Drive Georgetown Pike through Great Falls and most of the houses are set far back among the trees, on lots of an acre or more. Debbi Porter Interiors is an interior design studio based in Northern Virginia that works with Great Falls homeowners on everything from one room to a whole house. To start, book a complimentary discovery call by phone or Zoom and tell us about your house and what isn't working yet.
Estate houses from the 1970s to the 1990s
A large share of Great Falls was built between about 1970 and the late 1990s. You can usually tell the decade from the foyer. Two-story entries, curved staircases, a formal living room to the left of the door and a formal dining room to the right, a family room off the kitchen where everyone actually ends up. The construction in many of these houses is solid. What dates them is the finish layer: oak trim and cabinetry gone orange, brass light fixtures, wall-to-wall carpet, heavy swagged window treatments.
Most owners don't need to gut anything. A refresh that changes the lighting, the paint, the window treatments and the furniture plan can make a 1985 house feel like it was designed for the way you live now. Where the kitchen or a bath needs more, we make the selections and drawings for your contractor and stay with the design while they build. Here's more on how we handle kitchen, bath and small remodel selections.
Light through the trees
Great Falls light is filtered light. With mature woods on every side, rooms that face the trees can feel green and dim in summer and open up in winter once the leaves drop. That changes how we choose color. Cool grays that look crisp in a south-facing condo can go flat and cold here, while warmer whites, soft greens and colors with a little earth in them hold up through the seasons.
We always look at a Great Falls room at more than one time of day before choosing paint and fabric. Large windows facing the woods are part of why people buy here, so we keep window treatments working for privacy at night without covering the view during the day. Layered lighting matters even more than usual, because the sun sets early behind the trees and the house needs to glow from the inside.
- Paint tested on the wall, in morning and late afternoon light
- Window treatments that stack off the glass when open
- Table and floor lamps on dimmers so evenings feel warm, not dark
- Fabrics with texture, which read well in softer light
Planning a project in Great Falls? Start with a complimentary discovery call.
The formal living room nobody sits in
Almost every Great Falls house from this era has one: a beautiful formal living room off the foyer that gets used twice a year. We'd rather give that room a job. It might become a library with deep chairs and good reading lamps, a music room around a piano, a quiet room for a spouse who works from home, or a cocktail room that makes sense before dinner in the dining room across the hall.
The trick is to keep the room's dressier character, since it's the first thing guests see, while making it comfortable enough that you'll walk into it on a Tuesday. In fashion terms, it's the difference between a suit that only comes out for weddings and one that's tailored well enough to wear to dinner. If you'd like to see how we handle rooms built for company, browse our entertaining areas.
Outdoor rooms and the land around the house
Lots in Great Falls are large, and the outdoors is a big part of daily life here, from Great Falls Park and Riverbend Park on the river to the concerts on the green at the Great Falls Village Centre. Inside the house, we want the rooms that open to the terrace or the screened porch to feel connected to what's outside. That means continuing a color from the living room onto outdoor cushions, choosing outdoor furniture with the same care as indoor pieces and lighting the terrace so it's usable after dark.
We design the furnishings and the styling of outdoor living spaces. If you're adding a porch, a pool house or an outdoor kitchen, we'll work with your builder or landscape contractor on selections, while they handle the construction.
