22 Dec Holiday Cheer with Luxury Textiles, Wallpaper and 40+ Designers – Oh My!

A couple weeks ago, the day before Austin received some rare snow, it was pouring rain, but I had the pleasure of attending my very first Holiday Affair in a private San Antonio home as a new member of the Design Society Dinner Club. Boy, was I in for a treat!

The above photo is how beautiful the entrance looked that night when there was a moment’s break in the rain. The gate was covered with two huge glowing wreaths (below). It all looked so magical in the evening sky!

Founded by Kravet representative Oscar Lupibo, the Dinner Club (above photo) is a group of 40 + luxury interior designers from the Austin/San Antonio area who are at the top of their craft bringing awareness to high end design through the specialized design businesses they own and the clients they work with.

This evening’s dinner was at longtime San Antonio residents (above) Ed and Linda Whitacre’s gorgeous new home designed by Independent Design Consultant Linda Love. Linda has a keen eye for detail and for creating a home that reflects her clients wishes.

Linda also can obviously transform a home into a masterpiece! The way she described the home before the Whitacre’s moved in, it sounded like it had many design challenges. I don’t remember the entire story, but Linda did say that these bookcases below were something else entirely and it worked out perfectly to make this room a library/living area.  With the Whitacre’s lovely tree and all the holiday decor, their entire home was absolutely stunning!

My phone was losing power (and of course I didn’t bring my charger!), so I snapped as many photos as I could before it died. (Thank you Oscar and Paula for a few extra images).

Linda Love gave us a private tour of the home, both downstairs and upstairs and she explained that the owner, Linda Whitacre, loved wallpaper so Linda found ways to incorporate it almost throughout the entire upstairs. With this announcement, I couldn’t wait to get upstairs, as I greatly appreciate beautiful wallpaper!

I have to say, having grown up in New England, that wallpaper was in almost every room of our home and my grandparents home in Philadelphia. In Beverly, Massachusetts, I lived in a home (below) built in the late 1700’s and the angled walls from the gables in the upstairs bedrooms and the floral wallpaper are two of my fondest memories. As a child, I used to run my finger along the floral wallpaper path idling the day away.

But before we get to the wallpaper, let me first share with you the many design details that really caught my eye throughout the Whitacre home.  I loved the library/living area off the kitchen as it had a beautiful brick fireplace with a vast collection of nutcrackers on the mantle and several cozy sitting areas.

Below is a wonderfully decorated table decor with a rich Ralph Lauren red plaid textile with two incredibly comfy chairs behind it.

Downstairs had very large rooms with beautiful cream stone flooring. Each room had vaulted ceilings and beautiful hand-painted ceilings, like below in the dining room where the bountiful, catered dinner buffet was set up.

Above and below are glimpses of a few side chairs with a wonderful pleated skirt in a Lee Jofa plaid. There was also a plaid pleated skirt on some of the kitchen bar stools which I loved as well.

Just before we went upstairs we peeked into a small laundry room that I could have lived in. It was so adorable! And Linda knows how to pack a punch in one tiny room. Geometric hunter green tile for the floor and the cutest wallpaper that coordinated beautifully with a collected photograph below.

There were many rooms downstairs and vignettes that incorporated beautiful textiles and elegant wallpaper. Here is a simple one below which I believe is wallpaper by Schumacher. (But don’t quote me on that, as much of the wallcoverings, particularly upstairs, were designed by Albert Van Luit.) Wallpaper was used on the walls AND on the ceiling!

To be honest, I hadn’t really heard of Van Luit wallpaper before, so I did a little research on him.  He was the internationally renowned wallpaper designer of Albert Van Luit & Company which was prominent in the 1950’s through the 1970’s. There is a large complex, a showroom and office building, in Los Angeles where he worked that was designated in May 2016 as a Historical Cultural Monument (HCM). Sounds fascinating…would love to see it sometime!

Below are some muted cream drapes in an embroidered fabric by Kravet.

Here is a grouping of photos from a room that had a lot of Kravet fabric. And I fell in love with it all!

Especially this Kravet green velvet sofa – the color and texture as enticing as they come. Close up it was sumptuous and divine to the touch and feel…I could have lounged on this beauty all night long. Gorgeous velvet, let alone Kravet velvet, made me swoon and buckle at the knees it was so beautiful!

But I also have a real weakness for gorgeous silk embroidery and this pair of wing back chairs in front of a beautiful fireplace and covered in Kravet Couture Embroidery were simply breathtaking!

And that’s just the downstairs.  Soon we headed straight up this elegant staircase decorated with a very merry holiday garland, to see the piece de resistance, all the different upstairs wallpaper.

As I mentioned, the designer Linda Love had stated that the owner, Linda Whitacre absolutely loved wallpaper.  And that just thrilled me to no end, because I have a fondness for it too.  Once we got upstairs, we soon were treated to several bedrooms with absolutely STUNNING wallpaper. And if I remember correctly, most of this wallpaper is from the archives of designer Albert Van Luit.

This photo below is one of my favorites.  It captures a feeling, a mood that is traditional, elegant, and romantic all at the same time.  What I loved about the upstairs is that the Whitacres have quite an extensive collection of family heirlooms and they were all used in the bedrooms and hallways.

Once I entered this room below, I was instantly transported to my Grandmother’s home in Philadelphia. My grandmother had impeccable taste and loved fashion and interior design.  I always used to fantasize as a child of one day having a home like my Grandmother’s with all the beautiful Chintz textiles and wallpaper.

You can see why this feminine room below immediately captured my heart with fond memories, as my Grandmother had a chaise lounge in her bedroom that I coveted. There were even small steps in the hallways from room to room that reminded me of the historic “Whitemarsh” home that my grandparents owned outside of Philadelphia. To this day, I have the large antique dining room table from that home in our dining room. It can seat up to 12 guests and is perfect for our holiday dinners and entertaining!

Below, is a great example of the attention to detail and mixing of patterns and colors between the textile and wallpaper selections that Linda Love created in this beautiful home. She really listened to the homeowner and that’s what I loved about the upstairs of the Whitacres home! I don’t think designer Linda Love could have been any truer to homeowner Linda Whitacre’s love of wallpaper. These roses and all the wallpaper designs by Van Luit and Schumacher are absolutely exquisite! So vintage. So feminine.

Below is a collection of the wallpaper details throughout the upstairs. Most were floral, but one was a guest room wall covered with pheasants and the twin antique poster beds I believe featured Kravet brown and green fabric.

And one of my favorites was this tiny little powder room.  Oh boy, did every woman in our group “ooh and aah” over this gorgeous petite room!

Not only was the wallpaper so perfect, but all the trinkets and treasures were too!

Below is design consultant Linda Love (in red) giving part of our group a tour of the upstairs of the home.

The custom woodwork on the cabinetry and the tile work in the bathrooms were equally stunning.  Very detailed!

And lastly, a comment that designer Linda Love said that really caught my attention is that she has probably reinterpreted the “wingback chair” a thousand times! This  design detail below (although, not as good a photo as it was in person) is just one of the many creative ways Linda reinvents a wingback chair, with much beauty, trim, and layers!  Come to think of it, I might have to talk to Linda Love, as I have two family heirlooms that need attention, a wing back chair AND a wingback love seat that have been in my family for years!

Okay, one last look at some of the beautiful antiques and wallpaper in the Whitacre home!

I hope you’ve enjoyed the design details in the post as much as I did on the tour of the Whitacre home. I want to thank Ed and Linda Whitacre for hosting the Design Society Dinner Club. I spent a lot of time talking with the hostess and she is delightful.

She’ll probably kill me for this photo, but after repeated attempts to get my dying phone to take a photo of us, I had to resort to a selfie.  Mrs. Whitacre was a real trooper, as I’m not sure she’s ever done a selfie before, let alone had the Pillow Goddess post it!.

And lastly, a photo of Oscar Lopiba and me, who I am very grateful to for introducing me to this lovely group of talented designers.

Many thanks to The Whitacres for opening their home so graciously and to designer Linda Love for giving us a detailed tour.  Some of the details escape my memory, because Linda told such beautiful stories about all the materials she used in each room, but the memory of that evening will always be with me all through the holidays and beyond.

It was a very, very special evening! It’s times like this, during the holidays, that make me pause and give thanks for the vintage cottage bungalow home my family has here in South Austin. We’ve lived in ours for 33 years and love it. Having your own home and decorating it like you want, is truly a blessing!

Wishing all of you a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Thank you for reading and supporting the Pillow Goddess blog.  If you haven’t subscribed yet, you can do so right on the side bar and if you’d like to keep in touch with the happenings at our studio, Deborah Main Designs, please subscribe to our quarterly newsletter Pillow Talk. 

Till next time, have a wonderful holiday filled with joy, laughter, love, fun, and family and friends. Blessings to you, your family and your home! See you in the 2018!  XO PG

Note: This is not a sponsored post. Professional photo of the Design Society Dinner Club group is by Alfred Vasquez. All other photography by Interior designer Paula Orme, Oscar Lupibo, and myself. All views are my own.