The Richmond Symphony Orchestra League’s designer house event runs through mid-October. Photos by Brandy Brubaker.
The biggest fundraiser of the year for one local nonprofit is about to kick off in style.
The Richmond Symphony Orchestra League is hosting its latest designer house event featuring a newly built, 4,877-square-foot home in the Hallsley community in Midlothian.
The biennial event chooses a home in the area – typically a large, higher-end home – and enlists designers to redecorate in the hopes of attracting crowds that will pay to tour the property. The money goes toward supporting the Richmond Symphony.
This year’s house at 1718 Brightwalton Court – which opens for daily tours beginning Monday – was constructed by Bel Arbor Builders. Its interior and an extra 1,866 square feet of patio and deck space were decorated by more than 20 local designers.
The last RSOL designer house, in 2012, was Pinifer Park, a Midlothian home built in 1910. The event was the most successful in the 30-year history of the fundraiser. More than 8,000 people toured the home and gave about $200,000.
“We’re expecting to surpass that with this house,” said Maresa Spangler, publicity chair of the RSOL designer house program.
Jennifer Stoner designed the home’s living room.
The Hallsley property is only the second newly built RSOL designer house. The event typically is held at historic homes, like Pinifer Park or Rothesay, a 1913-built mansion near Carytown.
An RSOL committee chooses each designer house. Joe Hill, president of Bel Arbor Builders, previously hosted the designer house in his own home more than a decade ago. The committee reached out to him when it decided to consider a new house for this year’s event.
Hill said hosts are not paid for offering their homes for the event.
He said this year’s house features a modern twist on the late 19th-century shingle exterior style and is reminiscent of homes in Nantucket and Cape Cod, Mass.
Bel Arbor has already lined up a buyer for the house. Hill declined to say how much it will sell for, but he said he’s building a similar house in Hallsley that will list for $1.4 million.
The homebuyer can decide how much of the designer house style he or she would like to keep when the event closes. Furnishings are available for sale to the public as well on a first-come, first-serve basis.
Designers set their own budgets for the rooms they’re selected to decorate and finance the projects out of their own pockets, sometimes borrowing furniture or accessories from retailers or private collections. For example, local shirt company Ledbury lent clothes to fill one of the closets.
Deirdre Millen of Down the Garden Path said the upstairs porch her company turned into a lounge area with evergreen dogwoods cost less than $10,000 to design.
Jennifer Stoner designed the home’s living room with long purple and gold striped curtains, handmade furniture, a custom geode painting and decorative Cameroon Juju hats, woven headdresses that resemble flowers. She said the retail value of the décor would be about $60,000.
Stoner said participating in the designer house is a great form of marketing for her business.
“Some of my best and favorite clients came out of the show house,” she said. “It’s a chance for us to really show off everything we could do if we were let loose.”
The house is open for daily tours from Sept. 15 to Oct. 13. Tickets are available at the door or online at rsol.org for $20 a person. Advance tickets can be bought through Sunday at local Kroger stores for $15 each.
[soliloquy id=”66044″]
The Richmond Symphony Orchestra League’s designer house event runs through mid-October. Photos by Brandy Brubaker.
The biggest fundraiser of the year for one local nonprofit is about to kick off in style.
The Richmond Symphony Orchestra League is hosting its latest designer house event featuring a newly built, 4,877-square-foot home in the Hallsley community in Midlothian.
The biennial event chooses a home in the area – typically a large, higher-end home – and enlists designers to redecorate in the hopes of attracting crowds that will pay to tour the property. The money goes toward supporting the Richmond Symphony.
This year’s house at 1718 Brightwalton Court – which opens for daily tours beginning Monday – was constructed by Bel Arbor Builders. Its interior and an extra 1,866 square feet of patio and deck space were decorated by more than 20 local designers.
The last RSOL designer house, in 2012, was Pinifer Park, a Midlothian home built in 1910. The event was the most successful in the 30-year history of the fundraiser. More than 8,000 people toured the home and gave about $200,000.
“We’re expecting to surpass that with this house,” said Maresa Spangler, publicity chair of the RSOL designer house program.
Jennifer Stoner designed the home’s living room.
The Hallsley property is only the second newly built RSOL designer house. The event typically is held at historic homes, like Pinifer Park or Rothesay, a 1913-built mansion near Carytown.
An RSOL committee chooses each designer house. Joe Hill, president of Bel Arbor Builders, previously hosted the designer house in his own home more than a decade ago. The committee reached out to him when it decided to consider a new house for this year’s event.
Hill said hosts are not paid for offering their homes for the event.
He said this year’s house features a modern twist on the late 19th-century shingle exterior style and is reminiscent of homes in Nantucket and Cape Cod, Mass.
Bel Arbor has already lined up a buyer for the house. Hill declined to say how much it will sell for, but he said he’s building a similar house in Hallsley that will list for $1.4 million.
The homebuyer can decide how much of the designer house style he or she would like to keep when the event closes. Furnishings are available for sale to the public as well on a first-come, first-serve basis.
Designers set their own budgets for the rooms they’re selected to decorate and finance the projects out of their own pockets, sometimes borrowing furniture or accessories from retailers or private collections. For example, local shirt company Ledbury lent clothes to fill one of the closets.
Deirdre Millen of Down the Garden Path said the upstairs porch her company turned into a lounge area with evergreen dogwoods cost less than $10,000 to design.
Jennifer Stoner designed the home’s living room with long purple and gold striped curtains, handmade furniture, a custom geode painting and decorative Cameroon Juju hats, woven headdresses that resemble flowers. She said the retail value of the décor would be about $60,000.
Stoner said participating in the designer house is a great form of marketing for her business.
“Some of my best and favorite clients came out of the show house,” she said. “It’s a chance for us to really show off everything we could do if we were let loose.”
The house is open for daily tours from Sept. 15 to Oct. 13. Tickets are available at the door or online at rsol.org for $20 a person. Advance tickets can be bought through Sunday at local Kroger stores for $15 each.
[soliloquy id=”66044″]
What a beautiful house, inside & out. Kudos to all of my friends involved, especially Steve Dash, Owner of Method Organized, who handled the Pantry, Mud Room, and Utility Room; and Josh Goff, Owner of Commonwealth Curb Appeal, who did the Front Porch, Courtyard and adjacent entry.