Tag: Interiors

Interiors
02/03/09 4:25pm

Neighborhood Guessing Game: Lamps On

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Neighborhood Guessing Game
55 Comments

What makes this week’s Neighborhood Guessing Game different from all the others that have gone before? This time, the winner gets an actual prize!

Thanks to the Rice Design Alliance, the winner of this week’s competition will receive a one-year individual membership in the RDA. If you’re already an RDA member, you can give the membership to a friend. And if you’ve never heard of the RDA, you can learn more about the organization here.

So . . . let’s review those rules then: Pore over the photos in this post, and look for clues! If you can guess the actual neighborhood of the pictured home, you win! If more than one person guesses the actual location, the player who presents the best explanation for the guess wins. If nobody guesses the correct neighborhood, the prize may be held — for next week’s contest.

An important detail: If you already know the pictured property, or if you come across the listing while the game is being played, please don’t ruin the game for everyone else! You’ll still be eligible to win the prize, but only if you follow these specific instructions: First, email us a link to the actual listing. Then post an incorrect “guess,” along with a convincing but deceptive supporting argument. If you do this well, you will win special recognition for your obfuscatory efforts. And if you do it very well — and nobody guesses the actual neighborhood — you’ll win the prize!

So how about a few more of those photos . . .

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

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Braes Heights
01/29/09 8:08pm

Neighborhood Guessing Game Over: Across the Street

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Interiors, Neighborhood Guessing Game, Southside Place
4 Comments

Unlike properties featured in previous rounds, the home in this week’s Neighborhood Guessing Game wasn’t for sale. It was listed on HAR as a rental.

Maybe that’s what made it so difficult?

Well, someone must have found it. Sometime between Tuesday and today the listing disappeared.

Your guesses? Three for Montrose. West University, Southampton, and Southgate attracted 2 each. There were a number of long or inventive neighborhood names, such as “near the Menil,” Bellaire outside the Loop, the “Vassar/Milford/Banks” area, “somewhere off Fountainview somewhere near 77056,” off Hammerly/Long Point, East University (“whatever the area west of Greenbriar, north of Holcombe, east of Kirby and south of the Village is called”), “the Mandell/W. Mandell area bordered by Westhiemer to the North, W. Alabama to the South, S. Shepherd to the West and Montrose to the East,” “the area between Westheimer and West Gray bounded by Shepherd to the West and Montrose to the East,” “that neighborhood that’s just west of Weslayan on the north side of the SW freeway,” and “in the Meyerland area, all the way in along da bayou to the med center area.” The rest: Medical Center, Museum District, the Heights, Hyde Park, Riverside Terrace, Garden Oaks, Lynn Park, and Weslayan Plaza.

No winner this time. But we have 2 strong runners-up: Brad, who came close enough to set up his own neighborhood:

. . . for lack of a better idea, I’ll guess whatever the area west of Greenbrier, north of Holcombe, east of Kirby and south of the Village is called… East University?

And marmer, who tells a pretty convincing story:

This is a nice little pre-war two story that someone added a big den to the back of. Notice how there’s painted brick to the right of the fireplace but not the left? That’s where the end of the original wall was. The fireplace brick is different (though the chimney brick looks similar though unpainted.) Enclosed sunroom was probably the sleeping porch, originally screened. The dining room bay window keeps it from being too old. You see this kind of thing all the time in Galveston where someone will make a historic southern townhouse livable by adding a big den and kitchen in the back. But I don’t think it’s Galveston. Probably more likely Montrose, Southgate, or Southampton.

Keep going with those “South”s . . . !

But the real answer is . . .

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

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Interiors
01/27/09 12:55pm

Neighborhood Guessing Game: Sitting in a Corner

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Neighborhood Guessing Game
21 Comments

It’s time to play the 40th edition of the Neighborhood Guessing Game. Have all neighborhoods been guessed already?

A quick rules refresher: Guess the location of this Houston-area residence by putting clues together from the photos. If you guess the correct neighborhood, you win! If more than one player guesses the right location, the prize goes to the player who provides the better explanation for the guess.

If you know this home already, or if you come across it this week, please don’t ruin the game for everyone else by spilling the beans! Instead, you can have a little fun with the other players: First, email us with a link to the HAR listing. Then add a wrong guess, but give a convincing explanation for it. If you do this well, you’ll win special recognition for your efforts!

Ready for the photos?

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

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Interiors
01/27/09 11:33am

Another Reason The Woodlands Is Growing So Fast

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The Woodlands
2 Comments

Just another happy family scene in The Woodlands:

Feeding time is usually what most people ask me about so I will try to describe how we feed everyone. We put all five babies in boppies and use bottle proppers to start everyone eating. Then we “play zone!” We get to whoever needs burping or help with the feeding and re-prop.

Photo: The Phillips Family

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Homes for Sale
01/22/09 9:12pm

Neighborhood Guessing Game Over: Coffered Up

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Interiors, Memorial Villages, Neighborhood Guessing Game, Spring Valley
2 Comments

Here’s where you thought the home pictured in this week’s Neighborhood Guessing Game might be: 4 of you guessed the western portion of Bellaire, and 3 of you guessed Meyerland. There were also votes for Tanglewood, the Museum District, West University, Southside Place, Clear Lake, Willowbend, South Post Oak, Braeswood, Old Braeswood, Briargrove, Lakeside, Memorial, “along the edges of Memorial Dr. between Chimney Rock and Briar Forest,” “older Memorial, anywhere between Silber and Chimney Rock,” Champions, Spring, The Woodlands, Piney Point Village, and Hedwig Village.

Darn good guesses, most — on a very, very tough house to figure. No one named the exact neighborhood this week, but the winners came close!

With a guess of “generic Memorial,” tcpIV was the only player to describe an area specifically circumscribing the house. And we’ll give first prize also to Scott, who followed tcpIV’s footsteps and named one of the house’s neighboring neighborhoods, Hedwig Village. Congratulations to you both!

Three other players deserve honorable mentions. Brad wins one, for identifying the home’s origins as an “older Ranch.” Darby Mom also tallied quite a few clues:

The older front door and expanded floor plan say maybe a big ranch on one of those big lots in the area just west of Bellaire, Braeburn Country club . . . Meyerland is a possibility, but I think this entryway is too wide. The owners really put some bucks into the kitchen cabinets, granite,floors, and the coffered ceilings . . . The amount of investment could be typical for that area, too. The trees outside are mature I think, so it would have to be an older established area.

And Miz Brooke Smith attacked the geometry:

Given the tiled floor, requisite granite counters and open concept in the kitchen and adjacent family room, and *all that space* — is that a butler’s pantry? — this place appears to have had the entire back wall knocked out and the house greatly expanded ca. 2002, probably into the backyard. So where is this big house? The yard space required to accommodate that buildout, and those deep windows in the downstairs bedroom, belie Meyerland. Yet the notion of even keeping the original part of the house instead of demolishing the whole business says this isn’t, for example, Sandalwood.

So where is this place, really?

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

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Furniture
01/22/09 11:41am

Designed To Move: Ginger Barber in Southgate

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Home Decor, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Retail, Southgate
2 Comments



Itinerant Interior Designer Ginger Barber is moving yet again: Her latest redo is on the market, reports Cote de Texas’s Joni Webb. This time it’s a 3-bedroom, 2 1/2 bath 2-story near the corner of Greenbriar and Holcombe in Southgate — but Webb spots furniture in the photos she’s seen in earlier Barber homes:

Her wonderful assortment of pine and dark wood furniture, down-filled upholstered pieces covered in linen slips, and all her textural wicker, seagrass, and stone moves from house to house almost seamlessly. . . . With no wallpaper, colored walls or patterned fabrics to contend it, the nomadic Barber can reuse her possessions, over and over again – which is a wonderful lesson to take from her.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

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Interiors
01/20/09 4:27pm

Neighborhood Guessing Game: Counter Point

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Neighborhood Guessing Game
18 Comments

How well do you know Houston real estate? Here’s the game that lets you put your knowledge to the test!

This week’s Neighborhood Guessing Game follows our 2009 rules: Look at the photos in this post, and try to find clues that might help you figure out where this home is. Enter your guess in the comments.

Whoever guesses the right neighborhood wins! If more than one person guesses the correct neighborhood, the prize goes to the player who provided the best explanation for that guess.

If you already know this property — or come across it in the HAR listings — please don’t ruin the game for everyone else by entering the answer. Instead, you’re welcome to help confuse the other players! First, send us an email with a link to the listing, so it’s clear what you’re doing. Then enter a wrong guess — supported with a clever explanation — just to throw everyone else off. If you do it well, you’ll win special recognition for your efforts.

Here are the rest of the photos:

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

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Champions
01/15/09 9:32pm

Neighborhood Guessing Game: Cutten Close

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Cutten Green, FM 1960, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Neighborhood Guessing Game
3 Comments

Some wide ranging — but very sharp — guesses in this week’s game!

There were 2 votes each for Spring, the Woodlands, and Fort Bend, plus 1 each for Quail Valley, Missouri City, “the newer parts of Missouri City/Sugar Land, off Highway 6 and the powerline easement,” Mission Bend, and First Colony. The rest: “Memorial just outside the Beltway,” Newcastle at Bissonnet, Westchase, Sagemeadow, Sageglen, Katy, Pearland, “near Spears Rd. and Veterans Memorial,” “one of the 1980s subdivisions off of Dixie Farm Rd.,” Champions, “off Briarforest, just inside Highway 6,” Oak Forest, Copperfield, Bear Creek-Highway 6, Blackhawk, and “the 1960/Cypress area off 249.”

This week the top prize goes to 3 players, for their almost-triangulating guesses. First, CK, who went out on a nearby limb with that tossed-off “near Spears Road and Veterans Memorial,” after naming a whole bunch of far-flung suburbs. Why that intersection? Because

There’s crap like this out there too.

Even closer was Scott, who guessed Champions, then almost threw off the judges by declaring himself “bad at this game.”

The “1960/Cypress area off 249″ guess came from movocelot, who also earns points for narrowing down the home’s age with this insightful “could be seventies, could be eighties” accounting:

These say 1980s to me:
windows with low sills, drywall returns, tiny little transoms, black appliances, tympanum Levolour shade in Master.

“Things that make me go ‘70s:”
heavy ceiling texture, shiny, built-on-sight cabinets & plywood/applied-molding ‘paneling’, small baseboard, chair rail & crown, white 4×4 ceramic bath surround, bold stained glass (I don’t see how folks can tell it’s plastic… looks like HO has a hobby)

And now . . . will the real neighborhood please stand up?

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

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Interiors
01/13/09 10:27am

Neighborhood Guessing Game: Flower Glass

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Neighborhood Guessing Game
18 Comments

This week’s Neighborhood Guessing Game will follow our revised rules again: You win if you can guess where the pictured home is! (If more than one player guesses the correct neighborhood, the player who provided the best explanation wins.)

If you already know this home, or if you come across it on HAR, you can play too — but only if you’re willing to be a little tricky. Just send us an email with a link to the listing so we know what’s up, then add an incorrect guess to this post that’s misleading enough to throw the other players off. If you do it well, you’ll win special recognition for your efforts. If you know this home but don’t want to play the game that way, then please stay out of this round so others can have a chance.

That’s it! The rules are easy, and playing is easy. But winning is tough. Are you ready to play?

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

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Homes for Sale
01/08/09 8:38pm

Neighborhood Guessing Game Over: The Missing Link

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Interiors, Linkwood, Neighborhood Guessing Game
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Knollwood Village was the clear favorite of this week‘s neighborhood guessers, with 4 of you spotting the house there. A few more guesses huddled nearby in the southwest corner of the Loop: Linkwood, Woodshire, Woodside, “south of Braeswood between Buffalo Speedway and Stella Link,” and “the neighborhood South of Holcombe/Bellaire and West of Stella Link behind the Palace Lanes (Lanark St).” Riverside Terrace got 2 votes. The rest: Meyerland, Afton Oaks, “around the Galleria, Chimney Rock, Richmond area,” Bellaire, Antoine/43rd St. off 290, Willowbend, east Westbury, Braes Heights, Ayrshire, Robindell, Long Point Woods, Royal Oaks, and Shadow Oaks.

Great work, everyone!

We had 2 winners this week. Chris, who included all the right names in this neighborhood roundup:

. . . ahhh those corner windows, itsy-bitsy crown molding, and green tile betray this home’s location. The only area I know of that is so corner-window crazy is the Knollwood/Linkwood/Woodshire/Woodside part of the inner loop.

And Swamplot-Award-winner Miz Brooke Smith, who turned in another strong performance:

I would narrow the area to south of Braeswood between Buffalo Speedway and Stella Link. The living room-dining room-kitchen layout, quality and nature of the wood floors, old-fashioned wooden bathroom cabinets & knobs, proportion of door to 8′ ceiling height, and tell-tale brass-colored doorknobs also speak of this time & place. Same goes for the view out the window through mature oak limbs to the one-story brick rancher across the street (both of which — house & roadbed — doubtless have their share of historic clay-gumbo cracks and seams). The handsome re-do includes new windows, and perhaps a built-out sun room and porch off the kitchen, overlooking the backyard deck?

Honorable mentions go to all the Knollwood Village guessers — Joni Webb, toadfroggy, and Pat — who were close but ended up on the wrong side of Buffalo Speedway.

And here it is:

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

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Furniture
01/07/09 1:12pm

Animal Attraction: Mecox Gardens Opens in Highland Village

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Highland Village, Home Decor, Interiors, Retail, Shopping Centers
2 Comments

“Our primary emphasis is a dedication to achieving an overall balance between the interior and outdoor living environment,” reads the copy on the home page of the Mecox Gardens website.

A tour of the new Mecox Gardens store that just opened in the Highland Village Shopping Center reveals part of the magic Mecox formula for achieving that inside-outside balance: Bring in the prints of animals. And bring in the animal prints!

Paloma Contreras, who runs Houston’s La Dolce Vita blog, took these photos on a recent visit. Mecox Gardens features “vintage and reedition” home and garden furnishings.

So here’s a reader challenge:

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

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Interiors
01/06/09 4:45pm

Neighborhood Guessing Game: Green Washing

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Neighborhood Guessing Game
20 Comments

The Neighborhood Guessing Game is back — as promised — with updated rules for the new year!

The basics remain the same: Look through the interior photos in this post and try to guess what neighborhood the pictured property is in. Add your guess in the comments.

But here’s one of the things that’s changed slightly: From now on, the winner will be whoever names the correct neighborhood and backs it up with the best explanation.

Also changed: the rules for people who already know the pictured home — or who happen upon it on HAR or anywhere else during the course of the game. If you know the property, you now have only 2 options: 1) gloat about it privately; or 2) send us an email to prove you know the correct answer, then add a comment with the wrong answer but a convincing explanation — just to lead the other players astray.

If you do a particularly good job with option 2, you’ll get special recognition for your efforts. Please don’t try any other options if you’re already familiar with the property, because you’ll likely only ruin the game for everyone else.

That’s it! Are you ready to play?

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

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Furniture
01/05/09 1:19pm

The Sensabaugh Sensibility: A Dolled Up Duplex

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Home Decor, Interiors
No Comments

He’s the display coordinator for Anthropologie in Highland Village. He has a degree in mortuary science, but his art makes frequent use of old doll parts and other objects he finds in flea markets and dumpsters. What does Brian Neal Sensabaugh’s home look like?

In(side) the Loop blogger Courtney gives us a tour of his “downtown” duplex. Sensabaugh, who’s from rural Arkansas, calls himself a “Ouijist”:

Found objects play a very important role in my work. Things cross my path for a reason. I am fortunate to be able to listen and bring these objects together in a harmonious balance that is agreed upon between the objects themselves and me, the artist.

A few scenes from Courtney’s photo tour, displaying some of Sensabaugh’s unique interior touches.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

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Homes for Sale
12/18/08 11:57pm

Neighborhood Guessing Game Over: Sugar Walls

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Interiors, Neighborhood Guessing Game, Sugar Creek, Sugar Land
1 Comment

Great game this week!

Here’s where you thought this home was: 4 of you guessed Memorial, 2 the Memorial Villages, and 2 Crestwood; Hunter Creek Village and Hedwig Village each got a vote. There were 2 guesses of Sugar Land, 2 of Sugar Creek, and 1 of Sweetwater. There were 2 votes each for FM 1960 and Champion Forest, plus single guesses of Huntwick and Olde Oaks. Plus: The Woodlands, Kingwood, Pasadena, Clear Lake, River Oaks, Tanglewood, Twin Lakes/North Eldridge, Bellaire (or was that Bel Air?), and League City.

The winner was writergeek, who guessed around, but ended up getting it — all the way down to the golf course:

For some reason the entry screams Sugar Land to me – either Sugar Creek (near the country club) or Sweetwater… The dated decor screams of the flight to the suburbs in the 80s and it looks like they went bust shortly after since the house hasn’t been touched since. Perhaps someone who was in a S&L scandal?

An honorable mention goes to movocelot, who was first to detect the home’s actual age:

Expansive rooms, painted brick, ceiling beamlets, applied molding on cabinets say early to mid 70’s to me.

Congratulations! Here’s what you’ve won:

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

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Art
12/18/08 4:17pm

Southampton House of 48,762 Cubic Zirconias

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Home Decor, Interiors, Quicklink, Southampton
13 Comments

SOUTHAMPTON HOUSE OF 48,762 CUBIC ZIRCONIAS Give him another 18 months to finish it, Dr. Anthony Walter tells reporter Kate Murphy, and he’ll open the Grand Hall in his Southampton home to the public for tours. A few church groups have already seen it: “‘People are just astounded.’ Indeed, it’s hard not to gape at a gilt and mirrored hall so boisterously baroque that you half expect Marie Antoinette to appear and offer you cake. Lighted by sparkling chandeliers, the hall is 100 feet by 25 feet, with a soaring 22-foot-high coffered ceiling in gilt and lacquer. The walls are embellished with gilt cherubs, roses, feathers, foliage and birds. Enormous and richly hued paintings in elaborate jeweled frames depict romantic, mythological and biblical scenes. . . . Dr. Walter said he tried to interest curators at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, in his project, perhaps to make it a satellite decorative arts museum, but ‘they could care less.’ One of the museum’s curators, Emily Neff, said she had visited his home but wasn’t able to spend much time there and thus had no comment. He said their reaction was understandable, given that the museum’s collection includes abstract art, which he disdains. ‘I am a huge threat because what I have done renders everything they have junk,’ he said beneath the glinting chandeliers in his great hall. ‘I hope that doesn’t sound arrogant but the reaction of people who come in here tells me the power of it.’” [New York Times; slide show]

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