Home of 2010

In 1990, Sherry and Michael Hartley moved into a fairly drab 1987 ranch-style house, owned by Sherry’s father, on a large lot of land in Waxahachie.

During the 20 years they’ve lived there, the family, including their two daughters, Kirsten, 25, and Allison, 22, changed the entire look of the house. “We worked with the layout—we took the house and just sort of gutted it,” Sherry said. “The layout of the whole house took us seven years to do, little bit by little bit. The whole family participated. It’s been a long, slow process.”

The house had white carpeting everywhere and pink and blue floral wallpaper. Sherry said she’s not a pink and blue flower girl so the first thing they did was rip out the carpeting in the entry and tear down the wallpaper in the kitchen. They also took down the wall in the casual dining area, opening it up to the rest of the house.

Garage
The next project they tackled was the garage. “We had all this tile stored in the garage—like 2,000 square feet of tile.” Sherry and Michael decided to create a separate, detached garage to store the tile until it was ready to be laid.

Sherry shared a room with her sister while growing up, and she wanted her daughters to have that close bond that comes with close quarters. Even though the house had two extra bedrooms, Sherry and Michael transformed the current garage into the girls’ bedroom. To give Kirsten and Allison some privacy, a closet was built in the center of the room to divide the space between the girls.

This room is now one of the guest bedrooms and is accented by jewel tones and a plaster treatment to the walls. The artwork on one wall is a series of paintings of two little girls.

Kitchen
When Michael and Sherry moved into the house, one of the first things they did was rip out the wallpaper in the kitchen, but that’s about as far as they got with that room. After working on everything else, they came back to it. “We finally redid the kitchen four years ago and I did everything I really wanted to do and spared no expense.”

Now the kitchen has granite and stainless steel countertops and exotic wood cabinets lining the walls. They transformed a bay window into a glass doorway out to the breezeway and garage, which brings in a lot of light—something Sherry says she loves. One of the walls is covered in decorative crosses, all of which were gifts from friends and family.

The kitchen, since it’s been done to her liking, is Sherry’s favorite room in the house. “I spend a lot of time in the kitchen. I cook every night—my father joins us for dinner every night. My husband cooks and all my family and friends cook. It’s just a good place to be.”

Bedrooms
Once the daughters got older, they were able to have separate bedrooms. In the jungle-themed bedroom, Kirsten painted a mural of a beach scene that covers an entire wall. “When she left, I redid the room but couldn’t get rid of the mural,” Sherry said. “I guess if we move, she’ll have to take the wall with her.”

Another bedroom became the master bedroom office, which is open to the large master bedroom. The windows face the west and look out over Michael’s garden. One of the first pieces of art the couple bought, a nude drawing by an artist named Juilé, hangs on the wall next to the bed. About one year ago, they redid the master
bedroom, which is now accented with deep blue tile and glass bowl sinks.

Upstairs
“I realized we had a huge attic upstairs that was just wasted space,” Sherry said. So she decided to open part of it to the living area below and create a game room in the other part. Now the space has a pool table and bar area. It’s an area they love, but one that Sherry said was scary during creation. A huge forklift had to drive in the open house and put in the steel truss that supports the attic. Once it was finished, Sherry turned one tiny corner niche into a full bathroom, something she is very proud of. “I don’t like to waste space, I like to use space and space is a luxury. I like little areas where you can buy space back from yourself,” she said.

Outside
In 2000, Sherry and Michael put a pool in the lower portion of the backyard. Now the outdoor area has many levels for eating, relaxing and entertaining. There’s also a pond behind the pool and a garden in the side yard that Michael oversees.

Over the years the Hartleys have had many pets, but now Sherry’s father owns two peacocks who wander freely throughout the backyard area.

Living Room
On the ground level, Sherry and Michael completely transformed the original divided rooms into an open foyer, casual dining area, living area, bar and formal dining space. “We had studs in a lot of the house but we had to live here, so I put artwork on the studs,” Sherry said. “Some people thought I had a really funny, weird taste.”

Sherry continued with her efficient use of space downstairs, too. In the bar area, they built a rack into the wall to hold bottles of wine. And in the sitting area, the TV pulls out to reveal shelves that store Sherry’s china and fine dinnerware.

Now the entire floor is covered in a black and brown tile pattern. “We laid all the tile ourselves. It took us six and a half years to lay it. When we finished, we had a glass of champagne on the floor to celebrate.” The different tiles had very different thicknesses, so they all had to match up and lay evenly. That took up a lot of their time, but at the end, they said they felt like such experts that they could have second jobs as tile layers.

The house is full of pieces that are special to the family. When you walk into the foyer, you see a table that holds a dragon from China and a decorative ball that Sherry’s sister, who lives in Spain, gave the family. Above that hangs a mirror that Sherry’s mother made. “It touches my heart every time I see it,” Sherry said.


Across from the foyer is the casual dining area that is accented with very personal art. The zebra painting was done by Allison, and Kirsten painted the bench that sits below. “We bought the pieces at the school auction. It was expensive kid’s work,” Sherry said with a laugh.

What used to be the back porch is now an open area that houses Michael’s grandmother’s piano, which was recently restored. Next to that is the formal dining area where the large table is accented by a pair of colorful Italian Murano glass chandeliers that Sherry found in an antique store in San Francisco. She bargained with the owner of the store and was able to get all the separate pieces of glass for a really good deal. Once the pieces for the chandeliers arrived, Sherry assembled them to create a matching pair. After they were hung over the table, Sherry fell in love with them and got really attached to the beautiful light fixtures. One night after dinner with Michael, they heard a huge crash and came into the room to find glass covering the floor from the back door to the front door. “I was horrified and crying and upset,” she said. After the initial shock of losing her chandeliers passed, Sherry tracked down more glass to make another pair. This time, they have taken extra caution with the way the fixtures are attached to the ceiling. “We made sure to really secure these. You can swing on them now,” she said.

Now that everything’s finished, Sherry and Michael like to entertain for their friends and family when they can. They just hosted their daughter’s engagement party for 60 guests and they love to have New Year’s parties.

Design Style
Sherry has a tough time categorizing the design style of her home, but said she’d call it “Southwestern Eclectic.” Her mother had the most influence on her style, but many other people have had an affect on the way she decorates. “I have a degree in fine arts and interior design. And I went to grad school for architecture so I know lots of fine professors and architects, but probably my mother influenced me at a young age.”

Throughout the house, you’ll find art that the Hartleys collected over the years. They travel all over the world and their home reflects each journey they’ve had. “I don’t have a favorite piece of art. I have a story about every piece in here. From the very first piece Mike and I bought each other for our anniversary to new stuff. I like vignettes. I like having little areas that people can look at and find something interesting.” Every piece in the house is collected. If it’s not, Sherry designed it and had it made. One of their close friends has said “nothing matches but it all goes together.”

Many of her friends have asked about her sense of design and how to know whether or not to buy certain things. Sherry’s response to that question is always, “if you see it and you love it, you’ll make it work in your house.”

And Sherry is still making new things work. “I believe a good house is by evolution—it’s always changing. It took us seven years to really finish the basic part of the house. But we’ve been working on it for 20 years and we continue to do stuff. There’s always something.”

Since they changed the entire look of the interior of the house, Sherry knows that anything is possible. When friends want to move, Sherry asks them if they like their location, and they always say “yes.” “So why don’t you change your space to what you need now? Why go out and spend a bunch of money? If you love where you are, you can change it to the way you want it,” Sherry said.

After spending 20 years to make a house exactly the way they want it, Sherry knows how much it took to make it perfect. “There was a lot of hard work that went in. There’s a lot of love in this house. There are a lot of people who touched this place and a lot of people I’m grateful for.”