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"Alexander Pope cautioned that &amp;quot;a little learning is a dangerous thing,&amp;quot; but Raji Radhakrishnan is proof that virtually no learning at all can be an excellent thing. The native of Madras, India, is perhaps the brightest new interior-design star in the Washington, D.C., area, and she has made her reputation not by drawing on formal training but rather by relying on her own innate sense of aesthetics and composition, a curiosity about art and design, and a talent for creating a decor that reflects a client&amp;#039;s personality.   Raised in a house built by her architect grandfather, a devotee of Le Corbusier, Raji (who prefers to go by her first name alone) has been drawn to design since childhood, yet she earned an M.B.A. from American University and worked in the business world until some six years ago. Motherhood derailed her plans to take a degree at the Corcoran College of Art + Design, but she has no regrets. &amp;quot;Design is a free-form art,&amp;quot; she believes. &amp;quot;Yes, there is much to learn. But above all you have to follow your instincts.&amp;quot;  There may be no better evidence of how sure her instincts are than the interiors of the 5,000-square-foot, four-bedroom suburban Virginia house that Raji shares with her husband, Murali Narasimhan, owner of a software-development firm, and their children: daughter Shruti, 17, and son Aditya, 4. Her ability to adapt her designs to the relatively mainstream architecture -- the exterior is a brick Georgian/Federal amalgam, the interior layout a mix of intimate and open spaces -- testifies to Raji&amp;#039;s flair for both grand and subtle gestures.  Although many find her rooms incredibly pleasing to the eye, beauty is not Raji&amp;#039;s goal. &amp;quot;I never seek to make beautiful spaces,&amp;quot; she says. &amp;quot;I want to create places that are interesting and intriguing, that get people talking.&amp;quot;  And that is true of both the public and the private spaces in her own home, which is defined by an unmistakably personal, Raji-esque mix. The small, quiet living room has classical detailing -- mullioned windows; plaster crown moldings of Raji&amp;#039;s design -- yet it incorporates furnishings and art that span more than two centuries of style. Two Regency spoon-back chairs hold court with an Expressionist oil painting of the Roman Forum; the marble-and-brass coffee table is by the art deco master Raymond Subes, but the metal tripod chair covered in graduated bolsters of black patent leather is by an unknown modern designer.  The family room is a soaring, sunny space that incorporates a double-height bay and opens to the breakfast area and the kitchen. Raji has designed the space as a place where she, her husband and the children can all gather at once, and it is to her credit that the vast room projects warmth, comfort and friendliness without skimping on visual delights, like a vintage drafting table and chair as well as art by the likes of Roy Lichtenstein. Raji actually works at that midcentury Friso Kramer Revolt drafting table at the center of the window bay, and her son draws while sitting on the lamb-shaped stool from the French design firm ibride. Off the family room is a combination library and home office that comes complete with a door for quiet reading, lounging or work. The formal dining room is at the front of the house, across the foyer from the living room.   To better display her art collection, Raji painted most of the house white, but not all the rooms are the same color. The living room, for example, is Donald Kauffmann DKC #28; the family room, Metro Shell White from Duron; the dining room, Benjamin Moore&amp;#039;s Calming Cream. She also follows the beat of her own drummer in displaying the art. In the family room, a bright-red Takashi Murakami lithograph is hung across parts of two windows, maximizing its visual impact. But that&amp;#039;s nothing compared with the photo in the family room.  In one window of their most-used room, Raji installed a supersize print of a photo she took, retinted blue, of the pediment of the British Museum. The technique is put to stunning use in the master bedroom, too. There, a blown-up detail of a mural at Versailles, given a sepia tone, covers the wall behind the bed (from the Design Centro Italia). The grandeur of the backdrop is tempered by a flirty Mathieu Mategot bench and two club chairs Raji reupholstered in a patchwork of textile remnants.  One day, thinking about her family and childhood, she got an urge to paint. &amp;quot;I love to paint, but on things like furniture or lampshades -- never on canvas,&amp;quot; she says. &amp;quot;That makes it too serious.&amp;quot; Using materials including acrylics, crayons, old lipsticks and mud made from a sample of the russet dirt of her hometown, Raji went into the guest room and created her own abstract mural (see Detail No. 9, next page). The resulting work is joyous, nostalgic, a total expression of love -- and something that they certainly don&amp;#039;t teach in design school.  What the Pros Know  Raji sought to showcase her collections of singular furnishings and modern and contemporary art in spaces that were by turns formal and casual. At the same time, she didn&amp;#039;t want the transition between rooms with different ambiences to be in any way jarring. She accomplished her goal in two ways. First, the traditional detailing in the formal rooms at the front of the house, such as ornamental moldings and window mullions -- which provide a sympathetic setting for antiques and art deco-era pieces -- disappears as you progress to the bright, airy rooms at the rear of the house. Second, and more important, Raji made the transition subtle, as she explains, &amp;quot;by keeping the &amp;#039;shell&amp;#039; -- the wall and ceiling finishes, the flooring -- neutral and continuous.&amp;quot; Every room is painted in white tones, and polished oak floorboards run throughout the house. The bonus, Raji says, is that &amp;quot;the uniform backdrop gave me great flexibility when choosing where to place furniture and display art.&amp;quot; Click here to see the resources. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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