Retreat Center Transformed by Designers' Showcase

By Linda Busetti
HERALD Staff Writer
(From the issue of 5/16/02)

BETHESDA — Soft music from "The Secret Garden" drifts from the cantaloupe-colored "garden room" at Our Lady of Bethesda Retreat Center in Bethesda, Md., as interior designer Mathilda Cox displays yellow flowers, ferns, rose petals and tables used to make over one of the center’s austere rooms.

More than 20 Washington-area interior designers took on the challenge of decorating 24 of the retreat center’s rooms. A "before room," furnished with plain bed, simple desk and window blinds, shows what they had to work with. The result is The Center for Family Development’s 2002 Designers’ Showcase, which opened to the public May 13 and runs through May 26.

The show, themed "Bringing Beauty Back to Basics," provides imaginative and affordable ideas that can be implemented in any home. Designer rooms include a boys’ bedroom, breakfast nook, nursery, guest room, sitting room and children’s playroom.

A garden showcase, "Creative Tablescaping and a Potpourri of Accents," presents 14 dining tables set for festive entertaining in tropical, picnic and water garden motifs, among others. Members of District 4 of the National Capital Area Federation of Garden Clubs created the garden showcase display.

The Designers’ Showcase benefits the Center for Family Development, a non-profit organization under the direction of the Legionaries of Christ. Since 1993, the Center’s mission has been to strengthen families by helping them learn to love each other more completely. The CDF offers an intensive marriage preparation program, marriage enrichment seminars, father-son and mother-daughter activities, parenting workshops and a leadership program for boys and girls.

In addition to enjoying the garden room, visitors can imagine having breakfast from a wicker tray on the orange chaise in the guest bedroom Cox and Rina Yan designed. Down the hall is a breakfast nook, evidence of designer Taylor Wells’ love of antiques, featuring elegant table settings, white roses and striped curtains that were once shower curtains. A nautical theme was chosen by Kate Oliver and Jennifer Bendheim for a teenage boy’s bedroom.

Walking downstairs, visitors can enjoy Faux Happenings artist Anna Torre-Smith’s tranquil landscape on canvas, which hangs in the stairwell. On the first floor, Stan Kelly has created a sitting room featuring his grandmother’s 19th-century down chaise lounge and oval English table. A few doors down, a very practical dorm room maximizes available space including a flat, CD holder that hangs on the wall and stacked containers from the Container Store. This is a must see for anyone with a student heading to college in the fall.

Showcase hours are Monday through Friday 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday noon to 5 p.m. To purchase tickets, call 301/365-0612 ext. 113. Group discounts are available. The showcase cannot accommodate children under 10. The Center for Family Development is located at 7007 Bradley Blvd. in Bethesda, Md.

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