Dallas Designer Alice Cottrell in Elle Decor

Small space, big talent...Dallas designer Alice Cottrell is getting some much-deserved national attention in Elle Decor for her exquisitely rendered, 700 square ft. apartment overlooking Turtle Creek. Go here for the story.

This is actually similar to the apartment I ran in 2006 that Alice did while I was editor at D Home (Stephen Karlisch shot the images and Haile Wossen did the cool floral designs that ended up making the cover). That apartment, just next door to where she's living now, was a whopping 50 square ft. bigger! Check out Alice's new Bulthaup kitchen and Poliform closet. Alice and I have had many discussions during the years about our mutual passion for small spaces. Alice has said that even 1,000 square ft. is too big. A good designer can make even tiny places feel huge, and that seems to be Alice's forte.

The Magic Box

Shazam!...(as Gomer Pyle would say). You won't believe the story behind this box. I read it on Kovels Komments, a witty blog about the online antiques auction biz.

A Modern Villa in Dallas

WOW! This gorgeous groin vaulted entry was designed by architect Richard Drummond Davis and his firm for Lance and Shari Vander Linden's new house in Preston Hollow. They are building a modern art collection, and this hall will house much of it eventually. The sculpture pictured is by Austin artist Shawn Smith.

What I think is interesting about this house is that the Vander Lindens wanted a traditional villa but modern furnishings and art inside. Merging two such disparate design ideas doesn't usually work, but Davis pared the architecture way down and kept things simple so that it would all work.

Davis, who used all cut limestone, left out most of the decorative cornices and entablatures found in most villa-style architecture, and the arches are without keystones or plinth blocks, and the porches without decorative trim.

Robyn Menter and Alicia Quinans did the interior design for the house.

Menter and Quintans designed this semi circular sofa and ottoman and covered them in indoor/outdoor fabric that Menter says can even be bleached. The Vander Lindens have three teenagers and at least one dog, so they needed something bullet proof.

Builder Barry Buford did a beautiful job with this house, using all cut limestone inside and out, and Douglas fir beams. Davis told me it's every architect's dream to work on a house where you get to use cut stone.

The master bedroom.

Red is Shari's favorite color, so Menter and Quinans used it as an accent throughout.

Turquoise is the daughter's favorite color, so it was used in her bath and in her bedroom. I love it when teenagers get to have chic rooms.

The Eero Aarnio chair makes the room, doesn't it? That floor lamp is from Artemide and goes perfectly in the room with that chair.

This is Lance's study. He requested Thomas Moser furniture, so he got it. Don't you love the painting of books over the fire place? It's by Pablo Luna.

I can't find a reference in my notes as to who did the landscaping and pool but when I do I'll let you know.

2 Must-Read Books With Dallas Connections!

Sip a spell...Dallas author Denise Gee and her husband photographer Robert Peacock have a new book out called Porch Parties (Chronicle Books, April 2010, $16.95). Denise grew up in a big old plantation style house in Natchez Mississippi, an historic town known for its lazy porch life, southern cocktails, and eccentric people.

Meet her on Thursday April 15 from 5 - 8 pm at at Lisa Luby Ryan's Annual Upscale Garage Sale, 3520 Granada Ave. Lisa's serving cocktails and hors d'oeuvres, and maybe Denise will tell you some stories about growing up in Natchez if you ask. You'll be enthralled.

Dallas architect Eddie Maestri's Lakewood porch,

styled by Denise Gee and photographed by Robert Peacock.

Denise, who's a well-known interiors writer for magazines such as Traditional Home, Better Homes & Gardens, Southern Living, and Southern Accents, gives lots of tips on how to decorate your own porch for a party. This is her second book that features cocktails (check out Southern Cocktails which came out a few years ago) and she fills Porch Parties with lots of drinks recipes like the one below.

The Blackberry Smash cocktail, featured from where else, The Porch, in Dallas.

It features fresh blackberries, rye and ginger ale.

Designers Here and There (The Monacelli Press, April 2010, $50) is New York author Michele Keith's riff on town and country living, featuring the city and vacation homes of designers across the country including Dallas' own John Marrs. You'll also see houses owned by Houston designers Renea Abbott and Beverly Jacomini, along with those of celebrity designers Vicente Wolf and Barclay Butera. It's really a beautiful book, and Michelle manages to elicit some good tips from most of the designers while telling the stories of their homes.

Marr's Dallas sitting room, photographed by Dallas-based Stephen Karlisch.

John Marrs in his Dallas living room, shot by Stephen Karlisch.

John and Michele will be signing copies of the book at East & Orient Co., on April 27 from 5:30 - 7:30.

Great Design in....Grand Prairie?

This isn't what you think it is.....it's not an office building, it's actually a high school in our area. It's also an incredible story of how good design can change people's lives.

Here's the story I wrote about it in Modern Luxury, above, about a very hip school named Dubiski Career High School. The school's been open only since fall 2009, and already it's changing hundreds of lives for the better. The school was designed by Dallas-based Corgan Associates architect Eric Horstman.

Seems Grand Prairie had a big problem with kids dropping out, so the GISD school board did a lot of research into what students really needed. What they came up with was a career high school that not only preps you for something cool like culinary, architecture, or graphic arts, but puts you on a college track by graduating every student with an associates degree as well as a high school diploma.

Then there's the amazing design.

Horstman and his colleagues at Corgan went out on a limb and decided to create the most beautiful, professional environment for the kids they could. People told him the kids would wreck the furniture and trash the place. But after being open almost a full school year, nothing like that has happened, he says. In fact...

....the kids come to school early and stay late, says Horstman, who was told this from the school's principal. They love it. They think it's beautiful, so they love to be there.

They also eliminated the ringing bells between classes. Kids learn to be responsible early on by managing their own schedules.

This is the school's espresso bar and coffee shop. Many of the spaces were modeled after professional spaces in real environments, such as the professional kitchen for their culinary program.

If you haven't already checked out the school's website, you should. This school does what every school should, preparing kids for life by training them for careers at the same time they're training them for college. And it does it in a beautiful building with beautiful interior design. I really believe in the power of design to change people's lives in ways that nothing else can.

Can you imagine what might happen if every kid in Dallas had a chance to go to a school like this?