All Is Bold . . . All Is Bright

D.C. Home's Vibrant Colors Take Holiday Cheer to a New Level

To see it from the street, Heidi and John Scanlon's Georgetown house, which sits atop a small hill, looks like many others in their neighborhood. It's old (about 100 years), it's traditional and it has a painted brick exterior with glossy black shutters and doors.

But a step inside reveals something completely out of the ordinary: an interior style described by a family friend as "Lilly Pulitzer on steroids."

On the first floor, the living room walls are painted tangerine; the furniture is covered in fabrics drenched in fuchsia. The dining room walls are raspberry; gold curtain panels hang across the French doors. The adjacent kitchen walls are lime green. And it all works.

"When my kids see this, they see cheery," says Heidi, who started a design business this year. "It sets the tone. It's a nice way to start the day." The interior is especially cheery this time of year, when the house gets dressed, if you can believe it, in even more color.

Heidi, John and their children, 16-year-old Anna and 11-year-old Andrew, found their home in 1999 after living in London for 3 1/2 years. Before London, they lived in Alexandria's Del Ray neighborhood. "We loved it," Heidi says, "but once we lived in London we were bitten by the urban bug."

When they bought the Georgetown house, it was vacant, overgrown and in disrepair, but they recognized its potential. The bonus: It's the only free-standing house on the block.

They renovated before moving in, building a three-story addition on the back that resulted in an upstairs master bedroom, a main-level dining room and a basement playroom. A second, smaller phase began five years later to add custom built-in bookshelves throughout the house.

But this time, things didn't go exactly as planned.

While vacationing in the Cayman Islands that summer as work was being done on the house, the Scanlons received news: A fire had caused significant damage to the third floor, much of the second floor and basement and most of the existing plaster. They had been enjoying breakfast at the hotel when a teary-eyed concierge informed them what had happened.

With the children looking to their parents for clues on how to react, John and Heidi decided it wasn't time to get upset. "We love our house, but our family is what's important; that's what matters," Heidi says. "So we talked about it, said the things that we were thankful for, then went to the beach."

When they returned home, they had to move out for nine months. "Our holiday motto now is 'Bring the chestnuts, but hold the open fire,' " she jokes.

Today, the renovations are mostly complete and life is back to normal. But normal for the Scanlons is a household that bustles with a constantly revolving door that welcomes friends, neighbors and passersby. "The location of this house in particular is very conducive to people stopping by," Heidi says. "It's like Grand Central all the time. It's hilarious."