It’s easy to fall for Georgian homes with their strong symmetry and elegant proportions—something Neimat Gunawardena discovered when a particular house hit the market in her Dallas neighborhood. Neimat arranged to tour the property, even though she and her husband, Mel, weren’t planning to move. “I fell in love with what the home could become,” she recalls. Neimat convinced Mel they should buy and revive it, but they would need help.
“I was looking around just to see what caught my eye,” Neimat says of her hunt for an interior designer. “I was waiting for someone’s work to pop up and make me think, ‘Wow, I love that.’ ” And that moment came when she stumbled upon designer Mary Beth Christopher, who specializes in traditional design with a relaxed California influence.
Christopher flew in from her home base of Manhattan Beach, California, to see the house, and she quickly agreed to take on the long-distance project. The designer, who had renovated her own Georgian abode a decade earlier, remembers, “It was like déjà vu.” This residence was also a trip down memory lane for builder Mac Hill, who grew up exactly one block away. “It was the same layout as the house I was raised in, which was built in the 1930s,” he says.
Surrounded by mature trees, the home was constructed in the 1990s to imitate the older dwellings nearby. Along with updating the grounds with the help of landscape designer Carl Reynolds, the Gunawardenas wanted to elevate and refine the abode to make it comfortable and functional for their family of four. “There were some unfinished details,” Christopher notes. “It felt like it was missing some of the history and elegance of a Georgian home that would’ve been built in the ’20s or ’30s.”
The kitchen was the jumping off point—and the biggest transformation. Originally separated from the living room by a wall with a pass-through window, the kitchen required a down-to-the-studs renovation and reinforcement—courtesy of a new structural beam—to open it up. There was also awkward, underutilized space between the cooking area and the breakfast nook, which the designer remedied by extending the cabinetry across the entire wall, so everything felt like one continuous space.
Christopher wanted the kitchen to feel like a natural extension of the home, so she opted for painted, inset cabinets with timeless brass hardware. To add a West Coast spin, she introduced wood tones, weaving white oak into the coffee station cabinet and woven-back wood stools along the island for texture and warmth. “Once Neimat and Mel signed off on the kitchen and living room, it gave us direction for the rest of the project,” the designer says. “Everything flowed from there.”
Home Details
Interior Design:
Mary Beth Christopher, MBC Interior Design
Home Builder:
Mac Hill, Robert Elliott Custom Homes
Landscape Architecture:
Carl Reynolds, Reynolds Landscape and Pools
Styling:
Russell Brightwell
The kitchen’s custom cabinetry by Metroplex Cabinets complements the Neolith Calacatta Gold countertops and backsplash from Il Granito. Palecek stools cozy up to the 11-foot-long kitchen island, which is lit by a billiard pendant from The Urban Electric Co.
The mix of classic and California influences continue throughout. The architecture dictated traditional details, like adding wall paneling to the formal rooms and cast stone mantelpieces. But Christopher tempered these old-school elements with clean-lined furnishings in understated, natural materials such as linen and character-filled vintage rugs. Window treatments were kept simple to maximize daylight and the views of greenery outside.
Upstairs, Christopher played with color and pattern, giving each daughter’s bedroom a strong color theme (one pink and one periwinkle). The designer also used the kids’ rooms to indulge Neimat’s love of whimsical wallpaper. Meanwhile, the couple’s bedroom is quieter, with white walls accented by blues and beiges. Its original ceiling coving was retained and streamlined, while a large custom oak canopy bed embodies the home’s traditional yet relaxed style. Christopher replicated the bed’s warm wood tones in the woven shades, velvet lounge chairs and brass table lamps. The primary bathroom wears more wood paneling and a soft shade of off-white paint, creating a sense of serenity furthered by a cast-iron tub and marble tile flooring.
When asked about the finished house, the owners, builder and designer all agree that the magic is in the details, from the elegant millwork down to the brass light switches. “Every time I look around and see those details, I think, ‘It’s so beautiful,’ ” Neimat says. It’s a full circle moment: Her own home is now the “wow” she’d been searching for.
Serena & Lily’s Priano wallpaper lends this child’s bedroom a whimsical air and creates a backdrop to framed prints by Céline Nordenhed. Glass table lamps by Aerin for Visual Comfort & Co. rest atop Worlds Away side tables.
Take A Tour Below:
Interior designer Mary Beth Christopher adorned the formal sitting room with a chandelier by Marie Flanigan for Visual Comfort & Co., a carved oak cabinet by Athena Calderone for Crate & Barrel, a pair of armchairs from Lawson-Fenning and a vintage rug. The custom wood paneling is coated in Benjamin Moore’s Swiss Coffee.
The kitchen’s custom cabinetry by Metroplex Cabinets complements the Neolith Calacatta Gold countertops and backsplash from Il Granito. Palecek stools cozy up to the 11-foot-long kitchen island, which is lit by a billiard pendant from The Urban Electric Co.
Centered around a coffee table conceived by MBC Interior Design and fabricated by Surfridge Design, the living room’s two sofas and Lee Industries swivel chairs offer ample seating. An iron chandelier from Aerin suspends overhead, and a lamp by the same brand provides reading light.
In the breakfast nook, Christopher extended the kitchen cabinetry all the way to the U-shaped banquette. Lewis Windsor chairs from Four Hands line a custom oval pedestal table. Agnes sconces by The Urban Electric Co. illuminate the space.
Serena & Lily’s Priano wallpaper lends this child’s bedroom a whimsical air and creates a backdrop to framed prints by Céline Nordenhed. Glass table lamps by Aerin for Visual Comfort & Co. rest atop Worlds Away side tables.
Continuing the sophisticated yet playful vibe, the adjoining bathroom features Dolomite with rose marble mosaic flooring. Above the round nickel looking glass from Mirror Home is a wall sconce by Waterworks.
In the primary bathroom, wood paneling surrounds a cast-iron tub from Penhaligon with plumbing fixtures by Waterworks. A pendant from Ralph Lauren Home for Visual Comfort & Co. hangs above Calacatta Gold tiles from CW Custom Flooring.
Christopher refreshed the outside of the Dallas home, painting the brick Benjamin Moore’s White Dove. The new windows, bluestone walkway installed by Reynolds Landscape and Pools, and copper gutters complete the transformation.