A gala affair

New architect-driven studio showcases luxury brands in River Oaks

Curious Houstonians have no doubt noticed the impressive Novowood-clad building taking shape at 2222 Westheimer in the always stylish River Oaks area. Here to satisfy curiosity, CultureMap introduces the architect-and-designer-driven showroom: Gala Design-Studio.

This one-stop-shop style showroom and studio offers architectural and design services for both interiors and exteriors, including bespoke closets and storage solutions. The 10,000-square-foot interior showroom provides access to over 20 artisanal Italian furniture lines and will premier the largest footprint of Boffi products in the Southwest region.

Houston-based business partners Renee Galang (CEO) and James Kim (COO) began breaking ground on the site back in August of 2023, trusting their vision to Cisneros Design Studio and CTC Contractors — proving that good things come to those who wait.

Photo by Duc Hoang

The Novowood-clad building on Westheimer is drawing a lot of attention.

CultureMap caught up with Galang, a University of Texas at Austin trained architect, for a chat and to tour what is shaping up to be quite a showroom. While Gala Design-Studio’s grand opening is slated for mid-September, Galang is finishing a meeting with an existing client when we arrive early — proving that business at Gala has already begun.

Post graduation, Galang relocated to Manhattan where she spent five years at Rogers Marvel Architects as a junior architect. With little hesitation, Galang readily conceded that “The culture of an architecture firm in New York is a lot different than here, so I wanted to transition to interiors.”

Galang followed a traditional intro-to-design path of working with friends and family friends, running into a not uncommon issue: “I didn’t know how to charge people, obviously cutting myself short,” she says. “I wanted to learn the business and the brands.” And that she did, diving headfirst into an immersive Houston retail and design education that one could even consider “Gonzo” style.

Running the gamut of roles from sales consultant to buyer, Galang’s resume includes local favorite Kuhl-Linscomb, as well as Ligne Roset. These roles, along with a stint at architecture and design firm Raye Studio, led to the co-ownership and design director position at the Houston Poliform showroom. Following that, her partnership with Kim on the ARAN Cucine showroom, (situated catty-corner to Gala Design Studio) was the beginning of what has become a successful business relationship.

It’s clear from the jump that this is not a “hobby studio” or pet-project born out of well-financed boredom. The flow of the showroom and the thoughtfully engineered vignettes are those of someone with refined editing skills and an eye for warm, casually elegant luxury.

“I just put this all together going to the trade shows in Milan,” Galang says. “Every year I’d go check stuff out and pick up new vendors, and started this from the ground up.” Later, she adds,“Our brands have expanded so much due to the demands of our clients — that’s how we’ve accumulated everything (designer lines).”

Gala Design Studio Boffi The first floor showcases pieces from Boffi.Photo by Renee Galang

In what will be the largest showing of the 90-year-old prestige company in the Southwest region, the first floor is dedicated to Italian luxury brand Boffi. Known for their distinctive and elegant (Míele compatible) kitchens, bathrooms, and closets, Boffi are joined by their sister brands: DePadova and ADL.

“They were the first to integrate appliances into cabinetry, and then everyone copied them,” Galang says about the decision to feature Boffi. “They are known as the most innovative design brand in the world. They are the ones who started modern kitchen design — they’re in the MOMA.”

With her background in architecture, Galang jokes that kitchens were her “first gateway drug” into interior design, noting that “everything has to fit together like a puzzle.”

“My new gateway drug (into exteriors) is Novowood. Now we can do the exterior and move inside. The goal is to design the whole project and develop that great relationship with the client,” she says.

“It’s just really important to me to design to their lifestyle, their function and daily routines — just help their day flow better. I always ask clients when we get started to walk me through their typical day, it’s important,” she adds.

The DePadova line of furniture will be showcasing their collaborations with Paul Smith and Japan-based Time & Style, among their already impressive offerings. Integrated into the Boffi range on display will be lux ADL doors and partitions — take note that ADL does fabulous things with wine rooms as well!

Gala Design-Studio is collaborating with Lauren Rottet of the famed Rottet Studio, an architecture and design firm with an office in Houston. She will be installing her collection of furniture and accessories in a dedicated on-site vignette and intends to attend the showroom’s grand opening in September.

In addition to their flagship brands, Gala Design-Studio will carry over 20 artisanal brands, including: MisuraEmme, Linie Design, Roll & Hill, COR, Actiu, La Cividina, Bomma, Ethimo, RS Barcelona, Arte Veneziana, and Newform Ufficio.

It will interest readers with elevated security concerns that Oikos, the former Italian bank vault company, is now in the exterior door business. Galang visited their factory north of Venice, Italy, to see the doors in person and will be having them installed at the showroom for clients to see for themselves.

“[They’re] amazing, architectural, high security front doors — backlit onyx, double sided, whatever you want or need. They do auto-open as well, through cellphone, buttons, or both,” she says.

While discussing the security of Oikos security doors, Galang mentions that the doors have even “been tested against an AK-47, and I can’t remember the highest bomb . . . but they’re super secure.”

Will anyone actually pay for a bomb-proof door? “The client who was just here ordered nine or 10 of them,” she says. Well, we stand corrected!

openings home-design

gold pony club

Inside the creation of the rodeo cook-off’s most over-the-top tent

Courtesy of Cotton Holdings

The Gold Pony is the ultra-private VIP lounge behind the stage.

The Cotton Q Club is arguably the glitziest and most exclusive tent at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo’s annual World's Championship Bar-B-Que Contest. Hosting nearly 800 invited guests-per-night, the 5,000-square-foot space includes a 50-foot bar, a new pop-up martini bar by Sophie Cocktail & Terrace Bar called “The Stirrup,” the ultra-exclusive “Gold Pony Club,” and a full stage for private concerts. This season, county music acts include Gabby Barrett, Sammy Kershaw, Josh Turner and Braxton Keith.

Aside from the obvious, what sets the club apart from the rest is the sheer magnitude of its operation. Once inside, guests are encapsulated by velvet-draped ceilings illuminated by crystal chandeliers, three-layer tartan-topped carpeting, richly-colored wooden-paneled walls, plus thousands of red roses swathed acrobatically throughout.

To coincide with the year of the horse, five enormous ponies made entirely of red roses have been suspended from the ceilings. The second additions this year hang on either side of the bar in The Gold Pony, the club’s even more exclusive VIP area. The kinetic artworks were created by Houston artist Sneha Merchant —all for a three day fête. This begs the question: how do they do it?

Cotton Holdings and its subsidiaries are well positioned to carry out the entire project themselves — so they do. Never bothered or besmirched by the possibility of running into issues with rental companies, everything at The Cotton Q Club is procured, purchased, and stored in-house. As one would expect from a company that provides disaster relief around the world.

“There is a lot of love and care put into this because we’re not in a hotel, we’re not in someone’s home,” Cotton Holdings chief marketing officer Zinat Ahmed tells CultureMap. “So for us to be able to create this entire infrastructure under a tent — down to the walls and chandeliers — it is much more than throwing a party. It’s about the details that make people feel that they are at a hotel, they are in an extravagant room, they are at The Polo Bar.”

Ahmed notes that a lot of the company’s culture is mixed into the tent, such as what Cotton does as a disaster relief company (including providing food by Cotton Culinary).

“Cotton Logistics puts up tents during a natural disaster. Seeing the Cotton team, whether it’s cleaning or moving things around, welcoming everyone, that’s part of our Cotton GDS — we restore communities after natural disasters. Our synergies in different parts of our day-to-day are here,” she says.

Ahmed’s team has complete creative control over the interior aesthetics of the club. Always sourcing anything that cannot be made in-house to local vendors is something she feels is important. Nothing is rented, not even the furniture or accessories.

“Every single thing, unless it was done by a local vendor, was done in-house: design, signage, execution — even the embroidery,” she explains

Everything is checked over during the summer months so there won’t be any surprises when the cook-off comes back around. Every item is organized, labeled, and stored either in Cotton’s warehouses, Conex boxes, or in special climate-controlled safes — down to the matchboxes.

“We are always prepared and ready to go,” explains Ahmed. “It’s not chaotic at all because we’re used to it — it’s a normal day at Cotton.”

When asked for her favorite parts of the tent this year, Ahmed readily answered that it has to be the five rose ponies in the main area of the club. Secondly, the two commissioned works by Sneha Merchant. Sprinkled in diamond dust, one is a female mallard wrapped in a boa, champagne flute in hand, while the other is a smartly-suited jackalope complete with cowboy hat and martini.

Both pieces are lit by antique sconces Ahmed sourced from Round Top, while the taxidermy Zebra heads are on loan from the Columbus, Texas ranch of Cotton Holdings’ Chairman Pete Bell.

“Every detail, down to the swatches of velvet has been thought of with a lot of love and care,” says Ahmed. “You use that mindset with something like this. So, if you have a mindset like before you deploy to a hurricane, you can do it for the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.”

Courtesy of Cotton Holdings

The Gold Pony is the ultra-private VIP lounge behind the stage.

houston livestock show and rodeo home-design cotton holdings