Inspired homes are not decorated
inspired homes are understood
Alexander Dahlgren-Jawad
I’ve been doing this since 1979
I started as a young designer trying to figure out how good spaces actually work — not how they photograph, not how they trend, but how they function for the people who live in them every day. Forty-seven years later that is still the question I start with on every project.
The Practice
I founded The Ancon Group in Dallas in 1989. What began as a local residential practice grew into something I never entirely planned — a firm that worked across
architecture, interior design, and construction simultaneously, on projects ranging from single room renovations to complete custom homes from the ground up.
That cross-disciplinary background is unusual in this industry. Most designers don’t understand construction. Most contractors don’t understand design. Most architects don’t understand how people actually live. Since finishing at the Pratt Institute in 1979 I have been learning all three — and more importantly, learning how they talk to each other and where they fail to.
The work has been recognized with over a dozen awards including multiple NARI Contractor of the Year Awards and an Outstanding Leadership Award. It has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, D Magazine, Dallas/Fort Worth House and Home, and The Dallas Morning News
the Philosophy
I don’t open a catalog at the beginning of a project. I don’t show samples. I don’t ask to see your Pinterest board.
I ask questions. A lot of them. Why is the air fryer in the garage? Why are your clothes packed in the closet like sardines? How do you wish you could start and end each day? What in this house doesn’t serve you and why?
The answers to those questions are what make a home yours. Not the finishes. Not the trends. Not whatever is on the cover of a magazine this season.
I see every space in black and white first — wire frame, outlines, pure function. I do this whether I am standing in someone’s home in North Texas or working virtually from 8,000 miles away. Because if a home doesn’t function the way it should, there is no amount of beautiful, trendy, or fashionable finishes that will save it.
Inspired homes are not decorated. Inspired homes are understood.
the virtual practice
In early 2026 I began sharing what I know on TikTok — not to build a following, but because I believe people deserve access to real expertise when they are making one of the largest financial decisions of their lives. The response was more than I expected.
That content led to a virtual consulting practice that now serves homeowners across the country and internationally. People building custom homes in Colorado. Improving Mid-Century Homes In the California Bay Area. Barndominiums on Texas plains. Row homes in Baltimore. Condos in cities I have never visited. The problems are the same everywhere — and so is the process.
When you work with me virtually you get the same thinking, the same questions, and the same standards that my Dallas clients have relied on for decades. The only difference is that we do it over Zoom instead of across a kitchen table.
In Our Client’s Words
Ann Stordahl: "Alex has a keen design sense and an ability to quickly envision a new use of space."
Monica Mertes: "Alex didn't gatekeep his expertise — after each meeting I had learned so much from him about the design process."
Barbara Lancaster: "Alex leads at every step of the way with an impeccable eye for detail and opportunities to go for the unexpected."
Susan B.: "Having someone we can trust with every detail has made life so much simpler. You seem to know what we want and need before we do."
The Ancon Group has earned 5.0 stars on Google from clients across the country.