It is surely an interior designer’s dream come true to be handed a project that is quite literally a blank canvas. “The entire house was just solid white—all white Venetian plaster walls, white travertine floors,” says Christopher Alexander, a partner at J. Randall Powers interior design studio in Houston, of the early-aughts-era house that clients had asked him to look at before purchasing. He had worked with the couple on a previous home, so he knew instantly what was needed for this new one, located in the city’s leafy enclave of River Oaks. “These are two people who absolutely love color and pattern, so it meant a big change for the house itself.”
In the airy dining room, Alexander installed a hand-painted grasscloth—Tigers in the Grass by Jim Thompson—as the backdrop for antiques like a Regency console and mirror from Gerald Bland. The dining table and chairs are Rose Tarlow, the slipper chairs are covered in Schumacher’s Incomparable Moiré with Samuel & Sons trim, and the chandelier is by Paul Ferrante.
MELANIE ACEVEDOGoing back to “old-school decoration” was the wife’s enthusiastic design directive. Her husband had grown up in homes decorated by the legendary New York designer Mario Buatta—a designer whose interiors were once described as “American in their sense of gusto and color but utterly English in their comfort, layering, and love of history”—and she is a huge fan of Kansas-born, Manhattan-based Thomas Britt’s opulent, flamboyant flair. “She said, ‘I would love the design scheme to be inspired by a mix of Mario and Tom, and I know you can absolutely do that,’” Alexander recalls.
Alexander used a quilted linen on much of the living room’s upholstered seating, including a quartet of Billy Baldwin slipper chairs. “It’s an easy way to bring in pattern without actually using pattern. It lends depth and shadow play but still allows the antique furniture to shine,” says the designer. A painting by Ludwig Sander hangs above the faux-painted mantel.
MELANIE ACEVEDOVery little was left untouched in the two-story house, bar a pair of white doors in the living room, which Alexander kept in place but transformed with a lick of paint and gilded beading. In just three months, from his first conversations with the couple in October of 2021 to installing the following January, the designer aptly abandoned the all-white bright for a moody, sophisticated elegance, introducing textural depth and visual interest into every room through a mix of custom-made and contemporary, ancient and antique.
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Alexander transformed an unused octagonal vestibule just off the bedroom into a tented hideaway, with Houlès tassel trim and tape embellishing the wool wall-hangings. A lacquered Parsons tea table offers a sleek counterpoint to trompe-l’oeil wallcovering (Francine by Pierre Frey) and plush velvet seating. Floor lamps, J. Randall Powers for Visual Comfort.
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Loro Piana silk curtains trimmed in a Claremont stripe create a dramatic passage between the gallery and living room. George III inlaid demilune tables were purchased from the estate of Betsy Bloomingdale at Christie’s. J. Randall Powers for Visual Comfort lamp with a Fermoie shade.
MELANIE ACEVEDO
Given the house’s idyllic location, nestled among towering oak and pine trees, large picture windows were installed so the clients “can look out across the treetops and soak in the sunlight,” Alexander explains. Rooms were painted, lacquered, or wallpapered; generous new curtains were hung; and the cold stone floors were covered in a mix of rugs, some fashioned from wool and silk, some in a geometrically stitched sisal.
Light fills the dining room, thanks to a mirror-lined wall and the hand-blown glass balls of the custom-made chandelier hanging from the ceiling, making “the room feel twice as bright as before,” the designer enthuses. The trellis-like green-and-white upholstered chairs and grasscloth wallcovering, hand-painted with thickets of bamboo, evoke a garden-room vibe; that feeling continues throughout the house, perhaps most of all in the primary bedroom, with an old-fashioned Sister Parish floral chintz and verdigris mirrors. “Everything ties together and relates back to one another,” Alexander explains.
The bold library is lacquered floor to ceiling in aptly-named Decisive Yellow by Sherman Williams. A Brunschwig & Fils sofa is upholstered in Cowtan & Tout fabric with pillows in A Rum Fellow hand-woven brocade from Schumacher. Alexander designed the screens covered in Tamanrasset linen by Pierre Frey.
Cleverly, an octagonal hallway vestibule that might have otherwise gone unused has been reimagined as another small sitting room, connecting the living room with the principal bedroom. Here, the designer fashioned a tented ceiling from a fine woolen cloth that drapes down the walls —punctuated by a tasseled trim and teamed with a Paul Ferrante lantern featuring 24-karat gilded butterflies for a “playful touch”—creating an enveloping spot for what the husband now refers to affectionately as his “nap room.”
Knowing the couple loves to entertain, Alexander also understood that “the mood of the home at night was going to be more important than the mood of the home during the day,” he says. So he cloaked the living room walls in a finely felted and woven wool—inspired by Savile Row men’s suiting—to give “a really clubby feeling to the room at night.”
The bedroom’s candy-coated color scheme was eagerly embraced by both clients. “The husband loves pink—he grew up in a house here in Texas designed by Mario Buatta!” says Alexander, who swathed the bed and loveseat in Circe Chintz by Sister Parish and the skirted table in a Zina Studios fabric custom-colored to match. For the walls, a Thibaut raffia was painted a dusty shade of pink (Delightful by Sherwin- Williams). Lamps, Christopher Spitzmiller. Bedding, Matouk.
MELANIE ACEVEDOWith the couple’s passion for collecting antiques, many picked up at auction—“one of their favorite things to do together”—the house feels well-traveled. Alexander has ensured many of their finds, from a 19th-century Biedermeier pedestal table and a collection of Royal Crown Derby Imari china to a Regency mahogany and ebony console table, take center stage in each room. “They lend the home much more personality and add to the experience of every space,” he says. “I wanted the interiors here to feel layered and European, because one of my favorite things is being immersed in an interior and not really knowing where I am.”
Trellis wallpaper by Schumacher creates crisp garden-like geometry in the guest room. The custom banquette is covered in Stroheim linen velvet. The George III mahogany serpentine chest from 1770 was purchased at Sotheby’s.
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