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PrintDesigner's Delight
A blend of traditional style and Art Deco elegance
Photos by Betty Wiley
When former Provincetown innkeepers Ray L’Heureux and Biagio Pizzolato decided to move closer to Boston in 2000, they looked at over 250 places before finding a listing for their Sagamore Beach home in a real estate magazine.
“We saw it on Memorial Day weekend, and wrote a deposit a few days later,” says L’Heureux. “The home was built in 1985 and was in rough shape when we bought it, but we could see it had good bones.” Immediately inspired, the pair sketched out their vision for the living room on a cocktail napkin.
Since that time, the house has been through multiple renovations. A Cape Cod resort executive, L’Heureux has an eye for style and delights in change. His love of beautiful things became the jumping off point for his interior design hobby turned business.
“People started asking me to do their houses, and at first I did it for free,” says L’Heureux. He has since completed professional interior design projects in homes in Newport, Palm Beach, Cape Cod, and Boston. In many ways, he considers his own home a showroom. In fact, he’s even been known to sell furniture and fixtures on display in his home to his interior design clients, which is one reason why a room may look one way on a given day, and completely different the next. “Most people do their home over once and when it is done, it is done, and they are stuck with it. But changing the look of a room keeps things fresh and exciting,” says L’Heureux. “The fun is in the vision and the execution. Then it is on to the next project.”
L’Heureux plans each renovation a year in advance, plotting it out based on the influences in his life at the time. “We’re planning to go to Paris, Venice, and Florence in the coming year. I’ll get inspiration for décor during those trips,” says L’Heureux.
His appetite for transformation comes naturally and was likely inspired by his upbringing. “My grandparents owned a furniture store, my mother worked in fashion and my father was an artist,” says L’Heureux. “My parents took walls down in their house all the time. We never knew what was going to happen. They decorated in whatever Mom’s whim was at the time.”
The green striped awnings that grace the front windows and the portico framing the front steps hint that something special exists inside the home, but nothing prepares a first-time visitor for the expanse of flowing vision revealed one step over the threshold. Once inside, the eye is drawn up a wide stairway and to the overhead beams that grace the living room’s high ceilings.
Painted white, the beams are offset by an ornate reproduction of a Paris flea market chandelier. On the landing, there is a framed Art Deco work by Tamara de Lempicka; a favorite artist whose work appears in several places throughout the home.
The space is a showcase of lights and darks, from the black and white checkerboard floor in the entryway to the white sofa and Houndstooth pattern side chair in the adjoining living room. Light colored walls and imported Thai silk window treatments increase the feeling of openness. Black and red pillows provide pops of color as does another de Lempicka painting on the wall off to the side. Personal heirlooms are seamlessly incorporated, including the owner’s prized silver collection stored in a dark glass-fronted display case.
While the bones of the home are traditional in style, L’Heureux’s passion for Art Deco and Moderne styles is clearly evident. Off the living room, a sleek 1920 Model O Steinway piano serves as a centerpiece and lends to the tone of sophistication. It’s easy to picture Pizzolato, who received a degree in piano performance from Princeton, entertaining a few well-heeled guests in the space. In the dining room there is a round zebra mahogany Art Deco style table and a stunning Schonbek chandelier from Bohemia, in Central Europe. According to L’Heureux, both Buckingham Palace and the White House feature Schonbek Chandeliers in their grand rooms and salons. Tiny black lampshades and over 700 crystals grace the piece, which L’Heureux painstakingly cleans himself. “When you purchase a fixture like this, you make a commitment,” he says.
Nearby, a bright and airy sunroom is walled by six of the home’s 14 sets of French doors. A room features hardwood floors and a beadboard ceiling, and is furnished with a set of white wicker couches made of a “green” composite material with stylish Sunbrella cushions that resist fading. The space overlooks an inviting pool, tennis courts, and approximately 10 acres of undeveloped land, which provides the homeowners with plenty of privacy.
The first renovations to the house were completed by 2005, but that didn’t stop the couple from initiating a major renovation later that year when events dictated Pizzolato’s parents would move in. L’Heureux doesn’t blink as he describes how at the time, they took a jackhammer to a recently installed Italian marble floor.
The home now boasts two master bedrooms. One was recently redone, with walls painted a deep shade of shale gray and windows framed in bright white custom molding. The inspiration for the redesign of this room came from a set of sterling silver skyscraper-inspired bedside lamps, from Paris, and a unique white light fixture inspired by the Empire State Building in New York City. “I like the clean lines and the lack of clutter in the space,” L’Heureux says.
His pristine vision is also reflected in the top floor master, where chrome Italian lamps topped with chrome shades with silk inner linings offer a tenor of streamlined style. A simple, cream colored arm chair in the corner of the room is inscribed with French words. The translation: If you want to make something special, you talk about it.
While the top two floors demonstrate the union of Art Deco and Moderne styles, the lower level reveals yet another example of the homeowners’ decorative sensibilities. It is almost impossible to believe that this light-filled retreat began as the basement of the house. Instead, the area displays the comforting blue and white feel of a beachfront cottage on Nantucket or the Hamptons.
Bold vertical Ralph Lauren navy stripes on the wall set off the owner’s collection of pre-war Japanese porcelains. A striped wicker couch Framed by mill-worked pillars, flaunts overstuffed accent pillows. A gleaming coffee table placed at a diagonal introduces nuance to the room’s straight lines. The blue and white color scheme is continued in a guest bedroom outfitted with immaculate custom-made Matouk bed linens. “Our guests love this room,” L’Heureux says. Just a few steps away from this tranquil sanctuary are the cool blue waters of the home’s in-ground pool, accented by blue hydrangeas.
The home’s blending of styles is seamless, but L’Heureux’s creative mind is always working and finding inspiration for his next project. “I am always looking for something fresh and new, but I keep myself grounded and focused,” says L’Heureux. “I go to a lot of gorgeous houses, but I always want to come home.”
