- June 17, 2026
- Elizabeth Ryan
Some projects are about transformation. Some are about clarification, where we help a family articulate what they already know they love and build a home that finally reflects it.
Project Tartan Hollow in Preston Hollow, Dallas was very much the latter.
When this family came to us, they were clear about one thing. They did not want the house everyone else was building. They wanted something that felt personal, collected, and rooted — a home that reminded them of the places they loved growing up.
We took that direction and ran with it, working through the main living spaces of this Preston Hollow home, including the kitchen, formal living room, dining room, family room, and powder room, along with the primary bedroom and laundry.
Every space connected back to the same core belief that their home should feel like their own.
The Inspiration
The English countryside was our north star.
Not the stuffy, untouchable version, but the warm and charming one where antiques actually get used, oil paintings leave you looking longer than expected, and a room feels collected over time rather than ordered in an afternoon. Our goal was to take that spirit and make it feel genuinely fresh. When clients bring that kind of personal history into a project, the design almost finds itself.
Solving the Layout
The central staircase presented an early challenge in our floor planning process. Rather than fight it, we let it define the solution, tucking a generous pantry underneath and turning a structural constraint into one of the more practical moments in the home. That is usually how the best ideas happen.
The kitchen was a more significant undertaking. The original space was dark and felt closed off from the rest of the home. By expanding the footprint in both directions, we created a layout with real flow for a kitchen that finally matches the way a family actually cooks and gathers.
This kind of problem solving is built into our process from the very first phase, when we assess the space and work through every floor plan decision before a single item is selected.
In the kitchen, we expanded the footprint in both directions to open up the layout and bring in more natural light that the space had been missing.
The Formal Living Room
The fireplace wall was the moment we had been building toward. The existing fireplace was too small for the scale of the room, and while the trim detailing around the large windows was beautiful, the overall elevation felt disconnected. We updated the fireplace, added wall paneling, and carefully integrated the existing window detailing so the whole wall reads as one considered composition.
On the Wallpaper
Handpainted wallpaper is one of our favorite tools for adding pattern and texture in a way that feels genuinely one of a kind. For this project, the dining room called for something soft and meadow-like, a pattern that felt like it had always belonged in an English countryside home. During installation some smearing occurred, which is exactly why we keep a talented painter among our trusted contractors. The paper was corrected seamlessly and is exactly what it was meant to be.
The Takeaway
Project Tartan Hollow is a reminder that the most personal homes are rarely the ones that follow the moment. They follow the family.
As a full-service interior design studio in Dallas, the projects we love most are the ones where a client comes in knowing who they are and trusts us to build around that. The result is always something that lasts.
Every project starts with a conversation. If you are thinking about a renovation or a full home refresh in the Dallas area, we would love to be part of it. Inquire here.
