DIALING UP THE Glamour

Jan Showers and Zara Taitt reinvent a Dallas manse as a radiant epicenter for family gatherings, Deco antiques, and top-tier chandeliers.

- WRITTEN BY CELIA BARBOUR

“Everything in moderation” is a sensible motto, except when it comes to joy, which gains nothing from half measures. Yet cultivating joy—whether in life or in design—requires more than just going in and blithely pulling out all the stops. It takes a wise mixture of freedom and restraint, training and trust.

When Donna and Scott Miller first went searching for a creative team to help with their new house in the Preston Hollow neighborhood of Dallas, they were largely looking for a practical update (for instance, closing off an open dining room and creating a back kitchen). “Scott and I are super casual,” Donna says, “not decorator types at all.” But after they connected with Jan Showers & Associates, the project began to blossom, and before long had grown to include not only a newly built bedroom wing and pool cabana, but also a house that, like a song, lifts the spirit at every turn.

The melody begins at the front door, with an entry hall that conjures an Italian garden. Here, a scenic panorama surrounds a curved staircase; a cowhide rug softens sandstone floors; and a Murano glass chandelier presides above, its luminous arms echoed in glass objects on the table below. “It’s a pop, it’s a wow, but it’s tranquil,” Miller says.