ON LOCATION

The 1962 house was miraculously intact, but it needed some updating. Twodecades later, it’s nearly done.

By Tim McKeough

Jan. 29, 2019

Emily Summers is a champion of modern design, past and present. With a Dallas firmknown for interiors that are crisp and edited, yet equally comfortable, she has becomeone of Texas’s most prominent designers. But as a preservationist appointed to theAdvisory Council on Historic Preservation by former president George W. Bush, she alsohas a soft spot for maintaining the work of modernists who preceded her.

Twenty years ago, when her daughter, Caroline, a real estate agent, saw a listing for alow-slung 1962 house designed by the architect Robert Johnson Perry in the affluentDallas suburb of Highland Park, Ms. Summers and her husband, Steve Summers, whoworked in finance before retiring, decided they should have a look.

A ModernistRestoration, Texas Style

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“From the moment we saw it, it seemed like the perfect thing,” Ms. Summers said. “Perrywas an MIT-trained architect who brought beautiful midcentury projects to Dallas — butnot a lot of them.”

She was especially excited to see that the original structure hadn’t been damaged by anyham-handed renovations.

“The house was like it had been put under a bell jar. It was in pristine historic condition,”said Ms. Summers, who was impressed with the way Mr. Perry had designed the housearound a series of courtyards that provided nearly every room with light and views. “Ithas a very Bauhaus, thin-roof profile, but it’s done in a beautiful adobe brick, which hasmore regional character.”

The house “has a very Bauhaus, thin-roof profile, but it’s done in a beautiful adobe brick,which has more regional character,” Emily Summers said. Laura Wilson

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With three grown children who had recently moved out, the couple, now in their early70s, saw the single-story house as an appealing way to downsize — never mind that itwould mean moving out of a house they had built for themselves from the ground up.

Of course, a house that has never been updated often needs a little help. “It included allof the funky things you might not necessarily want” in the 21st century, Ms. Summersnoted, like acoustic panels covering the wood ceiling in the living room, woodwork sealerthat had turned a greenish hue and a tiny pass-through window with shutters betweenthe kitchen and family room.

But she feared that if they didn’t buy it, someone else might knock it down to make wayfor a McMansion. “We came through an era when so many of these great regionalmidcentury homes were torn down,” she said, and replaced by overwrought “pastiches ofTudor.”

Ms. Summers and her husband, SteveSummers, reduced the number of bedroomsfrom four to two, converting one into a homeoffice and another into an exercise room.Allison V. Smith for The New York Times

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So they bought it in 1999 for $1.3 million and embarked on a yearlong flurry of renovationand restoration, with help from Russell Buchanan, an architect, before moving in andbeginning more gradual fine-tuning — two decades’ worth — for a total cost about $1.5million.

In the first year, they removed the acoustic panels, stripped and refinished woodworkthroughout the house, expanded the opening between the kitchen and family room,renovated the kitchen and bathrooms, and reduced the number of bedrooms from four totwo, converting one into a home office and another into an exercise room.

The landscaping resisted such a quick fix. “That’s an ongoing situation,” Ms. Summerssaid. “We’re constantly editing and adding. There are so many trees in the backyard it’simpossible to grow anything, so we’re adding different layers of mondo grass in a veryJapanese aesthetic.”

The furniture and art inside the house have continued to evolve as well. “You’re talkingto a decorator, so the combination of furniture in my house is an accumulation, acollection, a lot of things,” she said.

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Just inside the entrance, for instance, is a black lacquer Art Deco console table by JeanDunand, the first collectible piece of designer furniture Ms. Summers bought for herself,in the early 1970s. Last year, she topped the console with a pair of vintage brass-and-pyrite lamps by Georges Mathias, flanking a contemporary artwork by Evan Nesbit.

Ms. Summers’s favorite piece of furniture is a whimsical 11-legged bronze-and-glass tableby Garouste and Bonetti, which she paired with 19th-century chairs from Italy.Eric Piasecki

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Farther in, the décor is just as eclectic. One sitting area in the living room mixes awhimsical, 11-legged, bronze-and-glass table by the Paris-based provocateurs Garousteand Bonetti with 19th-century side chairs from Italy. In another area, a set of upholstered1960s Italian seating is punctuated by a Cow Chair, from the Dutch designer Niels vanEijk for Droog, made out of a hardened cowhide.

Now finally ready for a close-up, the house has a starring role in Ms. Summers’s newbook, “Distinctly Modern Interiors,” published by Rizzoli this month. (Two other 1960smodernist houses that the couple bought and restored — one near Palm Springs, Calif.,the other in Colorado Springs — are also featured.)

But that doesn’t mean Ms. Summers plans to seal the house under the bell jar. “I’mthinking about making some changes now, to the family room,” she said, before statingthe obvious: “Designers are always changing things.”

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