First of all, LOCATION! 4557 Belfort Avenue in Highland Park EAST of the Dallas North Tollway. Can you find a sweeter spot? Then you have this stunning, creamy, ivy-covered charmer with a garden courtyard that has been remodelled and redecorated by award-winning interior designer extraordinaire Emily Summers. Summers, along with Dallas design legend Laura Hunt, is one of the very few designers in town to have been named to the top 100 best designers in the world by Architectural Digest numerous times. Both are well loved by AD’s haute editor, Paige Rense. Summers is also the only Dallas designer to have served on the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation from 2002 to 2006, by Presidential appointment, from President George W. Bush. She served as Chair for the Communication, Education, and Outreach Committee. Her signature work has been said to possess “clarity of vision” and the resulting spaces “luxurious yet restrained”.
Take a look inside this house, you’ll get it in about 5 seconds.
The home is 3773 square feet but you will swear it is so much more. Built in 1982, which you would never know after the remodel, the home has tall ceilings, and is updated throughout. I would say luxurious in all the right spots. The master suite, for example, has a to-die-for fireplace with a new Carrera white marble bath, separate huge his and her closets. If this home doesn’t make you want to rip out your current bath, I don’t know what will. Excuse me while I find a chisel.
Back in the kitchen, the granite and stainless are flawless, and I am loving seeing wood again in the center islands. Talk about a way to warm things up — just saw a Greenwell Homes spec that deserves the O word, and it has white oak in the kitchen. Yeah! Let’s warm up the granite story!
4557 Belfort also boasts ebonized hardwoods (be still, my heart), and a teak deck with a custom made retractable awning. It is so good looking.
There are five bedrooms, three and a half baths and two living areas. Two car garage. The lot is pretty low maintenance at .15 an acre, a 50 by 135. Really, who needs more?
The Emily Summers design updates create a timeless transitional design, and 4557 Belfort is being marketed by her tireless daughter, Caroline Summers at Briggs Freeman. I don’t think there is a comparable home, because you are getting a cottage with an interior created by a world-renown interior designer for $1,549,000. The good folks at Inwood Mortgage know all about her, and they can get you in lickety-split so you can start ordering your Thanksgiving turkey. You won’t believe how stress free their loan application process is. $1,549,000 for a Highland Park address and HPISD. An Emily Summers home! I just might be packing, and I don’t mean heat!
