Sub-Zero refrigerator and freezer tucked under a counter, a mirrored wall, two black granite countertops, two French presses and a cabinet that looks suspiciously like a supersized Craftsman toolbox. (It is, on wheels.) But no table? Ah, there is a Georgian card table in the living room that folds out to seat four for dinner, right in front of the plant-filled windowsill from which Bobbitt can watch a spectacular Dallas sunrise. A favorite contemporary piece is a glass-and-steel side table by Eileen Gray, which can be adjusted up or down to slide up to a chair, sofa or bed. “I’m such a fan of convertible furniture,” Bobbitt says, noting that multitasking furniture was de rigueur for people of earlier ages who lived in smaller spaces. “These pieces are made to be used. I feel like there’s nothing that can’t be restored.” Or repurposed or repositioned. Under Bobbitt’s skillful eye, antique dog collars wrap a lamp base. A whimsical ceramic house by artist Lisa Ludwig, circa 1990, with a roof of clay corn cobbs, peeks out from behind a massive, potted fiddle-leaf fig tree. Corn cobbs cohabitating with a Roman pedestal. An 18th-century Directoire roll-top desk sharing quarters with 1930s Mies van der Rohe chairs. Here, it’s not random at all. “Sometimes you see things and just know there was thought or spirit in it,” says the lord of this tiny manor. Or maybe it’s just he who knows. “I guess if everybody could do it, I’d be out of a job.” 40
SPRING + SUM MER 2O18