A Dallas Designer's Home For Sale

Does this look familiar?

During a recent web browsing session, I came across these photos of Dallas designer Shannon Bowers's beautiful home on Sotheby's website. The interiors, furnished with French and Swedish antiques, will be instantly recognizable to Veranda magazine readers since the home was featured in the September 2008 issue of Veranda. I remember marveling over these interiors when my issue arrived that month. Antiques, soft colors, and abundant sunshine filled every room. And now, to see even more photos of the home on Sotheby's website is a bonus. This naturally lead me to compare the rooms from Sotheby's website to the Veranda photos (all Veranda photos by Peter Vitale).

But first, here is the exterior of the house.  It's just as beautiful and well manicured as one would expect for this home. Neatly trimmed boxwood hedges and topiary (at least it appears to be boxwood) frame the entrance.

Here is the front entry from Sotheby's website.  The soft colors of the rug complement the pale floors and white walls.  A few key antiques are allowed to shine.  Compare this to the photo below from Veranda, which presents the room from a different angle.

Moving on to the living room, below, this photo is a wide angle shot from  Sotheby's website. 

Ah, so this is the entire room, above (from Sotheby's), instead of the small portion of the room Veranda showed, below. I was curious to know the context of the trumeau and daybed in the Veranda photo.  Where in the house was the photo taken?  And now we know--it's part of a larger living room.  Of course, the difference in views is not surprising as we all know that the photos for a real estate listing should help the viewer see as many rooms as possible and the purpose of the magazine spread is to highlight the designer's work.

And here, below, is Sotheby's photo of the other half of the room.

And compare that to the photo below that appeared in Veranda.

A few of the chairs in the Veranda photo are different from those in Sotheby's photo and the Veranda shot includes a cream-colored rug, which doesn't appear in Sotheby's photo.  Also, the table in front of the sofa is different in each photo and the pillows on the sofa in the Veranda photo are Fortuny.  The pillows appear to be linen in Sotheby's photo.

This is my favorite photo, which is the dining room with a view into the kitchen.  What a beautiful room in which to have dinner after a long day at the office (I digress...). The blue and green painted doors are fully visible and at the center of the room is a worn, light colored, painted table.  Compare this to the Veranda photo below.

The dining chair seats are covered in pale blue linen in Veranda's photo.  The table is smaller and a dark color.  Also, there is a bench in Veranda's photo which does not appear in Sotheby's photo.  I think I prefer the room with the cream colored seats on the chairs and the larger white dining table.

Above is another living room / seating area in the home from Sotheby's.   Compare this to the photo from Veranda below.  Again, there are some subtle differences in the home. The rug is gone and a dark bench replaces the light bench that was in Veranda's photo.  The art is different as well in Sotheby's photo.

The photo below of a library/office did not appear in the magazine.  It's a nice sized room with plenty of shelves and storage space. It's sparsely furnished, but the dark stained table is highlighted by all the white wood work.  The pale, bleached floors are beautiful and remind me of beach sand.  They give the rooms a calm and serene look.  The same look can be achieved by using sisal, wool, or sea grass rugs (but sisal and wool are more susceptible to stains).

The children's playroom, below, as shown on Sotheby's website.  I like the wood shelving unit and baskets.  There's plenty of room for storing toys, books, and games.

And here is how the same room appeared in Veranda, below.

And the pretty bedroom for a little girl, behind the french doors off the playroom, is shown below, from Sotheby's website.  This room appears to be the same as it was in Veranda, except that the colors are not as vibrant in this photo and the lavender rug is gone.

The bedroom below did not appear in the magazine, at least not decorated like this.  It looks like it could be a guest room and there's a view out the window to the garden.

But Veranda also included a baby boy's room, below.  I wonder if the room above is the same room, redecorated for an older child?

The master bedroom, below, is dressed in neutral linen punctuated with touches of lavender, as it appeared in Veranda. 

The furnishings in the master bedroom, below, on Sotheby's site are pared down. Roman shades are used on the windows here, where most of the other rooms have wood shutters on the windows.

It's surprising that Sotheby's photos do not include the kitchen, shown below in Veranda.  I wonder what their rationale was for not including it on the website.

There is also an outdoor deck with a dining area and separate seating area. The furnishings look just as expected, based on the interior of the home.

The listing also mentions separate guest quarters on the property, below.  It's a charming house in its own right. 

Here's a view of the interior of the guest house, including a lovely bedroom with two twin beds and a bathroom.   Who wouldn't like to stay here for a few nights?

This is such a beautifully furnished home that it's difficult to imagine what it looks like empty.  It's clearly a spacious property that's well cared and I would think it will (or did?) sell quickly.  The difference in real estate prices across the country continues to amaze me.  The listing price of this home would be twice as much in the Boston area.

To learn more about the home, click the Sotheby's link in the first paragraph above and to see the Veranda article, click the link to the magazine in the same paragraph.