Restoration of the Villa Louis
Detail view of main staircase and
banister in front hall. View more restoration pictures
In 1885 Nina Dousman — matriarch of the family who built and
occupied the Villa Louis during its Victorian heyday — set about
a top-to-bottom restoration of the mansion to make
its rooms a showplace of British Arts-and-Crafts interior design style.
Though much in vogue at the time in posh homes of some major American
cities, the use of William Morris-inspired fabrics, finishes, and
patterns in a Midwestern country house represented an undertaking
as bold and unique then as it remains today.
Family records and photographs from the 1890s reveal the result — richly
detailed draperies set off by ornate brass filigree, lushly textured
wallpapers and carpeting rendered in floral blues and rich golds,
hand-wrought faux-grain woodwork, and the deep-relief luster of embossed
Lincrusta Walton wall coverings. All have been meticulously researched
and painstakingly re-created by some of the museum profession's most
gifted designers.
The bold fin-de-siecle styles chosen by Nina Dousman a century ago, now faithfully reproduced and applied as exactly as historical research allows, couple with original furnishings, artwork, and priceless family heirlooms to make the Villa Louis one of the most authentically restored Victorian house museums in America. The restoration project has already attracted national attention, and was the subject of an exhibit at the prestigious New York School of Interior Design during the fall of 1999.
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