Houston Design Week

National interior design stars share insights at Houston conference

Houston’s annual Fall Design Week returned to the Houston Design District — notably including the Houston Design Center — for its 15th year. Three full days of breakfasts, moderated panel discussions, lectures, luncheons, designer-led demos, book signings, and VIP cocktail parties attracted some of the country’s top interior design talent.

Each presenter may be familiar to CultureMap readers who glean the pages of Architectural Digest, Elle Décor, Vogue, Veranda, Traditional Home, and many more for design inspiration. Day one offered invaluable tips from presenters Bill Stubbs, Oliver Furth, Katherine Bryan, Kara Childress, Megan Hotze, and Diane Cowan.

While this event is in its 15th year, it’s important to note how much it has grown over time. Not so long ago, local designers had to travel to Dallas (and beyond) to shop for international luxury brands. While Houston has always had a fine selection of antiques dealers and auction houses, it lacked vendors of made-to-order contemporary brands. Lamenting about those days, Kara Childress happily pointed out that “We don’t have to go anywhere anymore!” That in itself is something worth celebrating.

An impressive breakfast and beverage spread at Stark Carpet greeted those attending the first panel of the day, “Inside Design,” where acclaimed interior designer Bill Stubbs moderated an extremely educational chat between Oliver Furth, Katherine Bryan, Kara Childress, and Megan Hotze. The discussion covered screening potential clients (including riotous anecdotes), marketing completed projects, and everything in between.

Chatting with Katherine Bryan

Thorntree Slate and Stone hosted the remainder of the events of the day in their gleaming marble-clad showroom at the Houston Design Center. Retired Houston Chronicle architecture and design writer Diane Cowan moderated a talk with Katherine Bryan, highlighting her book Great Inspiration, which is a 50 year retrospective of Bryan’s collaborative work with top designers on her plethora of fine homes throughout Europe and America — including her time spent as a Houstonian in her River Oaks home. Très chic!

Bryan now divides her time between her homes in NYC, East Hampton, and Palm Beach, but she happily reminisced about the city she once called home.

“I love being back in Houston,” Bryan tells CultureMap. “The residential areas are so beautiful, and of course the Menil is one of my favorites. What the Menil family has done for Houston is wonderful.” Celebrating the welcoming nature of Houstonians, Bryan adds: “The people are so friendly, nice, and easy going — just wonderful to be with.”

Catching up with Oliver Furth

After lunch, Bill Stubbs and Los Angeles-based designer Oliver Furth led a discussion on Furth’s new book OP! Optimistic Interiors, which is both a celebration of lively interiors and a tribute to mixing comfortable contemporary with vintage and antiques. Thanks to his time in the decorative arts department at Christie’s, post architecture school, Furth is a master. “I like a little tension in my work, lots of beautiful things from different eras,” he says.

Having previously visited the Bayou City, Furth was happy to make a return trip to participate in Fall Design Week. “There is such a rich area of culture in Houston — in architecture and in the arts,” says Furth, “It feels great to be here.”

Furth is well known for his colorful interiors. Do they reflect his personality, or do clients seeking some color turn to him for advice?

“I think it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy,” he says. “I attract a client who has a lot of personality, is a creative thinker, a client who thinks outside of the box. Our work is a three-dimensional visual of that personality.”

Although Furth is far from new to the design scene, this is his first book — by Rizzoli, no less.

“The book, for me, was a call to action for people to love where they live,” he says. “Whether they hire me or not is not the objective. The objective is to read it, to be inspired to create your own home, or to create a home for someone else, that is a place where you love to live, and you live freely.”

As day turned into evening, Houston’s own Kara Childress hosted a demo aptly named “Hosting with Heart” where she and Megan Hotze demonstrated ways to create a home that’s warm and welcoming for both living and entertaining with ease. With years of experience hosting post-game-get-togethers alongside her husband, retired Houston Oiler Ray Childress, she certainly knows a thing or two on the matter.

Following “Hosting with Heart,” VIP guests and hosts mingled over champagne and hors d’œuvres while artist Maksim Koloskov of Archway Gallery entertained everyone by painting one of his trademark murals.

Days two and three of Fall Design Week followed a similar format. James Craig Furnishings hosted day two, which included “Timeless Design for the Modern Family,” with panelists Julie Dodson and Darren Henault (of NYC’s famed interiors boutique “Tent”). Modern Luxury Interiors Texas’ associate publisher Jennifer Cope moderated a chat with designer Marie Flanigan as they discussed Flanigan’s second book The Perfect Room.

Kirksey Architecture hosted the last day. Attendees gathered for the presentation “AI in Design,” where industry professionals Leslie Carothers, Jessica Nelson, and Annilee Waterman shared how to integrate artificial intelligence into design. Later, Cathy Purple Cherry shared personal reflections on her designs and discussed her debut book The Design of a Country Estate with Cowen. Wrapping things up, Darrell Whatley and Michelle Old held a seminar on mass timber and the resulting impacts of choosing timber as a structural and architectural material.

Photo by Daniel Ortiz

Inside Design panelists Oliver Furth, Katherine Bryan, Megan Hotze, Kara Childress, and Bill Stubbs

design trends interior design

respectful design

New Montrose studio brings bespoke European design to Houston

Photo by Laurie Perez

Armazem.design is located in the historic Winlow Westheimer buildings.

Houston’s newest interior design showroom is a dazzling display of how historic preservation and swanky European design can slip into a harmonious dialogue that quietly dismisses the longstanding notion that contemporary furniture has no place within the oftentimes rigid constraints of a traditional home.

Tucked between The Upper Hand Salon and The Phoenix Pub in the historic Winlow Westheimer buildings, Armazem.design is a lifestyle design boutique carrying elevated European design and architectural solutions from century-old brands such as Arclinia, Lema, Barausse, Foscarini, Gaggeneau, and Sub-Zero Wolf.

The name Armazem pays homage to founder and principal Jon Fante’s Brazilian roots. Traditionally, armazems were community cornerstones — general stores where people not only shopped but also learned, connected, and built long-term relationships. Appropriate then, that Fante would choose to nestle himself between a salon and a pub, two businesses that are traditional archetypes for familiarity and community.

Armazem.design is set up like a bespoke home as opposed to a traditional contemporary design concept space. With everything from stately 1920s Victorians to cozy 1930s bungalows still in play in Montrose, setting up shop in a “Houston Browns” brick building from the 1930s — complete with original wide plank floors, exposed brick interior, and open rafter ceilings — allows clients to get a genuine feel for how the product lines work within the framework of these older homes.

Fante, who was born, raised, and educated as a civil engineer in Brazil, came to the States in 2006 to handle US operations for Florense. Fante retired from his position as CEO in 2017 to start Armazem.design in Chicago. The decision to expand to Houston is something that Fante says was a no-brainer, as Houston has been moving towards a more contemporary style overall.

“What we are trying to show here is that you don’t have to be in the extremes. You don’t have to be in the extremes of classic American design, which is beautiful, and what is also perceived here as European design, which is super contemporary, which is also beautiful,” Fante tells CultureMap. “There is a breadth of solutions in the inbetween.”

The buildout for Armazem.design takes clients on a journey through two kitchens, a living room, dining room, generously-appointed closet and dressing space, home office, and casual den space, all outfitted with wall units, complex storage solutions, and warm, comfortable furnishings. Formerly open spaces have been divided into distinct concepts using architectural partitions that can be designed for any space.

Every aspect of Armazem.design is custom made to order. The design may follow a more European school, but there are wooden elements and handmade objects that protect their environment from the contemporary curse of feeling cold, uninviting, or institutional. With lead times around three to four months, going bespoke here is as accessible as placing orders from mainstream retailers.

“While there is a focus on kitchens, there are a lot of different products that we bring,” says Fante. “We are a showroom that is focused on interior architectural applications for home. We have partners in doors, partitions, wall paneling, closets — there is a lot. We got this historical place in Montrose and we made it as a home. We want people to walk in and feel like they could live here. It’s very comprehensive.”

The owners of the building are currently working with the city to gain historical recognition, something that would mean a lot for the neighborhood, and to Fante.

“We were very lucky to find this space. We preserved every historical element in the showroom — you see these very rustic floors, these floors are almost 100 years old.” Fante discovered more of the historic “Houston Browns” brick during the renovation (the classic Houston brick has been out of production for decades), all hidden behind swathes of drywall. “We ripped that all out to expose the true character of the space,” Fante explains. “Of course we kept the brick.”

Fante shares that the decision to restore the building led to a phrase from an architect in their Chicago showroom that has remained their motto here in Montrose: “Let’s not bully the space, let’s respect it.” That’s a sentiment that the entire neighborhood can get behind.

Armazem.design is located at 1911 Westheimer Road and is open Monday through Friday from 9 am-5 pm.

Photo by Laurie Perez

Armazem.design is located in the historic Winlow Westheimer buildings.

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