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In Silver Spring, the ‘anti-McMansion’ In an era of open-plan living, beige-and-gray color schemes and master bathrooms the size of Verizon Center, Chantal Courieut and Mike Fletcher opted for color and small-scale rooms in their 1938 Silver Spring Cape Cod.
Mike Fletcher and Chantal Courieut in the basement of their Silver Spring home, which they renovated to eke out TV and play space for their son, Teofan, 14.
Marvin Joseph
/
The Washington Post
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The basement of Chantal Courieut and Mike Fletcher's Silver Spring Cape is decorated in warm colors and comfortable leather furniture.
Marvin Joseph
/
The Washington Post
The living room was a garage before Fletcher and Courieut incorporated the space into the house. It now has a double-height gabled ceiling paneled with wood, the height giving the illusion of a larger room.
Marvin Joseph
/
The Washington Post
Decorated ceramic eggs add color to a bowl in the living room. Fletcher and Courieut's nine-year renovation odyssey encompassed an eclectic collection of folk art, paintings, large French armoires and often fanciful sculptures.
Marvin Joseph
/
The Washington Post
Courieut and Fletcher describe a 12-by-15-foot extension to the living room as their “petit salon,” where the gable runs in the opposite direction to the living room and is also paneled. Fletcher did a lot of the work himself — jackhammering the garage slab to make way for footers and a new slab, tiling floors, drywalling and paneling.
Marvin Joseph
/
The Washington Post
Courieut and Fletcher took the 1938 Silver Spring Cape Cod they bought it in 2002 and splashed saturated color — marigold, sienna, brilliant blue — everywhere.
Marvin Joseph
/
The Washington Post
There are comfy sofas and love seats all over the house, but nothing on the Restoration Hardware scale that dominates renovation aesthetics.
Marvin Joseph
/
The Washington Post
The living room that was once a garage. The old living room is now the dining room, and the old dining room is the breakfast room. "No one around here puts their car in the garage anyway," Mike Fletcher says. "They use the garage for storage."
Marvin Joseph
/
The Washington Post
The entrance was moved in the remodeled living room. Chantal Courieut is unapologetic about her insistence on a "closed plan" layout. "I make rooms to be rooms; I want a living room to be a living room."
Marvin Joseph
/
The Washington Post
The 12-by-12-foot breakfast room features blue walls and a stepped array of enamel coffeepots on one side. The table is an old Norman farm table.
Marvin Joseph
/
The Washington Post
Chantal Courieut and Mike Fletcher have 23 enameled coffeepots displayed around the breakfast room. The sun-drenched color palette of the main living level reflects not Courieut’s days in "gray, gray Normandy" but years of living in apartments owned by others.
Marvin Joseph
/
The Washington Post
Mike Fletcher and Chantal Courieut's son, Teofan, has the largest room in the house -- the gabled attic space, which is all navy blue and red, and modern Ikea furniture.
Marvin Joseph
/
The Washington Post
Teofan Fletcher's attic room is painted a bright blue and features Ikea furniture.
Marvin Joseph
/
The Washington Post
Teofan Fletcher's bedroom includes a ceiling fan and Ikea furniture. When it came time to add electrical wiring to the new spaces that Mike Fletcher and Chantal Courieut created and to upgrade the rest of the house, Fletcher took the course offered by Montgomery County. "You study the electrical code," he said, "and if you pass the [county's Homeowners Electrical Exam], a homeowner can get a permit to do their own electrical work."
Marvin Joseph
/
The Washington Post
Teofan Fletcher's bathroom features the bright, contrasting colors present throughout the house in other hues.
Marvin Joseph
/
The Washington Post
The house has two sunrooms, and Chantal Courieut and Mike Fletcher have placed throughout it an eclectic collection of folk art, paintings, large French armoires and often fanciful sculptures.
Marvin Joseph
/
The Washington Post
The formal dining room was once the house's living room. There is a breakfast room; Chantal Courieut says that having two rooms for meals allows her to have two antique farm tables.
Marvin Joseph
/
The Washington Post
The formal dining room reflects how Mike Fletcher and Chantal Courieut have filled the house with color. The Cape Cod is the first free-standing house either has lived in since they were kids.
Marvin Joseph
/
The Washington Post
FEATURED PHOTO GALLERIES
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Dozens of bodybuilders came out to Silver Spring to compete in the 2013 Musclemania Capital Tournament of Champions.
Animal views
Fun and fascinating creatures around the world.
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Section:/realestate
![Teofan Fletcher's bedroom includes a ceiling fan and Ikea furniture. When it came time to add electrical wiring to the new spaces that Mike Fletcher and Chantal Courieut created and to upgrade the rest of the house, Fletcher took the course offered by Montgomery County. 'You study the electrical code,' he said, 'and if you pass the [county's Homeowners Electrical Exam], a homeowner can get a permit to do their own electrical work.'](/rf/image_606w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2012/01/30/Others/Images/2012-01-30/Inhabit4017C_1327955340.jpg)
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