French Provencal Estate

Location: Clifton, VA

The owners of this 13-acre estate wanted a French Country style home that would take full advantage of the heavily wooded site and feel like the turn-of-the-century manor houses and chateaux that dot the French countryside. Characteristics of French Provincal Architecture, including steeply pitched slate roofs, dormers with gabled windows, symmetrical and balanced proportions, and judicial use of stone and stucco are incorporated throughout. The design includes a living room, dining room, office, breakfast room, family room, and mud/laundry room on the first floor. A loggia that opens to the terraces and swimming pools is clearly the focal point. The second floor includes a master suite with separate sitting and dressing areas, two children’s bedrooms, a guest room with handicapped access and a large game room and play area. A tennis court, pool house, carriage house, gazebo and four-stall barn dot the landscape.

Upon entering the home, one is greeted by an informal foyer with a large stone fireplace. This magnificent feature opens to the loggia which draws you through the house to the pools and terraces outside. Stone was used for the loggia floor an in other key areas throughout the home to seamlessly integrate with the outdoors spaces. Structural timber frame brings warmth, scale and authenticity to the family room and pavilion while quarter-sawn white oak floors, custom ironwork and exquisite cabinetry and trim anchor the interior spaces.

While this magnificent home looks like a 19th century Chateaux, all conceivable smart technology has been incorporated and carefully hidden from sight. Seven miles of radiant floor tubing run throughout the home and motor court and roughly 40 miles of wire and cable distribute power and technology throughout the estate. In lieu of conventional light switches, LUI panels are on the walls in each room and a staggering 28 computers manage and run the electronics.

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