In the weeks before Election Day, lots of people rang John and Angie Burwell's doorbell in Homestead. Most weren't looking to talk politics:

"One man said, 'I've been wanting to come up here for years!' " Mr. Burwell said. "People are always wanting to see what it looks like inside."

The exterior is enough to pique anyone's curiosity. The right side is still recognizable as a tall, skinny century-old woodframe house like the others on 14th Avenue. But its larger left side, second-floor entry and huge wraparound front deck set it apart from every other house in this Mon Valley steel town.

The interior doesn't disappoint either. Rooms are painted in bright tropical colors or bold primaries and wear a faux finish applied by Calvin Tot. Altogether, the 4,000-square-foot home has become a showpiece of each man's talent and a springboard for their collaborative decorating business.

"A house should be more than a place to eat and sleep," said Mr. Tot, 56, a North Side resident and owner of Nolen Painting & Interior Decorating.

"I do high-end painting, really decorative finishes. John has a wonderful knack for pulling it all together. You have to have the vision, then project that for the client so they know what it will look like when it's done."

Sometimes, that means bringing clients to the Burwells' house. Photos don't do justice to the sparkle of the candle-lighting paint technique Mr. Tot used in the dining room or the cool sheen of the marbelized columns in the foyer and Venetian plaster on most of the first-floor walls.

"It makes you want to hug it," he joked as he ran his hand across the textured finish.

Mr. Tot, who has been painting professionally for 37 years, learned his craft from the late Ted Zacoi during a three-year apprenticeship with Painters Union Local 6.

Mr. Burwell, a professional decorator for 15 years, has no special training. He got his start as a teenager, redecorating his boyhood home in another block of 14th Avenue, then helped family and friends while working other jobs. After receiving a bachelor's degree in elementary education from Point Park College, he taught for a year in Baltimore and five years in Pittsburgh public schools before becoming a child development specialist for Children's Hospital. He also is a music minister at Second Baptist Church in Homestead.

Mr. Burwell, 49, and his wife were thinking of building a new house in Squirrel Hill when this house, which had belonged to his late brother Eugene, presented itself. Mr. Burwell's mother, Wanda, suggested he "go and design something."

"I said I'll see what I can do," he said.

Work on the addition started in December 2003. The Burwells hired architect Frank Nelson and contractor Don Tomlins, owner of Decked Out by Don. The first floor was designed as a separate suite with a bedroom, full bath, kitchenette and living room for Mr. Burwell's father, Myron Strothers, who died before it was finished in August 2004. The Burwells and their son, Travis, 19, live on the upper two floors, which contain 2 1/2 baths and three more bedrooms.

The decorators' vision is evident from the moment you step off the composite deck and into the foyer, with its warm, peachy walls and classical columns. The first room on the right, the piano room, has an ebony Wurlitzer baby grand and tomato red walls with bright white trim.

"I wanted a bold room," Mr. Burwell explains.

The rest of the space has a more tropical palette: teal in the private office, lemon yellow in the living room, Creamsicle orange in the dining room, and chocolate, light green and tan in the kitchen.

"I wanted it to feel like we were on vacation," Mr. Burwell says, adding that the couple honeymooned in the Bahamas.

With its 9-foot tray ceilings and many sconces and mirrors, the interior has a lavish look. But getting that look doesn't mean spending a fortune, the designer says. Much of the furniture came from Kaufmann's and Levin, the artwork from Kirkland's and the window treatments from Bed, Bath & Beyond and Burlington. Mr. Burwell asked for the large niche over the living room's gas fireplace three years ago; he didn't have a flat-screen TV to fit it until a month ago.

The two new bedrooms upstairs are a visual treat, too. The master and Travis' bedrooms both have 18-foot vaulted ceilings, as does the luxurious master bath with a sunken jetted tub and glass shower stall. To accentuate the high ceiling in the bedroom, Mr. Burwell and Mr. Tot are planning to add wide but subtle stripes.

About the only other unfinished aspect is the first-floor hallway surrounding a mural by Linda Bladen of the North Side. It shows a beach in the Bahamas with the Burwells lounging on beach chairs. Mrs. Burwell says she is content to let her husband decorate their house, though she does get a say early in the process.

"I was always saying, 'Let me take you here and show you something,' " Mr. Burwell says, laughing.

Now his neighbors say the same thing about his house.

John Burwell can be reached at 412-403-6125. Calvin Tot and Nolen Painting & Interior Decorating are at www.nolenpaintinganddecorating.com. or 412-583-6340.