A Toy Designer Turns a Glover Park Home Into a Kid-Friendly, Colorful Escape
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Chloe Varelidi is the CEO and founder of Follies, a layout-oriented line of children’s toys, as well as the founder of Human beings Who Engage in, a layout studio that focuses on perform, training, and technological know-how.
She lives with her spouse, Francesco, and her two little ones, Nefeli and Leonidas, in a a few-bedroom, a few-tub, modern day-model Glover Park property.
The few purchased the dwelling about a yr ago, and have been updating the location with a relaxed, Scandinavian-influenced feel. Since Varelidi has been a engage in designer for over a decade—and was an architect in advance of that—it makes perception that her house has lots of colorful, whimsical touches.
Right here, we talk to Varelidi about creating a area for young children, generating her own artwork, and her preferred property splurges.
What was your inspiration for the home’s aesthetic?
“The house made use of to be rented to the Finnish Embassy, and it experienced a minor little bit of a Scandinavian ’80s vibe to it. I wanted to retain the cleanse lines of the home, but (unsurprisingly for a play designer, I guess) also incorporate playfulness and coloration. Mainly because shade can overwhelm the equilibrium in a property, I approached this vision place by place. For instance, I realized that the kitchen area is 1 of our family’s most well-known rooms, and I preferred it to really feel thoroughly clean even when it is messy. I did this by picking out white and pink neutrals for the performing surfaces and cupboards, but also incorporating main pops of colour like yellows and reds on the partitions so that it feels inviting and inclusive for our two youthful kiddos.”
What is the most significant splurge you’ve acquired for your home?
“Our couch was definitely a single of our greatest splurges. I contact it our ‘Covid splurge,’ mainly because after dwelling in a little condominium with two younger kiddos and a small sofa that was visibly pretty made use of by stated kiddos all through Covid, we had been prepared for something that was large, at ease, and straightforward to clear. We also fell in appreciate with the colour, as we needed our living place to echo some of our Mediterranean summers with olive, sand, and blue tones.”
What’s your favourite portion of the dwelling?
“I appreciate hanging out upcoming to the home windows in our living area it’s my tiny nook where by I can catch up on e-mails or browse immediately after a extensive working day and take pleasure in a glass of wine with my partner. It is also in which I have all of my most loved art—some lithographs from Greek artists.”
What was the best offer you have received on an merchandise for your household?
“We moved around Thanksgiving, so we received lots of of our appliances by means of Black Friday discounts.”
Any DIYs in the residence that you’re specially happy of?
“I made a few personalized art parts for our dining space that I’m proud of. I needed a thing for the walls which is playful, but also a little bit sculptural and can change if we get bored of it. This piece functions like a puzzle, and you can rearrange it each time you truly feel like a modify. It attributes acrylic and wood, so it also has an exquisite, modern-day presence to it.”
How did you go about planning the kids’ area? Did you operate with them on the style and design?
“My little ones share a room, and we had promised them when we moved that they would get a bunk mattress. So the space is fairly much intended around that piece of home furniture. It has a attractive window on the lookout into the yard, so I wished to spotlight that with wallpaper. The young children selected the wallpaper layout, and it’s a good way to frame the window and incorporate playfulness and a minor little bit of depth to the room.”
“My possess target with their space was to increase play and floor house, so we did some perform to have as substantially designed-in storage as possible, as well as functional home furnishings that can be employed for textbooks, toys, and exhibiting their artwork. There are, of training course, a lot of Follies pieces in their room, much too.”
What is your beloved merchandise in your household?
“The pink tiger armchair in our bed room. It just provides me so much joy to wake up and glance at it each day, even when it is included with apparel (considerably to my husband’s dismay).”
What is your preferred matter to do in your home?
“I enjoy cooking or participating in with the youngsters in our kitchen area.”
Who would your major a few desire visitors be for a supper occasion at your home?
“It’s tricky to choose just 3! I‘d say Frida Kahlo, who inspired my most up-to-date Follies established, my grandmother Maria, who raised me to go just after my goals, and Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard, who is pioneering a new route for business owners to do company whilst also doing fantastic.”
House & Characteristics Editor
Mimi Montgomery joined Washingtonian in 2018. She’s penned for The Washington Post, Yard & Gun, Outside Magazine, Washington Town Paper, DCist, and PoPVille. Originally from North Carolina, she now life in Del Ray.