Museum District Mother's Day Home Tour

SLIDESHOW: Museum District Tour

John and Maria Shugars have proved that you can teach an old house new tricks.

Their 1923 row house at 3113 Floyd Ave. was indistinguishable from its neighbors when they bought it in 2001.

The exterior was red brick with white trim and a full front porch. Inside, you found the typical narrow staircase in the entry with a landing at the top, dark woods, pocket doors and a boxy three-room over three-room layout.

"It was structurally sound and livable -- beaten up around the edges, but that's the patina of life," said John Shugars.

But the Shugars, married 45 years and telecommuters for a Manassas-based business, envisioned it as their retirement home and wanted it to reflect their tastes and needs. They began an extensive interior and exterior renovation that essentially turned an old house into a new home.

The result is an open contemporary layout laced with high-tech bells and whistles and a restrained art deco theme that pays homage to the house's machine-age roots.

The Shugars' reconfigured home and maintenance-free shade garden will be open for tours Sunday as part of the annual Museum District Association Mother's Day House and Garden Tour.

Guests can absorb a variety of lessons from the efficient 1,550-square-foot floor plan:

Architecture

Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired steel casement windows and a simple custom-designed aluminum awning give the house a fresh façade. The window style was based on the John Storer house, a Wright design in the Hollywood Hills (see a photo at www.you-are-here.com/building/storer.html).

The original staircase was replaced with steps that gradually widen as they descend toward the first floor. The stair shaft's 7½-degree angle is subtly repeated throughout the floor plan and casework.

Jay Hugo, founder of 3north architectural firm in Richmond, designed a living room that soars to the roof. A portion of the second-story floor was removed to create the look of a contemporary loft. Because the space was dark, the Shugars added a 1-foot-wide, 14-foot-tall window to a side wall of the living room.

Instead of the usual heavy trim and shoe moldings where the walls meet the original hardwood floors, the architects opted for unusual recessed Masonite baseboards.

A mail slot by the front door is reminiscent of those in old art deco buildings in New York City.

Engineering

The old house has a new fiber-optic nervous system for Internet, television and telephone service. It's protected by a security system and has adaptive access via an elevator that runs from the basement to the second floor.

Commonwealth Solar installed a grid-interactive photovoltaic system that has 15 solar panels on the roof and a battery storage system in the basement. It provides a nonpolluting, environmentally friendly source of electricity that operates silently, has no toxic emissions or greenhouse gases and creates no hazardous waste. A side benefit: "If the system puts out more [electricity] than it needs, we sell it back to the power company," Shugars said. The battery storage provides backup power in the event of grid failure.

Because of their allergies, the Shugars decided to install a ventilation system that not only filters the air but sanitizes it with ultraviolet light. The light zaps airborne bacteria and viruses into oblivion.

Windows and doors are outfitted with "spectrally selective" glass, which lets the visual light through but keeps out ultraviolet and infra-red rays that would heat the house in summer and fade furnishings year-round.

History

The house's Roaring Twenties time period inspired the art deco metal railings, table bases and other fixtures crafted by Tektonics Design Group of Richmond.

Maria Shugars searched for art deco fireplaces online and hit the jackpot -- a spectacular, colorful art deco tile piece that was rescued from a home under demolition in England. The Shugars' basic contractor, FLF Construction, also of Richmond, built the surround out of tiger maple.

In keeping with its origins, the fireplace has gas logs that look like a pile of coals. Flanking the fireplace are floor-to-ceiling shelves filled with Maria's science-fiction book collection.

Art

The home's interior "is not slavishly art deco, but there are touches of it," Maria Shugars said.

Metal sculptures, mirrors, a striking, illuminated Lalique crystal automobile mascot and a painting titled "Hat Chat" by local artist Beverly Perdue are among the pieces of art that reflect the period.

Three large wall hangings, the focal point of the living room, were based on a wrought-iron screen by Edgar Brandt that was the most photographed object at the 1925 International Exposition of Modern Industrial and Decorative Arts in Paris, where the term art deco originated. A stylized fountain in the artwork is reflected in the railings along the second floor's open loft.

Rug designer Sarah Gayle Carter, formerly of Richmond, designed the gray, red and navy stair and hallway runners based on a photo Maria had seen of an art-deco movie marquee.

Many of the framed fashion sketches in the house were done by John's mother, a graphic artist in the 1920s.

Contact Julie Young at (804) 649-6732 or jyoung@timesdispatch.com.