Antique Furniture at Historic Tudor Place, Washington, DC

If you love antique furniture and you're planning a trip to Washington, DC this summer (or maybe even over Memorial Day weekend) head to Tudor Place in Georgetown. The National Historic Landmark was built by Martha Washington's granddaughter in 1816, and was home to six generations of Washington's descendents. Now it's open for the public to tour the house and gardens. Here's a view of the Neoclassical house. It looks quite spacious, doesn't it? It needs to be, as Tudor Place is home to a collection of nearly 15,000 items dating from 1750 to 1983. Treasures here include a large collection of antique furniture from America, England, and France, plus American and European silver, and Chinese ceramics. For history buffs, the tour highlights might be Martha Washington’s 18th century English Chippendale tea table and George Washington’s presidential dinner and dessert service. This is the Dining Room, but like all of us today, the families that lived here changed the rooms around a lot! It was originally a bedroom and sitting room for the lady of the house, Martha Washington's granddaughter Martha Custis Peter. From the window here, she saw British troops burning the U.S. Capitol in 1814. It became a formal dining room at the beginning of the 20th Century. I love the sparkling chandelier and ornate gilt mirror over the fireplace. (We've got some glittering chandeliers at EuroLuxHome.com, if you like that look too!) They lend a festive and decorative oomph to the otherwise quite simple antique furniture and dining table. The saloon looks out through the elegant domed temple portico over the South Lawn. They called it saloon in the English style, rather than the French 'salon'. The Neoclassical columns are perfectly framed by the side tables bearing striking candelabra. The soft mocha walls manage to combine traditional grace with a quite fresh and modern feel. This handsome dog statue guards the 5.5 acres of garden at Tudor Place…and all the antique furniture inside! I bet he could bark some good stories about what he's seen here. The gardens reflect much of the original Federal era landscaping, including English boxwood planted 200 years ago. The gardens also boast a bowling green and Japanese tea house!