John Sabo and his wife Panola were perfectly comfortable in their home off Bee Cave Road, so they weren’t considering moving. More than that, they were emotionally tied to the home—they’d lived there for thirty years, and it was the home where they’d raised their two children.  

But Panola’s friend kept telling her about a house being built off Westlake Drive she had to see. It took over a year, but in September of 2005, Panola finally went for a look. So immediately taken by it was she that she took John to see it the next day. And by the following day, the Sabos had bought it.

Built on the side of a hill overlooking Lake Austin, the two-story Mediterranean–Santa Barbara-style home, with gated paved courtyard and abundant palms in front, offers from double loggias in back a breathtaking vista of the lake and, on the horizon, the Capitol and the downtown skyline to the south.

“It was the view that got us. And then the house was fabulous,” Panola recalls. “We had a wonderful canvas to work with,” John adds. “We wanted to finish that canvas and do it justice.” The Sabos chose for the job interior designer Sandy Senter of Senter Construction and Design, recommended by mutual friends, Liz and Ras Redwine, who envisioned the style and layout of the home and commissioned its design and construction.  

Senter brought to the project fourteen years of design experience. In 1994, he started a design company after Bob Bullock, the late Lieutenant Governor of Texas, appointed him to the State Preservation Board to oversee the Capitol Restoration Project. Senter enjoyed the work so completely (and discovered his natural ability for design) that he broke from his political career in the Governor’s Office to start his own design firm, which has thrived since.  

Senter says the style for the home was not defined at the outset; instead, he and the Sabos formed a “partnership” and worked together to discover pieces the Sabos liked and that worked in the home.

As they began, they knew at least one thing: their scale, which proved challenging at times. The home’s high ceilings meant that fixtures and furnishings would have to be large enough to adequately fill the space.  

While the home felt open and grand, the goal was ease and comfort, not grandeur.  

 

One of the first pieces chosen that Panola says “got the ball rolling” was a massive, dark carved-wood French mantelpiece made into a bookcase. It fills almost an entire wall in the open kitchen/living area, or great room. On the opposite wall two large sideboards with traditional Black Forest carvings balance the room. A pair of needlepoint chairs near the mantelpiece is made of a silvery-sage fabric that’s almost luminescent. These, the brick-colored sofa, warm ochre-colored walls, dark beams across the ceiling, and tung-oiled quarter-sawn oak floors give the room a rustic look that’s relaxed and inviting.

Religious elements further lend to the room’s sense of calm. A few paintings in the great room reflect the simple, stylized frescoes of the early Italian Renaissance period, and carved Mexican Santos were chosen for alcoves in the dining room, which is connected to the great room by a wide butler’s hall. The dining room “is such a peaceful room,” John says. “You get to sit and look at the house and enjoy the whole environment.”

The layout of the house is ideal for the Sabos, who wanted a livable, functional home where their children and five grandchildren, who live in Austin and visit often, would be comfortable. Upstairs on the entry-level floor are the great room and dining room on one end; the library, powder room, and master suite on the other. The loggia lies in between. Downstairs are the wine room on one end and the media room on the other. Between them, two guest bedrooms and a bath, game room (with a kitchen), and exercise room look out onto the downstairs loggia and infinity-edge swimming pool. Every room in the house has a view.

“What’s nice is that the master bedroom is upstairs and all the guest rooms are down,” Panola says. “But the upstairs is where we live. So it’s a big house, but it doesn’t feel huge.”

The downstairs, in fact, feels like an elegant—but cozy—resort, where every comfort family and guests would ever need is available.

Senter started with the walls in each room and worked inward. To give the walls their distressed, Old World feel (they were originally a flat, uniform tan), he enlisted In Your Space to texturize them and apply different shades of color. Each room was created separately, so wall texture and color vary from room to room. Most were painted shades of ochre; a few (the library, powder room, and media room ceiling) were painted richer shades of bronze; but the exercise room was layered with teal and aqua because Senter wanted to “bring the water in.”

Against this warm, neutral canvas, massive wrought-iron chandeliers and large, handsome carved-wood pieces—many in a Black Forest style—adorn almost every room. Sumptuous draperies, rugs, upholstery, and bedding soften edges and supply color. Bright rosy-red Persian rugs line “the gallery,” the spacious hallway between the media room and wine room where art is displayed. And damask-patterned aqua and chocolate bedding and coordinating draperies slightly shimmer in one of the guest rooms.  

 

In the entry on either side of the front door, substantial jade and sapphire-hued Majolica planters sit atop immense Italian, carved-wood square columns that widen near the base. Across the entryway, double glass doors lead to the loggia, where plentiful seating in front of the fireplace awaits.  Senter says, “It all goes together. We created a house that’s unified, but each room has its own individual feel.”  

Senter often works in second-home markets where emotions aren’t necessarily involved, so for him the nicest part of the project was its focus on what he terms “heartstrings and family.”

Indeed, the Sabos recently sold their house on Bee Cave, and while they enjoyed it for many years, they love their new home for the view and for its perfect balance of “scale and warmth.” Not only is it perfect for entertaining large numbers, it’s also livable, cozy, and comfortable … for themselves, and for their children and grandchildren.