Cool Ranch Revival (continued)
It's oak to the rescue for a midcentury modern gem in Dallas refurbished by architect Mark Domiteaux and interior designer Nancy Leib
They asked architect Mark Domiteaux and interior designer Nancy Leib, with whom they had worked previously, to tour the house and offer their opinions. From the first viewing, the team concurred with their clients. "This was not a house to be bulldozed," says Domiteaux. "This was a house to be brought into the next century."
Built in the early 1950s by Dallas architect turned interior designer John Astin Perkins, whose dual Yale and Parsons degrees made him the local design doyen for decades, the house had gradually sunk into obscurity. Sloped roofs with deep eaves that had originally shielded the home from the Texas sun had made it dark and dank as the surrounding trees matured, and 50 years of use had completely worn out the interior.
"It was incredibly dated, but all the right moves were there, and we could strengthen them," says Domiteaux.
"If we were going to do midcentury modern, I didn't want it to feel like an art gallery," says the wife. "It had to feel like a family was in it, and it had to be very warm."
Domiteaux and project manager Laura Juarez Baggett obliged with a plan that added layers of natural wood, an element, he says, that "brought in some texture and warmth." Despite the home's modern lines, it originally had only small doorways connecting the main living areas. Domiteaux replaced the walls with panels of rift-cut white oak, leaving wide openings between the living, dining and family rooms that create sight lines through the house and enable the family of five to move easily between the areas. (Two teenagers still live at home; the older of two sons is in college.)
The enlarged openings let light travel from room to room as well, and Domiteaux brightened the spaces further by popping out sections of ceiling and adding a series of upper windows that draw in light from several sides. Beside the family room, an area made especially dark by an adjacent covered patio, he cut back a portion of the eaves to let in some sun.
Leib took the next step in enlivening the rooms by bringing in boldly patterned rugs, using their mix of tones to set the color palette for the furnishings. She threw a few curves in as well, using barrel-back swivel chairs in the living room and shapely side chairs in the family room to break up the midcentury geometry. "True to most 1950s houses, this one is very angular and horizontal," says Leib. "Adding curves softens the rooms and provides a contrast."
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