These United States

Designer Darryl Carter magically merges the past with the present in an elegant home fit for a lively young family.

- Camille Okhio

In Darryl Carter's world, there's always a distinct pulse thrumming beneath what immediately meets the eye. The Washington, D.C.-based interior designer and ELLE DECOR A-List Titan has spent the past few decades creating traditional spaces in untraditional ways. Recently, he collaborated with architect Anne Decker to design a home with character and historical context for a young family of five in Virginia. Decker introduced Carter to the homeowners in 2017 while constructing a Georgian Revival-style house for them, modeled on a 1920s copy of the 18th-century original. "A reinterpretation of a reinterpretation," Decker says. Over the span of two years, they created a functional home with one foot in the past and the other firmly planted in the present. "What I love about Darryl is how he mixes the old with the new," adds Decker.