From House To Home

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Nearly everything in Shelley and John Biever’s home has a story. From the 400-year-old Oriental screen in the family room to the French flea market chandelier in the powder room, their beautiful furnishings carry a history that these homeowners love to share.

“We are just extreme history fanatics,” says Shelley, who is originally from central Nebraska.

“It’s our way of appreciating different cultural viewpoints,” adds John, who is from the Chicago area.

The fact that they are both world travelers, nationally known interior designers, and owners of Model Interiors enriches their Omaha home and their stories.

But their home has a backstory: It is half of a villa with exterior architecture resembling a French chateau. “The exterior was very well thought out…with all sorts of little surprises in classic French architecture,” says John. “But they dropped the ball on the inside.”

Transforming the interior took 10 months. “It had bones that were incredible,” says Shelley. “It was a wonderful collaboration with our contractor.”

Before they moved in three years ago, they moved the staircase from one end of the house to the other. They converted the master suite, which was on the first floor, into a family room and powder room. The move allowed them more garage space, a first-floor laundry, and a larger pantry.

They opened up the formerly dark entry with a glass-front door and a floor-to-ceiling antique-reproduction mirror. The renovation received a French-provincial finish, says Shelley.

The marble floors are not polished. Instead, the rich terra-cotta material has a tumbled finish. Other materials and patterns were chosen to create the rustic, European-country atmosphere.

The long hall, an enfilade, spans 50 feet. The family room is at one end, the kitchen and hearth are near the middle, and the offices are at the other end. Trimmed arches soften the transitions between rooms.

The home’s color palette was inspired by the antique screen in the family room. Chosen for a client two years before they purchased this house, the Bievers kept it for themselves because Florida’s climate would have ruined it. “It was as if this house was meant to be ours,” says Shelley. “We moved in here, and [the screen] was the perfect dimension.”

The family room also holds an antique, 9-foot Chinese door, Italian bombe chest, and antique opium pipe and scale. The powder room, with its French-silk upholstered, tufted walls, is home to a chandelier found at a French flea market. “We love looking for unique little things everywhere we travel,” Shelley says.

John’s grandmother’s chairs and china are also found here. When remodeling, they rounded the top corners of an existing niche for an arched inset display for her dishes. Two Creme lamps provide lighting and have shades that match the blue-and-cream toile draperies. Additional storage is found below, behind cloth-backed, chicken-wire cabinet-door inserts.

The kitchen is directly across the hall. A limestone canopy fills the wall above the ovens and range. Two niches, holding Italian vases, break the expanse of wall tile and complement the canopy.

“We had so many textures going on with the wood and stone that we wanted something with a very fine texture—but that still looked like stone [for the countertops],” says John. Tinted concrete tops cherry-stained, glazed cabinets. The majority of the cabinetry was moved into the pantry, which is just outside the kitchen.

The master suite moved upstairs. Its soft-blue wall color is one the couple found on their first trip to France. “We saw it in the Saint Germain design and antique district of Paris,” says John. “It was the perfect complement to all the silks used in the bedroom.”

While they lost 18 inches in the bedroom to create a straight wall for the poster bed, they optimized architectural space in the master bath to allow for an oversized marble shower and a freestanding soaking tub.

The uncluttered space features a chair and table from an estate sale. An antique-reproduction Tremeau mirror leans against the wall.

Throughout the house, the combination of exquisite furnishings and materials—rustic finishes and heavily textured patterns—gives this elegant house its comfortable appeal. “There is an elegance that is casualized by the materials and patterns used,” says John.

“Our vision was to make it beautiful and comfortable,” adds Shelley.