Published in Washington Life Magazine. Article by Sherry Moeller.
Three thirty-something talents take on the town, one room at a time.
Jeff Akseizer and his French Bulldogs LuLu and Louie love to entertain in the living room of his renovated McLean, Va. home. He paired a hickory chair wingback with a Bolier & Co. sofa in rich warm colors and added a David Hicks patterned Stark rug, antique coffee table with 14-kt. gold trim and Carrera marble top, and rare coral for color and contrast. The built-ins around the fireplace, which is his favorite “accessory” in the house, are from his own ADG Millwork Shop in Boswell, Penn. Additional decor by Jamie Brown of Akseizer Design Group. Photo by Tony Powell.
With at least eight years in the interior design business, these three local professionals devote all their time and energy to creating spaces that speak to their clients, including themselves. Washington Life took a tour of Lori Graham’s, Kristin Peake’s and Jeff Akseizer’s homes to share what their clients already proclaim; they’re rising stars in the design industry.
JEFF AKSEIZER, 34: AKSEIZER DESIGN GROUP
Big City Pace
Having grown up on Long Island’s Gold Coast, “I have always been fascinated with the rush of ‘high’ design styles that came here from Europe between 1850 and 1940,” says Jeff Akseizer, who likes to visit places that have design voices from the past such as Newport, R.I. He even takes clients to Newport and plays travel agent so they can take in some of the design ideas that may become part of their own homes. “This town is filled with some of the most famous residential architectural works from McKim, Mead and White’s Isaac Bell House to Richard Morris Hunt’s The Breakers and interiors by Jules Allard and Ogden Codman Jr.,” Akseizer says.
While he approaches design with a clean, sophisticated palette, Akseizer loves all things old. He collects silver from the 1700 and 1800s and finds treasures at the Red Schoolhouse Antiques in Millwood, Va. where the proprietors ship in goods from Scotland. He also frequents John Rosselli, And Beige, Jean Pierre Antiques and Sixteen Fifty Nine. And he’s a big believer in lots of lighting. Besides his own custom line of lighting, Akseizer also likes Ochre, an online contemporary lighting and furnishings source. Clients are working at home more and often late at night so he’s installing more lights and designing more “flex” spaces, rooms that double as offices.
Influenced by Hollywood designers Dorothy Draper and William Haines from the past, today Akseizer is a fan of Kelly Hoppen, a British designer “who just knows the right balance and tonal flow of a space,” he says. “My personal design philosophy is to look at each room as a Hollywood set and create function and form, often times as an illusion, that my clients never thought was possible.”
See full article with photos here.