Black-and-white checked chairs flank an antique inlaid chest in John's music room.

“The first thing I do in a new house is figure out the lighting and music,” says John,  a member of the ASID. “People never send money on them, but those are the things they enjoy.”

That design philosophy pays off handsomely in John’s house, where entertaining guests and planning dinner parties is common. Tucked back from the street under a canopy of shade trees, john’s 1950s ranch home is a warm, inviting respite filled with an array of antiques and unique collectibles.

"I wanted a fifties house because I wanted the quality you get. I like the big yard here. Growing up in a fifties house, this reminds me of a house my parents [and their] friends would have," he says. "There were things you get with a house in this time period that you normally wouldn't get. The house had good bones. I tried to preserve the best of the original that was here and build onto that."

Although the home has beautiful hardwood floors throughout, the boards were never exposed, but instead were completely covered with wall-to-wall carpeting. Now,

John's antique finds are displayed throughout the dining room, which he uses often for dinner parties.

A table setting of transferware with elegant stemware and silver.

Such personality traits are readily apparent in his house, where he points out a colorfully painted "watermelon chair" he found in Canton and wooden lamb that once was part of a store's nativity display. These whimsical touches are a fun juxtaposition to his other items, such as the coveted brown transferware on display in his elegant dining room.

It is an effective approach that John clearly incorporates in his own home, which he describes as "not a show house," but the place he lives.

"I subscribe to the Sister Parish school of decorating," John says, referring to the late legendary designer Dorothy May Kinnicutt Parish. "If it has a great look and is the right scale and the finish is good, I don't really care if it's two hundred years old or fifty.”

"There are a lot of wonderful things out there that really aren't antiques. They're fifty or sixty years old, but can be redone to look good," he adds.

It's easy to spot the things in John’s home for which he's developed a passion. His use of color, appreciation for art and antiques and his love of collecting and entertaining works as a theme throughout his home.

"I have always had collections of stuff that I move around. I love the experiment of moving things from space to space," he adds. "I have a lot more flexibility in my own home. I can be a little bit more out there."

John's latest collector's passion is transferware from the mid1800s, which he uses to set his dining room table and also displays in the dining room and kitchen. Over the years, John's embellished his collection by picking up pieces and sets of the dishes at antique shows and estate sales in Dallas and New York. His favorite pattern is "Etruscan vases."

"I just kept buying it whenever I'd find it. Last fall, I hit the motherload when I found 122 pieces - a set that had been in [a] family for more than a hundred years," he says. "It's amazing that [the pieces] survive that long. I want to have more transferware than anyone in the world," he laughs.

A quiet retreat in the master suite uses
a combination of a pine wood bed, antique white coverlet and
richly covered pillows.

Other collections are grouped in specific parts of the house. His extensive collection of black tole trays adorn the walls in his garden room, while framed silhouettes line the walls in the entryway of his home. An interesting collection of bamboo boxes made to look like small houses sit atop the armoire in his living room.

“A lot of times people have collections dispersed around the house. I'll gather them all up and put them in one cabinet or on one table, and all of the sudden, they become very important,” he says.

An extensive collection of black tole trays against the green walls in John's garden room.

In the dining room, John's table is set with a collection of transferware and Onslow sterling silver flatware by Tuttle. The silver pieces are interesting because each come 

The music room adjacent to the dining room is John's favorite space for entertaining. The area is elegant yet comfortable with its grand piano, antique pieces and intimate seating area. The room is furnished with a pair of white and black checked chairs that sit on either side of an antique Italian inlaid wood chest. A cowhide rug provides texture to the smooth satin finish of the hardwood floors, while two signed Joan Miró lithographs lend an invigorating punch of color and energy to the room.

"I've always loved antique furniture with contemporary art," John says. "It keeps the house from getting tired."

Coupled with the Miró lithographs is an oil painting by John's longtime friend and vice president of Waterford-Wedgwood Randy Auman, who also is an artist.

During John's dinner parties, the music room often is the hub of activity. John says he views entertaining as a form of theater, and to create an element of surprise and drama, he closes the doors that lead from the music room to the dining room. When dinner is served and the doors finally are thrown open, the guests who have been mingling in the music room 

"I wanted to lighten the room up, but still maintain touches of gold," John says of his powder room.

He also makes a conscious note of which guests have been to each of his parties, so that when he plans his next event, he will entertain the guests in a different area of the house, keeping the experience fresh and new for partygoers each time they visit.

Barbara Hollweg, who has been a client of John's for about five years, attended one of his parties when cast members from the production "Peter Pan" dropped by his house.

"I remember being in the music room and his friend started playing the piano and we were singing 'New York, New York,’” Hollweg recalls. 'It was a real fun, relaxed atmosphere."

In designing the master bedroom, John was forced to stray from his own design advice. Typically, he tells clients to focus on their master bedroom first since "that's the first room you wake up in the morning and the last room you see at night," he says. "But my philosophy was shot because I was gutting the master bath, so I didn't get to move into this room for six or eight weeks."

What resulted, however, is an enchanting space with large windows that overlook the peaceful, shaded backyard. For the bedding, John used richly colored pillows made from cut out 18th century tapestries reapplied to velvet and combined them a white coverlet. The bedding rests inside a cozy pine bed with barley twist posts.

Sitting beside the bed is an antique Italian chair. "Every room needs a jolt of red someplace," John says referring to the chair’s fabric. The trio of plates on either side of the bed create an arch and fill wall space with something other than painted artwork. A framed photograph of John’s mother, Betty Phifer Marrs, when she, as a young girl, won the Miss Shirley Temple contest sits on the bedside table.

John's "signature" kitchen feature of an antique iron fireback adorns the stove.