MODERN COMFORT

A surprisingly modern mindset

Story by Brittany Nunn | Photos by Marissa Robles

The home of Mike and Donna Webster poses on a corner in Lakewood Heights with striking confidence. It has both a simplicity and elegance that mid-century modern architecture seems to capture so well. >>

The living room is the epitome of Mike’s architectural expertise and Donna’s eclectic design. Mike designed the living room to overlap the kitchen, but in order to keep the rooms distinct, he dropped the kitchen ceiling. “From the entertaining standpoint it has worked out perfectly, because we can use the whole space,” Mike says.

Mike’s “man cave” is more of an art studio than a stereotypical land-of-no-return, but even still, Donna isn’t allowed to comment on the nature of its tidiness (or lack thereof). The room has tile floors, so Mike can “roll the carpet up and spill anything he wants on it.” It also has a sliding glass door that lets in plenty of natural light and lets out paint fumes when open.

Donna was determined to find the perfect fireplace for the living room because she wanted that to be the focal point of the room, rather than a TV. An old French country table the Websters use to separate the kitchen and living room has become an unexpected guest favorite. “We probably get more compliments on this table,” Mike says. “It sort of offsets and complements some of the more sleek design pieces.” Donna is “a big white wall person,” she says. “Some people think it can be cold.” But she cozies it up by utilizing large, colorful abstract paintings.

>>When the Websters bought the property three years ago, building such a home wasn’t even on their radar.

“We were going for more of a rustic modern, Hill Country style,” Donna says, “but it took us a while to develop the floor plans, so we started to go to home tours. We went on the Dallas Modern Home Tour, and we fell in love with modern architecture. So we switched gears.”

The Websters chose Lakewood Heights because there isn’t a conservation or historical district in place to cramp their architectural urges.

However, they wanted to be respectful of the neighborhood.

“There are some really pretty cottages here, so we didn’t want our house to overwhelm the neighborhood,” Donna says.

Mike has an architectural background and Donna is an interior designer, so between the two, they had strong opinions about the end product. They sought modern builders and found Tom Grieco to help them “wrap their ideas in his mid-century modern style.” >>

Saturday & Sunday April 26 & 27, 2014

Noon to 5pm

APRIL

EVENTS INCLUDE:

FRIDAY, APRIL 25TH

Candlelight Tour, 6 - 7pm

Auction Party at the Dallas Arboretum, 7:30 - 11pm

SATURDAY, APRIL 26TH

Home Tour, noon - 5pm

SUNDAY, APRIL 27TH

Home Tour, noon - 5pm

Art in the Park, noon - 5pm

Guided Historical Walk, 1:30pm

Proceeds

“We didn’t want the kitchen to feel kitcheny,” Donna says. “We wanted it to feel architectural.” One aspect that was especially problematic was deciding whether to place the sink or the stove on the island. They would have preferred not to put either one on the island, but they wanted the space to be symmetrical, so — in order to spare themselves the issue of overhead vents blocking the view of living room they bit the bullet and installed a sink, but they made it as discreet as possible.

>>“The really rewarding thing about all this is, we’d have people come by all the time when we were building it and say, ‘This house is great. This is the kind of style we need around here.’ ” Mike says. “We were just so grateful it was being so well received.”

Once construction was complete, Donna added her interior design touch, mixing and matching old pieces of furniture and decor with new pieces to make the rooms look sleek and modern yet still comfortable.

“I don’t really care for contemporary,” Mike says. “It’s too stark. It’s too stiff. These things are warm. They have meaning to us.”

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Above/ The first thing guests experience is the spacious entry hall. “What we wanted to accomplish in a house was a lot of natural light,” Mike says. “We want it to feel open but a lot of definitive spaces. The big thing we wanted was for people to walk in the door and immediately get a sense of the house.”

(Donna even found a space for an old stone statue by the front door. It’s technically a garden piece, but Donna thinks it belongs indoors. “Venus de Milo is what my kids and I have coined her,” Donna says. “Venus has traveled with me everywhere for 35 years.”)

Right/ The Websters wanted their home to embrace the street yet still offer some privacy. By pushing the front door away from the street, they were able to create a serene courtyard area. “We’ve always wanted a really gracious entrance to the house with a place where we could sit,” Mike explains. The Websters enjoy the view of the courtyard from their formal dining room, which overlooks the yard through a large window wall.