The swooping headboard in Linda Metzger’s bedroom is crafted in white, curly mohair, resembling the graceful curves of a swan. The design is inspired by the iconic Marjan Pejoski-designed dress music icon Björk wore at the 2001 Academy Awards. Like the wearer of the daring ensemble, Linda, a fashion lover and international ballroom dance champion, has a flair for the dramatic. When Linda and her husband decided to renovate their primary home in Valparaiso, Indiana, they turned to Fort Myers-based designer Dwayne Bergmann to craft a luxe refuge primed for entertaining.
Before gliding into the competitive world of dance, Linda was a general contractor. For the renovation, she wanted to update the nearly 6,000-square-foot Midwestern raised ranch house she built in her hometown in 2001. “[Valparaiso] is close to metropolitan areas when needed,” she says, noting the proximity to Chicago and Indianapolis. “But it is quiet with a very neighborly feeling.”
The couple had worked with Bergmann on their winter home, a condo on Naples’ Fifth Avenue South. “He goes beyond design to truly get to know his clients,” Linda says. “He [understood] me like no one before.” Linda knew Bergmann’s team would bring the panache to match her artistic sensibility and social personality. “We love to entertain in high style, and we love to be self-reflective in the home, which we view as our private retreat,” she says.
To create her haven, Bergmann worked with Robin McGarry, senior designer at Dwayne Bergmann Interiors, to select the soft goods and finishes. One of the first orders of business was to update the abode to suit the couple’s social lifestyle. So, Bergmann added a decked-out scullery for prep work and storage, opened up the kitchen, and created plenty of spaces to lounge decadently. The designers also replaced the narrow-plank maple-hardwood flooring with white porcelain tiles throughout most of the home, adding a sophisticated sheen.
Now, each room is an homage to Art Deco design, with sleek elegance, luxe materials and monumental flair. “Linda was the major inspiration behind the design,” Bergmann says. “She exudes eclecticism, high-fashion, practicality mashed with theatrics, and more than a dash of fantasy.”
Style pervades throughout the interiors. A lush lilac palette takes center stage in most rooms. The hue is most cinematic in the primary bedroom, with its sweeping drapery, linens and wallcoverings. In other areas, the soft purple shade serves as an accent (often with bright pops of pink), stringing together a cohesive color narrative. “It was like watching an artist with a paintbrush simply design over the past and incorporate a very luxurious, contemporary interior,” Linda says. “It feels like living in artwork.”
Bergmann weaved in and alternated a mix of blacks, whites and metallics to infuse freshness into a motif that could become monotonous in less adept hands. The entryway shines in shades of shimmering gray, with vertically patterned drapery wall coverings that simulate drapery, a chandelier made of cascading circular crystal rings, and a grand staircase in a pewter shade. The gently curving masterpiece nods to the importance of dance in the homeowners’ lives.
The nearby gold and silver kitchen flaunts millwork, both designed and manufactured by Bergmann’s company, DBI Cabinetry. “The cabinetry is embellished with gold, hammered-brass metal on the perimeter,” he says. “The sheer weight of the metal required us to change the hinges twice before we got it perfect.” A pair of two-tone, fluted oval islands (painted gold and pewter and topped by MSI Surfaces Calacatta gold quartz countertops) add modern sophistication to the jewel box of a kitchen. The lustrous brass Kuzco Lighting ring chandeliers overhead would look at home in a swanky, circa-1920s hotel bar.
Off the kitchen, an artful daydream of a scullery stocks a refrigerator, cooktop and oven, microwave, and dishwasher. The space is framed by hand-painted doors hanging from barn-door hardware and lined with DBI Cabinetry, painted in pretty shell-pink (including a fridge adorned with a woman’s face). A mirrored backsplash makes the nook look bigger and completes the space that more closely resembles a dancer’s dressing room than a pantry.
The five-bedroom, four-and-one-half-bathroom continues with a massage room, a boardroom, an executive office and a mailroom. “We also have a Florida room that is the most cozy place to be in the winter,” Linda says. “It has lots of glass, a fireplace and decadent decor.” Two gray velvet sofas topped with fur and silk pillows and two swivel chairs in a chevron fabric entice for a cozy visit by the fireplace, clad in white Carrara marble. Meanwhile, zebra and faux-fur rugs interlaced on the wood floors add another layer of snug sophistication.
Bergmann employed textural changes, mixed mediums and a variety of patterns to infuse the home with depth and visual interest. “There are no standard prints in this home,” Bergmann says. Touches of metallic paint mingle with wallpapers adorned with velvet, beading and hand-painted detailing you might find on an elaborate ball gown. A mural in the family room depicting oversized, opulent flowers adds a feminine touch.
The regal en suite bathroom’s repainted lilac cabinets anchor the wall’s bold treatment, which features hand-painted faux gold-leaf marble veining accents and the shimmering gilt ceiling. A freestanding slipper tub, with gold fixtures, is crowned by an intricate brass and crystal chandelier. All that’s missing is bubbles and a glass of bubbly.
Bergmann designed the white curved sofas (with a lush velvet fabric) in the formal sitting area, the white velvet sectional in the family room, the mohair rugs in the living room and den, and the primary bedroom’s downy headboard. The bed is further emphasized by a glass mosaic installation rising from behind the headboard, cascading drapery on either side and a bud-adorned circular fixture overhead, evoking a snow-capped tree in winter. Bespoke bedding with fabric from the 1831-founded German brand Sahco and Dea lace-embroidered linens elevate the primary bedroom to royalty status. “I feel like I’m living in the most luxurious environment,” Linda says. “Beyond my imagination.”
Photography by Werner Straub