The sun has already set after streaming pinks, greens and blues from the original stained-glass windows onto the hardwoods of Brittany Edwards Cobb’s living room. It wasn’t a seaside sunset for Brittany today, but elements in her home are enduringly Golden State.
Casually bouncing 1-year-old Landry on her lap, Brittany sits on a brown leather Chesterfield sofa dressed in neutral Bohemian chic that is the perfect fashion mate to the house she decorated, or rather, decorates. Her husband Michael chimes in: “I come home to a new house every day.”
Local Renaissance woman Brittany is bi-coastal. That is to say, she moved to Texas (the Gulf Coast totally counts) from the aforementioned Big C 11 years ago. A longtime writer – Cobb enjoys contributing bylines at The Dallas Morning News as well as editing DailyCandy Dallas – she also founded the Dallas Flea (now Flea Style), a carefully curated and upscale market, and has slowly traded having a design firm for interior design consulting. Of course, she never stops being a mom … or her own client.
Still decorating and visualizing the future of part of the upstairs, Brittany estimates she’s still got a year before the 1930 Fooshee and Cheek Spanish eclectic is where she wants it to be, but only she would ever think that. “I like a very layered look,” she says. “Only half to maybe two-thirds is complete, because I don’t leave a room until I feel like – it’s never complete, but until I feel like it’s lived in.”
Curating the Decor
The Highland Park home is a converted duplex remodeled by More Design + Build, but it feels historic and settled, like it’s always been a single-family where books are stacked on every first-floor surface and TV is relegated to a more rustic, masculine second living area upstairs. After purchasing the home two-and-a-half years ago, Brittany and Michael remodeled, and then she, newly pregnant, began tackling rooms, the most lived-in first.
Brittany and Michael’s home isn’t themed, unless heartstrings and life adventures are themes. Her treasure-hunt mentality not only helps her to add depth and a sort of worldly vintage air but also to curate her beloved Dallas Flea. “I like an eclectic look, which luckily lends itself to thrift stores and flea markets.”
Layered via warmth and beauty, details and stories wait to be discovered. Their trip to Marrakesh is in the rugs and repurposed wedding-blanket pillows. Two old French horsehair chairs recall Brittany’s trekking to and from East Texas – twice, because she could only fit one at a time in her old Volkswagen Beetle.
And in every room, other exciting connections and adventures in design are happening: An old suzani re-covers a bench cushion and sits close to a primitive painting of a horse, while an oversized Jaclyn Hayley West Texas photograph makes a fine dinner companion for a chevron rug and a 1930 Baccarat chandelier. Some days Brittany just likes to rotate accessories, creating new pairings. “There’s a lot of sentiment everywhere … but don’t get me wrong, I have stuff from Ross and Marshalls mixed in,” she says with a grin.
Heirlooms for Landry
Her decorating approach has been organic, more about discovery than seeking a specific item. Finds that “speak” to Brittany are especially appreciated. “Most rooms have something from my hometown” of Orange, California, she says during a tour of the four-bedroom house.
Family is ever-present despite the distance from L.A. A curio cabinet in the living room hosts generations of time-washed family wedding memories, and her daughter’s Morocco-meets-Hollywood Regency nursery gets a hint from the past courtesy of crayon drawings from Brittany’s mom. “The day she found out I was having a little girl she sent them to me,” she says. “She always taught me to think outside the box and have an appreciation for handmade and old and unique.”
Now, with Landry just a year old, Brittany is aware corners will need to be padded and a few things anchored for safety, but for the most part, she refers to her own childhood and believes children should live in a decorated home, because nothing material is so precious. “If anything got broken, it’s not the end of the world,” she says. “I do buy things and think, ‘I hope Landry wants this.’”
And while the next year may find the upstairs complete, it seems that a key component in her home’s inherent home-ness is the constant flow, the cycling of her treasures. Perhaps it’s a Pacific Coast-inspired current of sorts.
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in March 2013.
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Where to shop Flea Style Today
-The original Flea Style storefront in Deep Ellum, 3009 Commerce St., Dallas, 469/520-3222, open 10am–5pm daily
-A second Flea Style storefront—featuring Heirloom Haul, an eatery, tea room and event space—at The Star in Frisco, 6765 Winning Dr #830, Frisco, 972/292-9510, open 10am–6pm daily
–Game Day Style storefront at The Star in Frisco, 6635 Cowboys Way #110, Frisco, open noon–5pm Thursday–Monday
–Wide Brim storefront located inside Hotel Drover at the Fort Worth Stockyards, 682/255-6467, open 10am–9pm Sunday–Thursday and 10am–10pm Friday–Saturday
-The historic Flea Style Bungalow, a boutique rental property opening October 2021 in Fort Worth
