PERSPECTIVES IN DESIGN SOUTHWEST
Panache Partners LLC, decease 2010
Everyone dreams about hitting it big in the lottery. Sixty million dollars after taxes in one fell swoop. But then there’s that inevitable question. What would I do first if I won $60 million? The stuff of late night bar talk.
To help you out with this fantasy, Panache Partners of Plano, Texas, has published a lush coffee table book called “Perspectives on Design Southwest.” Sit back with a glass a chilled Chardonnay, put your feet up on the hassock and leaf through the pages of this beautiful trip through custom homes and design details offered by a plethora of designers and artisans located in Texas and other southwest venues.
“Perspectives on Design Southwest” runs more than three hundred glossy pages, filled with hundreds of color photographs of custom home interiors, bathrooms, kitchens, great halls, entryways, furnishings, rugs, objet d’art, statuary, gardens and pools, all guaranteed to bring out the finer aspects of your capitalistic greed. From rough-hewn ceiling beams in the living room of a southwestern ranch home to the swirling wrought-iron balustrades and gleaming wood floors of a New Orleans-style garden home to a super-mod minimalist kitchen combining stainless steel appliances, green-tinted glass countertops, luminous glass tile backsplash and ebony wood cabinetry — it’s all here, waiting to stoke your lottery dreams.
To be honest, I spent hours salivating over this book. My personal favorite is an over-the-top master bathroom with vaulted ceiling, Italian marble columns, hand crafted mosaic floor and shimmering marble-enclosed tub. Forget the bedroom. I’ll just move into the bath, put a cot in one corner.
“Perspectives in Design Southwest” is divided into five sections, (1) the concept of a one-of-a-kind custom home, (2) home construction, (3) custom elements integrated into the construction such as marble, wood, glass and hand-painted murals, (4) custom decorative design elements to complete the interior, and (5) exterior finishes including landscaping, sculpture and pool features. Dallas designers figure prominently in parts (3) and (4) with more than ten designer entries. Bentwood Luxury Kitchens of Dallas not only designed the ultra-mod kitchen I described above but an equally splendiferous French country kitchen of white marble countertops, wrought iron detailing and even a glittering chandelier. Studio Wetz/Rising Gallery in the Knox-Henderson area offers stunning custom furniture and wood cabinetry. Go to La Scimmia Studio in Old East Dallas for unique objects created from wood and stone.
So, pour yourself a second glass of Chardonnay, turn the next page of “Perspectives in Design Southwest” and dream on.
— JONATHAN WOODS
