Curator Deborah O'Hara brings a touch of Asia to Scottsdale

Deborah O’Hara doesn’t have to go far to get a quick respite from her busy work day. When she needs a break from running her art gallery, all she has to do is head upstairs to the 2,000-square-foot loft she calls home.

“You don’t feel like you’re above a gallery here,” says O’Hara, who’s been living in the Scottsdale loft atop the Calvin Charles gallery since spring of last year.

She says most first-time visitors to her home are surprised when they arrive.

“People get to the door and have no idea what’s up here. They’ll say they didn’t expect this,” she says referring to her loft’s urban feel, which she says many have compared to a New York loft — a New York-style loft with one spectacular view. O’Hara’s floor-to-ceiling glass balcony doors fully retract, bathing the space in light, bringing the outside in.

“I open the door and feel like I’m in another world,” she says of the expansive balcony. It is filled with turquoise-cushioned chairs and neutral chaises, and she says it’s a serene spot to unwind, watch the sun set or gaze up at the stars at night.

EAST MEETS WEST

At first glance, with its glossy espressocolored floors, glass tabletops and large expanse of windows, O’Hara’s home is quite contemporary.

Candles flicker on her modern dining room table as soft music fills the background.

But looking further at the accents, it’s clear that O’Hara, who’s brought a touch of Asia to the East Valley through her Calvin Charles Gallery, has also brought the nuances of the Far East to her home.

A 7-foot antique Buddha nestles in a corner. A petite bronze tai chi sculpture from Ju Ming (one of the artists she features in her gallery) resides atop a desk. There’s even a colorful, kitschy pop art rendition of former Communist leader Mao Zedong that hangs near the entranceway.

“My passion has been Asia, and I wanted to bring that here,” says O’Hara, who’s spent nearly two decades living and working abroad in Hong Kong.

She says virtually each piece in her home has a story from a trip. She and her late husband, Calvin Puckett, discovered the Burmese Buddha at an antique shop in Thailand. The black cabinets came from an antique shop in China.

“If I were looking for new pieces, I would go to China. … I’m never tired of going back to Shanghai. … In Hong Kong there’s an area of antique shops on Hollywood Road,” she says. “I’ve traveled to Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, Japan, Macau. … I like to mix it all. … I have artists from every place (in Asia).”

A NEW BEGINNING

O’Hara moved into the loft space last year from a home in north Scottsdale that she shared with Puckett. She says the layout of the loft is reminiscent of her first flat in Hong Kong, where she adventurously moved to take a senior corporate job representing Apple Computer in the early 1980s.

To make the loft livable, she added a wall and doorway to close off the living space from gallery visitors below. Utilizing furniture and art from her old home, she and some of her friends who are interior designers decorated the loft space with the pieces they thought would work the best. She tucked the rest of her belongings into storage.

“I want people to feel like they know me without my saying anything,” O’Hara says of her loft’s style, where Old-World Asian antiques like the centuries-old black Chinese cabinets and wooden chairs co-mingle with the modern works of notable contemporary Asian artists such as Japan’s Kyoko Ibe and Taiwan’s Ju Ming.

O’Hara’s design choices reveal her personality well. Her decor tells the tale of a woman who loves the adventure of traveling to far-flung places, while her home’s accents, such as the strategically placed candles and fresh flowers, reveal a woman who appreciates romance.

This home, she adds, also represents another fresh start: going from avid art collector to full-time curator. Sometimes, she says, both worlds mix. O’Hara will often allow collectors to come upstairs and see her private collection of art. But, she says, as much as they’ll ask, there are some pieces, like the Buddha, that she’ll never part with.

No matter where she’s lived, she says her design philosophy has always been the same.

“I can be at home anywhere because of all the special things I’ve collected … that remind me of people and places. … It’s everything about my life, past and present. … Maybe it (the collection of art and antiques) looks a little mixed-up, but it’s my story.”