If you enjoy making a statement, love a bit of architectural drama, and entertaining is an integral part of your life, it’s hard to beat this beautiful Mediterranean Revival luxury home. The style has been popular for over a century, so I began to think about some of the early influences that brought it to our shores.
Living and entertaining on a large scale was an essential element in the European homes that inspired America’s Mediterranean Revival style.
Architects Addison Mizner and Bertram Goodhue were at the forefront of the movement and rightfully deserve credit for popularizing the style here. However, they were undoubtedly influenced by clients who had taken part in what was an essential part of aristocratic upbringing, The Grand Tour.
The Grand Tour Comes Home
The practice of going on The Grand Tour began for the young men of Europe in the 17th century. They would embark, generally with a tutor, to become culturally and artistically aware. By the early 1900s, America’s wealthy young men and young women (accompanied by chaperones, of course) became a part of this scene. It was also considered an excellent way for the daughters of the American aristocracy to mingle with European society and perhaps come back home with a duke or prince in tow and their futures sealed.
Italy was always the high point in these journeys because of the depth and breadth of art and historic architecture. So it’s not at all surprising when the lovely lads and ladies returned to marry and start their careers and lives that, they would choose to recreate the romantic architecture seen on their life-changing adventure, but with an American twist.
So Italian and Spanish Renaissance, Venetian Gothic, and Arab-Andalusian architecture all went into the mix to influence what became Mediterranean Revival architecture.
It was the preferred style for luxury resorts in Florida and California. Movie stars embraced the look, constructing vast Mediterranean Revival homes featured in magazines and used as locations in films. Not only is the style considered enchanting, but it’s also eminently practical and energy-efficient for warm climates. So, Dallas is a perfect fit for the Mediterranean Revival style.
A Luxury Estate With Everything
This house has everything a luxury home buyer could want, including an elevator. I was particularly enamored of the home office, but it’s almost blasphemy to call it that. Imagine working in a room that looks like you’ve dipped into a box of chocolates with the pièce de résistance being the gold-leaf ceiling. It’s delicious.
There is so much to love about this property, but scale wins the day. When a home is large enough for two primary bedrooms to each have seating areas, it’s a winner in anyone’s book. But scale can often be hard to comprehend. A big empty house does not easily resonate with buyers. When you have over 11,000 square feet of emptiness, it’s impossible for a buyer to see how a large home can still be intimate and function for their family. It also gives them a place to sit down and sign the contract!
I was thrilled to see Keller Williams Realtor Courtney Anthony appreciates the significance of staging and called on Donna Klein to make this house a home.
“Because the scale of this home is so dramatic, even for Preston Hollow, I wanted to create warmth within each space and make it relatable,” Donna Klein of Klein Design and Staging said. “It’s a beautiful canvas with incredible millwork and grand open spaces. That can be overwhelming unless a buyer sees how the rooms work. I wanted to bring that sense of family function and a transitional feel into it, so any buyer can see how the house lives.”
“This house has a lot of character,” Anthony said. “It feels luxurious and cozy at the same time. That’s not something you often see in homes today.”
Anthony has 6326 Lakehurst Ave. listed for $4.15 million.
