ROOM to PLAY

Clever details and layered style make this expansive new build feel like a family heaven.

- Elizabeth Angell

HAVING TOO MUCH SPACE SOUNDS like the kind of problem we all wish we had. But in the case of this 17,200-square-foot house in Westlake, Texas, a suburb of Dallas, the struggle of how to make each room feel inviting was real. “Homes of this size can almost feel commercial,” says Janelle Patton, founder of Lark Interiors, who began working with the homeowners shortly after they bought the empty lot. “We wanted this to be the right scale for a family.”

Together with architectural lead Alison Ames, Patton designed a home with seven bedrooms, nine bathrooms, and an entertaining wing, but almost no hallways. “When rooms open onto each other and you walk through them, it feels cozy,” explains Patton. The bedrooms are also close to each other, so a kid who wakes up in the middle of the night doesn’t have far to go to find their parents.