A '70s ranch house gets new life when owners collaborate with a trusted interior designer to create a comfortable weekend getaway.
By JUDY STARK
Published May 1, 2004
[Times photos: James Borchuck]
After: Soft yellow walls, white beadboard, crown molding and casing around doors and windows, new hickory flooring and improved lighting brighten this 1972 beach house. The sleeper sofa sets the color scheme for the entire house: denim blue, red, gold and green.
[Photos courtesy of Paul Lewis]
Before: From gray-white tile to popcorn ceiling, from forgettable wall colors to the old sliding doors, the original living room was bland, boring and lacked detail and grace.
Low ceiling, narrow windows, boring linens: the master bedroom before the makeover had an unintentional sleepy feel.
[Times photo — James Borchuck]
Color and accessories give the master bedroom some punch.
[Photo courtesy of Paul Lewis]
The lanai felt cut off from the rest of the house, and the ho-hum, weathered furniture didn’t beckon.
[Times photo — James Borchuck]
Designer Paul Lewis extended the yellow wall color from the living room out onto the screened lanai and had the floor painted brown to match the living room’s hickory planking. That visually doubled the space. The white coffee table, with a local nautical chart laminated to the top, was custom-made by Knothole Creations of Largo.
ENGLEWOOD - You've seen this house a million times: a low-slung 1970s Florida ranch, stucco walls, tile roof. You know what the inside is like before you open the door: low popcorn ceilings, tile floor, crank-out windows, sliding glass doors to the lanai. Tired kitchen cabinets and inexpensive white wicker furniture. The house that time forgot.
Ah, but look at it now.
Wood-plank flooring, crisp white beadboard below golden yellow on the walls, new lighting, new kitchen cabinets and appliances, a fresh color scheme and comfortable new furniture awaken this sleeping beauty.
"We kind of like it," said owner Bryant Scott, 47, speaking by cell phone Monday morning as he and his wife, Pam, 41, drove south on Interstate 75 from Tampa International Airport. They were heading toward the house on Manasota Key, south of Sarasota, that they use as a weekend getaway and vacation home for themselves and their teenage son and daughter.
The Scotts formerly lived in Pinellas, and Bryant, then an executive with Home Depot, "got to know all these little cities in Florida, and this was my favorite part, this little southwest corner. We wanted Old Florida and that's exactly what you get down there."
The couple now live near Atlanta. Bryant retired from Home Depot and recently started his own business, Home Decor Liquidators, with a couple of stores in the Midwest.
"There were no structural changes here," said Paul Lewis, the Tampa interior designer who created the new look for the Scotts. He also worked on their former home at Pasadena Yacht & Country Club and on their present home in Georgia.
A builder oversaw the installation of the new kitchen and two new baths. The house was rewired and the popcorn ceiling in the living area was scraped and refinished. What Lewis called "nasty gray-white tile" in the living/dining/kitchen area that had been installed atop the original terrazzo was pulled up and replaced with hickory planking.
All the rest was paint, furnishings and accessories, some of which came from familiar stores and catalogs: Pottery Barn, Crate & Barrel, Pier 1 Imports.
Lewis credits Pam Scott, who sent him a thick loose-leaf binder full of pages she had pulled from magazines and catalogs showing what she liked: "wood, wood, wood" and "more of a Cape Cod, cottage look," he said. "I just can't say how helpful that is."
Responded Pam: "Paul doesn't surprise me, that's why we use him. He has a good sense of what we're trying to achieve, and he did it."
Ten years ago, Lewis worked on the Scotts' 5,265-square-foot new house at Pasadena Yacht & Country Club. If left to her own devices then, Pam said, she likely would have gone with white walls and "pictures and fabrics that would be real loud." Working with Lewis, she chose a rich palette of pumpkin and teal, with Berber carpeting, an off-white cotton chenille sofa in the family room, and nautical accessories. She kept the same look at their current home in Alpharetta, Ga.: pumpkin and teal, "the same fish hanging on the wall, a transitional house, a California-looking kind of house."
For the beach house, she said, "I wanted it to be beachy but comfortable, just go in and not worry if you've just been fishing that you should go take a shower before you sit down. We use our houses; we have two big dogs who run around, the kids run around." Both Lewis and her husband tell Pam her tastes have changed, but she disagrees: "It's just that you can't do all your different tastes in one house."
Lewis drew his color palette from the sleeper sofa that faces a big entertainment center: denim blue with floral cushions in soft yellow, green and rusty red. Those are the colors that wind their way through the house, which is just 1,454 square feet, and make it seem larger than it is.
The main living space, 26 by 20 feet, includes four distinct areas: the entertainment space, with a big-screen TV inside the entertainment unit; a sitting area, with two big comfortable chairs; a dining area, where four chairs pull up around a round table; and the kitchen, with granite-topped counters, a breakfast bar and white appliances.
Details mattered. Lewis kept all the original doors and windows, but cased the openings - framed them in molding - for a more formal, finished look. He kept the furniture low to avoid emphasizing those ceilings, which are just 7 feet 5 inches. He spent money where it mattered: on quality furnishings, like the sofa and chairs and entertainment unit; and on the oiled bronze plumbing fixtures, which won't rust or pit in the salt-air environment.
He shopped thriftily for other things. The bar stools are from Pier 1; the area rug in the living room is from Crate & Barrel; all the bedding is off the shelf; picture frames and accessories come from T.J. Maxx or Marshalls. The Scotts declined to say what the makeover cost.
"The house is set up for entertaining and that's exactly what they do," Lewis said of his clients. To accommodate guests, they can add a leaf to the dining room table and bring in additional matching captain's chairs that otherwise provide seating in the bedrooms.
The living area opens onto a screened lanai with views toward the Intracoastal Waterway, where they moor their boat. Lewis extended the warm yellow paint onto the outside walls, and had a painter cover the gray decking with brown paint that matches the hickory planking inside. The result: outside and inside blend into one big space "that makes this area twice as big," he said. When the sliders are pushed open, the party starts.
"What Paul accomplished - and everybody who stays there says the same thing - is that it's the most comfortable place, comfortable and cozy," Bryant said. He's on the board of a Tampa company, "which gives me a good excuse to come down here. It's been every other week lately. The house is getting used." A college-age nephew stayed there recently; his business partner was there for a week; daughter Britney, 19, and son Cody, 17, always bring friends.
"You could rent, but it's not the same," Bryant said. "There's something about going to your own place, having your stuff there, that you can't replace."
Awakening sleeping beauties
Designer Paul Lewis offers these suggestions for giving tired houses a fresh look:
* Don't be afraid of color. "It doesn't have to be white to look larger."
* It's okay to mix patterns. There are seven patterns in the compact but airy living-dining-kitchen room.
* Shop the discount stores. Lewis finds great picture frames and accessories at stores such as Marshalls and TJ Maxx.
* In a small house, "a common color palette is very important" so the house flows and doesn't feel chopped up. Lewis drew the palette here from the sofa upholstery. One room might emphasize green, another blue, but they're all part of the same color scheme.
* Painting adjacent spaces the same color enlarges a room. Extending the yellow walls from the living room out to the screened lanai, and matching the interior hickory flooring with painted decking, joins the two spaces.
* There's no taboo on silk plants. In a getaway house such as this, used only occasionally, artificial greenery is the right choice. Outside, low-maintenance, resilient plants thrive in a severe waterfront environment.
* Compatible framing ties together disparate pieces of art so they can be moved around the house.
* Develop a plan and stick with it. "Usually your first idea is the best."
