“We wanted a nice home but a home that was warm and family-friendly,” says Jean-Marie Fernandez as she sits in her kitchen and watches her three-year-old son race his scooter on the wood floor.

The flooring is reclaimed Russian white oak, which was fumed—a finishing process that gave it a patina. “People always comment on the floor,” she says. “It was supposed to look aged and beaten up. It’s great with kids. The more dings and scratches, the better.”

Jean-Marie and her husband, Raul Fernandez—he’s chair of ObjectVideo and a co-owner of the Washington Capitals, Wizards, and Mystics—spent two years designing and then two years building their Potomac home, where they live with their three children.

The eight-bedroom, 13-bath house is very large—22,000 square feet plus 2,000 more for the poolhouse—but textured fabrics, soothing colors, sunlit rooms, and family photos give it an unstuffy feel. No room is grand in size; even the two-story foyer, with its castlelike wooden front door and Jerusalem Gold marble, feels intimate and welcoming.

“We’re attracted to French style, but this is more Normandy, less formal,” says Jean-Marie. “Raul is not a formal person, and neither am I.”

Resources

Architect: Anthony “Ankie” Barnes, Barnes Vanze Architects, DC

Builder: Gibson Builders, DC. Project manager: Larry Graham

Interior designer: José Solis, Solis Betancourt, DC

Iron railings and ironwork: Patrick Cardine, Cardine Studios, Bealeton, Va.

Wood floors: Classic Floor Designs, DC

Woodwork finishing: Valley Craftsmen, Baltimore

Landscape architect: DCA Landscape Architects, DC 

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