Handcrafted in Kessler Woods

Written by Rebecca Sherman

Inside a Handcrafted Home in Kessler Woods, a Luxe, Modernist Enclave in Oak Cliff

Jason Lenox and Matthew Taylor moved to their first Oak Cliff home 20 years ago, back when the Dallas area wasn’t considered nearly as desirable as it is now. “We bought a house on the golf course for next to nothing,” Lenox recalls. “And we had a community of neighbors and friends that made it a great place to live.”

Their house on Stevens Park Golf Course was just around the corner from Kessler Woods, a modernist development that broke ground in 2005. They drove past it almost every day, watching as high-dollar houses went up, designed by some of the city’s most acclaimed architects. “We dreamed about buying a lot and building there one day,” says Lenox, owner of Anteks, a small design firm specializing in rustic interiors for lodges, cabins, and ranches. Years later, he and Taylor — a well-known hairstylist with Charlie & Co. — purchased the last available lot in Kessler Woods. “It was always the coolest one because it sat up high and overlooked the neighborhood green space,” he says. “It was a rare opportunity in Dallas to have a view.”

The couple’s longtime friend Joshua Rice designed their new house from the ground up, in addition to the interiors, working closely with builder Bart Gardner of Gardner Custom Homes. At just a quarter of an acre, the property is quite small and unusually configured, bumping up against a meadow dotted with wildflowers and juniper trees. “That greenway just made it look like their land went on forever,” says Rice, who designed the 2,500-square-foot house to face the view. Landscape architect Christa McCall of Paper Kites Studio won an award from the American Society of Landscape Architects for her use of native plants to integrate the house with the meadow, and limestone slabs to create private elevated seating spaces and outdoor rooms.

“It’s rare to be able to design a little jewel box like this, because everyone, especially in high-end design, always wants big, big, big,” Rice says.

The house might be considered modest in terms of square footage, but it feels spacious. Skylights and clerestory windows bathe the interiors in light, and Rice got creative with a limited palette of warm materials. Brick walls inside and out were given a German smear treatment — a technique where brick is coated with wet mortar to mimic the look of irregular stones and heavy mortar joints found in centuries-old European buildings. Ceilings are paneled in pine and set between a structural skeleton of dark-stained wood beams, and the floors are made from manganese ironspot bricks, a material usually reserved for the exterior of commercial buildings.

“I wanted to use humble materials and finishes in a unique way; I think it gives the house a timeless feel, like it’s been here forever,” Rice says. The house’s handcrafted quality comes from small-batch artisan details such as leather tassel pulls on the cabinets, hand-shaped and kiln-fired traditional zellige tiles from Morocco, and sinks carved from gray marble quarried in Italy.

This warm aesthetic was inspired by the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art near Copenhagen. “It’s such a beautiful space that translates so well to residential,” Rice says. “The materials aren’t necessarily similar, but it’s the vibe we were trying to achieve.” Built in 1958 and curiously titled after the owner’s three wives — all named Louise — the building is a standout example of modern Danish architecture, noted for understated design and seamless fusion of architecture and landscape.

https://www.papercitymag.com/home-design/oak-cliff-dallas-home-joshua-rice/

Photography: Stephen Karlish & Robert Tsai, Pages: 80-87