You can almost hear the rippling of a silk peignoir in this red velvet home theater, which is as seductive as the boudoir of a 1920s screen siren. Astonishingly, this room originally had an unremarkable existence as a second-floor storage area, but in the hands of Orlando architect Doug Tachi of Loggia Architecture, it went from louche to luxe in a makeover worthy of a Hollywood starlet.

Not surprisingly, guests spend a lot of time in the game room, where a mahogany bar is conducive to conversation. Leather chairs, rich fabrics and mood lighting lend a club atmosphere to the space. Architect Doug Tachi purchased the painting that hangs behind the sofa from a popular Italian restaurant in Orlando that went out of business. (Click image to enlarge)

 
“At first, the homeowners weren’t sure if they wanted to do anything with this space,” says Tachi, who designed the house and interiors with his wife and partner, Fleta Collins. “Then the husband wife and partner, Fleta Collins. “Then the husband started talking about an entertainment room where the family and extended family could gather. From those discussions, we hit on our theme: a private movie boudoir.”

The Venetian-style manse that houses this glamorous theater is nestled deep in Central Florida’s misty lake country, where moss drapes the cypress trees that encircle the Butler Chain of Lakes. The home is regal and European, while the theater is a romantic indulgence, like the opulence of an 18th-century garden.

The elaborately carved pool table is the focal point of the game room and adds to the club feel of the space in addition to the nail-head trimmed leather chairs and dark woods. The capacious windows that open up to the Butler Chain of Lakes welcome in the natural light, which provides a direct counterpoint to the dark, gentleman’s club atmosphere. (Click image to enlarge)

Glamour abounds in the theater with classic movie pal-ace details, such as deep crimson velvet walls and dark cherry paneling. Up to 20 guests can sink into the tufted velvet seats to enjoy a movie projected on the 5-by-8-foot screen, which is framed by extensive wood molding. Since the family has three school-age children, the 18-by-22-foot room hosts many sleepovers and birthday parties, and serves as the entertainment grounds for sophisticated and casual adult get-togethers.Tachi says the room came together quickly after he persuaded the wife to forgo the adjacent hallway’s linen closet for audio and video equipment storage. “Designing a home theater is much easier than fitting entertainment equipment into a multipurpose room,” Tachi maintains. “We were able to completely control the acoustics, seating arrangements, lighting and speaker placement without having to consider other uses. And it was fun because we could get very specific in carrying out our theme.”

Tucked into a colonnaded loggia, the pool area reflects touches of Italian design in the screen enclosure’s columns. (Click image to enlarge)

Enhancing the 1920s ambiance with dramatic lighting was one of Tachi’s main concerns, and also enabled him to camouflage—or shadow, to be more exact—the theater’s technology. He opted for low-voltage rope lighting as well as vintage-looking wall sconces, which spread a soft glow while keeping the high-tech gear in the dark.

To ensure the theater installation and the rest of the home’s complex electronics were successfully integrated, Tachi turned to Electronic Systems Design, an audiovisual design firm in Orlando. The company wired the home for audio and video, as well as electricity, which, according to Tachi, was critical for equipment updates.

The dining area of the kitchen is floored with polished dark red marble and a light matte finish marble. The molding of the muraled alcove complements the grand feel of the home’s raised paneling and detailing. (Click image to enlarge)

They gave us computer drawings at the end of the job with all the circuitry documented, so if the homeowners want to install something different or change the location of something, we can easily figure out what wires control which device,” Tachi says. “That’s one of the most important, but often overlooked, parts of successful home theater construction.” The 12,000-square-foot house, which is filled with marble and crystal, is a sublime sun-filled palazzo modeled after the palaces of  Venice. “My clients wanted a Mediter-ranean-inspired house,” Tachi says of the property centered on a peninsula-shaped lot that juts into one of Central Florida’s Spanish moss-fringed lakes. “My wife and I had just returned from Venice, so we showed them the photos we had taken and they loved the idea of creating that kind of old-world atmosphere—as long as it would be comfortable and practical for family life with three children.”

A crystal chandelier provides a dramatic counterpoint to the sweeping curves of twin spiral staircases. (Click image to enlarge)

The light-flooded foyer is the hub of the home and ser-ves as a “town square,” as Tachi likes to describe it, where family members moving from one wing to another must pass. From here, twin spiral staircases arch gracefully to the second floor, leading to balconies that overlook the space below. The staircase’s iron scrollwork balusters and the wrought-iron front entry doors were custom-crafted on site by a blacksmith.

Venetian influences dominate the living room, above, which embodies old-world grandeur. The main floor boasts three kinds of Italian marble. (Click image to enlarge)

Despite the heavy ornamental moldings and the richly colored mosaic marble floors of the space, which are echoed throughout the house, the high-ceiling room has a light and airy feel to it, thanks to the triple-arched entry that provides an unobstructed view to the lake. Overhead, a trompe l’oeil sky mural blushes with faint clouds.When family members travel through “town square,” they’re often heading to the game room on the first floor, a cherry-paneled sanctuary with floor-to-ceiling windows that open up to the lake. Here, a masculine formality prevails, with a brilliant, heavily carved cherry wood pool table presiding at the far end. “We did a great deal of looking to find that pool table,” Tachi recalls. “The wood matches the cherry paneling on the walls.”

“We turned the storage closet into a movie boudoir as ravishing as anything a Hollywood   star would have had in  the 1920s.” —Doug Tachi, architect and designer (Click image to enlarge)

On the other side of the room, a mahogany bar lends a club room feel. A step above is a seating cluster comprised of a gold- and burgundy-striped sofa and chairs.

One of Tachi’s biggest design challenges was to incorporate a screened-in pool in an elegant European fashion. His inspiration was again Italian, this time more Roman than Venetian. Tall, imposing stone columns support the screen infrastructure, like an ancient Roman bath. The stone-like textures of the deck that surround the pool embellish the theme.

The home manages the near impossible through a blend of formal and classic styles that encourage comfort and an exuberant sense of fun.