STARTING OVER FROM SCRATCH

JUDY HYDE-SMITH WASN"T KIDDING WHEN SHE SAID SHE WANTED A NEW LOOK FOR HER '70'S-ERA TOWNHOUSE IN MEMPHIS' CLASSY GATED COMMUNITY OF WOODLANDS. SOON AFTER PURCHASING THE TWO-STORY STRUCTURE IN 2000, THE ART-COLLECTING GRANDMOTHER HAD IT STRIPPED DOWN TO ITS STUDS AND COMPLETELY REBUILT TO SUIT HER TASTES—TASTES THAT INCLUDED THE FINEST GRANITE COUNTERTOPS, MARBLE FLOORS AND BUILT-IN FEATURES.

    The result is a combination of Manhattan penthouse meets Southern living in the most surprising of locations: hiding behind the facade of an ordinary townhouse in Memphis.

    "From the outside, you don't expect to find what we accomplished on the inside to be part of the same complex. It's such a radical departure from the outside architecture. It's a totally different environment," says Marc McClure, one-half of the architectural duo of Menzer McClure, the firm that revamped the home during a period of 15 months.

    Mark and Oscar Menzer gutted the finishes and infrastructure, replacing the wiring, plumbing and mechanical equipment with their modern equivalents. They also buffered the house's south side with acoustics insulation as an added sound barrier from the adjoining neighbors.

    Then, the two reconfigured the layout by turning the downstairs guest bedroom into a study and adding a bathroom and a new guest quarters upstairs. They also embellished the house with architectural features like built-ins and sweeping lines to give it individuality and pizzazz.

    "Before, it was just plain sheetrock walls and stock molding, and any personality was derived through what the interior decorator could have done," Oscar says. "But there was no architecture."

    Oscar and Judy point to the study as a prime example of how they transformed the house. Once a dowdy room with four walls and a plain, sliding glass door, the space now boasts floor-to-ceiling shelves and 8-foot-high French doors that accentuate the home's 9-foot ceilings and flood the space with light.

    That look was repeated in each room of the house, including in the upstairs bedrooms where balconies created by Memphis' Metal Works Design Studio artist Jerry Couillard overlook the renovated garden below and in the dining room, where previously two small windows provided the only source of light.

    "We brought light into what had been a dark, dingy room," Oscar says. "We opened that whole end wall up with large French doors and side lights that open into a wonderful, small French garden."

    Judy played off that new sense of space and light by choosing bright and happy colors for her wall paints and fabrics. She did this with the help of her daughter-in-law, a Forth Worth, Texas-based interior designer named Julie Hayes, and a good friend Biggs Powell, of Biggs Powell Interior Design and Antiques in Memphis.

    "Julie was my resource for all the new fabrics I put in the house. We bought the [dining room] chairs together, and she helped me pick that fabric to blend with the rug," Judy explains. "Biggs helped me with those striped chairs and the blue lamps [in the living room]. He helped me blend these new pieces along with my old ones and gave it a total personal style."

    Biggs' shop also provided the zebra rug that graces the home's impressive limestone foyer. It's Judy's favorite room of the house, thanks in part to the renovated staircase that sweeps down from the second floor. Although the stairs are original to the abode, Menzer McClure hired Couillard to make a new wrought-iron banister with a walnut handrail that adds elegance and a French pied-à-terre feel.

    The homeowner didn't skimp on details anywhere else, either. She installed granite countertops from Alexander Marble & Tile Company in the kitchen, along with a Viking Range and Sub-Zero refrigerator for her husband Jimmy, who loves to cook.

    And in the master bathroom, she got marble floors, Waterworks bath fixtures from England and sconces to adorn the refurbished walls.

    "I said to Oscar, 'I envision a bathroom that is as nice or nicer than any hotel I ever stayed in," Judy recalls. "I took a picture of the St. Regis in New York, and he designed this bathroom with that in mind."

    Outside, Nashville garden designer Ben Page turned a plain yard into an enchanted getaway using maintenance-free foliage so the homeowners—who spend half of the year in Aspen—don't have to fuss with it when they return to Memphis. Boxwood and ginkgo trees bloom and turn colors when Judy and Jimmy are home in spring and fall and accentuate the couple's custom-made, marble statue by Memphis sculptor John McIntyre, which sits in a tranquil water feature.

    Several downstairs rooms lead out into the garden, and the couple's master bedroom overlooks it from above—a feature Judy especially appreciates.

    "It's like living in a wonderful tree house," Judy says. "You open those doors and hear the birds."

    In the winter, a gas fireplace turns the oversized bedroom into a cozy haven where Judy can snuggle up with a book.

    Hardwood floors cover the entire house—except the kitchen, bathrooms and foyer—as does an impressive collection of furniture from around the world and artwork obtained mainly from Memphis' David Lusk Galerry. With all her favorite objects tastefully placed throughout, Judy calls this townhouse her dream come true.

    "I believe a home should reflect who you are," she says. "I have been collecting these treasures for years, and now I finally have a beautiful place to display them. But I couldn't have done it without all these people. Without a doubt, the result of this house is a collaboration of the people I love and admire."