senate, and the Obama Administration. With that high-powered resume, renovating a dilapidated rowhouse should be a walk in the park, right? After all, like any political affair, a renovation takes patience, strategy, and plenty of smarts.

“A quote that has always stuck with me is, Politics is a strong and slow boring of hard boards. I think the same can be true for interior design and certainly any big renovation project,” she says. “People see the big transformation but behind the scenes is a series of small, continual, incremental steps that finally leads to progress.”

Here, the steps led to a gut renovation. Meaghan says it came down to building a new house within the existing brick walls. “Through sharing the process of my renovation, friends started asking me for help with their projects. It organically grew to me creating my business,” she says. “The common thread in my career has always been storytelling. Interior design is about so much more than a beautiful room. I see design as telling someone’s story and the most important moments of their daily lives through their physical spaces. The ability to help bring to life someone’s hopes and dreams for how they want their most important spaces to live and work is an incredible privilege.”

1. Though the architecture of a rowhouse doesn't allow for an open floor plan, Meaghan still created cohesive flow. “There was an existing smaller arch in the entryway of the original floorplan, and I knew that element had to be preserved,” she shares. Doors got the perfect finishing touch thanks to Emtek hardware. 2. “The inherent challenge with rowhomes is that by design there are only two ends of the building for light entry versus the typical four, so they can be dark,” Meaghan explains. “To maximize light, we blew out the back wall, adding French doors with matte black hardware for a more modern touch and painting the brick for added texture.” The sconces are Cedar & Moss and the hardware is Rejuvenation, both Portlandbased companies and a nod to Meaghan's hometown. 3. “I think every home deserves to have a stand-out moody, sexy ‘night room.' This is my version of that while still maintaining a cohesive, airy vibe throughout the main floor.” The builtin bench maximizes seating and space, and the styling is simple, with vintage cane chairs and a bleached wood table. The candlesticks are vintage Waterford crystal and belonged to Meaghan's mother. 4. “Despite the limited footprint, I wanted this to be a dream bathroom, and the view from the bedroom to be beautiful whether the doors were closed or open,” Meaghan shares. “Subway tile is what you would find in a house of this era, and subway and penny tile are some of the most costeffective choices available. When executed well and paired with Carrera marble and polished nickel accents, the effect is a simple elegant look.”