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Beyond the next door, a new dream

Posted on July 23, 2009 by Staff

A sitting room to dream of is tucked outside the master suite designed by Robin Dubeau. Photo by Valarie Schwartz.By Valarie Schwartz

Robin Dubeau could write the book on how the closing of one door leads to the opening of another. In 2002, her 10-year-old company, Magnolia Manufacturing, was destroyed when the roof collapsed onto her inventory of permanent botanicals, florals and trees, forcing her to lay off employees and close the Hillsborough-based business that had become increasingly popular with furniture showrooms from Dallas to High Point and retail stores across the nation.

Picking up the pieces, she turned first to completing the raising of her three children, then to remodeling her Chapel Hill home in the Lake Forest neighborhood. From that experience, she learned that the book she’d really like to write is about turning a 1960s-era home into a Victorian retreat.

She’s certainly proven her ability with the home she bought in 1992 and rescued from the overgrown ivy that threatened its existence. Two years ago, she began the remodel that has transformed the 2,026-square-foot three-bedroom home into 3,371 square feet, including a gentlemen’s library, butler’s pantry, lighthouse-mimicking glass block-enclosed stairwell and master suite (sprawling above the three-car garage) that includes a dressing room fit for a princess, a lavishly appointed bathroom and, my favorite, a sitting room for the lady of the house with its own private balcony accessed through a Dutch door.

Dubeau has been learning home transformation since her childhood spent in Narragansett, R.I.

“My parents renovated houses, creating homes for the family,” she said while relaxing in the window seat of her sitting room. “We always lived by the ocean.”

And the homes were frequently of Victorian vintage, which is where her mind was set when she designed the 10-foot-by-10-foot sitting room, with its 12-foot ceiling accented by six-piece crown molding. She included a ceiling fan with a stained-glass light fixture and extra-wide window sill, upon which she situated the extravagantly dressed day bed flanked by bead-board walls.

“I love to design,” Dubeau said. “I never had a design lesson in my life; I created my own unique style.”

Having fearlessly pursued her dream of owning her own business and finding success with her own product line, she was only temporarily derailed after losing it all because the insurance company wouldn’t pay. After she sued and won, she invested her award, then used the proceeds to remake her home once her children were launched. For two years, she has opened her door every morning except Sunday to as many as five crews each day, storming full-speed into this next dream as designer and project manager.

Guiding a tour from room to room, she points out many reclaimed items (including brick floors, windows, glass blocks, mahogany stairs and a newel post for the main staircase) and items such as the gorgeous mahogany front door that she had coveted when it was priced at $4,000, which, when she needed to make her purchase, was marked down to $1,500.

“I always felt in this particular project that the inspiration was divinely guided,” Dubeau said. “When the time came to buy doors, the doors were there” at the price she could pay. The house is now listed for sale with Castle Creek Realty in Pittsboro.

Perhaps it was divine guidance that also made her and some of her craftsmen available when the Orange County Rape Crisis Center needed help redesigning space in its new offices at the center at East Franklin and South Estes streets.

“I feel impassioned about women being in positive and safe relationships,” Dubeau said. “When that project came along, I really wanted to make a contribution to supporting the healing and well-being for those individuals. This was the perfect opportunity to lend my energy and talents to that cause.

“There’s more than just receiving in life, there’s giving. Receiving allows one to move along through life and gives us the tools to give back, but the gift of being able to give is the ultimate gift.

Contact Valarie Schwartz at 923-3746 or valariekays@mac.com

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