A Highland Park Love Nest
Art, antiques, and family heirlooms fill the home of Dallas Flea founder Brittany Edwards Cobb.
Robert Bellamy of Bellamy Design did the backyard landscaping at the Cobb house. “There wasn’t a whole lot of original landscaping, but it was pretty special,” Brittany Edwards Cobb says. “We just tried to enhance it.”
Photography by Nathan Schroder
Photography by Nathan Schroder
When it comes to home decor, Brittany Edwards Cobb is sentimental.
Family heirlooms fill the Highland Park house she shares with husband Michael and 16-month-old daughter Landry. She’s also determined. Tell her that the perfectly sized Chesterfield she found at an L.A. shop can’t be shipped to Dallas, and she will not rest until that sofa is safe and sound in her living room. More than anything, though, Cobb is resourceful.
The living room features chairs Cobb found at an antiques store in East Texas, a rug she purchased on a trip to Morocco for her 30th birthday, and a light fixture made of shell beads. “It tips a hat to my roots. That’s why I like it,” says Cobb, who hails from Southern California.
Photography by Nathan Schroder
Photography by Nathan Schroder
The interior designer and founder of the Dallas Flea shops far and wide and high and low for her clients and herself. In her living room, chairs from an antiques store in East Texas sit on a rug she found on a trip to Morocco. A mirror from the Salvation Army on Inwood Road and art from a North Dallas estate sale adorn the walls of the entry. And every room in the house features items she acquired on shopping excursions in her Southern California hometown.
TOP: The outdoor dining table is from Weir’s, and the chairs are from IKEA. The light fixtures are from San Miguel Allende Inc. in the Design District. The same lights hang in the Javier’s bar, one of Cobb and her husband’s favorite spots. BOTTOM: A big metal “C” from the Dallas Flea adds a personal touch to the backyard cabana. The pillows are covered in Trina Turk fabrics and were sewn by local women in need through GAIA.
Photography by Nathan Schroder
Photography by Nathan Schroder
“Everything in this house is vintage or an antique find usually on the thrifty side,” Cobb says. “There are very few new items. That’s a major thing for me and the way I shop. I think it’s what makes a home one of a kind.”
Brittany Edwards Cobb says the sitting room is her favorite room in the house. “It’s the funkiest little room, but I love it,” she says. Cobb purchased the bamboo light fixture at a consignment store in Newport Beach, and she found the table lamp in Canton. In the center of the room is a Louis Vuitton suitcase she turned into a coffee table.
Photography by Nathan Schroder
Photography by Nathan Schroder
It’s a good thing Cobb likes to shop—and likes to shop with thriftiness in mind. Three years ago, when she and her husband bought the converted duplex on Westway Avenue, they were living in a condo in Uptown. “It was a big leap in square footage,” she says. “I needed to buy everything.” That buying spree included several trips to a place close to Cobb’s heart.
“A lot of my items are from the Dallas Flea,” she says. “I shop with my shoppers. That’s why I started it. I’m the biggest fan—I probably spend the most money of anyone.”
Clockwise from top left: One of the upstairs balconies; flea-market art and an Arteriors lamp in the dining room; another upstairs balcony featuring a pendant light-turned-coffee table; Osborne & Little wallpaper, a print from a North Dallas estate sale, and an antique bench in the entryway.
photography by Nathan Schroder
photography by Nathan Schroder
The curio cabinet in the living room, the big metal “C” in the backyard cabana, and the Hermès print in the dining room are from the Dallas Flea, as is much of the home’s art.
Speaking of art, that’s another item that is always on Cobb’s shopping list. “I love all sorts of art,” she says. “It’s my biggest weakness.”
LEFT: The gallery wall in the wine room features art Cobb and her husband have collected over the years, including childhood art projects and pieces by Cobb’s great-grandfather. RIGHT: The Baccarat chandelier in the dining room was a wedding gift from Cobb’s husband. “That room is completely worked around that over-the-top, gotta-have-it chandelier,” she says. The Hermès print is by Jaclyn Haley. Cobb had it blown up as big as her framer could frame it without having to use plexiglass. The chairs are from Antiques Moderne, and the table is from Lula B’s.
Photography by Nathan Schroder
Photography by Nathan Schroder
She’s quick to add that the art she buys “doesn’t have to be fancy.” The gallery wall in the wine room, for example, features pieces by Cobb’s great-grandfather, art projects she and her husband made in elementary school, artwork she found in antiques stores, and, of course, a few purchases from the Dallas Flea. A horse painting she snapped up for a whopping five bucks has even snagged a prominent location in the dining room.
The tub in the master bath was the original tub in the property’s garage apartment. “We had to crane it out of the window to put it in our master,” Cobb says.
Photography by Nathan Schroder
Photography by Nathan Schroder
In addition to furnishing the place, Cobb and her husband also had to get to work on the exterior. “When we bought the house,” she says, “we decided to focus on the first floor and the outdoor landscaping.” So while the team at MORE Design + Build was reworking the interior, Robert Bellamy of Bellamy Design was busy revamping the backyard.
“There wasn’t a whole lot of original landscaping, but it was pretty special,” Cobb says. “We just tried to enhance it.” The pool, for instance, is original to the house, and because it takes up a great deal of space in the backyard, Cobb and her husband had Bellamy make its colors more neutral so the pool is no longer the center of attention.
Cobb designed the headboard in the master bedroom. “The Greek mirrors were an eBay steal,” she says. The rug and blanket are from Morocco, and the light fixture is from White Elephant.
Photography by Nathan Schroder
Photography by Nathan Schroder
“It doesn’t go away,” she says, “but it kind of mutes it a little bit. We wanted to enjoy the pool but not have it be the focal point of the backyard. We wanted the focus to be on the living space and the cabana.”
That cabana used to be an enclosed room that the couple opened up and turned into their own private retreat. Now they spend as much time in there as possible. “We live in that room when the weather is nice,” Cobb says. “We eat every meal out here that we can. We’re big outdoor living people.”
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