A Stonebriar Tudor Renovation: What We Kept, Changed, and Reimagined

When our clients first reached out, their message was essentially: Help. We bought a gorgeous house, but it’s trapped in the ’90s.

Technically, this custom Tudor in Frisco’s Stonebriar neighborhood was built in 2000, but the interiors carried plenty of late-’90s hallmarks: blue carpeting, elaborate window treatments, heavily detailed moldings, dark bathrooms and a kitchen that had already experienced one of those halfway updates we’ve all seen—the “maybe if we just paint the island blue?” phase.

But this was never a house we wanted to strip of its personality.

At 7,700 square feet, the home had beautiful bones and craftsmanship that would be difficult—and extraordinarily expensive—to recreate today: rich stained millwork, leaded-glass windows, mahogany paneling, substantial doors and crown moldings, and a beautiful parquet floor in the entry. Our job was to determine what deserved to stay, what could be improved, and what truly needed to go.

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Keeping the Good Stuff

One of the easiest mistakes to make when renovating a dark, traditional house is to reach for a paintbrush and turn everything white.

We didn’t want to do that here.

Instead, we looked at the architecture room by room. Some of the original stained woodwork was beautiful and integral to the Tudor character of the house. Other areas felt unnecessarily heavy. And in several places, the best answer was a combination of both.

That approach became the thread that ran throughout the renovation: preserve the craftsmanship, simplify the excess and add new details that feel as though they belong.

A Kitchen That Finally Matched the House

The kitchen needed one of the largest transformations.

Our clients wanted a complete appliance upgrade, including a full wall of appliances and a built-in coffee machine. The challenge was making that much functionality feel cohesive rather than like a wall of stainless steel.

For the new cabinetry, we chose a traditional beaded Shaker door. That tiny beaded detail makes a surprisingly big difference. It takes the cabinet from the more ubiquitous farmhouse Shaker look into something that feels classic and appropriate for a Tudor.

Inside, we used UV-finished wood drawer interiors and specialized pull-outs, because the details you don’t immediately see still matter.

We wanted to ensure thay the space did not feel cold, so we decided to use marble as an accent, and stick with quartz's easy care for the countertop material. Beautiful slabs became architectural accents throughout the kitchen, particularly around the range.

The original range area felt especially dated, as did the elaborate molding surrounding the opening above the sink. We simplified both, along with some of the heavier crown molding, which immediately made the architecture feel cleaner.

Functionally, we added appliance garages to keep everyday necessities accessible but concealed. Lighted upper cabinets with X-front doors keep all of that practicality from feeling utilitarian.

Throughout the kitchen, we used polished nickel hardware for a slightly softer, more elegant look.

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Another of our favorite moments in the kitchen area was turning this boring counter area into a champagne bar. We added more useful storage for this elevated "drop zone" with custom millwork towers, and gave our client a place to showcase her love of bubbly.

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Turning a Breakfast-Room Built-In Into Furniture

The built-in in the adjoining breakfast room presented a different problem. The original piece felt heavy and dated, and we wanted its replacement to read more like a beautiful piece of furniture than another bank of cabinetry.

We designed the new piece in rift-cut white oak stained Puritan Pine, topped it with a remnant of gray marble, and finished it with brass cremone latches.

It provides plenty of storage for entertaining, but more importantly, it gives the breakfast room a focal point of its own.

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Lightening the Family Room Without Painting Everything White

The family room originally read as a sea of brown: stained paneling, beams, built-ins, floors and fireplace all competing for attention.

But the solution wasn't to erase all of it.

Because this room opens directly to the newly white kitchen, we painted selected portions of the paneling to create a visual connection between the two spaces. We also painted the red brick fireplace, simplified some of the cabinetry with new door styles, and refurbished the stained millwork we wanted to retain.

The result is lighter and much more current, but it still feels cozy and appropriately rooted in the architecture of the house.

This is probably one of the best examples in the project of why we don't believe every renovation needs to become completely white.

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Fixing What Was Almost Right in the Office

The office had some of the most beautiful original woodwork in the house: mahogany wall paneling and a substantial coffered ceiling.

It also had a problem that we see surprisingly often in custom construction.

The ceiling lighting had apparently been laid out before the built-ins and coffers were installed. As a result, the recessed lights weren’t actually centered within the finished ceiling panels.

Once you notice it, you can’t unsee it.

Rather than remove the ceiling, we enhanced it. Proper paneled insets were added to the coffers, and the lighting was repositioned so that each fixture was correctly centered.

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We also replaced the ornate existing fireplace with a custom black marble surround, giving the room a much cleaner focal point without fighting the richness of the mahogany.

And although this room is technically an office, our client didn't want it to feel like a corporate workspace. This was meant to be his room—a place to relax, smoke a cigar and enjoy the things he loves.

So the styling became personal: racing-car models, cigar boxes, family photographs and collected objects rather than rows of anonymous shelf decor.

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From Very ’90s to a Quiet Primary Retreat

If there was one room that truly embodied the “trapped in the ’90s” description, it was the primary bedroom.

Blue carpet. Saturated blue walls. Heavy floral window treatments. Elaborate moldings.

There was a lot happening.

We started at the floor, replacing the carpet with a custom parquet wood floor that immediately gave the room a much more architectural foundation.

And this wasn't an off-the-shelf patterned floor. The parquet was assembled on site piece by piece—a process that deserves its own moment.

We replaced the existing fireplace with a custom marble surround, simplified portions of the original crown molding, and added true wood wall paneling throughout the room.

We intentionally used real constructed paneling rather than simply applying thin MDF trim to the drywall. In a room of this scale—and in a house with this level of original craftsmanship—the difference matters.

Giving the Primary Bath a Hotel Feel

The clients' request for the bathroom was simple: make it feel like a beautiful hotel.

We removed the oversized Jacuzzi tub and started over.

One of the defining elements became the floor: a custom, hand-cut parquet pattern created from gray and white marble. It takes the wood-floor language used elsewhere in the home and interprets it in a completely different material.

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The new millwork uses the same beaded Shaker detail found elsewhere in the renovation, with glass-front linen storage and a dedicated hair-tool pullout.

A small designer PSA regarding hair-tool drawers: they can be surprisingly difficult to make work well. We've learned that adding roughly another half-inch to an inch of countertop depth can provide valuable literal wiggle room behind the unit.

We used polished nickel plumbing and hardware throughout for a warm and elevated finish.

And behind the freestanding tub, we built a marble ledge for bath products, candles—or, more importantly, a glass of wine.

One of our pet peeves is a beautiful freestanding tub with absolutely nowhere to put the champagne!

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Making the “Formal” Rooms Feel Less Formal

Just off the family room was what could easily have become a traditional formal sitting room.

Instead, we renamed it.

The Piano Room immediately felt more relaxed, which is exactly what we wanted. Modern swivel chairs loosen up the room, while a large piece of fine-art photography gives it a stronger point of view.

Nearby, the existing bar had another very different personality problem: clock-patterned wallpaper that felt a little Alice in Wonderland.

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We replaced it with charcoal grasscloth, added a dark stone surface, and painted the cabinetry a neutral gray. The result is a small, moody jewel box tucked between the brighter adjoining rooms.

The nearby powder room needed to connect visually without simply repeating the bar. We designed a contemporary white-oak vanity and paired it with new lighting, a new mirror and a serene ombré wallcovering.

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Upstairs: A Game Room Becomes a Destination

Upstairs, a very large open room had a surprisingly small, underwhelming bar, and it was fully carpeted.

The homeowners wanted the space to become somewhere they would actually use: a place to play pool, open wine and entertain.

We first defined the room architecturally with another custom parquet floor.

Then, in place of the small existing built-in, we created a dedicated wine display that gives the room a true purpose and focal point.

And Then There Were the Smaller Transformations

On a renovation of this scale, not every room needs its own chapter—but nearly every space received attention.

The homeowner's upstairs office became a lighter, more feminine workspace. The laundry room was updated to better relate to the rest of the interiors. A storage room off the kitchen became a mud room. Little girls' baths were refreshed.

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And one of our favorite little transformations was the pool bath just off the kitchen.

Here we allowed ourselves to have some fun: barely green cabinetry painted Sherwin-Williams Opaline, a playful wavy toe-kick, green-accented marble mosaic flooring and classic pencil-tile picture framing in the shower.

It’s small, cheerful and slightly unexpected—which is often exactly what a secondary bathroom should be.

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A Renovation That Didn’t Erase the House

This project touched virtually every room in the home, but the goal was never to make a 2000 Tudor pretend it had been built yesterday.

The best elements—the leaded glass, stained doors, parquet entry floor, mahogany paneling and substantial millwork—gave us something worth working with.

In some places we restored them. In others we simplified them. Sometimes we painted them, and sometimes we designed entirely new details to sit alongside them.

Twenty-five years after it was built, the house still feels like itself.

It just feels like the version that was always supposed to be there.