Inside Homes - Holiday 2015

HOME LIFE Real Estate News and Open House I Inside Homes and My Washington

7SYXLIVR 'SQJSVX [MXL E 1SHIVR 8[MWX Public relations executive Gloria Dittus embellishes her stately Kalorama residence with luxurious classics, fine antiques and hand-picked contemporary art.

BY VIRGINIA COYNE PHOTOGRAPHS BY TONY POWELL

HOME LIFE | INSIDE HOMES

hirteen years ago, Gloria Dittus was sitting on the elegant staircase of a house once owned by the late Sol Linowitz, a former chairman of Xerox and diplomat who helped negotiate the Panama Canal treaties during the Carter Administration, when the real estate agent showing her the property casually mentioned that the marble floor in the foyer would soon be “shined up to look like it’s brand new.”

“At that moment, I knew I had to buy the house,” Dittus remembers. “It’s beautiful marble, it has a great patina and they were going to ruin it! I didn’t want them to touch it.”

Another draw was the home’s size. She was looking for a place that would accommodate her frequent entertaining, and her Georgetown residence didn’t fit the bill. Here, she would have room to host on a larger scale.“I’ve done parties for 300,” she says, “I’ve done intimate parties for six and you can really do anything in between.”

Dittus, founder of the communications firm Story Partners and a philanthropist who underwrites Ford’s Theatre’s Lincoln Medal, regularly organizes salon dinners for clients, throws a bash for female journalists ahead of the White House Correspondents’ dinner and has hosted book parties for the likes of Walter Isaacson and war correspondent Kimberly Dozier.

To furnish the house, the Augusta, Ga. native enlisted interior designer David Mitchell, who helped balance her love of color and eye for art with the need to create an open, airy space with flow to accommodate guests. The result, Mitchell says, is “very calm, very ethereal with just the right mix of comfort and sophistication.”

In the living room, Mitchell chose fabric in neutral shades and patterns for the overstuffed R. Jones sofas and Cameron Collection club chairs. He also brought in a large landscape painting by California artist Wade Hoefer to anchor one side of the room.

Hoefer’s piece notwithstanding, the majority of the art

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OPENING PAGE Gloria Dittus stands before her Christmas tree in the living room while her dog Coco Chanel sits atop one of a pair of antique Biedermeier chairs upholsterd in Belgium matelasse from Bergamo.

PREVIOUS PAGE (clockwise from top left): Black and white marble floors and a round mahogany Marston Luce table shine in the entrance hall. Above the console is David Horouni’s “Cajun King,” a gift from coworkers. A gilded Dennis and Lean mirror is centered above the fireplace in the living room and and a rare Russian antique chair in on the right. Opposite the fireplace, a Wade Hoefer landscape anchors the sitting area. In the dining room, a canvas

by Roman Zaslonov is placed above an art deco cabinet Dittus found in Paris. The sconces and chandelier are from Holly Hunt.

THIS PAGE (clockwise from top left): Penguin figurines, also purchased in Paris, set a holiday scene beneath a Ron Ehlrich painting in the dining room. The second floor library, also known as “the red room” features custom red leather chairs and an ottoman from R. Jones. A four-poster Niermann Weeks bed stuns in the master bedroom. The Swedish chaise at the foot of the bed is from Lief in Los Angeles and the side tables are Dennis and Leen.

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hanging on the walls was handpicked by Dittus herself at galleries and auctions and during trips around the world.

The fireplace is surrounded by a collection of photographs depicting stone carvings on bridges in NewYork’s Central Park, a grouping she picked up at a Georgetown gallery. On another wall is a colorful abstract painting by Ron Ehlrich, the first of three pieces she owns by the artist. She found the original at an off-the-beaten-path gallery in New York but left it there while she did some renovations to the house. Afterwards, Dittus received several calls from the gallery owner inquiring if she still wanted the work as the director of a prominent museum of American art was interested in it, too.

In the foyer, the marble floors remain as she bought them. Above a console table is a colorful painting by New Orleans artist David Harouni, whose gallery she stumbled into many years ago just days after it opened. Harouni went on to win critical acclaim and the price for his originals has risen accordingly. This particular piece,“Cajun King” was a gift from her co-workers for what she calls a recent “iconic birthday.”

“I’ve always felt it was the spirit of the house,” Mitchell says of the painting.

The dining room features a custom mahogany table with several leaves from the English company Arthur Brett and antique Swedish chairs upholstered in a pale aqua linen. But the piece de resistance is the colorful Roman Zaslonov canvas — the first painting she ever bought — above the sideboard.

It depicts several scenes of Botticelli-esque women getting dressed in lavish gowns.

It was my first trip to Paris,” Dittus recalls. “I was in a taxi and saw a painting in the window of a gallery that I thought was the most beautiful piece of art I’ve ever seen, but knew I’d never see it again because I had no idea where I was.” As luck would have it, her car stopped a few doors down from the gallery; her hotel was on the same street. After being told by the gallery owner that all the works on display had been sold, he agreed to ask the Minsk-born Zaslonov to create a piece for Dittus. She pointed to all the paintings in the gallery she was drawn to, left a down payment of $5,000 and walked out wondering if she’d ever see her money again. A few months later, a crate arrived at her office. When she opened the box,

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she saw one large canvas with multiple squares depicting every single painting she had pointed to in the gallery that day. She’d gotten her wish and more.

Upstairs, the master bedroom features a Niermann Weeks mahogany four-poster bed, another Ron Ehrlich painting and fabrics she picked out on a trip to India.

Dittus turned the two other rooms on the second floor into personal space, leaving the guest rooms for the third floor. Across the hall from her bedroom and dressing room are a home gym and a stunning library, which she calls “the red room” because she and Mitchell lined it with mahogany bookcases and furnished it with custom-made red leather chairs and an ottoman from R. Jones with a Syrian chess board Dittus acquired in her travels on top. They’re “the most beautiful … they’re prized,” she says of Syrian game boards. Does she play? Yes, with whomever she can talk into it, says Dittus.

“It is so chic,” Mitchell says of the house.“All the furnishings are traditionally based but all the artwork is modern. It’s so Gloria! She likes the comfort of tradition but she is a very modern women.”

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