Left: A pair of 100-year-old banyan trees frame original gates of Louis Shuster's Fort Lauderdale home in the historic Colee Hammock area. The classic Thunderbird is from his collection.

Foyer chandelier by Sirmos. A Maitland-Smith table displays a circa 1925 bust by Dmitri Vitos.

Gallery features antique British Colonial armchairs, gilded wall candelabra, c. 1790, and handwoven Israeli rug and bronze figures, 1925, by Paolo Troubalizio. The painting pays homage to Botero.

"The baby grand piano was the only piece of furniture I brought from my 1950s house," says Shuster, a jazz pianist. The sitting room showcases an antique British Colonial settee flanked by 18th-century Middle Eastern hammered copper and brass urns. The rattan chairs, 1930s, wear Ralph Lauren fabric. Peruvian cocktail table, c. 1910, has carved leather top. Mexican footstools. American Indian lithographs, 1837. Robert Allen drapery fabric.

Dining table and chairs, c. 1940, from Addison Mizner's estate. Mohair upholstery by Gretchen Bellinger. Table set with Rosenthal crystal stemware, Tiffany vintage flatware, Nippon China. Mexican Chandelier.

A guest suite features 20th-century pieces, including Peruvian rattan armoire that was converted from a chicken coop, English safari trunk and Peruvian chair of leather and mahogany. Harden four-poster wears Frette linens. Sofa cotton bouclé by Glant. Iron table base by Ilana Goor. Asoan handwoven basket, Portuguese ceramic and metal jar, Peruvian clay vessel. Sisal rug with tapestry border by Stark.

Magazines: Veranda
(March 2002)

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Belonging - Portrait of a home.

INTERIOR DESIGN BY LOUIS SHUSTER

PHOTOGRAPHED BY KIM SARGENT
TEXT BY BARBARA DINERMAN

What does one make of a 1930's house whose blueprints, in Spanish, call for el piramide de poder, a pyramid of power, in the library? A house with floors covered in glossy Cuban terra-cotta tiles, arranged in different configurations in various rooms? If you are a South Florida designer with a preponderance of northeastern clients who have come south to embrace light, airy and modern interiors in ocean-front high-rise condominiums, you make the moody vintage house your home as quickly as possible.

The residence became the delightful light at end of the house-hunting tunnel for Louis Shuster, whose Fort Lauderdale-based Shuster Design Associates, Inc. has won eight Designer of the Year awards from the Interior Design Guild of South Florida for pared-down but vibrant contemporary residential projects.

Sited within a one-acre site, practically in the middle of downtown Fort Lauderdale, Shuster's 6,000 square foot house, which wraps around a courtyard, has an exotic history. The tile-roofed, Mediterranean Revival structure was intended, the designer recalls, as "the first Cuban consulate in South Florida," although it was never used for this purpose: The consulate was relocated to Coral Gables.

But Shuster's imagination was captured by the home's possibilities. After consulting architect A.T. Franco, he decided to restore it to what it might have been. He retained the original ornate iron entry gates and the surrounding brick and stone work. Then he set to work refinishing oak floors, crown moldings, casings, and the hand-carved mahogany doors that were original to the house.

"Some floors had been covered with linoleum or sheet vinyl," Shuster says. "Walls were tongue-and-groove wood from the 1930s. Everything had to be sanded." The most time-consuming, and rewarding, restoration was of the sixty-five Dade County pine beams throughout the house. The rare hardwood, prized for its termite-proof properties, wore ten coats of paint - layers of mint green, peach, blue - that had to be scraped with a diamond-edged saw. Rather than removing all the paint, Shuster left the beams weathered-looking.

To recapture the spirit of the house, artwork and accessories are "all antiques and pretty much of the period". Truth is, Shuster loves to collect antiques. His idea of relaxation on a Sunday afternoon is to prowl around his favorite haunt on antique row in nearby Dania, "looking for the unlikely object, the piece with a history that could be used in a new way".

With the house nearly complete, Shuster named it Villa Nora, in honor of his mother. Now, an Art Deco bust on the hall table greets guests. A nearly lifesize painting of a matador by a student of Botero brightens a gallery. British Colonial rattan seating brings a sense of Caribbean to a house meant to be a public gathering place.

"Nearly every painting, drawing and lithograph depicts the human face or figure," notes Shuster about the art in his home. "The consulate was to serve people from a common place, like an extended family. They all belong here." And so does he.

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BELOW: Early 19th-century Dutch painting, Faces of Woman, overlooks chest from Maitland-Smith, topped with Art Nouveau brass vases. Torchiéres from 18th-century Spain.

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