August 2010. Line of Sight: Step into Mary Margaret and Bennett Sabatier’s Lafayette home, and your eye lands exactly where they planned it to.

Mary Margaret Sabatier grew up living, breathing and sleeping home design, in a large family with four sisters and one brother.

“My children loved model homes,” Mary Margaret’s mother, Rebecca Marcantel said. “They’d rather go to model homes than go to the movies.”

Mary Margaret grew up to continue the home-centric theme of her life. She married Bennett Sabatier, an architect. The two of them include their four children in the ever-evolving design of their home and garden, where they’ve lived for six years since returning to Lafayette from Dallas.

The Sabatier home is full of thoughtful, artful touches—both inside and out.

“We both like to rearrange a lot—to experiment with placement of furniture,” Bennett said. “I’m very cognizant of line of sight—views. What do you see? What do you want to see?

“I like thinking of how kids like to play. There are places to explore in our home and yard. Both have a lot of kid-focus. Even though this isn’t a typical kid yard, it gives them places to explore and use their imagination.”

Bennett, who has designed more than 150 homes in Lafayette’s River Ranch and Sugar Mill Pond, two of the most successful traditional neighborhood developments in the South, pays attention to keeping line of sight top of mind at home and work.

“A lot of times, I’m constrained—especially on smaller lots. I have to be aware of lining up the views,” he said. “It’s also important to focus on the big picture. The big picture is, ‘How is a person is going to inhabit a space?’ —that’s more important when you’re designing or remodeling a house.”

Mary Margaret believes Bennett’s consciousness of design in their home, originally built in the nineteen-sixties, is what invites people in.

“Sometimes when someone who’s never been to my home comes to the door, they just kind of keep walking past me. It seems to draw them in. They want to see more,” she said. “Wherever your home is, whatever your home is, paying attention to the way you use the space and making it work for you and your family is important.”

Bennett defers a lot of the credit of what works in their home to his wife’s attention to detail and sense of style—and there’s little question where Mary Margaret learned it.

“She learned it from me,” Mary Margaret’s mother, Rebecca said. “And I learned it from my mom. All my girls love to do this. We all have slightly different styles. Mine is more Old South. I’d say Mary Margaret’s style is slightly Asian. I don’t want to say she’s a minimalist. Maybe it’s just a little more sophisticated. I’m more flamboyant.”

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