Great Room

A street lined with villa homes in the Harford County community of Bulle Rock appears unremarkable, with exteriors that at a glance appear pretty much alike. It is only upon closer look that Bulle Rock residents' personalities shine through gardens, flags and lawn adornments. At Valerie Matricciani's villa home, the front yard is a botanical feast for the senses and, visitors soon realize, a mere taste of what's to come beyond the door. The walk leading to her home is lined with dwarf bushes, impatiens, large coleus plants and a gracefully blooming crepe myrtle.

This year's Baltimore Symphony Decorators' Show House offers not only a look at the latest interior design trends but also a peek into the Timonium home of quarterback great Johnny Unitas. Unitas lived in the five-bedroom house on Timonium Road from 1971, when the he led the Colts to an AFC title match against the Miami Dolphins, until 1988, when he moved to a farm in northern Baltimore County. Unitas died in 2002. His widow, Sandy; daughter, Paige; and son, Chad, and other members of his family, will cut the ribbon to open the show house on April 28, giving visitors the chance see rooms decorated by some of the region's premier designers.

Even though residential spaces seem to be getting ever smaller, individual rooms in the home are actually getting larger.These days, it's not unusual to see food preparation, dining, TV watching and family relaxation all being performed in what's known as the "great room." But no matter how large this sort of space may be, the various activities do need to be confined to certain areas, with adequate sound and sight control, in order for such a room to function properly.This is one instance when the art of space planning can be adapted to a residential setting.

Situated in the city's Bolton Hill neighborhood is a relatively new development of brick townhouses solidly placed among the late Victorian and early-20th-century structures that once housed the likes of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Woodrow Wilson and, more recently, pianist Leon Fleisher. This little enclave within an enclave is called Lions Park Fountains. The two-story houses hug the periphery of an open, brick-paved courtyard with benches and fountains. Large statues of lions guard the entrance to the 1980 development.

Our new home has a great room consisting of three family-oriented areas: for cooking, eating and watching television. We moved all our old kitchen, dining and living room furniture into this large space, but it looks awkward and disorganized. The floor is made entirely of Wood, and the walls are all painted white. Can you suggest how to make our great room look great -- without adding partitions? I suspect that the style of your furniture may be more formal than what's appropriate for an inherently informal space.

If the courtyard that greets visitors to Denny and Cindi Mather's beach home in Fenwick Island, Del., looks like the entrance to a motel, that's because it once was. The walled courtyard with foliage, fountain and an arched wrought-iron gate that opens to the road was there when the couple purchased the Sea Charm Motel and the property it sat on in 2008. They purchased the former motel with the intent to tear it down and build their dream home. Since they wanted to build a home larger than what would have been permitted on a vacant commercial lot, they had to keep part of the motel to satisfy the variances.

THE TRADITIONAL living room, one of the last bastions of formality in American homes, is headed for extinction, industry experts say, the victim of changing demographics and lifestyles. Whereas 30 years ago most homes had a formal living room set aside for entertaining, that space has yielded to light-filled great rooms, larger kitchens and other spaces that are more informal and conducive to entertaining, or which better fit the modern homeowners' needs. "People think the living room is too formal and a waste of space," says Gopal Ahluwalia, vice president for research with the National Association of Home Builders in Washington.

When they decided to build a home two decades ago, Alfred and Marilyn Biegel had a few requirements in mind. "We wanted an open great room, so that it is open for entertaining and gives you space," said Al Biegel, a retired Army colonel. "We'd lived overseas and I liked so many of the old European chalets, so I wanted a pitched roof," Marilyn Biegel said. They wanted lots of built-ins and convenient, expansive storage for the china, glassware and books they'd accumulated. Their contemporary home, tucked into a hillside on Columbia's largest residential lot, has a cathedral ceiling that soars more than two stories high over a living room, dining area and kitchen that flow together.

Joe Graziose and his family have recently moved into their fourth home at the same location — the Ritz-Carlton Residences along Baltimore's Inner Harbor. "We've tested locations on all fronts of the building," he said. "Our last unit overlooked Federal Hill. " It is not that the Grazioses are fickle or hard to please. On the contrary. As senior vice president of RXR Realty, developers of the Ritz-Carlton Residences in Baltimore, as well as one of its investors, Graziose has always opened his and wife Jackie's home to prospective buyers looking for a unit in the upscale complex.

Jeffrey and Janet Plum are bona fide Anglophiles, though both were born thousands of miles from the shores of Shakespeare's "scepter'd isle. " Wearing their love for all things British like a badge of honor — or like the full suit of armor displayed in their marbled-floored reception area — there would be no doubt about the architectural design of their custom-built home in northeast Baltimore County. "We got a magazine with Tudor-style drawings," said Jeffrey Plum, a 59-year-old attorney who met his wife, Janet, when they were both working at Baltimore's Center Stage . "We fell in love with one of the designs, ordered the plans and put out bids for a general contractor.

Driving the back roads that hug the periphery of Maryland's shoreline, there is no singular characteristic that defines the homes. The ones that date back to summer-only retreats are usually one-story clapboard structures with the give-away air conditioning unit in a window or two. Some are two-story, farmhouse styles. Many are built with their backs to the Chesapeake Bay or its tributaries. While many of this style remain, there is a new kind of construction on the block: multistory, year-round homes, with the back of the home boasting sheets of glass in a variety of casements that frame the major attraction: the water.

A Colonial-style house on a secluded peaceful lot in Baltimore County's Applewood community recently sold for $1,699,000, a full $100,000 more than its asking price. The reasoning on the buyer's part was clear to Ginny Coleman of Krauss Real Property Brokerage, the listing agency. "This is Ruxton," she said, matter-of-factly, identifying a well-kept, wooded neighborhood know for its gracious homes. "The house sold in nine days. " "The Pratt Avenue property was both a very special house and a very special location," noted the buyer's agent, Karen Hubble Bisbee with Coldwell Banker.

When Neil Saval and his wife closed on a single-family home in Federal Hill, his first purchase wasn't a piece of contemporary art or a plush sofa - it was a Panasonic 60-inch flat-screen television. "The day I settled on the house, the installers were delivering the new TV," the 29-year-old system engineer said. "My wife jokes with me that before we had any furniture, we had to get the TV. " As the NFL playoffs, Super Bowl and Hollywood awards shows - not to mention "Downton Abbey" - draw millions of viewers, big-screen televisions are getting bigger and better and more in demand.

Lynn and Scott Wegner are used to people telling them theirs is the most unusual home in the Towson neighborhood of Chartleigh. They agree wholeheartedly, even as they enjoy the multiple renovations they have made since purchasing 1950s split-level back in 1993. On a street lined with old trees, rancher-style homes and more split-levels, the Wegners have completely changed their home's exterior with the addition of another level, dark tan HardiePlank lap siding and, most dramatically — a wrap-around, covered porch, its roof supported by white columns.

When Sue Schwartzman first walked through her newly built single-family home in Owings Mills, she carried four paint samples from room to room. All Duron colors, their names — Mystic Green, Viola Satin, Prestige Purple and Violet Kohl — got her creative juices flowing. "All of these four colors and [their] values are throughout the house," she noted, producing the original swatches she worked from 17 years ago when she and her husband, Ron, bought the home. The 2,300-square-foot, one-story unattached condominium is one of 62 in the gated community of Weston, a development that is virtually maintenance-free and, as Sue Schwartzman is quick to point out, "has pools, tennis courts, a two-car garage, and is within walking distance to shopping [with]

Maura Iacoboni always admired her friend's home, a two-story Colonial-style structure in Timonium in Baltimore County. Little wonder, then, that when the home was put on the market earlier this year, she jumped on it. "It always looked happy to me; it feels like home," she said, having moved in with her husband, three of her four sons and two dogs this past April. "It is a great family house. I think the boys and their friends always knew this, that they can always come here to hang out. " Indeed there is hangout room and much more in the 3,500-square-foot home built in 1978 on a hilly half-acre lot with a backyard full of crape myrtles.

What began four years ago as an idea for a small weekend retreat soon morphed into plans for a full-time, lodge-style homestead where Kip Fulks, one of the founding partners in Under Armour sports apparel, and his wife, Beth, could find permanent refuge. "We wanted to build a house where we could grow old together," said Kip Fulks, the 39-year-old senior vice president of outdoor and innovation for Under Armour. "[So] we had to build a home that would be exciting to wake up to every day. " Susan Major, owner of the Hestia Design Group in Columbia, was a key player in the house's story from the very beginning, as the Fulks admired her work and took her on board as decorator and adviser.

The fascinating thing about the Carroll County bilevel home of Corynne Courpas and her husband, Scott Markle, is its dual personality. From the street, their home looks exactly as it did in 1977. It is only at the front door that the home expands, with rooms growing on and out. This is no typical bilevel interior. "This is a split-foyer on steroids," Scott Markle says, greeting his visitor. "Come on up!" A sunroom, a great room with cathedral ceilings and a spacious master bedroom are some of the features that make the home unusual.

It seems that no multi-million dollar house is complete these days without a wet bar, and the home that recently sold on Ivy Reach Court in Cockeysville is no exception. Here at the Real Estate Wonk, we're into our second month of featuring some of the most expensive homes sold each month in the Baltimore area, and being the sleuths we are, we noticed this recurring theme. (A wet bar is one that comes with a sink and running water.) Check out the pictures to see the one at this house.

Hanging on the wall of Mike and Jean Tumbarello's new retreat at Deep Creek Lake is an old framed greeting card with a primitive drawing of a brown log cabin nestled among trees aglow with autumn colors. The scene is rendered in crayon with a sentiment that reads, in part: "Jean, here's our cottage in the country. I wish I were in it with you right now. …" "The card was sent before we married — probably 1974, when we were dating in college, when you actually had to use snail mail," Jean Tumbarello recalled.