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Best of Everything
Think of us as your personal shoppers. For 12 months, D Home editors run in and out of showrooms, boutiques, flea markets, and antiques malls in search of the best furniture and accessories we can find. We pour through a mile-high stack of press releases and study new products and local services. We even call our moms. Then, with findings in hand, the lot of us meets in our Oak Lawn office. (Wine is consumed. Arguments follow.) Finally—finally!—we end up with a list of the most remarkable people, places, and things we discovered this year. Is it a perfect list? Of course not: we’re shoppers, not scientists. But it is fun. So have a look at the pages that follow, and join us in congratulating the best of 2004.
BEST WINE STORAGE
Custom Wine Enclosures
1502 Bruce Way, Seagoville.
972-287-0111.
For connoisseurs who want to showcase those 80-year-old bottles of Burgundy and multimillion-dollar vintages, Custom Wine Enclosures is the perfect wine-bar buddy. This is the oldest, largest, and most widely used wine cellar company in Texas, serving clients since 1990. The sky is the limit on custom, at-home storage options, including garage conversions; white-oak and redwood racks; closet, corner, and under-stair cellars; as well as decorative wrought-iron doors and unique, lighted decanter areas with etched art glass. No job too large: Custom Wine Enclosures recently installed a 13,000-square-foot cellar to accommodate a client’s $7,000 collection. Now that’s a party.
BEST DIRT PICKER-UPPER
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Rainbow Vacuum >>
2035 Royal Ln. 469-916-8140.
The Rainbow vacuum may be the only urban myth whose legendary powers are based on published facts. For about $1,500, the Rainbow will suck more dirt, dust, and allergens out of your carpets and upholstery than the combined efforts of most of the competition. You’ll get the classic isn’t-it-amazing in-home demonstration, which is calculated to gross you out—and it does: even the most recently cleaned and polished homes still harbor enough filth to send someone with allergies running to the doctor. This one’s worth the big bucks.
BEST RAVIOLI TO GO
Civello’s Raviolismo
1318 N. Peak St. 214-827-2989.
Store-bought pasta? Mamma mia! A fine marinara deserves far better than that. Luckily, Civello’s has been in business since the 1950s—the oldest ravioli maker in town. Customers can choose from more than 20 different fillings. The pumpkin ravioli is to-die-for.
BEST AWNINGS
Clanton’s Quality Awning Company
4612 S. Buckner Blvd. 214-388-5444.
www.clantonsqualityawnings.com.
Awnings are chic again, and the best place to get them is Clanton’s, which offers a huge selection of custom designs, graphics, backlighting, and canvas. Famous brand names Sunbrella and Durasol are also available from this trusted resource. In business since 1929, Clanton’s beautifully covers any nook or cranny, and their personal service is peerless.
BEST BAYOU PICKER
Patina Bleu
835 W. Seventh St. 214-941-1131.
Gregory Barker scours the murky swamps of Louisiana for one-of-a-kind antiques. His finds are your lucky day at this North Oak Cliff shop. Patina Bleu showcases home furnishings displaying the effects of the gentle march of time, including an amazing collection of chandeliers and unique lighting fixtures. It’s a little taste of the Crescent City in the heart of Dallas.
BEST COOKIE FROM THE CLIFF
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Kessler Cookie Company >>
214-948-7412. www.kesslercookies.com.
One bite of Clyde Greenhouse and Michal Taylor’s baked-to-order treats and you’ll be searching for the nearest quart of milk. Named after their neighborhood—the wonderfully eclectic Kessler Park in North Oak Cliff—the cookies are made with all-natural ingredients. Though chocoholics swear by the triple chocolate cookie, we’re in sweet, crumbly love with the oatmeal cranberry walnut. It’s just like your grandma used to make. But only if she could bake this well.
BEST TABLE SHOP THAT COULD
The Copper Lamp
208 Preston Royal Center.
214-369-5166. www.copperlamp.com.
In 1959, Helen Buchanan opened a small antiques store inside her husband’s plumbing shop on McKinney Avenue. It evolved into an antique silver shop, expanded, added new silver lines, and finally landed in a 6,500-square-foot space at Preston Royal last November. Helen has added fine china, crystal, and other bridal accoutrement to the vast inventory, but silver remains the specialty of the house, along with caring, personalized customer service, the kind you only get from a family-run business. Her son John, an accredited personal property appraiser, is at the store almost every day, just like his mom, who, though an octogenarian, drives from Rockwall and back six days a week to put in full 8-hour days.
BEST DOLLHOUSE FURNITURE
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Through the Keyhole >>
625 Preston Forest. 214-691-7467.
One female customer wanted to send a truck to pick up the Victorian sofa she knew she must have, not realizing the advertised item was for a doll’s house. For 30 years, Dorothy Harrison and daughter Gayle Harrison Pompa have dealt in houses and furnishings for Lilliputians—everything from a two-room ranch to a 12-room Victorian mansion. While most dollhouses are built on a scale of 1 inch to 1 foot some use scales as small as 1/4 inch. This is the place to find everything you need to outfit the interior and exterior of your dollhouse: furniture, wiring, lights, windows and doors, even landscaping—grass and shrubs as well as ponds and the goldfish that swim in them. They carry a variety of dolls to inhabit the houses, too, from inexpensive to collector-bait.
BEST PLACE TO DISCOVER THE NEXT GREAT GRAPE
Best Cellars
3205 Knox St. 214-252-9463.
It’s no big secret: Best Cellars is a fantastic store for inexpensive wines. But step away from the walls—where the $15-and-under inventory is kept—and check out the racks in the middle of the store. You’ll find cask-aged merlot from Chile, spicy Sangiovese from Italy, and a host of hard-to-find wines. They might be a bit pricier ($20-$60 a bottle), but the selection is adventurous. Another plus: Best Cellars is the only Texas retailer that carries wines from Napa’s Crocker & Starr, an amazing boutique winery. It’s time to sip and shop.
BEST CUSTOM SINK
Lynn Sears Interiors
4324 Windsor Pkwy. 214-521-9717.
It was nature, the Snake River in particular, that inspired Lynn Sears to create an amazing glass sink floating on a glass counter for a Dallas family’s second home in Jackson Hole, Wyo. The willow-wood legs, base molding and trim, carved medicine cabinet (“the frame resembles an actual tree limb”), and bronze leaf towel bars are all Sears designs. The powder room is her favorite space to design “because there are no rules!”
BEST ROCK HOUND
Mineral Hunters
114 Cole St. 214-752-8662.
Jim Penix, a geologist, started collecting mineral treasures from his global geological excursions when he worked for an oil company. Friends would ask where he found that quartz cluster, azurite pyramid, windowpane selenite, honeycomb calcite, or citrine cluster and could they buy it. Thus was born Mineral Hunters. Penix knows every stone in his shop and its origin, whether that’s India, Peru, China, Brazil, Mexico, or even right here at home in the United States. Prices range from $16 for a chunk of quartz on a small caliper stand to $62,000 for a complete dinosaur leg bone displayed on a custom steel stand. Designers use his materials in unique ways—selenite sconces, sinks, showers, and one-of-a-kind lamps that retail for $4,500 each.
BEST GLAM
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Ceylon et Cie >>
1500 Market Center Blvd. 214-742-7632.
We’re absolutely over the moon for Michelle Nussbaumer’s chic, new crystal lamps. Minerals are the element to have in home accessories, and the Luna lamp is no exception: Moroccan satin spar is polished and drilled to create a soft moonlight or ice-watery effect. With acrylic accents and oval shades, the lamps cost $1,850.
BEST MIDCENTURY JUNQUE
Millennium
3601 Parry Ave. 214-824-7325.
Owner David Hynds gives new meaning to the expression, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” Hynds travels to estate and garage sales as well as flea markets to find the plethora of midcentury paraphernalia he’s packed into a 2,800-square-foot shop across from Fair Park. For 20 years this family-run business has collected highly styled decorative accessories from as far back as the 1950s. Unique fiberglass lampshades, black-light posters, metal lunch boxes, deco art prints, and comic books are but a few of the gems in this fabulous shop.
BEST AFFORDABLE PAINTER
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Loi Huynh >>
214-632-0828.
We all know that paint runs deeper than blood, and, to prove our love, we’re going to give you—oh, this hurts—Loi’s phone number. (As of press date, after knowing of Loi for only a few months, he’d already painted two of our editors’ homes and scheduled a meeting with a third.) With 18 years experience painting houses around town, the man knows both old Highland Park houses and new construction in Plano—and he’s a perfectionist. This isn’t the Martins—arguably the best painters in the city—but a reasonable, friendly, reliable painter who does a great job (and even makes egg rolls for his clients at Christmas).
BEST OUTDOOR HARDSCAPE
Southwest Fence and Deck
4823 Dozier Rd., Carrollton.
972-492-1370.
Southwest Fence and Deck attacks any outdoor challenge. The proof is all over the Park Cities. Best known for high-quality fences, gazebos, ironwork, decks, and arbors, this company is leaps and bounds ahead of most fence builders, and, with outdoor life and entertaining on the upswing, is sure to be busy. Book now.
BEST BIG FISH (AT HOME)
Dallas North Aquarium
2910 E. Trinity Mills, Carrollton.
972-492-6165.
For more than 20 years, this outfitter put the phrase “quality home aquariums” in the book (they service about 1,700 tanks a month). Owner John Holcomb has 14,000 square feet of space to showcase some of the most remarkable aquariums and fish in the world. There’s something on the menu for everyone at this fish house, with aquariums ranging from 10 gallons for $50 to upwards of 400 gallons ($45,000). Reefs, rocks, coral, filtration—all the bells and whistles may be found here. Smart investments: floating magnet scrapers, which clean the tank’s interior glass—from the outside—and Joe’s Juice, guaranteed to eliminate those pesky anemone that try to take over your tank.
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Best of Everything (continued)
BEST SOURCE FOR SHEET VINYL FLOORING
Peek’s Carpet and Tile
9780 LBJ Fwy., Ste. 110. 214-503-1324.
Peek’s Carpet and Tile opened 11 years ago and has quickly become one of the most popular places to shop for interior floor coverings. Today they’re the best source for vinyl flooring, specifically sheet vinyl, which, our builder and contractor sources tell us, is experiencing a major revival (trend alert!). Susan Adair, the store manager, attributes vinyl’s sudden popularity to the resurgence of the retro look and an updated selection. Choices galore aside, we also like the fact that Peek’s is known for going the extra mile to provide outstanding customer service: Adair herself has even been known to make deliveries to get a floor installed for a desperate customer.
BEST SINFUL MOMENT
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Bread Winner’s Cafe & Bakery >>
3301 McKinney Ave. 214-754-4940.
5560 W. Lovers Ln. 214-351-3339.
Temptation, thy name is Chocolate Seduction Cake, the top-selling dessert at this tasty cafe and bakery. Layers of brownie, devil’s food, and German chocolate cake with plenty of creamy, sugary icing are sure to cure those cocoa-inspired cravings. Bread Winner’s desserts—from the caramelized banana pie to the mocha toffee crunch cake to the simple yet addictive angel food cake—are available for takeout. Whole pies and cakes require 24 hours notice. Plan ahead. It’s worth it.
BEST FIELD TRIP TO A NURSERY
Weston Gardens in Bloom
8101 Anglin Dr., Fort Worth.
817-572-0549.
Across the road from Randy Weston’s retail nursery is a truly beautiful demonstration garden, the discovery of which is a story of serendipity at its best. The property was completely overgrown, but Weston had heard that in its day the place had really been something to see. When the owners came by and offered to sell, Weston went over to take a look. What he found was a gardener’s version of King Tut’s tomb—”Wonderful things!” The property is a treasure trove of interesting and valuable horticultural specimens and 5 acres of beautifully landscaped gardens. Amazing in its variety of style and mood, there’s everything from a formal loggia and lily pond to a whimsical stone ship “run aground” in the creek bed. The best time to go is in April, when the ancient wisteria is blooming on the arbor. You’ll never forget it.
BEST CUSTOM MAILBOXES
Chaenomeles
214-249-6785. www.chaenomeles.com.
It’s not easy to find a mailbox resource, much less one of some distinction. That’s why we were delighted to discover custom mailbox maker Chaenomeles. By his own description, owner Tucker Willis is “a very small manufacturer of custom, handcrafted residential mailboxes, mailbox stands, house numbers, and flag pole brackets.” You have to see these mailboxes to believe them; they’re beautifully crafted of heavy-gauge copper and brass and made according to Willis’ specifications at a small sheet metal shop. Other items are available in solid brass or bronze. Available at better Dallas hardware stores such as Pierce, Westside Kitchen & Bath, E.C. Dicken, and TKO.
BEST PACKING MATERIAL
Avant Garden
4 Highland Park Village.
214-559-3432.
www.avantgarden.com.
Dallas is blessed with some of the best floral designers in the nation, but you know things are high level when a local flower shop commissions its own packing material. Avant Garden not only uses embossed cellophane and ribbon, but co-owner Andrea Mason also had custom brown-on-cream toile tissue paper created to safely pack flowers for transport. Now that’s traveling in style.
BEST BETS FOR ENTERTAINING
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Best Wangware >>
Set your spring table with simple, classic designs and you’ll never tire of them. We love the pastel palette of these Vera Wang Wedgwood plates. $37.25 for the salad plate at The Ivy House, 6925 Snider Plaza. 214-369-2411.
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<< Best Silver Craft
Who says silver has to be fussy? The clean lines and hard angles of this Frank Lloyd Wright silver pitcher would be at home on even the most modern table. $7,450 at Madison, 45A Highland Park Village. 214-528-8118.
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Best Chiller >>
Chill your favorite vintage in this silver wine cooler. Everything else on the table will be jealous. $86 at Madison, 45A Highland Park Village. 214-528-8118.
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<< Best Stripes
Set your next outdoor table with these sunny, vibrant napkins. Ideal for spring, they’re sure to brighten any occasion. $3-4 each at Sur La Table, 4527 Travis St., Ste. A. 214-219-4404.
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Best Spot Color >>
Trend alert: colored glass is the new must-have in tabletop. Add a bit of color to your place settings with Varga Printemps stemware in yellow, green, blue, or purple. $125 each at The Ivy House, 6925 Snider Plaza. 214-369-2411.
BEST BETS FOR ASIAN COUNTRY
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Best Blue >>
Color and carved details are the key to the appeal of this blue console table. $4,395 at Allan Knight & Associates, 1400 Hi Line Dr., Ste G. 214-741-2227.
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<< Best Chi Pot
This beautiful piece of antique Japanese pottery comes from a collector who only releases her wares when the chi is right. $180 at Forty Five Ten, 4510 McKinney Ave. 214-559-4510.
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Best Lotus Look >>
Osborne & Little’s Jangala Rose, a woodblock-like Japanese print, is saturated in tomato reds and wasabi greens. $128 per yard at I.D. Collection, 1025 N. Stemmons Fwy., Ste. 745. 214-698-0226. To the Trade Only.
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<< Best Head Game
The new hot collectible is anything Mao, which is not easy to find. Imagine our glee when we found a pair of busts of the tyrant at Oriental Treasures. $280 at Oriental Treasures, 1322 Slocum St. 214-760-8888. To the Trade Only.
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Best of Everything (continued)
BEST PLACE TO BUY ROSES
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Antique Rose Emporium >>
10000 FM 501, Brenham. 979-836-5548.
The Antique Rose Emporium is not only the best place to buy roses, it’s also the most fun. More than 300 varieties of roses spread, cascade, and creep through 8 acres of retail gardens and into your heart. The display gardens showcase plants’ mature forms and sizes. This is a big plus if you have limited space and need to choose plants for size and habit. The only downside is having to choose. As if the roses weren’t enough, the Emporium also carries perennials, herbs, shrubs, and trees, with an emphasis on native varieties and cottage garden plants. April is Open House month, with special events each weekend, so this is the perfect time for a Hill Country weekend getaway.
BEST ECO-GUY WITH WOOD FLOORS
Steve Welch of Woodwright
7707 Sovereign Row. 214-630-8811.
www.woodwright.net.
Steve Welch wakes up and goes to bed thinking wood. His custom wood flooring business does everything from residential wax jobs to installing new wooden floors at Bass Hall and in skyboxes at American Airline Center to crafting inlaid designs in some of the most posh houses in the city. When he’s not directing his crew—we love this—Welch is working with groups to preserve forests. The man’s obsessed, in a good way, which is why he has become a new favorite among decorators.
BEST HAND-FORGED AFRICAN WEAPONS COLLECTION
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Joel Cooner Gallery >>
1605 Dragon St. 214-747-3603.
For more than 20 years, Joel Cooner has had a love affair with primitive weaponry. Before moving to Dallas in 1979, the Arkansas-native military brat lived all over the world—including Afghanistan, India, Nepal, and Japan, which may explain his exotic tastes. Cooner’s collections include knives, battle swords, and scepters of authority, all hand-forged by African blacksmiths living outside their tribal villages. (Blacksmith societies carefully guard the secrets of metal forging.) Cooner sells to major museums and serious collectors all over the world. Prices range from $750 to $75,000 for the weapons, but you can pick up an investment piece for anywhere from $1,500 to $6,500.
BEST KEEPSAKE VOLUMES
Keith Owens Handmade Books
8326 Stonycreek Dr.
214-320-2183. www.owensbooks.com.
Talk to Keith Owens if you’re stumped for a distinctive wedding or commencement gift, birthday present, or anniversary keepsake. He makes beautiful, customized books, albums, journals, and scrapbooks crafted of handmade papers, Japanese or Thai silk, French marbleized endpapers, domestic and imported leathers, and a host of other precious and unusual materials. For commemorating life’s special occasions, these one-of-a-kind signature tomes speak volumes.
BEST DECORATIVE PLUMBING
Pierce Hardware
6823 Snider Plaza. 214-368-2851.
Basically a jewelry store for your home, Pierce is where you go to find the latest products in plumbing and hardware, whether it’s a fancy French faucet for your powder room or the knock-’em-dead stainless pulls you need to make that antique armoire pop. Not only does this 60-plus-year-old, independently owned store carry Phylrich, Newport Brass, Jado, Rohl Fireclay, H.P. Austin, Porcher, Bates, Cifial, Kindred, and Blanco sinks, it’s also your headquarters for Toto toilets, the 1.6-liter commodes with the best flushing power (and gadgets), as well as the best looking hardware from Baldwin, Rocky Mountain, Bouvet, LaForge, and Bouvet’s newest line, Belvedere. With a large warehouse and distribution center, if one little part is not in stock, they will find it and—amazing!—deliver.
BEST BOOK ABOUT GROWING HERBS IN OUR AREA
Southern Herb Growing
By Madalene Hill and Gwen Barclay
Southern Herb Growing not only details everything you need to know about growing and using herbs, but also includes great recipes and herb lore. The authors are a mother-daughter team renowned as the queens of herb growing long before it was fashionable. The book was published in the late ’80s, but gardening isn’t fashion—the information doesn’t change every season, just the packaging. There are flashier, more recent books on herbs, but this is still the most comprehensive, informative, locally relevant, and fun-to-read book on its subject. Available online and in stock or by special order from Barnes & Noble and Border’s bookstores.
BEST PLACE TO BUY A GRILL
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Jackson’s Home & Garden >>
6950 Lemmon Ave. 214-350-9200.
As a five-star Webber dealer, Jackson’s will deliver and set up your grill, even fill the propane tank. They also service and clean every grill they sell. From the $130 Webber Baby Q to the mother of all grills, a 48-inch, top-of-the-line, stainless steel DCS retailing for $7,000, owner Bob Jackson has it all and, to borrow heavily from the Men’s Warehouse, he will not be undersold. For purists, Jackson’s stocks the famous Hasty Bake and a smaller Japanese ceramic prototype called The Big Green Egg ($299 to $699).
BEST SILVER AND METAL REPAIR
Dallas Silversmiths
11126 Shady Trail, Ste. 113.
972-620-8866.
Barbara Braswell’s “Silver Hospital” is where you take those disposal-mangled teaspoons, dented pitchers and teapots, or just about any damaged metal. Braswell cleans and restores silver for country clubs, major retailers, and restaurants, and even restored the silver in the Texas Governor’s mansion. Located near Stemmons Freeway, Braswell’s craftsmen can replace any knife blade, restore tortoise shell dresser sets, replace boar brush bristles, repair beveled-glass mirrors, and plate or polish just about anything (gold, silver, brass, nickel, pewter, copper, or sterling). This is where decorators buy anti-tarnish cloth (in any color) by the yard to line silver closets; hoteliers buy her Dallas Silversmiths Silver Polish by the case.
BEST RESOURCE NAMED BOB FOR GARDENING QUESTIONS
Bob Wilson at Nicholson-Hardie Nursery
5060 W. Lovers Ln. 214-357-4674.
Bob Wilson has been with Nicholson-Hardie’s nursery for 20 years, and he can answer any garden-related question—from pests and diseases to care and feeding. He has a degree in Horticulture from Texas A&M, is a master certified nurseryman, and grew up on a ranch, so whatever your problem is, Wilson has lived it or learned it one way or another. Just bring in a sample blossom, leaf, or branch to illustrate your problem; he’ll fix you right up and provide a little education along the way, if you’re interested.
BEST PAPER DIRECTOR
Eve DeMoss Gamber
214-948-7531.
Eve Gamber is one of a dying breed—a paper restorer. Her job is to rescue fine art or important documents that are stained, damaged, punctured, or torn. Hers is tedious work, all done by hand. Now 73, she started studying art at the DMA when she was 5 years old (back when the DMA was at Fair Park). After learning to paint, she became fascinated with restoration and eventually the restoration of fine art papers. Over the years, she’s repaired pen-and-ink drawings, etchings, lithographs, even a few Monets and Picassos.
BEST BOOSTER OF EARLY TEXAS ART
David Dike of David Dike Fine Art
2613 Fairmount St. 214-720-4044.
www.daviddikefineart.com.
Not too long ago, early Texas art was an unappreciated genre, a subset of a subset, if you will. Those days, thanks in large part to the efforts of David Dike, are over. Since 1986 Dike has extolled the virtues of early Texas art, and, though he is far too polite to say, “I told you so,” last August a large-scale Julian Onderdonk sold at an East Coast auction for $154,000, catapulting the genre into a whole new class. Dike’s fall auction of early Texas art, held in October and open to the public, is now the must-attend event for cognoscenti.
BEST GAME PLAN
The Flagg Group
2827 Nagle St. 214-350-2551.
www.theflagggroup.com.
If you talk to owner Edward Juarez in months ending in “-er,” you’ll find it tough to have a long conversation—after all, it’s deer season, and, as a taxidermist, fall is his busiest season. Since 1969 he’s been sought out by local hunters and fishermen to mount trophies for city and country homes, offices, and museums. The standard is to get as close to reality as the prey once was—the prey being everything from elk to elephant, alligator to zebra, bird to bison, even a gorilla now and again. The Flagg Group also handles meat processing, including steaks, roasts, sausage, jerky, tamales, tacos, and salami.
BEST ARTISTS FOR HIRE
Holton Arts
1025 N. Stemmons Fwy., Ste. 600M.
214-752-7300. www.holton.net.
Richard Holton had a great idea 13 years ago: he would employ artists to create unique elements for his interior design business, Holton & Associates. Thus was born Holton Arts, a design studio employing one architect and three artists to create faux finishes and murals, paint fabric, and stencil beams. They’ve made an indoor theatre look like a cabana, transformed a bedroom into an Italian villa, and wrapped a powder bath in stenciled leather. Beyond Dallas, Holton’s crews have worked their magic in Palm Beach, Odessa, Santa Barbara, and Barbados.
BEST VINTAGE LINENS
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Antique Harvest >>
4195 Park Ln. 214-351-1425.
www.antiqueharvest.com.
When Hedda Dowd brought her baby home from the hospital, she tucked him in 75-year-old linen-flax sheets given to her by her French-born mother. “My mother came to this country with her trousseau, and we are still sleeping on those sheets,” says Dowd. To bring that trousseau quality to clients, she scours the chateaux and manoirs in the southwest of France, away from the metropolises, bringing home piles of one-of-a-kind, handmade and hand-embroidered sheets, pillowcases, tablecloths and napkins. Items are hand washed, and the strength of the fibers makes ironing unnecessary. “These are pre-industry,” she says, “when the flax fibers were longer and stronger.” (Crash course: pollution has taken its toll on the length of flax fibers; Irish flax used to grow to 10 feet tall.) They will last forever.
BEST DRAPERY SYSTEMS
J.L. Anthony at Lancaster & Associates
10420 Markison Rd. 214-340-0359.
You may not normally think of drapery hardware in terms of electronics, but think again. J.L. Anthony offers very high-end, motorized hardware and traversing systems. Their custom furniture-quality finishes in tortoise, marble, white, or burnished gold are not just hand-painted but use layers of stains and glazes to add depth and beauty to the poles. Even their drapery tracks are finished to match poles and finials. The proprietary motorized system for opening and closing draperies is unique and super-convenient. Costly, yes, but worth it when you’re into ultimate details. To the Trade Only.
BEST RESTORER TO THE RESCUE
Fegan Fine Art Restoration
1316 Conant St. 214-631-2920.
www.williamfegan.com.
A couple of days before hosting a major party, an already stressed out Park Cities woman watched in horror as her favorite oil painting fell from the wall and was impaled on a stone obelisk. Bill Fegan agreed to repair the 18th-century canvas and chipped gold-leaf frame, and returned the damaged piece in perfect condition—just hours before the first guest arrived. Fegan has been in business for 30 years and restores paintings, porcelain, statues, and gilt frames, working with dealers and individuals across the country. Don’t count on last-minute restoration projects; his waiting list is six weeks out—and well worth it.
BEST METAL ACCENTS
The MetalTile Collection
1501 Dragon St., Ste. 102. 214-752-0997.
www.themetaltilecollection.com.
Designer Glen Boudreaux’s metal tiles make wonderful backsplashes and decorative inserts for floors and walls. Most designs are decidedly Old World, but Boudreaux does offer a tribal collection, which uses animal-inspired prints. The Cathedral Collection was inspired by woodcarvings on church pews in Nuremberg and the Iron Works group by French and English grille work.
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Best Tropical Punch >>
Update your look with the Bijou’s ’30s design. Upholstered in this beautiful, bold floral, it’ll be the best seat in the house. $799 at Crate & Barrel, 3104 Knox St. 214-219-1500.
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<< Best Debut
The Metropolitan chair made its debut in Milan and has been selling out ever since. Is it any wonder why? $2,000 at Smink, 5370 W. Lovers Ln., Ste. 314. 214-350-0542.
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Best Curves >>
This Russian Empire mahogany chair from Baker’s Stately Homes collection has slender, curved scimitar legs and a curved, rounded back to embrace you. $1,800 at Baker Knapp & Tubbs,1250 Slocum St., Ste. 790. 214-741-2586.
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<< Best Two Seater
We love the strong lines and upholstery options on the Uncle Jim Double Chair. Whether you cover it in cloth or leather, this piece will make a statement. $1,869 at Domestic Bliss, 4532 Cole Ave. 214-393-1100.
