Mandell and Mary Ourisman

The drawing room measures thirty-five feet long with a twelve-foot ceiling, the house was designed in the European style by Beaux Arts architect George N. Ray, and the limestone and stucco exterior conveys substantial architectural weight.

Pine paneling in the library, book-lined walls, upholstered furniture throughout, warm gold tones in the drawing room, Savonnerie-style carpets, and rich drapery fabrics create a predominantly warm tactile environment with only the limestone mantel and mirror as cooler counterpoints.

Dense layering of eighteenth-century English and American furniture, French chairs, Empire overmantel mirror, antique sconces, paintings, Chinese Export porcelain, and pattern-on-pattern in the bedroom — all held together by a coherent Louis XVI-inflected palette.

Strong commitment to Louis XVI and eighteenth-century Anglo-French style throughout — Beaux Arts architecture from 1931, period-appropriate furniture, Savonnerie carpet, draperies copied from Blair House — with only minor modern intrusions like the television mentioned in the sitting room.

Hampton notes pieces he's 'known for thirty-five years' from Sister Parish's sale, and the Ourismans found Louis XV armchairs at auction, but the house was purchased and comprehensively redecorated by a professional designer, making the accumulation convincing but largely fabricated within a single generation.

The article opens by describing three major entertaining events in a single month — a Kennedy Center gala for 300, a reception for a governor, a family luncheon for 70 — and the entire floor plan is described in terms of guest circulation from drawing room to dining room to terraces.

The drawing room with its Empire mirror, French chairs, and carefully composed symmetry, the formally set dining table with crystal chandelier, and the Savonnerie carpet all enforce careful behavior — though Mary Ourisman's comment about Agra carpets being practical because 'the dogs can't hurt it' softens it slightly.

Mark Hampton directed the entire redesign with styled vignettes — the symmetrical drawing room composition, the deliberate pairing of French chairs with Empire mirror, the library transformation — though the owners' personal collecting (auction finds, inherited Bierstadt) keeps some personality visible.

The house clearly communicates wealth and social standing through its European style and scale of entertaining, but the Ourismans' choices lean toward taste rather than brand-broadcasting — no recognizable trophy art, the draperies reference Blair House rather than fashion, and the article emphasizes comfort and practicality alongside grandeur.