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Custom New Construction
Cheltenham
House
Texas
Texas
The Cheltenham House is a 5,000 square foot custom new construction home built from the ground up — and designed from the ground up with equal thoroughness. Harmony House was involved from the earliest planning stages, which meant something rare: the opportunity to shape not just how the home looks, but how it is organized.
Working alongside the builder, we expanded and modified the existing floor plan by 1,500 square feet, adding a dedicated home office, a functional mudroom, and enlarged entertaining areas. These weren't cosmetic additions — they changed the logic of how the home flows and what it can hold.
From there, every interior decision was ours: finishes, fixtures, cabinetry, millwork, furnishings, lighting. The result is a home where Southern Colonial architecture — symmetrical, gracious, built to last — is met with interiors that feel neither period-stiff nor decoratively neutral. Elevated without being formal. Warm without being precious.
The living room — a custom millwork fireplace surround designed by Harmony House anchors the space. Brass chandelier, cream upholstery, and warm oak floors throughout.
The living room fireplace surround is one of the project's most deliberate design statements. Designed entirely by Harmony House, the custom millwork rises to the ceiling with the kind of architectural weight that new construction homes rarely achieve — a frame that earns its place as the room's focal point rather than borrowing it from the fire alone.
The material palette throughout the living spaces was built for longevity rather than trend: warm white millwork, neutral-ground walls that read differently in morning and evening light, dark oak floors that anchor everything above them without competing. The brass chandelier and fixtures were specified to add warmth and presence without tipping into decorative excess.
Furnishings were curated to be genuinely comfortable at a scale that fits the room — a sectional large enough to hold a family, wing chairs placed to work with the fireplace sightline, a coffee table that functions rather than just occupies. The room was designed for daily use by people who actually live in it.
Left: The kitchen — custom cabinetry with glass-front mullion uppers, quartz island seating six, professional-grade range, and layered lighting from pendants to under-cabinet strips. Right: The dining room — coffered ceiling, brass ring chandelier, and a dark walnut table grounded by a room that earns its formality.
The kitchen brief was clear from early conversations: maximum storage, maximum surface area, and a look that would feel classic in twenty years rather than dated in five. Custom cabinetry runs floor to ceiling throughout, with glass-front mullion uppers that give the upper half of the room a lightness and openness that solid doors would never allow.
The island was sized specifically for six — not four with two squeezed in, but a genuine six with room to work and room to gather simultaneously. Quartz was specified for its combination of visual warmth and practical durability. The professional-grade range and stainless appliances bring the kitchen's performance up to the level of its appearance.
Lighting was treated as seriously here as anywhere in the house. Pendants over the island, under-cabinet strips for task lighting, and recessed cans positioned to avoid shadowing on the countertops — three distinct layers that make the kitchen usable at any hour.
The dining room in a custom home carries a specific expectation: it should feel like an occasion without requiring one. The coffered ceiling at Cheltenham — a feature we advocated for and detailed alongside the builder — provides the architectural presence that makes the room feel designed rather than merely furnished.
The brass ring chandelier was chosen for its balance of weight and openness: substantial enough to anchor the room but transparent enough not to close it down. The dark walnut table is the room's material anchor, its depth in contrast with the slipcovered chairs and the soft, layered light from the full-height windows. The plaid drapery introduces pattern at a scale and tone that holds the room without overwhelming it.
The primary bath — custom cabinetry with Carrara marble countertops, dual vanity with individual mirrors, brass fixtures and hardware, and a direct sightline through to the primary bedroom.
The primary suite was approached as a sequence of connected spaces rather than a room with an attached bathroom. The sightline from the vanity through to the bedroom was considered as part of the design — the relationship between the two spaces, the way light moves between them, the visual continuity of the material palette.
The bathroom's custom cabinetry carries the same design language as the kitchen but at a more refined register: integrated tower storage flanking the vanity, individual framed mirrors rather than a single spanning expanse, brass sconces that provide flattering light at the right height. The Carrara marble countertops were selected for the way they hold both warmth and precision simultaneously — a surface that reads as luxurious without trying to announce itself.
The bedroom was furnished for genuine rest: an upholstered bed frame at a height that works with the ceiling proportion, layered textiles in tones that hold their warmth in the room's natural light, window treatments that can give full blackout or soft filter depending on the hour.
The media room — a deliberately dark, enveloping counterpoint to the home's lighter living spaces. Custom walnut media console, gallery of framed film posters, and layered sconce lighting calibrated for screen viewing.
The media room was designed with a singular clarity of purpose that most rooms in a home can't claim. Its job is to disappear — to make the screen the only thing that matters when the lights go down — and to be genuinely comfortable for however long that takes. Every decision follows from that brief.
The palette is intentionally the darkest in the house: warm taupe walls, deep espresso upholstery on the swivel chairs, a sectional large enough to hold the whole family without anyone negotiating for space. The custom walnut media console grounds the screen wall and provides the room's only warm wood tone — a material anchor that keeps the space from reading as purely dark.
Sconce lighting was positioned and specified for ambient use during viewing — warm enough not to create glare, present enough to make the room feel inhabited rather than blacked out. The framed film poster gallery adds character and a sense of personality that a room this deliberately functional can easily lack without it.
The Cheltenham House from above and at street level — 5,000 square feet of Southern Colonial architecture, expanded and refined in collaboration with the builder from the earliest planning stages.
The Cheltenham House succeeds because it was designed as a whole rather than assembled as a sequence of rooms. The floor plan expansion, the millwork program, the material palette, the furnishings — every layer was considered in relation to every other from the beginning.
The Southern Colonial architecture provides the home's character and its longevity. The interiors provide its warmth, its functionality, and its quiet willingness to be exactly what a family home should be: elevated, hospitable, and built for the people who actually live there.