Tag: Furniture

08/26/10 2:48pm

Comment of the Day: Staging Is for Wusses

Furniture, Home Decor, Interiors, Quicklink, River Oaks

11 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: STAGING IS FOR WUSSES “yeah, we are fun people to know. this was my momâ€™s amazing project, so much fun to see it take shape. if youâ€™d seen it BEFORE the makeover, THAT was tacky. what do you expect us to do, waste money redoing the whole house just to sell it? iâ€™ve lived there my whole life, love it to death. cream colors? BORING!” [prudoodle, commenting on Magenta Is the New Fuschia: A River Oaks Home That Glows Inside]

77019, Comments, Furniture, Home Decor, Interiors, River Oaks, Staging

08/04/10 6:43pm

Comment of the Day: Where’s My Florence Nightgown?

Furniture, Home Decor, Home Design, Interiors, Quicklink

No Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHERE’S MY FLORENCE NIGHTGOWN? “That closet â€“ omg! â€“ I could live in just that space! But the trouble with such thematic interiors is that your furnishings have to coordinate with it. Certainly none of your prized artwork could ever hang in there. Youâ€™ll probably feel your wardrobe isnâ€™t quite right for the house. And your dumb dog doesnâ€™t quite fit in either. (The cat under the pool table looks nervous.) Itâ€™s just too much stress to match your surroundings.” [movocelot, commenting on Huckleberry Tuscan: Unloading the New Farmhouse in Town]

Comments, Furniture, Home Decor, Home Design, Interiors, Theming

Buildings for Sale

06/30/10 4:13pm

West Alabama Antique Compound Available More Than Fully Furnished

Commercial Real Estate, Dearborn Place, Furniture

1 Comment

This string of antique-store buildings on West Alabama just east of Shepherd has been on the market since last fall. Swamplot noted the Brian Stringer Antiques 40-percent-off going-out-of-business sale in December, but the 25-percent-off sale on the buildings began only last month, after a second price reduction. The bungalow, showroom, and 2-story warehouse on the 14,004-sq.-ft. lot are now priced at $1,099,000. The listing notes the store and its inventory are also for sale “for additional consideration.”

“Everyone in Houston knows the shopping ritual here,” explained ritual antique shopper Joni Webb last year. “You go [through] the main showroom first, work your way to the back storeroom, stop at the side showroom, then exit through the metal garage door to go outside where you then enter the little French house through its side door.”

77098, Antiques, Buildings for Sale, Commercial Real Estate, Dearborn Place, Furniture

04/14/10 10:59am

Have Slipcovers, Will Travel: Interior Designer Meets South Padre Condo Rental

Home Decor, Interiors

13 Comments

Ah, there’s no rest for a hardworking interior designer, even on vacation:

Each summer I go through a little drill when we arrive at our rental:Â Â I walk through the unit and hide all the pillows, accessories, paintings, fake plants, area rugs and assorted clutter in the guest closet.Â I canâ€™t do anything about the paint job, so I just pretend itâ€™s not there. Over the years I have accumulated an assortment of ready made slipcovers for the rentals, along with throw pillows, drop cloths, and Indian bedspreads which make great cover ups for nasty condo furniture. The picture above is off the rental web site â€“ isnâ€™t that couch a beauty?

And presto! What’s the scene after Joni Webb’s little annual adventure in summer rental redecorating?

Furniture, Home Decor, Interiors, Renting, South Padre Island, Vacation Rentals

03/30/10 1:50pm

Comment of the Day: Favored Home Furnishings of the Federal Witness Protection Program

Furniture, Home Decor, Interiors, Quicklink

1 Comment

COMMENT OF THE DAY: FAVORED HOME FURNISHINGS OF THE FEDERAL WITNESS PROTECTION PROGRAM “I do not think Gallery Furniture was the provider of the furniture. If you look closer to the [Dining] Room furniture, it has distinct attributes with the American Drew – Jessica McClintock collection. I tried figuring out the other pieces in the other rooms and it appears the white wash part of the Jessica McClintock but cannot be for certain. If that is the case then it must be a pre-closing Finger Furniture store sale.” [sigma, commenting on The Memorial Drive Mansion Swamplot Knows Absolutely Nothing About]

Comments, Furniture, Home Decor, Interiors

03/16/10 11:15am

The Old Reds of West University

Home Decor, Interiors, Quicklink, West University

16 Comments

THE OLD REDS OF WEST UNIVERSITY 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 â€“ 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]

77005, Furniture, Home Decor, Interiors, West University

Freeways and Toll Roads

03/15/10 2:25pm

The Lingering Sounds of Selling by the Freeway

Furniture, Hazards, Hidden Valley, Quicklink, Retail

5 Comments

THE LINGERING SOUNDS OF SELLING BY THE FREEWAY 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-AmarÃ© 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]

77037, Auto Dealerships, Feeder Roads, Freeways, Furniture, Hazards, Hidden Valley, Retail, Sound

03/12/10 11:02am

How Much Is That Chaise on the North Freeway?

Hidden Valley, Landscape

8 Comments

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-AmarÃ© 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:

77037, Auto Dealerships, Furniture, Hidden Valley, Landscape, Vacant Buildings

02/04/10 3:17pm

Comment of the Day: Going All or Nothing with IKEA

Furniture, Interiors, Quicklink

4 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: GOING ALL OR NOTHING WITH IKEA “Thereâ€™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]

Comments, Furniture, IKEA, Interiors

Brookshire

01/11/10 3:11pm

New Rooms To Go on I-10, Just Minutes from Downtown Houston

Furniture, Katy, Openings and Closings, Retail

12 Comments

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:

Super-sized furniture store opens [Ultimate Katy]
Brookshire Residents Hope Rooms To Go Facility Will Mean New Jobs [Instant News Katy]

Photos: Pankaj (top) and JimmyxBoi (bottom)

77423, Brookshire, Furniture, Katy, Katy Freeway, Openings and Closings, Retail

Briargrove

12/07/09 9:05am

Openings and Closings: Lost Outpost of the Space Cowboys

CityCentre, Dearborn Place, Deer Park, Johnson Space Center, Lower Westheimer, Montrose, Nightlife, Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Retail, Sugar Land, Town and Country Village, Webster, West University

No Comments

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 â€“ you really feel like youâ€™re in the South of France, except for Houstonâ€™s traffic out the front window!” When you’re done shopping there, Webb commands:

be sure to also stop in at Ginger Barberâ€™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 havenâ€™t passed out from exhaustion yet, turn around and head back to Brian Stringerâ€™s and go the other way on W. Alabama. Stop at Jane Mooreâ€™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:

Crime

11/05/09 9:35am

The Front Porch Gang

Furniture, Home Decor, Houston Heights, Quicklink

31 Comments

THE FRONT PORCH GANG “Yesterday, a friend of mine sent an e-mail out with this in the subject line: ‘You canâ€™t own anything nice if you live inside the loopâ€¦’ 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 weâ€™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 thatâ€™s the key.” [A Peine for Your Thoughts]

77009, Crime, Furniture, Heights, Home Decor, Security

09/25/09 11:38am

How About a Little Something in Tuscan?

Home Decor, Homes for Sale, Hunters Creek Village, Quicklink

7 Comments

HOW ABOUT A LITTLE SOMETHING IN TUSCAN? 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 Mooreâ€™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.’â€ Moore died last year. [Houston Business Journal] Photo: Simpson Galleries

Auctions, Furniture, Home Decor, Homes for Sale, Hunters Creek Village, Theming

09/23/09 5:23pm

Float on the Bayou