Angeline Guido Design transforms the interiors of a Preston Hollow home for a family of five and their frequent guests.
Swivel chairs and a sofa from Scout Design Studio provide cozy seating in the formal living room
When Dori Araiza and her husband, Jesus, bought their Preston Hollow home in 2017, it had everything their family needed. The 6,500-square-foot floor plan was a nice upgrade from their previous home’s 2,200 square feet, and the layout was ideal for them and their three children. There was just one problem: “The house was only 10 years old, but it looked like it was 30 years old,” says Dori. The dated interiors featured heavy cast-stone fireplaces, oil-rubbed bronze fixtures and dark walls throughout. “It had a yellow tone to it,” Dori says of the Mediterranean-style house, “and we wanted a white, clean palette.”
The family room fireplace got a bold makeover with patterned cement tile from Villa Lagoon Tile and a mantel made of reclaimed wood.
To help them achieve their goal, the Araizas enlisted Angeline Guido Hall, owner of Angeline Guido Design LLC (angelineguidodesign.com) and retail space PURVEYORhome (purveyorhome.com). “The house had really good bones,” says Guido Hall, who worked alongside designer and project manager Reno Grossi. “It just needed to be updated, lightened and brightened.” Though the homeowners weren’t interested in Mediterranean decor, they did want the interiors of the house to complement its exterior. So Guido Hall devised a plan: “We went for modern Spanish versus dungeon-esque Mediterranean,” she says.
In the master bedroom, a subtle Thibaut wallcovering is a serene backdrop for the leather-upholstered Moss Studio bed.
The first step in the home’s transformation was painting all the walls and trim in Sherwin-Williams’ Alabaster. “The house has dark floors, so we really had to combat that with a fresh coat of white paint,” says Guido Hall. “It immediately changed the whole look of the house.” The design team also updated all of the fireplace facades, revamped all of the bathrooms, put in new kitchen countertops and backsplash, changed all of the cabinet and door hardware, and brought in all new plumbing and light fixtures. “All of those things, plus lightening up some window treatments, are what really did it for that house,” says the designer. The home’s new, white backdrop also set the scene for pops of color and pattern throughout, including the graphic Kelly Wearstler wallcovering on the dining room ceiling, the scalloped cement tile and teal island in the kitchen and the patterned tile that makes up the fireplace surround in the family room.
Extra seating between the kitchen and family room means more space for guests.
The next step was furnishing the home. Because the Araizas’ new house is almost triple the size of their previous space, the homeowners and design team had a lot of shopping to do, but they also had a lot to work with. “[The designers] did a phenomenal job of incorporating all of our furniture into our new home,” says Dori. “People will say, ‘Oh, I like that’—but it was in my old home and they just didn’t realize it. It feels like new again.” Some of the old pieces got a face-lift, including the coffee table in the formal living room. “We had a piece of quartzite that was left over from the kitchen, so we had it cut to go on the bottom shelf,” says Guido Hall. “It gave it a completely different look and transformed a simple run-of-the-mill coffee table into something custom-looking.” Several pieces of furniture, art and decor were found at local shops such as Arteriors and Scout Design Studio.
Project manager Reno Grossi designed the canvas tent over the daybed in the nursery.
In addition to being functional for the family of five, the furniture had to be fitting for the Araizas’ frequent entertaining. “We do lots of events and parties,” says Dori. “We had 120 people at the house for Christmas.” Those gatherings are made possible by the plentiful seating Guido Hall incorporated throughout the house. The centerpiece of the dining room is a large Caracole table with two leaves that can be inserted or removed depending on the size of the party. Extra chairs from Scout Design Studio can also be swapped in and out. In the family room, which is conveniently located right off of the kitchen, there’s seating for up to 15 people thanks to an oversize sectional, an additional sofa, two groupings of bar stools and four poufs that tuck under the large walnut coffee table.
The designers kept the original Saltillo tile floors in the wet bar.
Scalloped tile by Clé pairs with floating walnut shelves in the kitchen
An Arteriors light fixture and Kelly Wearstler wallcovering add drama to the dining room ceiling.
The revamped master bathroom
The best part is that the refreshed interior is entirely customized for the homeowners and their children. “I said, ‘Don’t bring me anything that’s in everyone else’s home,’” Dori says of the directive she gave the designers. That request was music to their ears. “The thing I pride our company on is if you look through our portfolio, it’s a wide variety of different styles,” says Guido Hall. “Our job is not to do what we like. It’s to get inside the client’s head and give them something that they might not even have known they wanted.”
The kitchen island features the same color as the room’s scalloped tile.
“The house had really good bones. It just needed to be updated, lightened and brightened.” –Interior Designer Angeline Guido hall
Photography by: Matti Gresham
