Innovation and light in Alexandria

Though their home overlooking Alexandria’s Cameron Valley was spectacular, Heidi and Carl Varblow needed more space for their creative energies. An aerospace engineer and woodworking expert, Carl was cramped in his garage workspace. Things came to a head in 2006, when Heidi’s new craft business required more room for cutting her embroidery patterns and ample space for a matting machine.

With a penchant for architecture and design, Heidi developed a plan to create an artist’s loft by taking the roof off the garage. In the process she bumped out a side alcove for her husband’s projects.

“I play with architecture,” Heidi said. “I’m a very hands-on person.”

Her European-style loft space includes a cathedral ceiling and windows on all exterior walls. She selected a massive, nearly floor-to-ceiling window for the front-facing wall with a telescopic oval set symmetrically on an apron of square panes.

“I like light,” she said. “I don’t like skylights.”

The scarlet and green leaves of a Bradford pear tree in the front yard fill the room — decorated in French country style. The loft feels like the parlor floor of a town house with its 10-foot closets and chandeliers. A small porch the likes of which one encounters in Vienna, Italy or Spain draped in bougainvillea becomes the focal point of her side alcove painted in celery.

“We added my Shakespearean balcony,” Heidi said. “I spend every evening in this room.”

Carl built Heidi a worktable for her projects — 100 inches long — made of solid oak and sanded smooth with a matting machine for her frames on one end. Heidi calls it a “perfect construction by a trained engineer,” referring to her husband.

“It’s amazing [the workers] didn’t drop the table when they brought it upstairs,” said Carl, whose craftsmanship and love of oak wood is evident throughout the house. “They had to level the floor after taking the garage roof off, and the whole ceiling was redone with rows of lights to brighten the table.”

Heidi led the construction crew with precision — continually revising the plan to meet the demands of an evolving vision. Her vigilance paid off when she added a row of three small windows to the back wall to ensure there was light coming in from both sides of the room.

“Mrs. Varblow always stayed involved,” said Jim Davis of Thorsen Construction. “She knows what she wants and how she wants it. There was no indecision.”

Born in Germany, Heidi moved with her family to Detroit in 1956. She learned to speak English and earned a master’s degree in German from the University of Michigan.

“My father worked to send his three daughters to college, and we all have master’s degrees,” she said.

Every piece of furniture, sculpture and fixture in the house is there for good reason. In addition to running her crafts business, she translates German manuscripts for the Smithsonian Institution. She made the drapes and reupholstered her couch.

“I’ve sewn and stitched my entire life,” she said. “I’m not a slacker. I need an outlet for my energy.”