The homeowner is apparently a big sci-fan, and actually had a logo designed for this home—a rocket ship. Did you work with him in creating this personal logo?

SE: No, he did that on his own. We had the logo put on all the towels and things like that. Again, this client likes to have fun—he doesn’t take himself seriously.

The great room looks as if it were a stage set for a movie—it’s extremely large and encompasses numerous activity areas or vignettes. Yet you made this huge space incredibly intimate.

GW: What you can’t see in the images of the great room is the flat-screen TV hanging on the wall.

SE: You can see it from the end of the hall and the kitchen. The big sofa faces that TV. It’s all very casual. The palm tree was in and of itself a whole story. I thought we could find a big tree in Washington, D.C., but we couldn’t. We called some sources in New York and had the tree brought into New York. So for the big party two nights after the installation was finished, we had the tree brought in from there. It took six people to carry the tree into the house.

GW: Because of the kind of use the room was going to get, the fabrics we used are indoor-outdoor fabric.

SE: Yes, you can sit down in your wet bathing suit and it’s not going to hurt anything. Since the homeowner entertains a lot, he’s big on durability—he’s big on things that will take abuse. And he’s probably the most abusive one of all, more so than his guests.

Let’s move into the theater: This is minimalism at its best, yet it’s warm and cozy, too.

SE: He started out with a wild-looking carpet with popcorn and film reels, but were able to back him out of that. The home theater is located in the basement, so I thought that kind of pattern would be a little overwhelming in a closed-off space. We kept the look fun with polka-dot carpeting and polka-dot pillows. And we covered the all of the walls in a neutral Ultrasuede.

Instead of doing the obvious—you know, movie posters and all of that—I said: “Let’s just back it down a little bit and calm it all down.” So that’s how that evolved. Our client listens to us. This is his first home theater, but he’s had technology in his home before—he had a huge flat-screen TV in the other house.

The wall sconces are delightful, and they add the perfect touch of glamor.

GW: They’re made out of acrylic but they look like clear crystal balls in the shape of a half-sphere.

And the throw pillows and the sectional on the back row—I assume these are custom?

SE: Each end of the sectional has a chaise and tables dubbed in on each end. The client also has a place to put his drink—small tables that slide under the base of the sofa. You can’t see them, but they’re there. They cantilever over the seats so  ou can basically set your glass on it.

For being such a contemporary home, there aren’t that many flat-screen TVs. Did the client consciously decide to sequester all TV- and movie-watching activities to the home theater?

SE: Actually, there are flat-screen TVs in every bedroom, in the bathroom ... there are quite few that you can’t see in the photographs. The two guest room TVs are kind of hidden, but that’s just because they’re part of the whole closet system.

Please discuss the TV treatment in the bedroom with the chalkboard-like back wall—I assume this is the master suite. Any reason why this TV is right out in the open?

SE: Actually, all of the televisions in the home are left out in the open, except those in the two guest rooms.

GW: That back wall is a real chalkboard. You can write things on it and then erase it and write something else.

Do you have a particular rule of them when it comes to incorporating a flat-screen television into a carefully orchestrated room?

SE: More and more, we just leave them exposed. We sometimes put a frame around them so you don’t see the bump out. As far as hiding them—you know people used to hide those big televisions in big armoires—we just leave them exposed because 99 percent of the time, clients leave the armoire cabinet door open for the convenience of it. You can flip on the remote a lot easier than having to walk over and open the cabinet and then flip on the remote. It’s really kind of rare for us to hide flat-screen televisions anymore.

GW: There are a lot of used armoires on the market because everyone’s buying flat-screen TVs. They’re good-looking, too.  You don’t need the cabinet anymore.

What’s the biggest or most important thing you’ve learned about incorporating a flat-screen television into a carefully designed space?

SE: One thing I learned in my own home is that you can put a very large screen in a cabinet right at the end of the bed. My bedroom is not that large, but the audio people talked me into putting in a 60-inch flat-screen TV—and it’s probably not more than 5 feet from the headboard to the end of my bed. I thought watching that TV would be like sitting on the front row of a movie theater—and it would be horrible—but I really love it.

I’m so used to it, in fact, that when I’m traveling and I’m staying in a hotel, I feel like I’m watching a postage stamp when I try to watch the hotel’s little TV.  These days, I think you can go a lot larger with televisions than you realize—the pictures are so clear. It’s not at all like watching the TVs of years ago. 

So yes, more than anything, I’ve learned that you don’t have to be afraid of going bigger with flat screens. I have never dreamed that I would have a TV that big in my bedroom.

GW: Today, with all the Lutron and Crestron systems, you can have as much or as little control as you want of almost anything in the house—from draperies to the lighting. In today’s projects, we do a lot of motorized window coverings.

SE: The owner has this home on the market. He’s ready to sell and we’re ready to design another home. So we’re excited about that. The home has an extensive audio system and it has all the bells and whistles and the gadgets.

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The 4-bedroom, 5.5-bath home is listed for $7.9 million by Liz Lavette Shorb at Washington Fine Properties (wfp.com, 202.243.1629).