Fancy Free. Home Design Special

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1 Fancy Free Understated yet stunning, this North Dallas house appreciates formality, but gives a family room to breathe. By Rebecca Sherman Photography by Stephen Karlisch Some houses are like heirlooms they are passed down through the generations. For Kathleen Blair, whose family built their Regency-style house in North Dallas in the early 1980s where Kathleen lived during her high school years at Hockaday, the family house not only held memories, but also held promise. It was a fun house; we always had people over. What made it so great was the setting. It s on a private lake, and no one knows it s here, says Kathleen, a language therapist and part-time professional artist who paints large-scale abstract canvases in her garage studio. We were always out at the pool, or on the dock, fishing. After her stepfather passed away and her mother, Martha Guffey, decided to sell the house in 2010 and move to a high-rise, Kathleen and her husband, Robert, a petroleum engineer, purchased the house. The couple, in their mid-40s, wanted a larger place that would provide more outdoor experiences for their three ROOM TO GROW A mix of modern and traditional pieces in the living room of Kathleen and Robert Blair includes an abstract work painted by Kathleen, a floor lamp by Porta Romana from Culp Associates, a custom sofa upholstered in Holly Hunt Great Plains fabric from George Cameron Nash and ottomans covered in Clarence House fabric from Culp Associates. 100 September 2011

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3 The dining room is a little formal, but the idea of families eating together is a dying thing. We want to keep that tradition alive. boys, who range from 9 to 16. The timing was perfect. We could see ourselves living there, she says. The Blairs didn t want the house to be a relic of the past. It s a 30-year-old house that needed work. I wanted it more contemporary, and we knew we d need to convert it to a place that fit a young family, Kathleen says. They hired interior designer Allen Kirsch to lead the renovation after seeing a modern reinterpretation of a Colonial-style house that he had done for a friend. George Gerlach was hired as the contractor. The first order of business was to open up the floor plan. It was a collection of compartmentalized rooms. The house needed to flow better, and Kathleen was adamant that there be no dead ends anywhere, says Kirsch, who made sure every room had an entry onto the back patio and a view to the lake. Part of a living room wall was opened to the master wing, and four feet were added to the dining room. The kitchen was gutted, and a small family room was added adjacent. An expansive, stepped terrace was designed in the back to enhance the house s glamorous FAMILY VALUES The Blairs use every room in the house, including the living room. On the back wall, a remote-controlled flat screen TV rises from a custom console. L-R: Kathleen Blair s mother, Martha Guffey, looks over grandson Jack s shoulder, Kathleen and Robert Blair, Andrew and William. Opposite page: The entryway sets the tone for the rest of the house. The Blairs kept the original black and white marble floor and Guffey s custom demilune tables. old-hollywood feel, says Kirsch, who also designed a more contemporary rectangular pool and fountain. Dan Sauerwein of Southern Botanical carried out all the redesign in the back. It s an elegant house, but the Blairs didn t want fancy. It s very much a family house. I didn t want rooms or things that you walk by and never use, says Kathleen, who asked Kirsch not to design a breakfast room so that they would have to take their meals in the dining room. The dining room is a little formal, but the idea of families eating together is a dying thing. 102 September 2011

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5 We want to keep that tradition alive, says Kathleen, who, along with her husband is originally from Mississippi. (They met as adults in Dallas.) A practice that might surprise many parents of young boys, the Blairs set the table each evening with their wedding china, Christian Dior s Renaissance. It is pragmatic. We are not trying to be pretentious. After 20 years, our everyday china had gotten in bad shape. We thought, why not use what we already have? Repurposing almost became a mantra during the house s renovation. All the original brass hardware was replated in polished nickel, from the bathroom fixtures to the hinges and door knobs and a pair of large andirons in the living room fireplace. It gave the house a crisp, clean look, says Kirsch. In the entry, the original crystal Baccarat chandelier that Kathleen s mother had bought in 1961 was retained, along with the black and white marble floors and a pair of her mother s demilune tables. What makes it fresh are the mix of modern abstract paintings and the pair of edgy icicle sconces by Porta Romana. VIEWS WITH A ROOM The dining room originally had swinging doors that led into the kitchen. Designer Allen Kirsch closed them off to create a solid wall and focal point with Gracie wallpaper. The custom console, dining table and oval lighting pendant were designed by Kirsch. The rug s needlepoint border was hand-stitched by Kathleen Blair s grandmother. Opposite page: For the exterior, Kirsch and Sauerwein of Southern Botanical enhanced the house s Regency style with a new terraced backyard, fountain and pool overlooking the neighborhood lake. Kirsch, who is also an artist (one of his large-scale paintings hangs in the Blairs entry), appealed to Kathleen s artistic side. She opened the door wide for creativity on this project. A lot of clients are door slammers, he says. Kathleen s not afraid to let you push the envelope. She didn t flinch, for example, when Kirsch wanted to cover a pair of Barcelona chairs in the living room with a gray-green Holly Hunt fabric threaded with metallic silver instead of the usual leather, or when he suggested Porta Romana s unexpected icicle sconces for the entry. It was her idea to use Carrera marble in the kitchen beautiful but hard to live with because it stains. While the lake view is the star of the house, the dining room, with its original Gracie wallpaper panels, is a showstopper on its own. In the renovation, four extra feet were added to the space, and new panels were ordered. When the new panels arrived, the silvered backgrounds were too bright, and a faux artist was enlisted to give them a little patina. Kirsch designed a contemporary hanging light fixture to contrast with the rich woods and antiques in the room, including a 13- foot custom walnut console and custom 9-foot-long flame mahogany veneer dining table, all designed to lengthen the appearance of the small room. On the floor, Kathleen wanted to use a cherished needlepoint rug featuring animals, made by her grandmother in Mississippi when Kathleen was a child. So it was carefully remade to fit the room. The colors throughout the house soft greens, blues and creams are all hues that Kathleen is drawn to in her paintings. With so much going on inside the house with kids, it s a very soothing feel, she says. Even the kitchen cabinets were lacquered in an unexpected shade of lagoon, perhaps hinting at the lake that s just outside the windows. The books and accessories in the house are all part of the Blairs family history. I love things that tell a story, says Kathleen. My grandmother traveled all over the world and brought back treasures from her explorations. The library stairs my uncle had made 30 years ago, as a gift for my parents when they moved into this house, were made from an old barn in Mississippi, she says. With so many fond memories and new ones in the making, this is a house for the generations. September