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ASHES W hen a pair of young married physicians reached out to Brant McFarlain at the end of 2013 to help with the interiors of their new Highland Park home, they were in crisis mode. Their mid- century modern house in Oak Cliff had gone up in flames three months earlier, destroying antiques, art, and furniture. "It was a complete loss," says the husband. "Everything but one piece of art, which was on loan to a museum, was burned." The couple lived in a hotel for several months, searching for a new house. "It was an incredibly trau- matic time for us," he says. "We moved into our new house with literally a mattress and two upside-down egg cartons for end tables. It took us five minutes." To help them reimagine a comfortable domestic life, the couple's realtor recommended a handful of designers. One stood out: "Brant's soothing manner and his style and vision were all factors in the decision to hire him," the husband says. "We knew he could get us through the recent trauma." BY REBECCA SHERMAN. PRODUCED BY MICHELLE AVIÑA. INTERIOR DESIGN BRANT McFARLAIN. PHOTOGRAPHY CASEY DUNN FOR SISTERBROTHER MGMT. FLOWERS HAILE WOSSEN. McFarlain, owner of R Brant Design, is known for his sophisticated, modern interiors and is a favorite among contemporary-art-col- lector clients such as Lindsey and Patrick Collins and Christen and Derek Wilson. "I tend to be pretty neutral and serious," McFarlain says. "I don't use a lot of color, and I'm not what you'd consider playful." In McFarlain's pared-down world, whimsy is usually reserved for the art. But fun was just what this pair of stressed-out docs needed — a vibrant house to bring back the joy. "We love color," the homeowner says. "Our last house was like a Crayola box, and we wanted to use color wherever we could." For McFarlain, the request was a first. "It was a great challenge for me," he says, "but they trusted me and let me run with it." T ired of living out of suitcases, the homeowners didn't have patience for the kind of full renovation McFarlain normally would have done to sleek up a 10-year-old, Mediterranean-style build- er-house like this one. Instead, the designer kept it simple, modernizing the interiors by painting the walls white and bleaching the mahogany floors. "We were starting to- tally from scratch, and it's a cool thing to design from nothing," the husband says. "I'm not going to lie; it was both exciting and scary at the same time." Much of what the couple lost in the fire was irreplaceable: pieces discovered on their travels to Asia; contemporary art; and French Art Deco and mid-century antiques the husband acquired from his mother's antiques store in Boston, Room with a Vieux. "We like unusual artifacts, and we do a lot of traveling," he says. "It was important to us to have things from different cultures and time periods." McFarlain's job was to make the newly acquired furniture and art feel collected over the years. "They didn't want it to look like they bought it all at once," the designer says. To provide a rich, layered feel, he selected investment-worthy pieces such as a Jean-Michel Frank re-edition console from Ralph Pucci in L.A., a vintage '70s- era Vladimir Kagan Serpentine sofa, and several vintage Paul Evans pieces, including a lacquer-and-bronze dining table, BEAUTY for 119