Sneak Peek: Look Inside an MCM Home from Saturday’s Modern Mile Home Tour

As Joanna mentioned, it’s fall home tour season in Dallas. One of the events we’re super excited about is this Saturday: the Modern Mile Dallas Home Tour. It’s a celebration of modern architecture in one square mile, and all homes on the tour are walkable within that area.

The Modern Mile properties are bordered by Royal Lane, Midway Road, Walnut Hill Lane, and Marsh Lane in Northwest Dallas. The area is home to Joe’s Creek with its lush greenbelt, arching shade trees, and wildlife. Some of the neighborhood’s original low-slung midcentury modern homes were actually built in 1954 as part of a nationwide “parade of homes.” At the time, they got national and local attention for their sleek MCM style. Other homes in the area are products of the 1960s and 1970s, and many are intact and renovated for modern living. There has also been a resurgence of architecturally significant contemporary structures built in the area.

We sat down with Patti and Bill Reynolds, owners of one of the homes on the Modern Mile Dallas Home Tour at 10608 Royal Springs Dr. Their home is a midcentury modern masterpiece, originally around 1,600 square feet and built by architect Dave Huddleston in 1957.

They almost doubled its size through renovations in 2010 with Michael Bausch Architects, adding a second story at the rear of the house, bringing it to 3,073 square feet. The integrity of the original house is still intact and the Reynolds were totally respectful to the original design—the home retains its “street scale.”

It’s an excellent example of organic architecture that works within the boundaries of a home’s vintage style and adds on in a natural way. They went to great lengths to do these big renovations and embrace what was already in their midcentury home.

CandysDirt.com: When did you buy the house and what drew you to it? 

Patti Reynolds: We bought the house in May of 1999, moving from Kessler Park and downsizing. What I liked about it was the setting—it used to be a cul-de-sac, so we have a small front yard and big back yard on the creek and we have a long creek view. It also had a great room with vaulted ceilings and a Frank Lloyd Wright-esque two-sided fireplace that kind of floats. Then there were all these great, big windows looking outside. Now, the rest of the house except for the hall and the bathroom were a sty. It needed serious updating and we weren’t able to do that for a long time. We also really liked the neighborhood.

CD: When did renovations start and what did you tackle? 

PR: The first thing we did was in 2006, we re-did the kitchen. We reconfigured it and took out a wall between the kitchen and the breakfast nook. We started working on the concept in 2008 and it took until 2010 to finish it. We lived in one side of the house with the one bedroom and one bathroom and we closed off the back hall. When they built the back end and were finished, we moved into it and they worked around us.

Our architect was Mike Bausch. We had the original plans to the house for him and he lives in the neighborhood and has done some other houses in the area. We gave him the area he could use and he drew up some plans.

What we wanted was to keep the great room the same, except it had brick floors and part of the foundation issue had cracked the floors. So we wanted the whole house to be solid hardwoods. For the rest of the house, we decided on a style he called transitional. We change out all the doors to a Texas style door with a little moulding and recessed panels that are straight. We changed out all the windows to bronze, and it turned out looking quite good. The whole house has lots of clean lines.

CD: How did you end up being a part of the Modern Mile Home Tour?  

PR: We live on a creek and when you live across from someone who has a wall of windows, you become very intimate with them. Our across-the-creek neighbors are Peter and Jenny Bulban, who were on the home tour last year. It was a very difficult [to decide to be on the home tour] because we weren’t really decorated correctly so we bought a little bit of furniture and we’re working on revitalizing the yard. There are only a few things left to do before Saturday.

 

Learn more about the Modern Mile Home Tour by visiting modernmiledallas.com. The tour is this Saturday, Oct. 1, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Buy tickets here. Be sure to visit their Facebook page for lots of pictures, updates, and information about the properties.