Alana Woerpelloves creating elegant rooms in fine old houses for clients who expect the best.
One of the Charlottesville-based decorator’s unsung talents, though, is recognizing beauty in overlooked places.
Her family’s soulfulweekend cottageon the Virginia side of the Potomac River is one of them.
Credit: Laurey W. Glenn; Styling: Elly Poston Cooper
The previous owners had lived in the house year-round for decades, enduring bitter winters.
They’d stuffed newspapers in every crevice.
“It made me tired even thinking about it,” Woerpel says of the 1,300-square foot house.
Credit: Laurey W. Glenn; Styling: Elly Poston Cooper
“But as I sat and looked at the water, a calm came over me.
“In doing that, we often lose that connection to the original intent of a house.”
“Nothing’s ever perfect,” she says.
Credit: Laurey W. Glenn; Styling: Elly Poston Cooper
“Just dive in.
There’s a way to throw things together that’s stylish and comfortable without getting overly complicated.”
“My spray-painted thrift store acquisitions didn’t look so charming anymore,” Woerpel recalls.
They were all stacked in the basement along with some very 1970s pieces Kurt had inherited from his mother.
The trick to making it all work cohesively was to slipcover everything in white or a neutral.
The other trick was to be relentless in the use ofwhite paint on walls and floors.
The result is a series of radiantly decorated and eminently useful rooms.
They also love Sandy Point’s vibrant small-town setting enfolded by nature.
“It’s like going back to Mayberry or some forgotten time,” Woerpel says.
“There’s no place to shop.
It becomes all about the water.
You pull inner tubes with kids on them all along and across the beach.
People kayak and canoe, fish and crab, go sailing.
We have a small, crummy boat, but it’s great for going up and down the river.
“Sometimes I have to pinch myself,” Woerpel says.
Credit: Laurey W. Glenn
“When we are out here, I think, the sunrise can’t be this beautiful.
That can’t be a fishing boat silhouetted at just the right moment.
Those can’t be bald eagles diving for fish.
Credit: Laurey W. Glenn; Styling: Elly Poston Cooper
It’s so hard for me to believe our house sat here empty and unwanted for years.”
Rather than refinishing the floors on the main level, she economized bypainting them ivory.
“I bought eight of them for $300,” Alana says.
Credit: Laurey W. Glenn; Styling: Elly Poston Cooper
“They already had aqua vinyl on the seatsgreat for wet bathing suits.
When you pull a cord, both sides go up like an opera curtain.”
Sew-And-Go Carpet
Small seagrass squares from World Market form a wall-to-wall carpet over a linoleum floor.
The green ceiling and rows of hand-crank jalousie windows are original to the home.
Credit: Laurey W. Glenn; Styling: Elly Poston Cooper
