Traditional Meets Modern In An Art-Filled Dallas Home
The simple limestone facade of this house, originally built by TAA Custom Homes, is underscored by linear window frames from Solara Iron Doors & Lighting. Designer Denise McGaha brought in concrete planters from Elegant Earth in Birmingham, Alabama, which are filled with plumbago. Armstrong Berger Landscape Architects developed the house’s remaining front and rear landscaping.
This Park Cities home in Dallas had all the bells and whistles–and then some. As it turns out, some of the richesse needed to be dialed down. Choosing the furnishings was not as much of a challenge as where and how to place the art collection and antiques. What designer Denise McGaha relished perhaps most of all was balancing both modern and traditional styles–the former gravitated to by the wife, the latter more solidly in the husband’s lane.
In the living room, McGaha tamed a bold intricate plaster ceiling by blending it with the walls. It’s an elegant backdrop for a transitional mix of seating grounded by a tufted chaise that visually connects with the black Nero marble mantel, which she chose to “create balance with the multiple windows in the space and to weight the plasterwork ceiling,” the designer explains.
Additionally, McGaha paired an ornate 18th-century gilt mirror with a sleek white Saarinen pedestal table and hung a 19th century portrait in gilt frame on the modern glass shower enclosure above a floating tub. Such unexpected juxtapositions are attention grabbers, but look closely for play of texture and touches of whimsy.
Read more about the design in the full home tour above.