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Homes

Education takes center stage

A family's playroom is full of learning opportunities, with kid-sized spaces designed for music, art, theater and literature.

By ELIZABETH BETTENDORF
Published April 15, 2005

TAMPA - If, as William Shakespeare proclaimed, "All the world's a stage," then the stage Carrie and Harry Hedaya built for their children is its own little kingdom.

For pint-size actors.

With its velvet purple drapes knotted with gold-tassel ropes and chalkboard-paint backdrop that allows new sets to be scribbled at whim, it's a magical place where the dramas of childhood are acted out daily.

Magic tricks turn red silk scarves into air and playing cards disappear in the flash of tiny hands. Impromptu paintings hang from a clothesline at stage center; puppets await a script; costumes glitter above a prop trunk.

Sometimes neighborhood moms squeeze themselves into tiny, Goldilocks chairs to watch a show performed by a mob of small children.

Zara, 4, dons a purple princess gown and pointy hat.

Zane, 6, strums a guitar and directs.

"I want to create a passion in my kids, teach them to express themselves, build confidence," explains Carrie Hedaya, 37, an actor, singer and former financial planner who converted a "perfectly beautiful" guest bedroom suite into a combined theater, art studio and music room.

Carrie, and her husband, Harry, also 37, the chief executive officer of Dollar Realty and Mortgage, hired area interior decorator Debbie Perez to design the room as well as their entire Beach Park house, with its breathtaking views of a natural Florida lagoon.

Featured in the April 2005 issue of Better Homes and Gardens, the children's playroom combines elements of dramatic, visual, musical and literary arts.

Perez, 41, chose traditional Shakespearean colors: purple, gold and silver. She designed a half-hexagon, 6-foot by 14-foot oak stage and floor-to-ceiling storage cabinets. She installed oversized, virtually indestructible blocks of commercial vinyl on the floor.

"I really created zones for theater, art, music and books," says Perez, who interviewed both parents and children before sitting down at the drawing board. During the course of the extensive interview and design process, Perez and Carrie Hedaya became best friends.

"I realized that I always looked forward to our conversations and seeing her," recalls Carrie, who allowed Perez to transform the once starkly modern Miami Vice house into a warmer, more European dwelling.

Through the whole design process, the two agreed on everything from color to the extreme makeover of the front of the house.

Perez added custom-designed wrought-iron railings to the dramatic center staircase, hired a painter to create a warmed-up, old-world wooden look on the once-white kitchen cabinets, and added chenille-damask mustard and ruby-hued drapes in the center of the home to soften once-harsh architectural lines.

Perez designed the interior for the indoor-outdoor living that the Hedayas love. Glass patio doors are thrown open year round, luring guests to sit on the sofa on the patio with its mesmerizing water view that includes daily sightings of manatees and dolphins.

Karma between client and designer is so good that the design process remains ongoing: Currently Perez is designing an upstairs yoga-meditation room for Carrie.

"One day," Carrie explains, "I realized that we got along so well that I simply asked if she just wanted to be friends."

Now Perez and her husband - a Tampa attorney and amateur guitarist - frequently take part in the Hedayas' "jam-session" dinner parties, where close friends gather to play musical instruments and sing until the early hours of the morning.

Perez has also come to appreciate the Hedayas' passion for Montessori schooling (both Zane and Zara attend the Montessori Children's House of Hyde Park), and she thinks that ultimately any playroom she designs should "really be about the kids."

Rolling easels allow for painting al fresco: Sliding glass doors open to a tree house, swings and a view of the lagoon. A saxophone, minikeyboard, tambourine and percussion instruments are always within reach; the CD player is child-friendly and accessible, and the Formica art table features pullout leaves to accommodate a gathering of children.

Plump purple beanbag chairs create movable seating and invite an afternoon of reading.

"They use this room constantly or they're outside, from the moment they get up," Carrie says. "They watch very little TV. We're trying to bring them the rest of the world right here."

At Carrie's request, Perez lined the hallway leading to the room with corkboard so that the Hedayas could paper the space with their children's constantly changing parade of colorful paintings.

"I keep everything, every single thing they make," Carrie says. "We use this hallway constantly, so every time you walk in or out of the playroom, you're literally walking through a gallery."

Perez framed English prints of traditional Shakespearean actors that Carrie bought while traveling in London. Antique illustrations from a children's book of nursery rhymes - a find at the Mount Dora flea market - hang on the opposite wall. Generous built-in shelves house the family's collection of books on every subject.

Both Harry, born in Pakistan, raised in London and educated at the University of Tampa; and Carrie, who grew up in Tennessee, but ended up acting in Los Angeles (where the two met), share a philosophy that education should be fun and lead to a lifelong curiosity and love of learning.

"Being successful in life is not about going to the right schools," Carrie says. "It really comes from a love for creativity, self-expression and books. This is what I want to teach my kids and what this room is really about."

[Last modified April 13, 2005, 16:39:09]