After 32 years, it was time for a makeover... but not just any makeover.

Editor's Note: For nearly a decade, Margot Douaihy has been writing about the custom installation business for Residential Systems. Recently she got her first hands-on taste of the process when her mother led the renovation of her Scranton, Pennsylvania, home, adding a fresh interior design and professionally installed AV equipment. At home, Margot calls Francine Douaihy "Mom," but in this story the professional writer in her can't help but referring to her as "Douaihy." Here's Margot's story about her mom.

My mom, Francine Douaihy, is an artist and art collector who considers her Arts and Crafts-style home in the heart of Pennsylvania Coal Country the bedrock of our family. But one day, as she admired the same paintings and photographs that she had enjoyed for decades, she had a vision. A creative renovation, she decided, would enliven the space and offer new ways to appreciate "being home."

Douaihy decided that a way to renovate the beloved family house was to explore the Asian spirit within the Arts and Crafts style.

The roots of the Arts and Crafts movement are in the 19th Century as artists and designers searched for aesthetic authenticity amidst the Industrial Revolution's soulless machinery. This meaningful movement emphasized "handcrafted" creations. A typical Arts and Crafts home isn't just an edifice, it tells a visual narrative, alive with intimate details, unpredictable angles, and accents.

"I wanted to pay homage to the Arts and Crafts design philosophy and its love of
wood by pairing it with Asian-inspired wall color, furniture, and art," Douaihy stated.

In fact, as she dug deeper, Douaihy realized that the Asian influence of this Scranton home actually began when the house was built in 1910. Its pagoda-shaped roof presides over the stucco exterior of the home. She chose burnt orange for the foyer's walls and vibrant tangerine for the living room. The dining room's gold wallpaper is Thibalt's Tea House; pagodas are the predominant design. "I wanted a very formal feel for this room," she explained.

Each room's accents are as much design fulcrums as the centerpieces themselves. Small touches leave lasting impressions. The Trump-chandelier resembles an upside-down parasol, gold window shades by Hunter-Douglas are flanked by custom-made, gold wide-striped draperies by the interior design firm SewFine of Luzerne, Pennsylvania. Each window covering was edged in beading to enhance the intricate, exotic feel.

Because the home is not large, and the living room doubles as the entertainment center, Douaihy strove to create, with the help of the contractor Daniel Marra of Daniel's Art and Design Company, a way to make the living room formal, yet artistically alive.

"We wanted a formal space yet somewhere we could relax, experience movies, television, and music, as well as enjoy the original art adorning the walls," she stated.

To meet this need, Marra built a custom-made entertainment center of oak that complements the oak woodwork and Brazilian cherry wood floors that unite each room of the house.

Marra has made a name for himself in the Poconos region as a master of all trades: remodels, multi-purpose media rooms, carpenter, fireplace installer, and designer. He prides himself on high-design integration of AV technology into homes without altering the aesthetic integrity.

A Sony Mega Changer DVD carousel, satellite/set-top box, and Sony Bravia receiver are all encased in black-mirrored glass above the black granite fireplace beneath the Panasonic 52-inch high-definition plasma. The subwoofer was tucked into the corner and the five surround sound speakers, each the size of teacup, were mounted flush on the ceiling. All the wires, including four HDMI cables from Monster, are out of sight. Marra ran them behind the walls into the circuit breaker in the basement.

No more remotes litter the coffee table; Marra and his team tied the myriad entertainment functions into one, easy-to-use Sony Universal Remote Control.

When the TV is off, it can be surrounded in a halo of soft light, with the help of flush-mounted sconces against the tangerine walls.

Douaihy's impressive collection of paintings, photographs, sculptures, collage, and glasswork exceeds the hundreds. There is even a woodland mural painted in the basement. To the family's surprise, she decided to showcase only oil paintings in the living room. "I choose to hang only landscape oil paintings in to enhance the formal elegance."

The custom details extend to the foyer floor where travertine stone blends with a hand-designed medallion of glass and ceramic tile, marble, and granite. The floor's pale grey harmonizes with Asian, black-lacquered furniture, making the orange walls pop.

The powder room is another radical renovation that honors the historical splendor of Rome, with a contemporary twist.

Douaihy wanted to create the look and feel of Roman columns on both sides of the bathroom, which proved to be challenging in this small area. To overcome the design hurdle, Marra chose thin, rectangular, corrugated grey tile, even covering a laundry chute. The main wall has a 2x3-foot rectangular wall surface of quartz "sugar-cube" shaped tiles, creating a luminescent, three-dimensional experience.

In addition to being a skilled technology integrator, Marra is a high-design contractor. His brilliance as a designer might have its beginning in his birthplace, Brazil, where, he explained, "Marble and stone are common materials for use in home design."

Marra understands stone and tile as a powerful design elements; he uses both to create surfaces that challenge expectations and limitations, on the walls as well as the floor.

Marra paired the different shaped and textured grey tiles with Asian-inspired cabinetry and vanity that supports a stainless steel bowl, serving as a sink.

Two glass shelves are attached to the tiles to display a miniature First Century marble sculpture of a Roman nobleman. "Antiquity marries modernity," Douaihy beamed. The other accents are stainless steel, which creates a successful juxtaposition against the tile and wood cabinetry.

It's not just the transformed space that delights the family, Douaihy added. "High-definition entertainment is new and exciting to me and my family," she said. When it is not being used, the plasma is concealed behind black mirror doors, serving as yet another ornate sculpture in this living showcase. When the family wants to have fun, they turn it on and enjoy the best that today's technology has to offer. The fireplace below the plasma adds further charm.

How about the audio? "The surround sound is so precise that one night when I was watching a high-definition version of Dicken's Our Mutual Friend," Douaihy said. "As I stood up to answer the doorbell, I realized it wasn't mine, but the shopkeeper's on the TV." Now that's authentic.

This renovation gave this Scranton home a new, sassy personality without sacrificing the style that makes it an Arts and Crafts classic.