Real Estate / Home + Design / Houses / Architecture

National Magazine Can’t Get Enough of this Mediterranean Highland Park Mansion: Exotic Design Touches Cement its Standing as One of Texas’ Most Beautiful Houses

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Interior design magazine Veranda gives major love to one of Dallas’ most beautiful homes in its new July/August issue. The Mediterranean-style stunner was a labor of love for interior designer Emily Summers, who has offices in Dallas and Manhattan. Summers worked with California-based architect Marc Appleton to create a dream house for her son Stephen and his wife Elisa.

The couple are two of the city’s foremost style setters, and not just because of their covetable interior design hook-up. They are also co-owners of high-end shopping center Highland Park Village. They purchased the complex with Elisa’s sister and brother-in-law in 2009 and further built its reputation as a premiere shopping destination – you can thank them for bringing luxury boutiques like Tom Ford, Celine, and Alexander McQueen to Dallas.

But it’s their Highland Park house that has a national magazine buzzing — and devoting an eight-page spread to it.

The Spanish and Mexican-style architecture of the charming 1930s shopping center inspired the couple to create a retreat-like home with the same sunny feel. They decided on an architectural style more common on the breezy coasts of California and Florida than in North Texas; Spanish Colonial Revival, a specialty of Appleton.

Morocco also played a major part in inspiring the home’s exotic-meets-contemporary decor. Photos of La Mamounia, a famous palace hotel in Marrakech, were used as design reference. The couple accompanied Emily Summers on a trip to Morocco and Spain before the home’s completion to shop for doors, rugs, antiques and lanterns. The Moroccan influence is especially present in the tiled sitting room — Elisa’s favorite part of the house — where shades of rosy pink mesh together in tapestries, rugs, and painted tiles.

The texture-rich and pattern-heavy decor is offset by hand-plastered white walls and clean lines.  A few contemporary touches, like the simple master bedroom, keep the house feeling comfortable and classic.

Having an interior designer in the family certainly has its perks. Click through the gallery to see this one-of-a-kind home — and how Veranda spotlighted it.

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