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By Walinda P. West | Photography by Brian Wetzel
For attorney Debra Belott and her husband Patrick, a high school teacher, designing their new home in the sought-after Rock Creek Hills community of Kensington marked a departure from their usual DIY approach. While Pinterest boards and online design tools had served them well in the past, the couple knew their forever home—or “maybe several-decades home,” as Belott calls it—deserved something more thoughtful and intentional. “I wanted to fill it with color,” she says, “but I knew I wouldn’t be able to figure that out on my own.”
The turning point came during Belott’s visit to a college friend’s recently renovated home in Annapolis. The interiors, curated by interior designer Amanda Chando, owner of Annapolis-based Details and Design, hit just right. Belott had seen photos of the project for months, eagerly shared by her friend, but it wasn’t until a girls’ night in that she experienced the space firsthand. “It was well-designed and everything fit together for a family,” she recalls. Belott says there was something about Chando’s work that felt personal and lived-in—something she knew would work for her.
For the Belott project, Chando was entrusted with reimagining the first floor of the Colonial Revival home, shifting it from a traditional, somewhat formal space into one that reflected the rhythm of a young family of five’s daily life: casual, yet refined. Belott envisioned a complete reset for the downstairs: new furniture, lighting, wall coverings, and art, each piece thoughtfully chosen, not just for beauty, but for how it would make a room feel.
Nowhere was the feeling more evident than in the dining room, just to the right of the entrance. Painted a moody, smoky brown, the space seats 12 in comfort, grounded by a Visual Comfort wicker pendant that casts a soft, golden glow. “We wanted to create an impactful, functional dining room,” Chando explains, “because it’s the first space you see when you walk in.”
The most poignant detail hangs quietly between two sconces: a photograph of Belott’s late father, Reggie Smith Sr., who died of a heart attack in 2021. In the photo taken at the couple’s wedding reception, he’s mid-toast, glass raised. In the new dining room, the picture gives the sense that he’s toasting family and friends gathered around the table and celebrating the meals served with them. It’s a room where design meets memory, where hospitality feels sacred. “He was the life of the party. He would have loved it here,” Belott says.
Right off the dining room, a butler’s pantry connects the dining room to the kitchen with a joyful Harlequin Floreana botanical design wallpaper—a secret garden of sorts between the two dining spaces. “I just love this wallpaper so much. This space makes me happy,” Belott beams.
Chando updated the kitchen by painting the cabinets, installing new tile, and adding a nine-foot island that can seat the family for dinner and double as a homework station for the couple’s daughters, who are six, nine, and 11.
The family room also got a facelift with paint and a rose-colored sectional, where Belott points to speckles of glitter, Play-Doh, and hot pink slime from the children’s play, commenting that the girls need a space where they are free to craft, play, and freely glitter. That will happen soon. Chando and her team are transforming the home’s unused basement, currently marked by worn, stained carpet, into a dedicated playroom and an
additional lounge area. In Chando’s hands, it’s destined to be as swoon-worthy as the redesigned first floor—and likely just as admired by the neighbors. In fact, her work on the Belott home has already inspired other projects in the area. “It’s a true testament when a client refers you or asks you to help with additional areas of the home,” notes Chando.
For Chando, beauty alone is never the goal, but how the home is lived in. The Belott house reflects that. In the saturated walls, playful wallpaper, sculptural light fixtures, art chosen for the stories it tells, and even furniture stained with glitter and slime, it’s the place the family looks forward to enjoying for years to come.
INTERIOR DESIGN: Amanda Chando, Details and Design
BUILDER: Parker Wren
DINING ROOM
Dining Table: Vanguard Custom
Dining Chairs: Four Hands – Hito Chair
Rug: Vintage Oushak Rug
Chandelier: Visual Comfort – White Extra-Large Dome
LIVING ROOM
Lounge Chairs: Four Hands – Ace
Coffee Table: Four Hands – Amara
Rug: Jaipur – Cambridge
BUTLER’S PANTRY
Wallpaper: Harlequin – Floreana
Counter Stools: Four Hands – Astrud Stool Kitchen
Chandelier: Visual Comfort – Kingsley
© Annapolis Home Magazine
Vol. 16, No. 5 2025