Atelier Jacobs

Atelier Jacobs at 3330 Cady’s Alley NW is a luxury home design studio in Georgetown’s premier design district, the converted industrial lane that runs between M Street and the canal level and that has housed Georgetown’s concentration of high-end furniture showrooms, design studios, and architectural product dealers since the lane was redeveloped in the early 2000s. The atelier designation, which is French for the artist’s or designer’s workshop, signals the custom and bespoke nature of the design service that distinguishes the atelier from the retail furniture store.

Cady’s Alley was developed from a service alley behind the M Street commercial buildings into a distinctive retail destination by converting the industrial spaces into showrooms appropriate for the high-end design market. The lane’s physical character, with its exposed brick, concrete, and steel industrial structure alongside the European furniture showrooms and design studios that now occupy the spaces, produces a retail environment that is deliberately different from the conventional retail street and that signals the design-forward nature of the businesses the lane houses.

The custom furniture and textile services that Atelier Jacobs provides serve the Georgetown residential and commercial design market at the level of project where the standard furniture catalog is insufficient: the client who needs a sofa in a specific scale for a Federal-period room, the designer who requires custom fabric in a colorway that is not available from the commercial textile houses, and the renovation project that needs bespoke millwork and furniture to fit the historical architecture.

The Cady’s Alley design district context places Atelier Jacobs in the company of B&B Italia, bulthaup, Calligaris, Blu Dot, and the other furniture and design brands that have established the alley and the adjacent M Street block as the Georgetown design destination.

Hours run Monday through Saturday. The atelier model at Atelier Jacobs serves the Georgetown design market at the level of the fully custom project: the client who has exhausted the catalog offerings of the furniture showrooms and who needs the specific scale, the specific material, or the specific configuration that the catalog does not provide. In Georgetown’s Federal-period room, this custom requirement arises frequently: the sectional sofa that is the right proportion for the double parlor, the dining table that seats the full dinner party in the room’s specific dimensions, and the library shelving that fills the alcoves on either side of the historical fireplace. The Cady’s Alley location at 3330 places Atelier Jacobs in the design district that has become Georgetown’s primary furniture and design resource: the combination of the Cady’s Alley studios and the M Street showrooms provides the Georgetown design client with more concentrated access to the world’s design production than any other comparable neighborhood in Washington. The textile component of the Atelier Jacobs program, which covers the upholstery fabrics, the drapery materials, and the decorative textiles that complete the designed room, is among the most practically important aspects of the custom furniture service: a sofa in the right fabric for the Georgetown client’s lifestyle and the room’s light conditions is as important as the sofa’s form. Hours run Monday through Saturday.