Newfangled fashions come and go, but some retain their charm despite the passing years—as one couple discovered when first touring their Dallas house. The ranch-style structure “probably had not been touched since the 1970s,” the wife says. However, they still loved the richly molded interior that gestured toward French Provincial but with ’70s architectural details, including a circular breakfast room featuring vaulted ceilings. “It was dated but had a lot of wonderful elements,” she explains. “We wanted to embrace its bones rather than change it dramatically.”
The couple also came with a lifetime’s worth of treasured artworks and heritage furnishings. Their goal was to marry these memory-laden pieces with the home’s already character-filled interiors—a task eagerly welcomed by designer Andrea Marino Taylor. “I was intrigued,” the LUXE Next In Design 99 honoree shares of the prospect. “A design just has so much more depth when there’s a history and nostalgia behind it.” The project’s architect, Gianna Glaesmann, adds: “I love that the couple wanted this house to keep its personality.”
Working with builder Yossi Gallor—alongside site supervisor, Shlomo Gallor—Taylor and Glaesmann approached the renovations with a sensitive hand, encouraging greater functionality and movement without losing desirable eccentricities. They replaced all the existing windows and added more in key areas, keeping loyal to the same quaint style of the originals. However, their wider glass panes and thinner mullions now “allow more sunlight to stream through,” Glaesmann explains. New stained oak floors restored a sense of warmth, while original decorative millwork in a few select areas remained intact, including the family room’s paneling. “Those original panel finishes are quite dark,” Taylor adds. “So, we tried to freshen everything up with more color and personality throughout.”
Cue the burst of vibrant hues inspired by “things the couple already owned and loved,” the designer continues. Heirloom china informed the carousel breakfast room’s garden palette, namely the matching green molding and built- in lattice cabinetry, and a vaulted ceiling clad in a block-print wallpaper. Serene shades from the owners’ wedding china saturate the dining room, with floral wallpaper and sky blue coating the tray ceiling. An electric blue engulfs the richly paneled living room, complementing a reupholstered antique yellow sofa gifted from the wife’s great-grandmother.
Some original details proved too groovy, like the primary bathroom’s ’70s-style rock wall and sunken tub. The new layout retains the his-and-her vanities, but updated with Carrara marble countertops and white millwork, while a walk-in shower and pedestal tub refresh the space. Other changes, meanwhile, were more surgical. Removing one awkward wall that had enclosed the kitchen, for instance, proved enough to enhance the flow into the family room and breakfast area. The extra breathing space accommodated the kitchen’s expanded layout with a spacious pantry and “the world’s largest island,” the wife says enthusiastically. “My husband loves to cook, so he really wanted a kitchen that lends itself to serving and gathering.”
To further flesh out spaces, Taylor dived deeper into the homeowners’ trove of pieces, reupholstering many of their soft furnishings in emotive hues. Antique chairs from the Baker Hotel now wear a spicy paprika linen and jade cut velvet. The re-covered family room sofas borrow tones from a blue-and-white porcelain lamp the couple has had in every one of their homes together. New upholstered additions, in turn, offer “a fun, eclectic mix of stripes, checks, paisleys and florals that brings out their playful personality,” the designer notes. She also tracked down online auctions and vintage dealers for traditional case goods, from the living room’s mahogany secretary desk to the dining area’s focal Chinese Chippendale cabinet.
Joining this mix of old and new, many sentimental artworks found their place, including pieces by Texan artists Bill Worrell and Drew Boatright. Pastoral scenes range from a landscape that once belonged to the wife’s great-grandmother to a portrait of a beloved horse, which was given to the couple by dear friends in Kentucky as a memento of an unforgettable venture. Alongside these hang precious keepsakes like the owners’ original wedding invitation and handmade needlework by the husband’s grandmother.
Inch by inch, “everything tells a story,” the wife describes. “It’s a melting pot of our experiences together, from getting married to living in different houses over the past 30 years.” Animated with meaningful colors and treasures, this home is now poised for many more joyful memories to come.
