SOME HOMES call for bare feet and blue jeans, others seem tailor-made for high tea and good taste.

And then you have a home like Portland designer Henry Brown's. A home in a class all its own.
 

DOORS IN THE MUSIC ROOM OPEN to the courtyard, where the terrazzo floors continue from inside to out. Ficus trees and horsetail grass form a square centered by a cast-stone fountain and astrolabe — an instrument once used to determine the altitude of a star.

There's the baby grand, the white terrazzo floors — heated no less — the sumptuous drapes spilling down glass doors like so much fine silk, the ottoman with burnished legs that look for all the world like fine pieces of silver jewelry.

Cue the orchestra, uncork the champagne. Here is a home that just begs for intimate suppers and fine wines, for silk dressing gowns and something low and lovely on the stereo.

Here is a home you won't often find in Portland. And no one knows that better than Brown.

"When I walked in the door," Brown recalls, "I recognized immediately I was crazy for this house. I said, 'When you're ready to sell, I'm ready to buy.' "

The house, however, wasn't even on the market. Nor would it be. For the fates were in Brown's favor that day. He'd been called to the mid-century modern house to interview to be the designer for the homeowners' new condominium. He got the job, and, ultimately, the house.

But for all that he loved about it — the scale, the simplicity, the size — clearly some changes would have to be made.

"It was definitely true to mid-century modern," Brown says. "Mid-century modern was all about using new materials that weren't available prior to that time . . . big sliding-glass doors, the use of plastics, fiberglass, a lot of metals for framing. It felt very L.A. '60s. It was done extremely well . . . it's just not my style."

And, the house, 4,000 square feet and built in 1960, had been designed for a family of four. Now it would shelter just two, Brown and his partner Steve Bedford, owner of West Coast Plant Co.

While the original footprint of the house remains intact, inside it's a different house indeed. The family room is now the dining room, the dining room has become the music room, and several bedrooms, bathrooms and a utility space were redefined into two master suites, a guest room and gallery.
 

	SPACE THAT ONCE HOUSED the utility room and a guest bedroom has been transformed into a gallery where Henry Brown's collection of Chinese antiques, including ceramic neck pillows and pigskin document boxes, are displayed.

But the biggest change came when Brown converted 48 windows to 48 glass doors. "I knew the entire house could relate to the (atrium) garden. Big estate homes often have guest houses or garden pavilions, and they almost always, instead of a lot of solid walls, have these walls of glass doors that open to the pool or garden or patio. That was the whole feeling I wanted to capture here."

And he succeeded.

With natural light brightening every room and the seamless flow of one space to the next, what could have been a cold space is a home remarkably warm and even intimate.

Oversized wooden doors open into the living room. Colors throughout are predominately neutrals — putty greens and cream — punctuated with black, and many of the furnishings are antiques.

The elegant, oversized chairs by the atrium wall were rescued from an antique shop in a state Brown describes as "horrid." Local artist Nancy Thorne stripped the old upholstery, removed sprayed-on gold paint and salvaged the original water-gilded finish. Thorne also gets credit for the luxurious silk taffeta ottoman, on which she burnished the carved wooden legs.

And then there are the living-room drapes, which only look like fine silk.

"It's rubberized linen," Brown says. "You actually could use it for a shower curtain, which is probably what it was intended for rather than living- and dining-room curtains. I didn't want to do the silk thing, but I wanted the sheen and shimmer, and this rubberized linen gave it to me."

In the dining room, a cast-stone fireplace mirrors that in the living room, and doors open to a terrace of wicker and potted plants. The pieces Brown is most proud of are a pair of wall sconces reproduced from Venetian antiques. Brown and Bedford first spotted the fixtures — crafted in the shape of a man's arm holding a torch — at a Paris flea market.
 

BROWN PURCHASED the antique console table, originally a furnishing in the Portland I. Magnin store, at the San Francisco I. Magnin closing sale. The table backs a custom-made sofa with tuxedo back and arms and linen upholstery. The original terrazzo floors are heated, keeping the space toasty even during Portland's damp winters.

"As one might expect," Brown says, "they had a very large price tag. As much as I wanted them, I couldn't do it. Then we stumbled upon these bronze reproductions in a San Francisco showroom. It turns out the man who created them reproduced them from the originals."

As it stood, the kitchen was a simple and serviceable space. It posed a challenge not for what it lacked, but what it offered. The cabinets had been hand-crafted on the spot, and the workmanship, Brown says, was extraordinary. "But it was a lot of brown walnut for me." Rather than remove them all, Brown left the lower cabinets and had the upper level replaced with white tile and open, stainless-steel shelves.

Bedrooms continue the sophisticated theme. In Bedford's suite, a Lucite and nickel four-poster bed is flanked by black and nickel-plated tables, complemented by a pair of slipper chairs and a vintage writing desk. Brown's cocoon-like suite features sateen linen upholstered walls in French gray with a chaise lounge and bed to match.

The home is everything Brown hoped for.

"I've never lived in spaces I love as much as I love these spaces. The light quality, the scale, the proportion, it's an incredible house to live in day to day. It is so well-suited to living here in the Northwest. We have a lot of gloomy days, and I'll tell you, I don't think we ever have a gloomy day here at home because light comes in in so may different directions from the atrium."

And, of course, there's already been a party or two.

Last year, Brown and Bedford opened the house to a holiday tour, then invited a few friends in to dine.

"We had over 80 people in for a buffet supper. It's an amazing house to entertain in. It wasn't black tie, though people came that way. We had a pianist, a bartender, fire in the fireplaces, candles lit . . . It had a real magical feel about it."

Oh, you can just imagine.

Lori Tobias is a freelance writer based on the Oregon coast. Her e-mail address is loritobias@harborside.com. Benjamin Benschneider is a Pacific Northwest magazine staff photographer.

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