The patient: bulky and tired. The remedy: a makeover from stem to stern, creating a healing, harmonic home.
By ELIZABETH BETTENDORF
Published October 8, 2004
AVILA - When Lori Downs stands in the front foyer of her newly renovated home, she sees layers of pattern: light, leaves, moss and a wash of Florida sky.
Then she sees pattern in the interior design: A white Japanese wedding kimono that hangs over the staircase is subtly repeated in artwork. The decorative rhythm of an African cloth on the dining room table repeats itself in the cane-back chairs and a blue Indian bucara rug. The curve of the swimming pool finds its way into arches over the windows, sensual shapes of female figures in sculpture, the rounded shoulders of living room chairs and the long, arched neck of an artist's bird.
Downs and her husband, anesthesiologist John B. Downs, recently completed renovation of their 5,000-square-foot 1980s golf villa, a process that required stripping the structure to its core and coaxing it to a new contemporary grace.
The overall effect is one of flow and harmony, an indoor-outdoor house that maximizes the breathtaking views of the golf course and live oaks. Three outdoor atriums feel as if they are part of the house. Glass staircase railings further open the interior visually, creating a sense that house and nature are one.
"I wanted the house to transition from one garden to another," says Downs, 58, an avid gardener with a passion for interior design.
"I liked the idea of being able to see through the stairs and feeling the garden in every space."
The couple worked with architect Rob Glisson of Rojo Architects, Joe Buscia of JB Construction Services and Brent Whitley of Florida Gardens.
The renovation took 21/2 years to complete. When work wrapped up in July, the owners threw two open houses, including one for everyone who helped with the project.
"This was a very difficult project and a lot of people worked very hard to make this happen," Downs says.
The house was stripped down to the walls. A front stairwell made of dark tambour wood and shaped like a ship's crow's nest had dominated the front entry. A massive, outdated fireplace in the living room featured floor-to-ceiling marble and no mantle.
Views once obscured by poorly placed partitions and mullions in the windows were played up. The first-floor powder room, once visible from the front door, was flip-flopped to another wall to open the space. A loftlike second-floor office with a dramatic view of the golf course was designed with John Downs in mind.
As founder and former chairman of the anesthesiology department at the University of South Florida and now an anesthesiologist at H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center, Downs, 60, who has lectured internationally and maintains a busy schedule, wanted a home that felt peaceful and serene.
He jokes he's happiest in rooms with a golf theme. A guest bedroom on the second floor uses vintage golf clubs as decoration.
"Golf, it's my passion," he says. "Lori really has done a good job with the house. I'm very comfortable here."
The two met while students at the University of Florida and have been married for 35 years. They have two grown children and two grandchildren. They live alone except for a rangy German shepherd, Fritz, and a saltwater tank full of colorful Tang fish. They love to travel, particularly to Scotland for a month each year and to their getaway cottage on the Rainbow River in Florida.
Lori Downs' favorite hobby is decorating the family homes, including one on the water they inhabited for years on Davis Islands. Her ability to see pattern in nature and design and then make it work with her decor comes naturally, an ability she attributes to a lack of skill in math or logic, and a left-hander's knack for being "visually clued."
She grew up in southern Alabama and learned to sew at her mother's knee, learned to make her own clothes at 13.
"I did not grow up in a house like this," she explains. Still, she adheres to those early lessons in thrift, making magic from everyday items.
She says she learned about the "feel and design of textiles" from her mother, who "taught me to use what I have in a new way and believed that ordinary things could be used well and look good."
A nurse by profession, Downs has no formal fine arts training, though she decorates like an artist. Her eye for acquiring and mixing furniture, fabric, art and color is noticeable from the moment a visitor arrives at the front walkway, where she has floated pink hibiscus in a century-old fountain near a hand-carved bench from Bali Bay Trading Co. Paths here beckon guests "on a journey," she says. Her furniture, much of it old, textural and Asian, was acquired at Triage Consignment in Tampa.
A Victorian dresser mirror from the Salvation Army hangs over an exotic floral vessel sink in the bathroom. In the kitchen, a charming rattan writing desk with cubbyholes is another Salvation Army find, as is the wicker sofa in the sitting area overlooking the golf course. The woven leather kitchen chairs with glass table are also a Triage find, as is a charming red Chinese chest with jade handles and a carved Chinese screen from 1918.
The couple collects white-on-white paper sculpture by Frank Gallo, an art professor at the University of Illinois who once worked for Playboy magazine. They also collect decorative treasures from their world travels, such as the sculpture of a Bali man feeding his birds, and fabric from Africa on the sofa pillows. Downs' personal design signature is her use of layering: sculpture sits atop a wicker bowl, a wooden mallet rests on a fountain beneath the stairs.
The overall look is clean, unified and contemporary. Her decorating secrets fool the eye and offer no clue as to where a lot of the furniture comes from, partly because she buys carefully, with an eye on condition and detail.
"Everything is unique and different," she says. "But you know, if we move or downsize, we don't break the bank."
Outside by the pool, a guest apartment offers a private sunbathing area and a view of the golf course.
"All our Northern golfing friends love it," Downs says. "They can't wait to stay here."
