River Retreat

Designer Darryl Savage crafts a whimsical refuge from a house his parents once owned

A winding drive through the verdant hills above the Severn River just outside Annapolis reveals 1920s bungalows, mid-century ramblers and '70s contemporaries. Yet, in this eclectic enclave of houses, one mod cottage -- with centuries-old Chinese stone sculptures standing sentry out front -- comes as a surprise. "My neighbors roll their eyes at me," acknowledges Darryl Savage, an interior designer and antiques dealer. "They watch everything, wondering what bizarre thing I am going to do next."

Savage, owner of DHS Designs in Queenstown, Md., didn't do that much after he bought the property four years ago from his parents, who had used it as a second home. He replaced the cedar shake roof with a standing seam metal version, converted the garage into a media room, installed a crushed gravel driveway and planted about 60 white "Annabelle" hydrangea bushes. Mostly, he polished the place to the point that it positively sparkles.

Beyond the nine-foot-high double French doors -- another addition of Savage's -- an interior dressed in black and white and filled with museum-quality curios awaits. Then there's the view: a glittering panorama of azure.

Though the drama quotient is high, this show house is also a home -- not only to Savage, but to his children -- Julie, 22, and David, 14 -- and two dogs. "I didn't want it to feel too austere, like you're sitting on a concrete bench in an art gallery somewhere," he says.

That's a tall order, considering the living room alone boasts four 18th-century statues from a French chateau, an ethereal 19th-century Murano glass chandelier and a gargantuan pair of three-foot-high Russian iron urns set atop fluted column pedestals. In another setting, these rather fantastic objects would be the stars. Here, though, the river view diverts, and the blanket of white furnishings delays, and maybe even mutes, the inevitable murmurs of appreciation.

The patina of the antiques warms up the space, as does the layering of textures and different shades of white. "I'm not a big color person," says Savage, who is dedicated to white but not married to any one hue. In the living room, a creamy cowhide rug lies atop the painted white floor helping to create an atmosphere that is clean and comfortable, not clinical.

Small amounts of black add drama "just to create some contrast and give it punch but not overwhelmingly," Savage explains. In the living room, a painted Greek key pattern decorates the floor, and black piping defines the window treatments and some of the upholstered pieces. In the master bedroom, a dark bronze metal screen complements a crisp white bed. And the serene porch gets some kick from a geometric black-white-and-gray inlaid marble floor.

Maintaining a similar color palette throughout allows Savage to bring in shots of color during the year (such as red for the holidays) and to rearrange rooms at will. "Part of the informality of the house is that all the spaces flow," he says. "I can bring the kitchen chairs to the living room or move the porch chairs out to the deck," which, he proudly notes, is about 100 feet long. Come summertime, the deck is where the self-professed "chaise lounger" can be found.

Despite his just-so proclivities -- every tabletop in his home is arranged as fastidiously as a still life -- it's easy to tell that Savage doesn't take it all too seriously. He laughs when asked if guests must take off their shoes to enter his white palace and takes almost as much pride in the living room's papier-mache hippo (he says it once belonged to irreverent publisher Bill Regardie) as the rarified European finds that he sells to design bigwigs such as Charlotte Moss, Bunny Williams and Tom Pheasant. The hippo was " in sad need of repair after somebody sat on it," reveals Savage, who adopted the poor creature and gave it a coat of -- what else? -- white paint.

"It is quite a mix," he says, surveying his domain. "It's kind of exotic. You'd never know you were just minutes from D.C., right?"

Alexa Yablonski is a frequent contributor to the Magazine. She can be reached at 20071@washpost.com.