March 16, 2010 – 11:15 am
A little seagrass, a few new slipcovers, a plate on the wall — Joni Webb brings a house on Albans Rd. up to date: “The dining room was formerly painted a deep red - typical of most West U homes decorated in the 90s. We repainted the upper half a deeper aqua found in the family room, leaving the wainscot painted white. The owner waited to use her table, chairs and buffet – which were a dated dark reddish brown stained wood. We had these pieces painted a distressed gray to be more in keeping with the lighter wall color.” [Cote de Texas]
Read more about: 77005, Furniture, Home Decor, Interiors, West University
Almost a week after the daylong feeder road-side furniture sale they held on the abandoned grounds of the former Landmark Chevrolet next to I-45 North near the West Gulfbank exit, wacdesignstudio designers and guerrilla marketers Scott Cartwright and Jenny Lynn Weitz-Amaré Cartwright were still feeling the effects: “We were there for nine hours, thankfully it was cloudy… but the sound pollution really affected one of us to the point that even today our head and bodies still hurt… can you imagine how hard of a job road workers have when building or fixing the streets?” [Swamplot inbox; previously on Swamplot]
Read more about: 77037, Auto Dealerships, Feeder Roads, Freeways, Furniture, Hazards, Hidden Valley, Retail, Sound
March 12, 2010 – 11:02 am
So much vacant freewayside selling space, there for the taking! At least temporarily. Alas, no pieces were sold in last weekend’s guerrilla furniture sale — an all-day event staged on the abandoned concrete campus of Landmark Chevrolet at 9111 North Freeway near West Gulf Bank. But wacdesignstudio’s Scott Cartwright and Jenny Lynn Weitz-Amaré Cartwright came prepared for their Sunday digs:
Because the space was not rented, Scott and Jenny brought an envelope full of cash to pay off potential security guards (there were none), as well as food for any wandering homeless people. The crowd was a mix of architecture students, writers, and curious locals from the adjacent Hidden Valley ranch-style development located behind the dealership.
Well, you know those kinda folks are just showing up for the ambience and cheese anyway. Did you really think they’d be buying up the prototypes in your new furniture line? But hey — marketing is marketing! And look at some of the pix you’ve got to show for it:
Continue Reading This Story >
Read more about: 77037, Auto Dealerships, Furniture, Hidden Valley, Landscape, Vacant Buildings
January 11, 2010 – 3:11 pm
The city’s official new “Welcome to Houston” sign for travelers approaching from the east west was moved further west to Brookshire over the weekend, as the ginormous new Rooms To Go Super Center facing the Katy Freeway opened for business. The distribution center and store stretch a mere 1,600 ft. along the I-10 frontage road, directly across from the Igloo plant and almost 6 miles west of the Katy Mills Mall. The entire facility takes up more than 1,000,000 sq. ft. A quick partial drive-by view:
Photos: Pankaj (top) and JimmyxBoi (bottom)
Read more about: 77423, Brookshire, Furniture, Katy, Katy Freeway, Openings and Closings, Retail
December 7, 2009 – 9:05 am
A quick roundup:
- Closing in January: NASA hangout the Outpost Tavern, an army barracks building turned spacesuit-and-bikini-festooned party site, down NASA Rd. 1 from the Johnson Space Center at 18113 Kings Lynn St. Memorialized in the appropriately named Clint Eastwood “one last time for the has-been astronauts” flick Space Cowboys, the bar and burger joint had to be partially rebuilt in early 2005 after a short in a neon sign caused a small fire. Second-generation owner Stephanie Foster reports the property has been sold to new owners who “plan to build something new on the site, perhaps a service station or shopping center.” Fans of the Outpost Tavern’s many good ol’ days will drown their sorrows on-site in a 3-day-long goodbye-party bash, January 8-10.
- Closed, Just a Month After Opening: The new 7,000-sq.-ft. prototype Bailey Banks & Biddle store in CityCentre. The new owners of the former Zales mall mainstay declared bankruptcy in August, but went ahead with the store’s planned move from its old location across the street at Town & Country Village anyway. Other local Triple Bs didn’t get the grand-opening treatment before going dark: “The Galleria and Willowbrook Mall locations are in liquidation, while The Woodlands Mall store and the new CityCentre location are expected to go dark on Dec. 24 following liquidation sales, according to store employees.”
- Open Only for One Last Big Sale: Brian Stringer Antiques, strung along West Alabama just east of Shepherd in a few separate buildings for the last 40 or so years. Stringer and his wife will retire to their turreted 14th century chateau — a former fortified hospital built by monks for victims of a mysterious skin disease — in the French countryside between Bordeaux and Gers. But lucky us, they’ll stick around Houston long enough to sell the majority of their stock of European antiques, reproductions, and fabrics at 40 percent off, Joni Webb reports: “The French house is so charming – you really feel like you’re in the South of France, except for Houston’s traffic out the front window!” When you’re done shopping there, Webb commands:
be sure to also stop in at Ginger Barber’s Sitting Room which is next door. Further up the street is Tara Shaw and Heather Bowen Antiques. Continue up W. Alabama to Antiques and Interiors on Dunlavy, Boxwood and The Country Gentleman, then hit up Foxglove and Alcon Lighting.
If you haven’t passed out from exhaustion yet, turn around and head back to Brian Stringer’s and go the other way on W. Alabama. Stop at Jane Moore’s, then at Ferndale, go to Brown, Bill Gardner, Made in France, and Objects Lost and Found. Back on W. Alabama, continue on to Thompson and Hansen, The Gray Door, Chateau Domingue, Indulge on Saint Street, and 2620 on Joanel.
More openings and closings:
Continue Reading This Story >
9:05 am
|
|
Read more about Neighborhoods: Briargrove, Neighborhoods: CityCentre, Neighborhoods: Dearborn Place, Neighborhoods: Deer Park, Neighborhoods: Johnson Space Center, Neighborhoods: Lower Westheimer, Neighborhoods: Montrose, Neighborhoods: Sugar Land, Neighborhoods: Town and Country Village, Neighborhoods: Webster, Neighborhoods: West University, Nightlife, Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Retail
Read more about: 77005, 77006, 77057, 77058, 77098, 77478, 77536, Antiques, Bars, Briargrove, CityCentre, Dearborn Place, Deer Park, Furniture, Grocery Stores, Johnson Space Center, Lower Westheimer, Restaurants, Retail, Sugar-Land, Town and Country Village, Webster, West University
November 5, 2009 – 9:35 am
“Yesterday, a friend of mine sent an e-mail out with this in the subject line: ‘You can’t own anything nice if you live inside the loop…’ She sent this because the large wooden bench she keeps on her front porch had been stolen. Carted off. In broad daylight. This was a big bench. It was not a one-person job. This tells me there must be a big gang of these people in the Heights, strolling around while we sit at our desks in office buildings, treating our houses like unattended garage sales. I would tell her to get a dog, but we have a dog. And we’ve still had every single thing not attached to our concrete foundation pilfered. Maybe she should get a dog bred for something besides decoration. Maybe that’s the key.” [A Peine for Your Thoughts]
Read more about: 77009, Crime, Furniture, Heights, Home Decor, Security
September 25, 2009 – 11:38 am
If the $7.4 million price tag on his 12,734-sq.-ft. Friar Tuck French-chateau-that-is-actually-from-France turns out to be too much of a stretch, maybe you’ll be interested in the upcoming auction of real-estate developer Jerry J. Moore’s tchotchkes: “Many of Moore’s belongings were 19th century French, to go along with the French chateau-styled home that he owned on the eastern edge of Hunters Creek Village. Auction items include marble statues, bronze statues, a 19th century billiards table and a Steinway grand piano. ‘All of the furnishings are the best of the best,’ says Ray Simpson, owner of Simpson Galleries. ‘Everything he did was over the top.’” Moore died last year. [Houston Business Journal] Photo: Simpson Galleries
Read more about: Auctions, Furniture, Home Decor, Homes for Sale, Hunters Creek Village, Theming
September 23, 2009 – 5:23 pm
How heavy are those pieces in Plodes Studio’s new collection of outdoor furniture? At least light enough to tote down to White Oak Bayou off Studewood for this photo shoot. Houston designer John Paul Plauché — who often evokes aspects of the local landscape in his interior furnishings — calls this new line “Float.”
And it looks like each piece just might. The extruded lounge, couch, chaise, and side table are made of foam coated with hard rubber, and are available in 6 colors.
The line’s official launch takes place this Thursday night at Montrose’s Peel Gallery.
Photos: Plodes Studio
Read more about: 77007, Furniture, Home Decor, Houston Architects, Houston Heights, Landscape, Modern Design
August 21, 2009 – 12:17 pm
Antiques fan Spencer Howard takes readers on a tour of a Hyde Park house full of them: the home of his former boss, architect John Zemanek.
The home’s design “falls somewhere between a Texas farm house and Japanese Tea House,” writes Howard:
However, the landscape, structure and furniture are accented with mysterious objects. Some are recognizable and easily comprehended, but most are not – engaging the viewer to imagine the story behind the piece.
What mysterious objects? A few choice rusting relics of Zemanek’s Fort Bend County childhood: a hunk of the engine from the family’s 1923 Buick; parts of old farming implements; the family typewriter, on a pedestal by the front door.
Wanna quick tour of the place?
Continue Reading This Story >
Read more about: 77006, Antiques, Furniture, Home Decor, Home Design, Houston Architects, Hyde Park, Interiors, Montrose
April 28, 2009 – 10:32 am
Jerry and Wynonne Hart are scheduled to be sentenced today for “misapplication of fiduciary property” in the operation of their auction business at the Hart Galleries. In return for the couple’s guilty plea, prosecutors dropped charges of theft and money laundering.
11 News reporter Dave Fehling spoke to several former Hart Galleries customers:
The auction house thrived for years. The Harts enjoyed a sterling reputation among the rich and not so rich who all trusted the Harts to sell their valuables. But around 2003, something strange began happening . . .
. . . the Harts auctioned furniture and antiques for John Zielinski and his wife.
They were expecting to get $20,000.
“And I said, ‘where’s our money?’ And they said, ‘we’re having difficulty collecting some of the checks,’” said Zielinski.
The next thing Harts’ customers learned was that the couple was bankrupt.
Continue Reading This Story >
Read more about: 77057, 77063, 77098, Antiques, Bankruptcies, Crime, Fraud, Furniture, Galleria, Redevelopment, Retail, Upper Kirby
With her just-introduced line of home furnishings called Maison, New Orleans-to-Houston commuter Tara Shaw has apparently found relief from that bane of all highly successful antiques dealers: the little problem of supply.
Tara Shaw Antiques fanatic Joni Webb ended up seeing a cardiologist after a heart-racing episode at Shaw’s first Houston to-the-trade sale a few years ago — after she thought she might lose out on a set of antique chairs. So she’s uniquely qualified to explain:
Recently there’s been some rumblings that Tara was off on a new adventure, manufacturing her own line of furniture, inspired by original pieces she owns in her private collection. . . . The debut was worth the wait. The new MAISON pieces are gorgeous, their authenticity is unrivaled by anything available on the market today. Besides wonderful tables, chairs, and bookcases, there is a great array of smalls – candlesticks and mirrors, crowns and jardineres. One could certainly furnish a house with the MAISON line, that’s how extensive it is. The craftsmanship is superb, each piece was created under Shaw’s knowledgeable and watchful eyes.
A bit more hyperventilating after the jump:
Continue Reading This Story >
Read more about: 77098, Antiques, Furniture, Home Decor, Interior-Design, Montlew Place
“When it comes to the sparkly allure of a new mattress,” writes Heights newbie Taryn Peine, “Heights folks just can’t seem to say no.”
After a year of living here, much . . . has become commonplace. We are careful not to hit the livestock, we don’t even hear the drill anymore, and we barely notice the empty shopping carts. These are all things I never saw in Bartlesville, and certainly would never have gotten past the homeowners associations in the suburbs. (I know someone who recently got ticketed for having the wrong color of mulch in their flowerbeds. Can you imagine what the ticket would say for the family down the street who has an entire sectional in their front yard?) Yet somehow, I’ve gotten used to every weird sight around this neighborhood except for one. That is the mattress.
The mattress? What mattress?
Continue Reading This Story >
Read more about: 77008, Furniture, Houston Heights
The River Oaks Examiner’s Michael Reed reports that “more than 10 families” are serious about leaving Wilshire Village . . . and they’ll be hosting a couple of eviction sales over the next 2 weekends to prove it:
“We are going to be OUT, but you don’t have to be … shop indoors at those apartments participating,” fliers being distributed for the event read.
Could that mean? . . . Yes, apparently:
A resident, told the Examiner that tenants had recently been given until the end of March to leave, and that the owner had agreed to help with the moving expenses.
“We haven’t seen anything in writing,” he said, but added that he is “reasonably pleased.”
Photo of Wilshire Village window: Katharine Shilcutt Gleave
Read more about: 77098, Apartments, Evictions, Furniture, Home Decor, Lancaster Place, Neighborhood Disputes, Retail, Wilshire Village
Comment of the Day: Going All or Nothing with IKEA
“There’s nothing worse than a room of quality furniture and then one piece from Ikea. The only way to do Ikea is to do everything Ikea and basically rip-off one of their show rooms.” [biggerintexas, commenting on Neighborhood Guessing Game: Loveseat Convention]