This Virginia Apartment Makeover Proves Good Things Come In Small Packages

Much like a chrysalis becomes a butterfly, Charlottesville, Virginia-based designer J.P. Horton has a habit of transforming the seemingly mundane into the enchantingly beautiful. Case in point: his former one-bedroom rental apartment, which sat in a converted hay loft in Charlottesville. “I found it on Craigslist and swooped it up as quickly as I could,” he recalls. “It was kind of the perfect countryside getaway from work, and the owners had just renovated.”

It did, however, leave a bit to be desired for the designer, a fervent classicist who shared the 850-square-foot home with his Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, Barnaby. Interiors were “typical inexpensive, new-build construction: gray LVT floors, gray walls, no window treatments,” Horton recalls. “I wasn't allowed to paint, but I was allowed to hang art and swap out the lights if I was able to put the old lights back.”

Horton quickly set about doing just that, switching out fixtures, arranging his carefully curated art finds, and using grosgrain ribbon to illuminate the architecture in a room without moldings. “If we use fabric on walls as decorators... oftentimes we'll put ribbon on the edges to help hide seams and give more of a finished edge,” Horton says. “And I thought, ‘Well, that's kind of an inexpensive, easy way to give some visual interest.’”

Due to the lack of architectural detail and grayness of the space, Horton—who has his own fabric and wallpaper collections—also leaned into the whimsical when hanging his collection of art. “I did that Mario Buatta trick where I hung things with fancy trim and bows,” he said, noting that he often sources from Scalamandré’s clearance website. He also crafted a welcoming color palette with various shades of green, which pair beautifully with cloud gray and summoned the pastoral landscapes beyond the home.

Read on for more smart decorating ideas that prove where there’s a will, there’s a way. 

Inviting Living Room

The skirted central table “softens the room,” the designer says. Horton found the tablecloth from Afghanistan in a Beverly Hills antique shop when he was living in L.A. “It’s a hand-blocked print that I now actually reproduce; it’s part of my fabric line in three different colors,” he says. He worked with Rush House to create an oversized grass rug for the enormous space (nearly a 20’ square). “It’s modular, so if one square gets ruined, I can replace that piece,” he says. 

Cozy Bedroom

Horton’s antique quilt is from Circa, a Charlottesville consignment shop. “It was in great condition and has a really modern feel to it with that sage-y, gray green,” he says. He added the mirrors to give the bedroom the illusion of more space and reflect light from the room’s sole window. At his bedside: an architectural model of a rotunda. “I use it to house all the books I'm reading,” he says. 

Pretty China Closet

“Anyone who knows me knows I'm obsessed with Wedgwood... Jasperware particularly, but also bone china,” says Horton, who has amassed an impressive collection over the years, much of which he stored in this china closet. “The apartment did come with a very large pantry—and who needs food when you have pretty china?” Flanking the doorway are family photos from his mother and father’s side, all housed in bow-accented frames he scored in Orange County. 

Handsome Hutch

Horsehair plaster swirls—the tops of ionic columns—are from Black Dog Salvage in Roanoke. “They save a bunch of old architectural elements from buildings being demolished,” he says. The wallpaper panel is from Virginia’s Paul Montgomery.