Photography by Dan Piassick | Interior design by Margaret Chambers, ASID

The expansive outdoor patio was transformed by reupholstering pillows and cushions in cheerful fabrics and adding a large-scale mosaic topped cocktail table.

Sometimes seeing is believing, as was the case with Phyllis Leiser. The University Park homeowner was seeking a designer skilled in the art of blending refinement with repose, who would share her passion for antiques. A glimpse at the inspiring work of Margaret Chambers, ASID, was all it took. “Margaret and I first met when she was working with a friend of mine, and I really loved what she was doing with her home,” says Leiser. “Also, there was a home that I had been admiring for quite some time and found out that Margaret had decorated it [as well]. Margaret took me through it and it was as wonderful as I knew it would be.”

“She liked what we had done for them, even though their homes are nothing alike,” adds Chambers, owner of Chambers Interiors & Associates, Inc. She and Leiser quickly established a strategy, and an instinctive rapport, that worked like a charm. Storied pieces, rich tapestries, coveted works of art, and other elements complete a collected look that is the couple’s own.

At the time of their first meeting, Phyllis and her husband Tom had been in the home for 5 or 6 years, and had worked with noted Dallas architect Robbie Fusch on an addition that nearly doubled the dwelling’s size to almost 8,000 square feet. Chambers says the additional space was so expertly orchestrated that there’s little distinction between the old portions and the new. “Robbie blended in the architecture beautifully,” she notes, and her design finesse has overlapped both components. “Phyllis wanted to upgrade a lot of things,” she says, noting that certain areas had already been at least partially done. “It’s always a challenge for any designer to walk in at that stage.”

Undaunted, she employed her tried-and-true tactic. “I asked Phyllis to show me rooms she loved in magazines and books and tell me why she was drawn to those rooms,” Chambers explains. “It speeds up the design process, so when we begin a project, we can be right on target in our selections for each room. Phyllis was wonderful in that she gave us her ideas of what she’d like, then left it to us. She trusted us, and she can visualize. She keeps a very open mind.”

Leiser had envisioned a French country allure with warm, rich colors. She also wanted a home that the couple’s three sons would enjoy spending a lot of time in and feel comfortable bringing their friends to. “I love antiques, so everything that I can furnish in antiques I do,” she says. “I also love color, so nothing in my home is white.” The walls and woodwork have been plastered, glazed, and painted with custom finishes. Several paintings by Liz Ferguson, an artist and family friend, factor prominently in pivotal rooms.

The home design was an evolutionary process. A sitting room/afternoon tearoom based around a brown-and-cream toile theme was Chambers’s inaugural venture and an instant hit with the homeowners. The designer then embarked on the breakfast room, and from there the momentum flowed into the sitting room, living room, and other areas, and although the Chambers flair is more evident in certain spaces than others, it prevails throughout.

Working with the Leisers’s existing furnishings, color schemes, and ideas posed only a slight challenge. However, Chambers says, “Very few times do we walk in with a clean slate. Anytime people have a few pre-existing things, you have to make sure the new furnishings and accessories blend with the pre-existing. Our goal, and Phyllis’s, was to take what she had already started and elevate it to a new level of quality and style.”

The designer’s resourcefulness is exemplified in the outside patio area, where the homeowners spend a lot of their time. The covered outdoor “room” was completely revamped by simply reupholstering worn pillows and cushions for the Murray Iron Works furniture and adding an over-scale mosaic-top cocktail table for the fireplace sitting area. Chambers says. “It’s amazing how it transformed the whole space.”

Leiser says that for whatever reason, everyone seems drawn to the intimate niche off the breakfast room. Its features include a Ferguson painting over the antique limestone fireplace, an antique Black Forest side table, and a custom ottoman from The Chambers Collection.

The homeowner’s personal favorite is the meticulously overhauled master bedroom. Heavy shades and dark pieces give way to a color scheme of aqua, cream, taupe, and tan. A sophisticated antique Aubusson tapestry pillow blends with an 18th-century Flemish wall tapestry, hung opposite of the wall of windows with custom treatments. The room also features a custom-sized Louis XVI wing sofa in a silk quilted fabric, an 18th-century Louis XIII walnut armoire, and a French Louis XV trophy panel above the headboard of the hand-carved four-poster bed.  “Again, Phyllis showed us a few photos in magazines and let us interpret her personal style,” Chambers says. “I know she loves her master bedroom. There’s an elegant and serene feel to the space.”

Chambers and Lilly Castillo, assistant designer at The Chambers Collection, took a buying trip to Atlanta during the renovation process. “While we were there, we kept thinking ‘wouldn’t that be great in Phyllis’s house,’ so we took photos and got pricing and took her a little small stack of photos from the showrooms. She basically bought everything—she trusted us from looking at snapshots.” Their list of unearthed treasures seems infinite—antique armchairs, elegant old tables, hand-carved and hand-painted lamps and mirrors, chandeliers, Italian candlesticks, and much more. Chambers is especially fond of the hand-carved chapel piece over the living room fireplace. “A lot of the old, beautiful estates in France and England had small chapels, and that was from a chapel in France.”

To prepare the house for a tabletop-themed home tour, Chambers selected botanical-patterned china from international designer Anna Weatherley. The artisan’s studio in Budapest is one of the few remaining sources in the world for hand-painted porcelain. Paired with green hand-cut stemware, the delicate pieces made a perfect setting for the large, 19th-century French walnut table, another find from the Atlanta trip.

Other areas were deftly revamped just in time for the event, including one small space featuring an arrangement of seven prints and a pair of sconces above a console. “We picked up the prints and had them framed like two days before the home tour,” says Chambers.

The home is ever evolving, though Chambers says at this point, they’ve probably done three quarters of the house. “Phyllis loves antiques, quality, charm. She keeps a very open mind, she allows us to do a great job for her. She’s so wonderful and easy to work with. I wish I had 10 more clients like Phyllis. She is a dream client.”