Myra Fugate’s personality is on immediate display in the foyer of her Pewee Valley home. She collaborated with her fri/files/storyimages/and decorator Joan Nell Stiglitz to achieve this highly personal effect, backed by dozens of touches throughout the house. Here, a massive mirror hung over a large sideboard holds a lamp with a shade trimmed with black feathers. Opposite, a chaise lounge covered in animal print is perched at the base of the staircase. "I wanted something girly-girly," she says.
The double-height entranceway leads into the living room; the staircase and a catwalk above divide the two rooms. A small corner bar straddles the dividing line so that guests can be served on their way to taking their seats. In the living room, a large Palladian window looks out onto the wooded lot, pleasantly dotted with garden ornaments and seating areas. Train tracks bordering that side of the property are framed in the window. Bookshelves flank the mortared-stone fireplace, and the room is furnished with comfortable armchairs, a sofa and a delicate secretary in the corner. The two women painted the walls periwinkle, a color used throughout the house that adds some of that "girly-girly" to the otherwise masculine room.
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| The living room’s walls were painted "girly-girly" periwinkle; (top left) Stiglitz touches in the first-floor bedroom and library (right), including a tiny chest of drawers she hand-painted. |  |
After she sold her house in Lake Forest, which Stiglitz had helped her decorate in a more traditional style, Fugate, a semi-retired schoolteacher, decided to indulge herself. She gave Stiglitz some broad outlines, such as favorite colors and themes, and let Stiglitz interpret them. "Myra is so easy to work with," says Stiglitz. "She’ll give me some ideas and then just let me go with it."
Off the living room, the dining room has a mirrored wall and mirrored valance. The glass-topped dining table has a base composed of two large rams’ heads, which Stiglitz painted silver to match silver accents throughout the house. The dining room leads to a garden-themed kitchen, with ornaments and topiaries over the cabinets and an old wrought-iron garden gate mounted over a door.
Off the kitchen a small converted sun porch has a safari theme, with carved animals and grass skirts used as window swags. Many of the animals had been used in the kitchen of her old house, but Fugate and Stiglitz agreed they were better-suited to this room, surrounded by the wooded lot.
For Stiglitz, who has been working as a decorator for about 20 years, the approach is hands-on, and with an eye for thrift. She likes to work with a client’s existing pieces and supplement them with pieces from antique stores and even yard sales and resale shops. Often she’ll alter pieces or repurpose them, a process she considers part of her creativity. "I don’t know any other way," she says. "I’ve always worked with my hands. I create as I go along. That’s the passion part." She attributes this to her upbringing, and maybe even to her genes. "My grandfather was an auctioneer, so I grew up with old things and things that needed to be fixed up," she says.
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 | Personality presentation: the first-floor bedroom and the guest room, the kitchen and the dining room. |
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Stiglitz’s handiwork can be seen thoughout the house, from hand-painted walls and stenciling to a small hand-painted commode that was turned into a bathroom vanity with a bowl sink. But it all started with a tiny chest of drawers that now sits in Fugate’s first-floor library. Fugate was at a charity auction and saw the colorfully painted piece and decided to bid on it. When she ended up winning the piece, Stiglitz approached Fugate and identified herself as the piece’s creator. That began their relationship, and led to their first collaboration on Fugate’s Lake Forest house.
Fittingly, the feminine theme is carried farthest in the downstairs bedroom, which is painted an intense coral color, with stenciled rosettes. Beveled mirrors cover the raised panels on the doors, and Fugate commissioned an artist to create etched mirror valances over the windows. A shallow trey ceiling is painted silver and edged with a silver-painted molding, giving the room even more color and intensity. "Myra is a very feminine person," says Stiglitz. "She never said this is too much." Large elaborated framed mirrors hang on the wall, including one over a silver-painted chest of drawers. A dignified highboy helps to balance out the room’s frilly factor.
Upstairs, the guest bedroom is equally feminine. Flowered and lace-trimmed hats, many of which were originally Derby hats, hang on the walls and on a large coatrack. A porcelain tea set sits on a trey on the bed, and Fugate’s childhood dressing table and mirror stands in a corner, adding to the sentimentality of the room. (Another bedroom will become a den for Fugate’s significant other, Jerry Wilson, also a teacher.)
Back downstairs, the master bathroom has a curved glass-block shower stall, one of the things that sold Fugate on the house. She had been planning to build a house but ended up finding everything she was looking for in this one. The contemporary lines stand in contrast to softer elements Stiglitz added, like a white faux-fur rug and a built-in vanity table next to the sink. Candles and picture frames trim the oval whirlpool tub.
While it’s not necessary to be friends with your decorator, shared spirit and mutual admiration helped the homeowner and decorator achieve the owner’s dream. "That’s what makes it fun," says Stiglitz.
