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Homes

Front Porch: His way to art is timeless

By ELIZABETH BETTENDORF
Published September 30, 2005

Designer Jay Tenuta intuits the pulse of a place long before the trendsetters.

In his native Chicago, he hung his shingle for his decorating business in a neighborhood that hadn't yet turned the corner - but he liked the way it felt.

When he opened his shop, La Bella Interiors, in an Odessa strip mall seven years ago, the area appealed to him emotionally.

"One day I was sitting here and two guys in cowboy hats hitched their horses out front. I liked that," recalls Tenuta, now 50, who decided to relocate from the Windy City to Odessa seven years ago to be closer to family in Florida.

He also had a feeling.

"For the same amount of money people from South Tampa could see that they could live on a couple of acres on a lake, 20 minutes from downtown," he remembers. "You couldn't beat it."

He also liked the lakes, the trees, the country, the rapidly disappearing orange groves. And the people.

"They're down to earth and have heart," he explained one afternoon as he walked his shop brimming with functional, yet artfully designed items, from disc-shade lamps to wool rugs to modern bar stools to raku pottery to soy candles that can scent an entire house.

The strip mall where his design business now inhabits two storefronts at 8727 Gunn Highway stands as a strong visual landmark. Tenuta lent his design expertise during remodeling three years ago and the result was classic Odessa rural chic: An old Florida style building with a tin cracker-house roof, stylish old-fashioned metal lights and shop fronts painted salmon, green, yellow and khaki, and trimmed in a shade of chocolate.

"The name of the mall is the Village and I thought it should look something like an old village," he explains.

It's the same cool-but-timeless look he strives for in his decorating, one that he feels North Tampa clients have embraced over the years, from ranchers to bestselling mystery writers.

"There's definitely a style to this area. It's a little more clean-lined, not as fussy and straightforward," he says. "There's also much more of a resort feeling out here, partly because of the dramatic views and beautiful vistas. The land is really the draw."

Although Tenuta works all over the Tampa Bay area - even designing second homes on the beach - a large percentage of his clients live in the Odessa, North Tampa and Pasco County area, including Wesley Chapel and Land O'Lakes.

"I'm now looking strategically at the 54-41 corridor for clients," he says, referring to the busy state roads that barrel through development-booming Pasco.

After seven years in business in Odessa, he's even attracted a few second-generation clients, young adults who were teenagers when he first decorated their parents' homes.

His own style, he explains, is "simple and direct and never competes with good architecture." His design signature is always "good, museum quality lighting," even in the most traditional of homes.

Tenuta's longtime design associate, Kathy Hsu, calls his style clean, direct and uncluttered.

Even better, she says, "achieving a timeless look means you don't just follow trending, or what's in this season. Timeless means being able to look at something over and over again, and it still feels good."

After designing for seven years in Odessa, Tenuta explains, that's exactly how it feels.

Good.

[Last modified September 29, 2005, 09:21:10]