"It" was the painstaking attention to detail evident in every room: the one-of-a-kind hand-embroidered shades in the "Jewel Box" powder room; hand-pleated gold silk wall covering in the master bedroom; the bordeaux hued La Cornue kitchen range, which Diane Stewart describes as far beyond her competence as a cook and costing "roughly the same price as a small sports car."
Each of 11 bathrooms has a unique tile pattern; the walls and ceiling in the living room have been painted with three coats of lacquer and burnished with six layers of wax as a stunning background for furnishings; and art and glass artist Willie Littig's magnificent glass skylight is above the fabulous floating spiral staircase.
Stewart, whose extensive travel and fascination with art expanded skills learned as a student at Brigham Young University's interior design department, directed the interior decor of the house.
"The house took over my life for three years, but I wanted it finished," she says, adding she may tinker with it from time to time, but it is not an on-going project.
Details often are the difference between a mansion and a "McMansion." Even with architect Max Smith's seamless addition of 3,000 square feet to the original 7,000 square feet, the Stewart home is far from the biggest house in Salt Lake City. But it always has been a show place.
Sitting on more than an acre overlooking City Creek Canyon and downtown Salt Lake City to the south and west, and directly across the canyon from the Utah State Capitol, the house was built in the late 1930s by wholesale jewelers Wayne and Evelyn Snow Decker. It announced its presence to the outside world with towering white columns on one side of the house, a tennis court and a circular drive in the the front. To the family and intimates, the fabulous floating spiral staircase - probably the first such staircase west of the Mississippi - was the center of attention.
"Mother had seen pictures and had her heart set on that floating spiral staircase, but the architect A.B. Paulsen said it couldn't be done," Ashby Decker says, adding, "He didn't know my mother."
The Decker family sold the house in 1958, and it bounced from owner to owner. It was empty for a time until the early 1970s when Marilyn Neilson and her husband Rulon, an oilman now deceased, bought the house and turned it into a social gathering place as well as a family home.
When Marilyn Neilson sold the house to the Stewarts about four years ago, Stewart decided a small ceremony was in order.
"Marilyn descended the stairs as only Marilyn can make an appearance and gracefully handed me a baton," Stewart says.
The staircase, once white concrete with a red carpet down the middle for the Deckers, a green carpet for the Neilsons, now is clad with limestone and is bare. All the balusters and railing work is new. Second-floor bedroom doors that once opened into the hallway have been relocated to give more wall space for art.
The basic house plan is intact, including the living room's huge curved window where Ashby and Anne Decker received wedding guests in 1958. The 3,000-square-foot addition provides a new two-story main entry way, a lush bathing and dressing area referred to as "The Casbah" off the master bedroom, an informal family room, library, a bedroom and larger kitchen.
Landscaping by Garr Campbell extends the house beyond walls. The old tennis court has been replaced by a Mediterranean garden, pool and outdoor living room. Every garden area has living space for entertaining. The Stewarts (Sam is an investment executive who founded Wasatch Advisors) are active hosts for charity events.
And there is no worry about the noise from air conditioning units spoiling the garden ambiance, Stewart says.
"Max [Smith] found a way to hide the air conditioning units in a vault so that the noise doesn't invade the gardens."
While only Hank, 12, and Hardy, 13, the youngest of the Stewarts combined family of nine, live at home, a carriage house accommodates the rest of the family when they visit.
"It is a lovely house," Stewart says, "but it is a family house, too."
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* JUDY MAGID can be contacted at magid@sltrib.com or 801-257-8608. Send comments to livingeditor@sltrib.com.
