COUPLE’S HOME WELCOMES FAMILY AND FRIENDS TO CELEBRATE GOOD TIMES

Photography by Lora Fairchild | Designed by Brittany White

When you visit the home of Alan and Barbara Sugar, you are whisked from the front door to the kitchen, casual dining and den combination where life happens. And this couple is the core of a lively bunch of friends, helpmates and associates who make every day seem like a party. Alan, the former president of Sugar Oil Company, is now spending his days with his gregarious and generous wife, Barbara, who is the consummate hostess. Their home reflects their easy-going attitude, their joie de vivre and their penchant for good times.

The kitchen is grand, functional and well used. Spreads of delicious hors d’oeuvres are laid out on a 45-year-old table with ample seating for throngs of admirers. The table is beautiful, but the age of it is announced by the hostess, just to show they like what they like – it doesn’t have to be new and shiny, just comfortable and functional.

At the back of this long casual room is a seating area around a television where LSU football games become the focus. This area has beautiful molding and architectural detail, especially in the kitchen area, where a large, granitetopped island is put to work. The walls throughout are all painted light beige, for it’s not the walls that matter here but a large collection of paintings that are placed on them. Many are by notable artists, but just as many are by people no one will ever hear of. They do have one thing in common, however – Barbara likes them. They bring her enjoyment. That’s why they’re there.

A couple of the well-rendered portraits of children are bittersweet. They are of children lost to each of the couple long after they blended their families. But as we rise by elevator to the upstairs game room, it’s clearly life and the living that drive this couple. In a gigantic, approximately 18-by-45 room is a paradise of activities for the Sugar grandchildren. Two seating areas with televisions and games, a pool table, a ping-pong table and still more room for shenanigans are populated with the younger generation of the family.

The massive upstairs landing holds a living area filled with a soft, salmoncolored leather sectional around a large square table, and two inviting slipper chairs. Barbara laughingly said, “I’m not sure what any of these rooms are for.” She lets the people who visit determine their use. There are plenty of rooms to make such decisions on. Attached to the living area through French doors is a lovely study, with a desk decorated with cut-and-paste photos of friends having fun. The faces are of many of Shreveport’s movers and shakers, cavorting with Barbara at various parties, political fundraisers and philanthropic events. They are a touch that implies nothing in this home is ever taken too seriously, regardless of who is involved. Three guest rooms with en suite baths fill the rest of the second floor. Two are a more feminine design. The other bedroom is decidedly masculine featuring antiques including a barley twist Jacobean canopy bed dressed with sensual textures and Asian and Indian artwork, including a fine Thangka, or silk-embroidered painting, often done by a monk, to teach about the Buddhist faith. The style throughout is a delightful mixture of things combined whimsically to look great together and bring happiness.

Back downstairs is a lovely entryway featuring a marble-topped console with insets of sunburst mirrors across from a delightful pair of sculpted whippets. A massive Rococo mirror is flanked by botanical prints. A more formal but still not stuffy dining room is centered around a glass-topped table on a rattan base. The surrounding silver-gilt chairs are upholstered in a fun velvet print. An oversized chandelier drips with gigantic crystals.

The master bedroom is downstairs, as well, and is a relaxing, well-appointed area replete with softness, while the attached bath is a paradise of space, with a freestanding soaking tub from which bathers may gaze at the chandelier ornamented with huge drops of sliced agate.

In the main living room a chunky Lucite coffee table is topped with various crystals, and allows a look at the exquisite carpet of muted tones beneath. Two large silver-gilt display cases tie this room to the dining room, and are filled with all sorts of memorabilia precious to the Sugars, and more crystalline brilliance.

On a side table punctuating the salmon pink of the furnishings sits a largerthan-life chrome rabbit box – it’s head on hinges tilts back to show whatever treasures are put within. These things all somehow become bubbly and effervescent like Barbara’s personality.

So much of the Sugar home is not just for them, but for the people who visit them. Although Barbara no longer smokes, there are little cigarette holders on tables throughout the home. Overflowing candy jars are here and there. These are both throwbacks to a different, more gracious time when guests were made to feel at home. They are symbolic of the way this house is available to visitors, and home to a most gracious couple.