Margaret Chambers: Creating A Winning Look
The owners of a 92-year-old Spanish Colonial wanted their master to double as a secondary, private living space.
(ABOVE: The custom bed in this award-winning design features perfectly-sized headboard posts to appropriately match the low walls beneath the molding of the angled tray ceiling and fit into the room through a narrow hallway and arched vestibule. Low posts on the footboard allow for watching television from the bed. Photo by Nathan Schroder)
Margaret Chambers and Allen Keith of Chambers Interiors & Associates Inc. delivered a room full of custom pieces to fit the space’s unusual dimensions, disguise the desired small refrigerator and coffee bar, and balance competing style preferences – the husband likes contemporary; the wife likes traditional.
“The long length of the room was balanced by incorporating more seating than is in most masters,” Chambers said. “Both clients were big readers (so loved) an additional reading area among the tree-top views of their historic neighborhood.”
“Nowadays, we mix in a few good antiques with modem furniture and art.” -Margaret Chambers
The result brought the Chambers’ team two coveted prizes from the Dallas Chapter of the American Society of Interior Designers. The room won best of show residential out of 106 entrants as well as first place master bedroom transitional/traditional.
Another Chambers’ design won first place in dining room transitional/traditional.
We caught up with Chambers to get her thoughts on the direction of interior design and the latest trends in the industry.
What in the interior design industry has changed the most since you began your career four decades ago?
The Internet and HGTV have really changed how homeowners think about interior design. In the beginning of my career, using an interior designer was the only way to furnish a fine home. The majority of people think it’s so simple to put together a room on their own and order everything online, but in reality, a designer has much better sources that are only available to the design trade and can rectify the problems that arise with vendors and shipping. On the plus side, we can more easily source items from all over the world, and that allows us to be more creative.
Tell us about your favorite current design trend.
I love the eclectic mix. We are no longer doing “period” rooms in homes where everything is French or English. Once we stopped doing that, antiques went out of style, but now they are coming back. Nowadays, we mix in a few good antiques with modem furniture and art. I also love textiles and beautiful inlaid furniture from India that is trending right now.
We always hear about the value of kitchen and bath remodeling, but what’s another change a homeowner can make that would really add value and appeal?
Crisp white walls (or slightly warm white depending on the other architectural elements in the home). Everything looks good with white; that’s why museums and galleries use white. It really brightens up a home and brings it up to date.
When you walk into a pre-redo Preston Hollow or Park Cities home, what’s most likely to cause you to shake your head?
Hand-scraped hardwood floors, dark stained libraries, and old speckled granite countertops. We were overloaded with all of these in the 2000s. I also don’t like wall-to-wall carpet and puddling draperies.
