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It was, for a time, the most glamorous chicken coop in the world. Tucked off a lazy, leafy road a few miles from downtown Dallas, the stone-and-slate house where decorator Michelle Nussbaumer and her Swiss-born businessman husband, Bernard, have lived for more than 30 years at first appears a haven of symmetry and calm. Then you open the double front doors, and this gracious dwelling dissolves into a high-energy hub of color, pattern, and activity.
Everywhere there are bonny pinks and reds, along with watery blues and lush greens. There is a bedroom with an orange ceiling that would put an Hermès box to shame. Then, whoosh. A trio of Great Danes scampers by. Another whoosh: a pair of Shar-Peis appear, closely followed by a French bulldog and a poodle (yes, there are seven dogs in all). And for a time, one would have dodged a chicken or three, strutting in circles on the marble floor of the entry hall. (That said, keeping live poultry in the house was a brief experiment—one that proved to be a little too feathery.)
No matter where the Nussbaumers roam—they are constantly traveling around the globe and own a hacienda in Mexico and a chalet in Switzerland—this is home. The couple purchased the 1950s mansion shortly after they married, lured by its high ceilings, big windows, and elegant architecture.
“I always liked a Hollywood Regency vibe,” says Nussbaumer, “and this is as close to that style as you can get in Dallas.” Even better, there were plenty of bedrooms, “and we knew we wanted a lot of children,” she says.
If you had visited the couple as young marrieds, you would still recognize the house today. “I’m not that person who comes in and says, ‘We’re going to redecorate the whole house,’” Nussbaumer says.
Oh, she’ll confidently play with color—changing the entry hall to a punchy pink, or painting the primary bedroom ceiling that juicy orange—but she much prefers to embellish her surroundings than to start over. “It’s like an old English thing,” she says, “where you are continually adding layers.”
Nussbaumer has an artist’s eye, often leaning on instinct and her theater and set-design studies in college. Hence, the house is both theatrical and highly personal. Furniture inherited from the couple’s families is mixed with newer pieces, then spiced with mementos collected on trips—“an accumulation of life,” she says.
And as their lives unfold, so does the house. Objects are constantly being hauled in, out, and around. Furniture is in a perpetual state of flux: The designer might, at any given moment, rejigger a room’s seating plan or send a sofa or chair out for reupholstering.
Aside from designing her own furniture and fabric lines—vibrant ikats are her specialty—Nussbaumer also owns Ceylon et Cie, a large Dallas showroom filled with worldly antiques, art, and accessories. Her cosmopolitan flair and penchant for globe-trotting are both in evidence in her first design book, Wanderlust: Interiors That Bring the World Home, published by Rizzoli.
“The furniture in this house has been back and forth across the ocean a couple of times,” she admits with a laugh.
Still, nothing makes her happier than being at home in Texas with her husband and children, now ages 21 to 31 and living hither and yon but making frequent reappearances in the residence.
“My kids are in and out,” Nussbaumer says. “The neighbors and office staff drop in all the time. There are always dogs. It’s a very alive house.” She stops to think. “A lot of people have large, grand houses that they don’t hang out in. Are they really having fun?” The Nussbaumers are—no question about it.
Library
Vintage French chairs in Michelle Nussbaumer fabrics; tablecloth in a Rubelli silk; 19th-century Irish chandelier, Ceylon et Cie.
Breakfast Room
Left: Vintage cabinet; antique English silver; walls in a custom Benjamin Moore paint.
Right: Antique Wedgwood plates; wall decorations, Spencer Tomkins.
Primary Bedroom
Custom armchairs in a Holland & Sherry fabric with Samuel & Sons trim; stool and Syrian table, Ceylon et Cie; 19th-century Venetian mirror.
Featured in our September/October 2016 issue. Interior design by Michelle Nussbaumer; photography by Melanie Acevedo; produced by Carolyn Englefield; written by Rob Brinkley.
