micasa . . .
Ideas and insights for comfort and style

Dallas & Fort Worth Home Living / August 1997
Photography by Joe Grisham / Styling by Janet Healey

Around the house with Wendy Krispin
Wendy Krispin : She is one for the few people who actually has worked as a butcher, a baker and, as a child, a candlestick maker. She moved to Dallas from a Detroit suburb 14 years ago. She worked for a while at Marty's which at the time was Dallas' premier caterer, before launching her own catering company. Her first restaurant Krispin, the Restaurant - opened five years ago in the Dallas Design Center. She opened her newest restaurant, Table Five, nearby in the Decorative Center last year.

The Townhouse: Located in Dallas near the intersection of Oak Lawn Avenue and Cedar Springs Road. Built in 1996, it is 2,700 square feet with two bedrooms and two and a half bathrooms. The floors are stained concrete.

"We had absolutely no decorating goal when we started. It just needed to be livable and functional. If anything, the style is modern arts and crafts, half the things in the house are flea market finds. This house has so many straight lined and angles and hard surfaces that it needed warmth.

We wanted it to be homey and comfortable, so we used a lot of earth tones and natural materials. It doesn't get any direct sunlight, but the large windows still keep it bright inside. It really is a day house, but at night, turning on some lamps and a few candles can make it more elegant and formal for evening moods. The big windows give it a natural quality. You see the trees and feel like you're a part of continuation between interior and exterior. It's in the middle of the city, but you still feel like you're in the country."