Enduring Style: Beth Hague’s Timeless Interiors
By • March 13, 2024 One Comment 1459
The client first discovered Beth Hague when she walked into the home of a friend and fell in love with the decor. “I thought if we ever move, I knew she was the one I wanted to work with,” said Libby (last name withheld).
What she loves about the interior designer’s style is what she most admires about her as a person.
“There is no difference between Beth and her style — serene, classy, enduring. She designs forever homes versus glam trends. She created the home I would want for now. I have three young kids and a 100-pound dog. We needed durable. Nothing precious.”
When Libby and her husband bought a house in Chevy Chase, Hague was the first person she called. “It was a full sprint,” she said, describing the 11,000-square-foot Tudor they would completely renovate. “I said, ‘Let’s get it done fast,’ and she didn’t hesitate. That was in June [of last year] and it’s pretty much done.”
Hague’s serenity in a business filled with deadlines and disasters has helped her succeed as a designer for more than three decades. The Georgetown resident has been featured in various national magazines and boasts projects all over the country, including the D.C. area, Nantucket, Maine, New York, Florida and Los Angeles. [Note: Hague is a friend and has also worked with this writer.]
When she encounters seemingly unfixable problems, she has learned not to panic because she knows there is always a solution.
“Sometimes you just can’t see it right away,” Hague said with a knowing laugh. She recalled working on a three-year project that featured multiple dwellings on one property. Prior to completion, the owner held her daughter’s wedding there, using the large foyer as a receiving area. Hague and the client managed to get the water and electricity turned on, and Hague and her crew were able to install drapes and furniture. After the wedding, they took it all down, moved the furniture back and shut the utilities down before the inspector came.
“We had a pretend install,” she said, chuckling again.
Hague’s love of beautiful interiors stems from her days tagging along with her mother to antique shops, galleries and auctions in Lexington, Kentucky. Her first job was with the D.C. designer Antony Childs, known for his understated luxury and refined style. At the time, she was taking evening classes at Mount Vernon and Marymount, getting an undergraduate degree in interior design after earning one in business. She called him repeatedly until he offered her a job. After a few years, she moved to Anthony Brown, Oprah’s one-time designer, and eventually opened her own shop, Elizabeth Hague Interiors, Inc.
In recent years, she says, her own style has leaned more contemporary and streamlined, but she has always loved timeless pieces that have unusual forms and textures that give a room layers.
“Plaster lighting and furniture, parchment-wrapped furniture, Diego Giacometti-inspired metal furniture and lighting, bark and pulp paper-paneled walls and lampshades, interesting stone slabs for tabletops, unique textiles,” she wrote in an email. “I am obsessed with textiles.”
Hague brings an eye for subtle tailoring and unexpected touches to transform a space. Like covering a wall with a hand-stenciled motif from a faux finisher.
“She added plaster to our dining room light fixture to add more texture,” Libby said. “Her attention to detail is amazing. I didn’t know there were people who did that.”
Her own tastes notwithstanding, Hague said her first job is to ensure that she understands the client’s perspective and start from there. She is also versatile, having worked on jobs large and small, from major projects in Florida and California to a powder room in Georgetown.
If Hague is working with an existing decor, she might mix in new with old, modern with classic. In a traditional home for example, she might add more modern hardware or lighting fixtures.
“You can incorporate antique fixtures in a more contemporary application,” she said. “Have worn floors of reclaimed French oak. It all kind of works. It’s not uptight.
“I don’t like fussy interiors,” she added. “I want people to feel like they can walk into any room in jeans and bare feet.”
What Hague mostly brings to her work, according to Libby, is originality. “I just like that you walk in the homes she has designed and have never seen it before,” she said. “It’s awesome and hard to do.”
Beth is the best!! She’s a dream to work with and always follow though…and her taste can’t be matched!!