Homes

Personality to fit any sized home

Matt Ward, an interior decorator, has a knack for making big and small homes feel great.

BALLAST POINT - The 5,700-square-foot mansion on tree-canopied Marlin Drive practically pulses with personality.

What might have been a sterile decor instead swings like the Gershwin jazz tunes wafting through every room. The secret? A vibrant color palette, bold fabrics and Brazilian cherry floors lend the interior a warm and original voice.

Meet Matt Ward, interior decorator with a yen for making a super-sized house, seem, well, not so darned big.

Then, too, he can make even a tiny house resonate.

In the Bayshore Beautiful neighborhood, a cozy first home for newlyweds, Kay and Brock Renshaw, exudes a smart, lavishly "decorated" look despite its Lilliputian size.

Their 1960s ranch actually seems bigger than its 1,050 square feet, thanks to Ward's artful planning that transformed once-cramped living quarters into spacious digs.

In fact, 40 guests mingled at the couple's Christmas party last year.

"I don't think people realize how small our house is," says Kay Renshaw, 35, a fourth-grade teacher at Davis Elementary School in Countryside.

Brock, 31, a government contractor who also serves in the Marine Reserves, jokes that his friends aren't the type normally wowed by pretty decorating.

"They say to each other, "You have just got to go over and see it. It is so cool,"' he raves.

The Renshaws got to know Ward and his design work because they are part of a group that gathers Saturday mornings for breakfast and a run along Bayshore Boulevard.

Ward took the job partly out of friendship, and partly because he found the space challenging. Instead of pushing the couple to build an addition - which would have taken a bite out of their modest decorating budget - he encouraged them to work with what they had.

By knocking down a few walls and arranging furniture creatively, the house went from a boxy three-bedroom ranch to an elegant one-bedroom cottage that flows from the front door to the adjoining screened pool. Tobacco-hued fabrics, old-English leather paint colors as well as plate-size Mexican terra cotta tiles make the house feel masculine, yet slightly tropical in texture.

Ward's designs in both houses show his talent for creating a welcoming living space no matter the size. Books, floral arrangements, well-lit paintings, chandeliers, oriental rugs, exquisite glass and antique accent furnishings lend his designs a cheerful spirit that invites guests to linger and look.

"Color is the main thing," Ward says. "I love color on the floor, furniture and walls. Cozy conversation areas are very important. So are accessories. I love stuff."

Not all stuff.

Ward deems electronics equipment ugly in any size abode and always banishes it to a place it can't be seen. He cleverly conceals his own TV behind a remote control operated painting that slides sideways to reveal the screen.

At the Renshaw house, Ward promptly camouflaged the computer and TV in traditional armoires in the living area.

Objects that the couple cherishes are displayed dramatically on a high, backlit shelf.

That's the best part for Kay Renshaw:

"Work with things you love and collect," she says. "Those are the things you don't have to pay for."

If you can't afford antiques, don't be afraid to scour second-hand and consignment stores, Ward adds. Even great-looking old chandeliers can be had for a song. The Renshaws purchased their dining room chandelier for $125 at The Blue Moon Trading Company on MacDill Avenue. Ward finds all kinds of treasures at shops on St. Petersburg's Central Avenue.

An interior decorator since 1988, he may be equally known for drop-dead gorgeous window treatments that he custom creates for homeowners in the Tampa Bay area as well as all over Florida and North Carolina.

Elegant curtains and fabric cascades with names like "turban swags" and "dog-eared pleated balloons" and are the trademark of his designs and set the tone and mood in his own home on Marlin Avenue.

He custom-built the three-story house two years ago on a large, rectangular-shaped lot in Ballast Point. Ward and his partner, Wiley Smith, bought the property after a buyer offered them $50,000 more for another lot they had just purchased in South Tampa.

Smith dreamed up the idea of a three-story house, one that would cleverly conceal a four-car garage accessed from the side and invisible from the circular driveway. The idea not only made for a more aesthetically pleasing facade; it also reduced the cost of flood insurance, says Smith, who works in the insurance business.

Their first priority was to build a house suitable for entertaining friends and family, including both of their mothers, who visit regularly. They also dreamed of living in a house that was beautiful, inside and out.

"We wanted to build a house that was a show house, with a traditional floor plan, one that would lend itself well to using different colors in different rooms," Ward says. "I wanted each room to have its own personality."

Walk up the grand staircase to his house on Marlin Avenue - copied from the balustrade that winds along Bayshore Boulevard - and the idea becomes clear. Ward escorts guests straight back into the kitchen/den living area that looks out over a New Orleans style loggia with a view of a pond, oaks, palms and a xeriscaped landscape that looks like it has been there forever.

Cornices and swags upholstered in deep, earthy tropical prints accent a row of French doors. Ward even paints the ceilings in matching or coordinating colors for warmth and flair.

Theater red paint and a cobalt blue back splash add spice to the kitchen. The dining room basks in a pale, Robin's-egg blue with birch wainscoting and ivory damask drapery swags adding a polished touch.

One bedroom was decorated completely in a formal red-and-white toile, while another guest-room - specifically designed for visiting moms - features fabric and window treatments in floral plaids with a French country attitude.

Ward created all of the stylish flower arrangements throughout the house and painted many of the bright primitive paintings that hang in one of the stairwells.

Oh, and he also cooks.

His years as a waiter at a French restaurant in Tampa paid off in spades. Now he prepares elegant meals for the handful of intimate dinner parties he and Smith throw at the house each year. Thanksgiving dinner always draws a crowd, they say.

"Last year we had four kids all under the age of 5 in the house," Ward recalls. "But it worked out fine. It's a pretty grand house. But everyone who comes over feels really comfortable, like they can put their feet up."

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