Texas Living Rooms That Wow — Inside Some of 2020’s Most Remarkable Rooms

Homes to Remember

By Shelby Hodge // Dec 29, 2020

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Dallas Kips Bay Decorator House: A large-scale painting from John Nelson Antiques in L.A., is a dramatic foil for the custom Iksel wallpaper. Sofa is Mark Sikes for Chaddock Home, covered in Schumacher fabric. (Photo Stephen Karlisch)

Dallas Kips Bay House: A large-scale painting from John Nelson Antiques in L.A., is a dramatic foil for the custom Iksel wallpaper. Sofa is Mark Sikes for Chaddock Home, covered in Schumacher fabric. (Photo Stephen Karlisch)

Dallas Kips Bay Decorator House: In Mark Sikes' Kips Bay living room, a custom wallpaper by Iksel Decorative Arts is an airy blue and white Portuguese tile motif. Portuguese and Italian antiques throughout are from Nick Brock, John Nelson Antiques and Parc Monceau Antiques. (Photo Stephen Karlisch)

Dallas Kips Bay House: In Mark Sikes' Kips Bay living room, a custom wallpaper by Iksel Decorative Arts is an airy blue and white Portuguese tile motif. Portuguese and Italian antiques throughout are from Nick Brock, John Nelson Antiques and Parc Monceau Antiques. (Photo Stephen Karlisch)

The pink living room, designed by Fort Worth interior designer Judy Aldridge was inspired by Lee Radziwill’s interiors. Draperies and upholstery are made from tablecloths from Wisteria. (Photo by Lisa Petrole)

The pink living room by Fort Worth Interior designer Judy Aldridge was inspired by Lee Radziwill’s interiors. Draperies and upholstery are made from tablecloths from Wisteria. (Photo by Lisa Petrole)

PaperCity 2020 Design Awards: Winning Entry, Residential Interior Design Over 3,500 Square Feet: Kevin Spearman Design Group (photo by Kerry Kirk)

Dallas home: In the living room are a pair of 18th-century French fauteuils and a Maison Jansen coffee table. Custom sofa designed by Alvise Orsini and upholstered in silk velvet. Italian 18th-century gilt carved mirror. (Photo by Lisa Petrole, Styled by Michelle Aviña)

PaperCity 2020 Design Awards: Winning Entry, Residential Interior Design Under 3,500 Square Feet: Brandon Fontenot Interiors (Pär Bengtsson)

Jane Scott Hodges' home in New Orleans: In the parlor, walls triple lacquered in custom chartreuse by Fine Paints of Europe. (Photo by Paul Costello)

PaperCity 2020 Design Awards: Winning Entry, Singular Space - Living or Great Room, Entertainment, Recreation Room (TIE): Meg Lonergan Interiors (photo by Pär Bengtsson)

The living room in Bryan Adridge’s office, designed by Judy Aldridge, in Trophy Club includes a rare Paul Evans sculpture, Adrian Pearsall coffee table, and antique French chairs upholstered in fabric from Guatemala. The 1978 nudes painting by Jillian Denby is from Gillian Bryce Fine Art in Tucker, Georgia, an Aldridge favorite. (Photo by Lisa Petrole)

A pink-and-blue painting by Salle Werner-Vaughn, left, inspired this room installation in Houston. The artist also created the painting and sculptures at right and painted the cloud scene above the doorway. A monumental antique gilt candlestick is used as a pedestal for a tiny sculpture. (Photo by Lisa Petrole, Art Direction by Michelle Aviña)

Dallas Kips Bay House: Upstairs living room designed by Ten Plus Three. (Photo by Stephen Karlisch)

The living room in this mid-century modern home in Houston's Tanglewood neighborhood opens to one of two interior courtyards. (Photo by TK Images)

Living room by Houston interior designer Chandos Dodson Epley.

Living, dining and entertaining all in one space in the popular open floor plan. (Photo by Julie Soefer)

Living, dining and entertaining all in one space in the popular open floor plan. Interiors of the luxury mid-rise aprtment model by Chandos Dodson Epley. (Photo by Julie Soefer)

Mary Anne Smiley Interiors in Dallas created this living room in bright and cheery decor.

Mary Ann Smiley Interiors in Dallas created this living room in bright and cheery decor.

Winning Entry, Singular Space - Living or Great Room, Entertainment, Recreation Room (TIE): MaRs/Mayfield and Ragni Studio (photo by Eric Laignel)

Paper City Design Awards: Winning Entry, Residential Historical Restoration/Preservation: 6 Courtlandt Place by Mirador Group (photo by Divya Pande)

Winning Entry, Residential Historical Restoration/Preservation: 6 Courtlandt Place by Mirador Group (photo by Divya Pande)

Houston designer Chandos Dodson Epley created this living room in a River Oaks home.

Michelle Nussbaumer, Kips Bay Decorator Show House Dallas 2020 (Photo by Stephen Karlisch)

One of the hallmarks of PaperCity in digital, and particularly in the print magazine, is the reverence for beautiful interiors. Those magnificent rooms, featured in stunning photographs and lyrical writing, became ever more important in 2020 as COVID-19 kept us at home and we began examining our surroundings.

Though 2020 was a miserable year in so many ways, PaperCity home design editor Rebecca Sherman brightened our days with her discoveries and reporting on those splendid living environments.

In this year-end period of thoughtful reflection, we revisit some of the stunning and inspiring interiors featured in PaperCity digital throughout the past year. In this particular piece, we are focusing on sumptuous living rooms.

Several of those, we selected come from the Kips Bay Decorator Show House Dallas. Others were winners in the PaperCity Design Awards 2020. And others originated in feature stories in PaperCity’s print magazine, which celebrated its 25th anniversary this year. We also salute remarkable living rooms created by Texas interior designers and we sneaked in one or two that were particularly compelling from real estate articles.

Among the designers highlighted are Chandos Dodson Epley and Courtnay Tartt Elias of Houston, Mary Ann Smiley of Dallas, Judy Aldridge of Fort Worth, and Jane Scott Hodges of New Orleans.