Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/562661
BY REBECCA SHERMAN. ART DIRECTION MICHELLE AVIÑA. PHOTOGRAPHY CHRIS PLAVIDAL FOR SISTERBROTHER MGMT. SOUTHERN SOCIAL ROOTS RUN DEEP IN THIS VIVIDLY HUED, COMFORTABLE REMAKE OF AN 84-YEAR-OLD COLONIAL REVIVAL ESTATE NEAR HIGHLAND PARK. N ew Orleans-bred Paul Garzotto is part of that long tradition of Southern society decorators where the question "Who is your decorator?" is rarely ever asked of his blue-chip clients. That's because Garzotto's rooms have an effortlessly chic appeal, as if they were pulled together by the equally insouciant and stylish lady of the house. Garzotto, of the Dallas-based design firm Green Garzotto, was business partner with the late Marguerite Green, who was considered the Sister Parish of Dallas society. Like Parish and Green, Garzotto is hired through word-of-mouth referrals (he has no website and rarely publishes his work). Clients tend to be civic-minded, old Dallas families — the likes of Nancy and Jeremy Halbreich, Charles and Dee Wyly, and the late Raymond and Patsy Nasher. With top-drawer art and furnishings handed down through the generations, these deep-rooted scions of the city require homes that function well and live beautifully. Comfort and usefulness reign, and repurposed inherited furniture holds sway over new. Garzotto's houses are bespoke in the best sense of the word, tailor-made to perfection for the families living in them. "Billy Baldwin used to say that designing a house is like being a portrait painter," Garzotto says. "But I think it's more like helping people execute their own self-portrait." Nothing could illustrate this rather humble declaration on decorating better than the glamorous Depression-era house he recently completed for clients in the lush Northern Hills neighborhood near Highland Park. When the homeowners purchased the rambling, 1931 Colonial Revival house more than 10 years ago, it had already been renovated by one of the city's leading modernist architects for previous owners, a pair of contemporary art collectors. Much of the original classic appeal of the interiors — done post-war by legendary architect and designer John Astin Perkins — had been stripped away, save for the ornate plaster moldings and the marble fireplace in the library and formal living room and the house's original doors. But the pseudo white- LILAC TRIM BLUE BLOOD The living-room lilac walls and lacquered ceiling were custom-mixed and applied by Barry A. Martin Painting Contractors. The original plaster molding, fireplace and French antiques contrast with a mid-century chandelier from the Petroleum Club of Houston.