In the University Place neighborhood, creativity isn’t always free to flourish, thanks to specific guidelines that homeowners sign up for when they move into the gated, master-planned community. Even refreshing the exterior of a home with the same color of paint requires approval—and that’s just one condition among many. 

But when you visit the neighborhood, you can understand why people agree to such strict rules. The community is cut through with quiet, oak-lined streets, and handsome homes sit on quarter-acre lots with picturesque gardens and matching mailboxes. And when it comes to interiors, owners are free to do what they want. In one home on Langley Place, for example, Caroline and Tim Ryan are surrounded by bursts of color, patterns and textures.

The Ryans’ three-bedroom, two-story home has undergone a complete remodel, a process that spanned two years and included gutting all three bathrooms, moving the laundry room and transforming the original laundry space into a butler’s pantry. Incorporating a collection of precious showpieces was also paramount.

“I’ve been collecting for 60 years, starting with inexpensive pieces that had the right look,” says Caroline. “It’s not about the price, but the charm and quality.” Some of the pieces even have names, like Lulu, a bronze sculpture of a woman’s head that “spoke to me,” says Tim. “We had to get her.” Brought from a village in France, Lulu is now at home amid other precious, eclectic items, each with a story.

Caroline is an avid baker with 15 sets of china; the couple added floor-to-ceiling custom built-ins to the kitchen to light and display her collection. A nearby nook houses a dedicated cookbook library and the range hood over the stove doubles as a copper showstopper and intersects with gleaming cypress ceiling beams, also added in the remodel. The kitchen walls are finished in a coral blush woven wallpaper, and the hardware is a warm polished brass that marries well with the green and white quartz countertops.

There’s lots of eye candy throughout the rest of the home, too, thanks to textiles and patterns and some female busts from the ’70s. A guest bedroom has flowing canopies at the head of two separate beds, with romantic peekaboo floral patterns on the inside. Caroline has been sewing since she was 10, and for decades specialized in soft furnishing creations. “I’ve done miles and miles of ruffles,” she says. The second floor houses her hobby room.

In the Ryans’ bedroom, wallpaper mimics a watercolor forest, and one of the bathrooms has wallpaper with circus-inspired sketches. The ceilings throughout are painted a powdery blue.

The couples’ design inspiration draws from country English elements and Kit Kemp, a designer known for her use of patterns and color. Antique furniture and eclectic art come from flea markets and shops here and overseas. A corner nook in a sitting room by the front of the home houses throwback toys Tim cherishes, including a set of Chinese checkers.

The Ryans are both in their 80s, with six grandchildren. “Everybody is downsizing at our age, but not us,” says Caroline. University Place attracts their growing family, too, with amenities like a golf course and pool.

The remodel was overseen by Sarasota builder Drew Cartwright, who, at 40 years old, heads up Next Wave Builder. A licensed contractor and finish carpenter, he managed subcontractors and personally completed the intricate woodwork, including the cypress ceiling beams and built-ins. He got his first toolbelt from his father at age 8, he says, and officially started his professional career at 21.

“We only do custom work and take on one or two projects at a time,” says Drew. “Clients often become like family, because the process is so personal.” Drew’s father, Frank Cartwright, 66, who has 45 years of experience in the construction business, oversaw the financial side of the project, managing the budget and procurement.

After the Ryans sold a medical linen washing business they ran for 20 years in Clearwater for a healthy sum, Tim says, “I told [Caroline] she could remodel the house and not ask for any prices.”

“So I didn’t!” says Caroline.

“That’s probably part of why the project was so fluid,” Drew jokes.

According to Drew, one of the biggest challenges was modifying kitchen cabinets after receiving the wrong ones, or removing certain details to fit the Ryans’ needs. However, he credits Caroline’s energy and home-baked cookies as a motivating force behind the project’s success. The initial cost estimate for the remodel was $600,000, but the Ryans added and removed line items throughout the process. Even they’re not sure of the final sum.

“We were fortunate enough to have the resources to make this our dream home,” says Tim. “This isn’t a house we’re looking to flip.”