A Fairytale Home Saved From The Wrecking Ball

Located in the Highland Park neighborhood of Dallas, today’s home tour reminds me of an enchanted fairytale castle, and I could not be more excited to share it with you! Built by George Marble, a partner of Charles Dilbeck, in the 1930s, the house was owned by the same family for more than 60 years, and was put on the market in 2018 at lot value, advertised as a potential tear down. Fortunately, Courtney Petit and her husband, Charlie – serial renovators – fell in love with the charming home and scooped it up. The family had restored two other historic Highland Park homes since relocating to Dallas from Chicago. “We’re both in commercial real estate, so that could help explain it,” Courtney told D Magazine. “He [Charlie] loves the hard part of a project—the designing and executing the architectural plans.”

For the interior design, Courtney enlisted Lake Forest, Illinois–based designer Shelley Johnstone Paschke of Shelley Johnstone Design to work her magic. Despite the distance, the pair texted daily and met frequently, combining Courtney’s treasures with Shelley’s signature style. “Shelley taught me how to make a home flow, create balance and harmony, and decorate based on what a house is,” said Courtney. “It’s an old French house, so she said, ‘Let’s not make it some modern, crazy thing.’” Courtney grew up surrounded by her mother’s antiques, her grandmother’s silver, lots of vibrant colors and bright, cheerful chintzes…. Her “Grandmillennial” sensibility was a perfect fit for this classic old home.  Brian Swallen was responsible for transforming the landscaping.

Let’s take a tour with photography by Julia Newman and Nathan Schroder for D Magazine (as noted).

To read more about this extraordinary home, please visit D Magazine.  You can also follow Shelley Johnstone @shelleyjohnstonedesign and @courtneypetitdesign on Instagram. Courtney recently began accepting design projects around the Park Cities on the side of her corporate job! And for an incredible video home tour, you will absolutely love The Potted Boxwood’s special 30-minute feature, Beyond the Curb.

To see past features on Shelley’s work from The Glam Pad, please visit the links below…

• A WHIMSICAL YET OLD SCHOOL MAKEOVER BY SHELLEY JOHNSTONE
• SHELLEY JOHNSTONE TRANSFORMS A NEWLY CONSTRUCTED HOME
• AT HOME WITH SHELLEY JOHNSTONE PASCHKE
• A WHITE CHRISTMAS WITH SHELLEY JOHNSTONE
• PINK, WHITE, AND BLUE WITH SHELLEY JOHNSTONE

And finally, as an added bonus, let’s take peek at the before pictures from the 2018 real estate listing!

The breakfast room, seen above, was converted into an extension to the home’s entry.

The living room curtains feature exquisite crewel work and previously hung in the penthouse suite of the historic Stoneleigh Hotel, which was owned by the previous owners. Courtney loved them, so they were thankfully saved, and Shelley designed the entire room around them, providing a charming link to the home’s past.