“We couldn’t be happier with it. We love the final result,” says Linda whose work situation could not be better. Her office is above the
garage with a separate side street entrance.
“There’s nothing better than working with a dog at your feet,” says the proud owner of four chocolate labs, Stryder, Molly, Maysie and Hazel. “We joke that this house has been lab-tested. We only had two labs when we were
building the house, but we knew we wanted more. Poor Jay. He probably thought
we were nuts. We were always conscious of design decisions in relation to the
dogs. For instance, we wanted to be able to close off the center core of the
house and we wanted super durable floors.
”
Indeed, concrete is underfoot through most of the downstairs, the exception
being oak floors in the elevated dining room and study on opposite ends of the
house. The couple wanted several rooms to lead off a long hallway. This
“enfilade” arrangement allows for striking vistas as you enter the home—a view that draws the eye through to the back of the house.
“Jay took that concept of the long hallway and just went with it. He developed it
so that now we have this axis that goes all the way back through to the
entrance to my office. Wonderful site lines developed along the way,
” says Linda. “It’s exactly what we wanted.”
Linda’s innate talent for design is evident here. Items and
furnishings, both modern and traditional, combine for an eclectic look.
Warm woods mingle with sumptuous textiles and artwork—most from Houston artists—that add vibrant form and color to the mix.
“I think there’s good design within a variety of styles,” Linda says. “My goal is to build a client’s house based on their style and then use the principals of good design to
achieve a great look. I tried to follow this same premise with my house. I like
a good mix of things, antiques and modern, but I try to use things that are
pretty clean and simple. Each one of those things has a design integrity. All
of those elements come together, whether it
’s French chairs from the 1940s or a Warren Platner table.”
Linda embraces imperfection in design. Concrete floors may show divots or crack
over time, but it only adds to their appeal. White marble might incur wear or
stain from use in the kitchen, but it
’s a welcome feature here. “Everyone is so worried about marble but I cook every day and find it to be
wonderfully durable,
” she says. “You just have to have a different mindset about it. You can’t expect perfection. Truly, imperfection makes things so much more interesting
and is so much more about how you really live,
” she explains.
And the Eyles use every inch of this house, no wasted space. The study with desk
and two 1940s French library chairs is a favorite place to just sit and chat.
“Especially for the men. They love to just sit back in those chairs. It’s a clubby type of thing,” she says.
By putting two antiqued velvet sofas back to back, Linda split the main living
space into a formal area and den.
“One side is the more formal space and the other serves as a family room. It just
made sense to get the most use out of this space,
” she says. A calm variety of styles and textiles cohabitate in this area.
Cherished artwork punctuates this space.
Most striking is a graphite on laminate piece by Houston artist Karin Broker
that hangs over a vintage French bench, draped in a linen slipcover.
The dining room is equally fetching in icy colors that contrast with a long warm
wood dining table by David Iatesta and nail-studded leather chairs, backed in a
sumptuous fabric. Linda designed two matching soft Asian style cabinets to
flank the windows on the room
’s northern side. “I had them custom made. I really like Asian furniture and wanted some of that
influence without screaming it,
” she says. “I wanted the clean lines, and the cabinets provide super storage.”
A 1920s Murano glass chandelier and captivating artwork round out this space,
adding drama to the room, a favorite space for entertaining.
The home’s enfilade design provides a great arrangement for mingling. The long hallway
allows easy passage from room to room, as well as the outdoors.
The home is situated on the north side of the lot, allowing its southern side to
open up to the light and a backyard, replete with lap pool and a covered porch
that runs along most of its side.
This allows for privacy as well as a light-filled home. “Allowing the light in was important to us. And we wanted to extend our living
space to the outdoors,
” says Linda. Landscaping was well thought out, in keeping with the home’s modern lines. A green hedge at the front of the pool provides privacy and the
perimeter fence is built to allow breezes to circulate the property.
“What we feel we built, and what we told Jay we wanted was a contemporary or
modern version of Heights architecture. So if you were building a house in The
Heights today, what would it look like? I think we got that house,
” says Linda. “We couldn’t be happier.
