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By Debbie Anderson September 23, 2022 September 25th, 2022 No Comments

Perfectly Personal

By Babs Rodriguez
Photos by Jeremy Enlow

Comforting colors and attention to elevated details make this interior designer’s house a family home with panache

Inside and out, the house now reflects Lisa’s vision. With minimal structural changes, she transformed the French country manor-style home, using soothing paint colors to create a streamlined backdrop for the open kitchen/family room, a formal dining room and front parlor.

Throughout the interiors, organic elements amplify the warmth of plentiful natural light. Quiet shades of blue and just-so punches of green pull everything together, and an interplay of textures with an intriguing mix of art (including her own), antiques and one-off finds energizes everything with the designer’s vibe.

Lisa DeBoever, designer/owner of DeBoever Interiors, reimagined her family’s home lighter and brighter. She finessed the soaring entry by using white oak doors in a natural stain. Dixie and Brady approve of the sunlight-channeling cerused oak floors, too.

Dixie stands guard in Jake DeBoever’s home office, while Brady sleeps on the job. Lisa created the abstract painting on the cardboard backing of an old mirror because she really likes the frame. Like the thrice-reupholstered faux cowhide and ticking stripe chair, it is an example of the creative mashups that inspire her.

The first impression of the reimagined home is delivered via the curb appeal of the white-painted facade. Lisa notes that as a member of the HOA’s design committee, she advocated allowing homeowners to paint their brick exteriors, although at the time she had no intention of painting her own house. But when the short-lived window of opportunity opened, she seized it. The transformative lift is undeniable. Pale aqua-green shutters add a distinctive Caribbean Colonial flair.

A winding road led the couple to Texas. They met in Chicago (he’s from Boston, she’s from Ohio) and, after marrying, moved first to Keller and then, in 2010, to Southlake. In 2017, Jake, an attorney, was offered a job in Long Island, a move that Lisa embraced. They sold their house, but after buying and gutting a New York cottage, the couple determined that staying in Southlake was the better choice for the family.

“Clearly, the schools are good, and we love that we meet people from all over the country and, really, the world, here.” Lisa finished remodeling the New York cottage and flipped it, working first from her mother-in-law’s house in Keller and then from a rental near their current home. While walking the kids to school five years ago (they’re now 15 and 12), Lisa enjoyed cutting through the Wyndsor Creek neighborhood. “I fell in love with it, the feel of the community and the green spaces. So, when I heard that a family from our school was about to sell their house, I made our interest known.” They closed in 2018, but Lisa had already begun the remodel.

“The floor plan was perfect for us. And I knew what everything was going to look like with my changes. The homeowner was kind enough to let me in to measure things; it was an opportunity to get so much done before we moved in. The new kitchen island and cabinets were ready to be installed day one.”

The front parlor, originally a dining room, is now ready for cocktails and conversation. The vintage-look leather chairs are
from Austin-based Four Hands. The spectacularly framed classical landscapes were originally Jake’s grandfather’s. They hang above the midcentury-inspired Leary Sideboard from Gabby. The smoky gray-green Benjamin Moore Vintage Vogue walls in the parlor enhance its relaxed, clubby feel.

Thin iron balusters and a red-oak handrail allow for dining room viewing of the stairwell gallery wall, which features Andrew Wyeth prints in vintage brass frames. A black metal sconce subtly lights the way to the second floor.

In the kitchen, which is open to a family room, wall cabinets painted Benjamin Moore Simply White stretch to the ceiling, giving it an optical lift. Glass fronts showcase a collection of ginger jars as well as stacks of white tableware and orderly ranks of glasses. The Shaker-style cabinets that form the base of the oversize quartz-topped island are painted Benjamin Moore Saybrook Sage, a soothing green warmed by brushed-brass hardware. In a signature move, Lisa sourced hardware in a different finish for the wall cabinets: polished nickel pulls, also from Top Knobs.

Jake, the cook in the family, chose the matte white subway tile for the backsplash. His only other request was for workhorse appliances, including a Viking gas cooktop set into the quartz countertop above a KitchenAid oven. The dishwasher and trash compartment are tucked under the island.

The other side facing the family room features white subway tile set in a gray-grouted parquet pattern that creates a playful dialogue with the navy-and-white weave of the rattan stool seats. The chairs mirror the Currey & Company rattan chandelier in the adjacent breakfast nook, now reimagined as a lighter, brighter beverage center.

Instead of a table in the nook, a waterfall quartz-topped island wired to serve as a charging station and study area is centered in the space. Across from it, a granite counter, leathered for Lisa locally, rests on new storage cabinets and a small fridge. Open shelves above the counter display glassware illuminated by polished nickel sconces.

Previously a sitting room, this dining room now offers fireside seating and a pool view. The round Laurent grass and rattan mirror is from Elk Home and is framed by a panel painted the same green used in the parlor. The quartz-and-white oak framed mantel offers a contemporary but organic update to the gas fireplace, which is faced in wood-look Soci Archer Pattern Ashwood Blend tile. The round table is from RH.

Crisp white paint, custom cabinets stretched to the ceiling and the addition of an oversize quartz island make the kitchen feel new without a shift of walls. The ceramic tile from Arizona Tile, set in a parquet style on one side of the island, plays nicely with the weave of the rattan stool seats.

Rid of dark wainscoting, the nook is wrapped in a blue and white Serena & Lily wallpaper, a now discontinued fluid graphic pattern that gives traditional stripes a sophisticated tweak.

Lisa elevated the existing architectural trim on door casings here (and throughout the house) with the addition at each corner of wood trim squares with a classic rosette detail.

Elongated bookcases bracketing the fireplace in the family room now stretch to the ceiling, making the window-hemmed space look airier. But the first floor’s biggest light channel was unexpectedly opened when the DeBoevers replaced the dark engineered wood floors with white oak following flood damage from the hard freeze in 2021. A river of light flows through the home.

On the other side of the family room’s two-sided gas fireplace, a dining room includes a contemporary white oak mantel with inlaid tile of Lisa’s design. The room overlooks the recently installed pool. The treads of the adjacent staircase are also white oak, while the banister is red oak. A gallery wall of framed Andrew Wyeth prints draws the eye up.

Artwork of different provenance and in interesting frames figures prominently in the home’s decor but nowhere with greater effect than in the front parlor. Just inside the front door, what was the dining area is now a cozy sitting room painted Benjamin Moore Vintage Vogue, a smoky gray-green. Deeply padded vintage-look leather chairs that have a midcentury feel encourage settling in for conversation. In contrast to the contemporary lines of a cerused-gray sideboard, large classical landscape paintings in baroque frames add to the room’s clubby feel.

Eliminating dark wainscoting was key to reimagining the ’90s breakfast room as a pretty and useful nook for beverage service and studying. The buffet countertop is leathered granite. The wallpaper is a discontinued pattern from Serena & Lily.

In the family room, an expansive and comfortable Langham channeled sectional from Four Hands makes a nod to modern Italian tailored furniture and stylishly accommodates the family of four humans and two Yorkies.

“I ‘shopped’ my mother-in-law’s closets for them,” Lisa says. “I don’t know that they are anything special, but the frames are quite extraordinary.”

And such is the magic in the home’s makeover. The design tweaks, taken separately, are subtle, the colors classic, the furniture welcoming, but there is something more in the spin, a je ne sais quoi that gives the nest that Lisa has feathered its own style: bespoke DeBoever.

THE DETAILS

Interior design Lisa DeBoever, DeBoever Interiors, deboeverinteriors.com

Parlor

Lounge chairs Four Hands, fourhands.com

Paint Benjamin Moore Vintage Vogue, benjaminmoore.com

Sideboard Gabby Leary Sideboard, Summer Classics Home Southlake, summerclassicshome.com/southlake

Dining room

Fireplace mantel Quartz, Arizona Tile, arizonatile.com

Fireplace tile Soci Archer Pattern Ashwood Blend, ProSource of Coppell, prosourcewholesale.com

Mirror Laurent, Elk Home Showroom, Dallas Market Center, dallasmarketcenter.com

Table RH, rh.com

Kitchen

Appliances and plumbing fixtures Ferguson Bath, Kitchen & Lighting Gallery Grapevine, fergusonshowrooms.com

Paint Wall cabinets, Benjamin Moore Simply White; island cabinets, BM Saybrook Sage; walls and ceiling,
BM Calm; benjaminmoore.com

Hardware Top Knobs, topknobs.com

Tile Backsplash subway tile, Daltile, daltile.com

Kitchen nook

Pendant Antibes chandelier, Currey & Company, curreyandcompany.com

Sconces Dakota swing arm, Savoy House, Lee Lighting Colleyville, leelighting.com

Granite and quartz Arizona Tile, arizonatile.com

Wallpaper Serena & Lily, serenaandlily.com

Family room

Botanical prints Paragon Picture Gallery, Dallas Market Center, dallasmarketcenter.com

Sofa Sandstone Langham channeled sectional, Four Hands, fourhands.com

Wallpaper Bone Palmetto, Serena & Lily, serenaandlily.com

Throw Pom Pom at Home, Dallas Market Center, dallasmarketcenter.com

Pillow Lambert Home Southlake, lamberthome.com