House at a Glance
Who lives here: A family of five with two dogs
Location: Houston
Size: Six bedrooms, eight bathrooms
Designers: Lynn Holender Designs (interior design) and Sullivan, Henry, Oggero and Associates (architecture)
Builder: Unika Homes
To understand the homeowners’ style and Holender’s approach, it’s best to start in the parlor. “They both love the work of artist Donald Robertson. This painting that they already owned needed a place of importance,” she says. The wife’s favorite color is blue and the husband’s is green. Holender gave each of them spaces that highlighted these hues.
“My client didn’t like the idea of a formal living room. She preferred the idea of a parlor,” Holender says. She liked that the word had its origins in the French word parler, which means “to speak.”
“This room encourages people to converse, make music and make connections without screens,” the designer says.
The painting set the tone for the room, which has a blue sisal wallcovering, a custom blue velvet shelter sofa, swivel chairs upholstered in pink tartan and chartreuse suede fringed ottomans. A burled wood cocktail table adds warmth.
The homeowners also have an affinity for arches, like the one seen here on the large window. Holender added lots of arches throughout the house.
Wallcovering: Thibaut
The piano came from the husband’s grandparents’ home in Argentina. Holender added the built-ins for storage and displaying favorite things.
The formal dining room makes a switch to green. Holender used the same grasscloth wallcovering she used in the parlor but in a different shade. “This is a large home, and without wallcoverings there would have been a lot of big white walls,” she says. “Wallcoverings envelop the room, bring in warmth and texture, and make it colorful and vibrant.”
The drapes are motorized so the clients can open and close them using their phones when they’re out of town. Holender designed a cornice above the window to hide the mechanical components.
This bar is located off the dining room. Holender designed the white oak cabinetry. “I used white oak on the dining room’s window trim and included the eyebrow shape at the top of the bar to connect it to the dining room window,” she says. The center drawers are refrigerated. There’s also an ice maker and a trash pullout concealed within the bar’s cabinetry.
There’s a wine room off the bar. Holender continued the brick she used on the floors up the walls for an old-world feel.
The focal point in the room is a range alcove backed in striking Calacatta marble. Holender hid the vent hood behind the plastered wall. She used the alcove as an opportunity to add another arch.
“The original plans had the sink in the island, but I told my clients they should move it so that they could have a clear island,” Holender says. “It’s better for gatherings and for doing homework.” She also extended the countertop off one end so that she could wrap seating around two sides of the island.
“For such a large house, this kitchen is not that big,” she says. “We had to choose between having a freestanding freezer or a built-in coffee maker in here. My clients knew they would need the coffee machine more in the kitchen than the freezer.” The standalone fridge unit is panel-front, located near the entrance to the pantry.
This photo shows the island countertop’s ogee edge. Holender added another arch above the sink. The door on the back right corner is the panel-front fridge. The designer used separate fridge and freezer units for more freedom within the layout. She placed the freezer in the butler’s pantry.
“There’s green in the backsplash that matches the island and blue that matches the cabinetry in the pantry,” Holender says.
The butler’s pantry holds small appliances. In addition to the freezer, it has a steam oven.
These are the family’s dogs, Carlos and Louisa. The family room is open to the kitchen. Another Robertson painting is the star of the room. “My clients always like to put this painting in the family room,” Holender says. She used performance fabrics on the sofas to stand up to the dogs and spills.
Rather than designing bookshelves and cabinets, Holender custom-designed two white oak doors with arched motifs. They’re outfitted with shelves to store games, toys, books and more. She also determined the size, placement and stain color for the ceiling beams. There’s a TV over the fireplace, but she covered it with a painting for the photo shoot.
“My client told me, ‘This is the kids’ playroom, and I want something fabulous,’” Holender says. The room is located off the kitchen. The designer got busy designing lots of cabinetry and shelves for toys, crafts, display space and creative play. The two closets she designed are deep and have removable shelves inside. “They can take out the shelves and play inside them if they like,” she says. “Also, I made the window seat high so they could climb to get to it.”
The brass cabinet hardware is oversize; the pulls have wavy shapes. This adds a playful and eclectic touch to the room.
In the mudroom, Holender gave each child their own locker with shoe cubbies underneath. The drawers are charging drawers.
The mudroom leads to the laundry room, where a beautiful zellige-like tile provides subtle variation in green tones up the walls.
For the powder room, the homeowners wanted something special. They contacted artist Robertson and had him custom-design this “Clutch City” pattern for them. Clutch City is a moniker given to the Houston Rockets basketball team after it won the NBA championship in 1994.
They told Robertson the iconic Houston landmarks they wanted to include, and the most important one was the Cyclone, a roller coaster at Astroworld, where the couple met. There’s also an astronaut, an oil derrick, the Astrodome and Williams Tower, formerly known as Transco Tower.
The primary suite is on the main level, and this is the primary bathroom. “The original plans didn’t include any of these arches or alcoves,” Holender says. “It simply had vanities placed up against two walls. She added the alcoves for a cozier feel and recessed a cabinet into the wall. “My client wanted glass doors, so I told her I’d do it if she promised to roll up the towels,” she says with a laugh.
Deep mitered edges on the Calacatta gold marble countertops give them a strong presence.
Holender repeated the marble on the bathtub surround. She used gold fixtures to play off the golden tones in the marble. She also added the arched niche for art.
The flooring is brushed limestone tile. The bathroom also has a steam shower.
A walk across a covered patio leads to this man-cave space, which the homeowners and Holender dubbed “The Sports Bar.” She used his favorite green on the cabinetry. The backsplash is a reeded marble mosaic, and the cabinet fronts are reeded as well. The countertop is Verde Tino green marble.
Like the bar off the dining room, this one also has refrigerated drawers in the center flanked by an ice maker and trash pullout. The drawers on the ends are outfitted to hold glassware.
“He wanted to have a place to play poker with his friends once a week,” the designer says. “But we didn’t want the space to be dominated by a table, so that they could use it during parties.”
To keep the space flexible, Holender found a table that can serve as both a desk and a poker table. On poker nights, the husband pulls it out into the center of the room and opens up leaves to accommodate the players. Poker night chairs are stored in a closet.
In the wife’s office, Holender drenched the walls and built-ins with bold blue paint, complemented by brass accents on the hardware, grilles and lighting. The neon sign is custom and is Spanish for “So Much So Much So Much.”
The swivel chairs came with them from their former home. “We loved the coral with the blue,” Holender says. They’re a nice place for the kids to sit and visit with Mom when she’s working in her office. There’s also a desk on the other side of the room where they can sit and color.
“It was really cute — my client brought her daughters to my studio to talk about their rooms. They told me their favorite colors, and this little girl loved flamingos,” Holender says.
The flamingo painting over the bed is by Robertson. The flamingo on the nightstand is a lamp.
Blue cabinetry offers plenty of display space for books, a rainbow and more flamingos, among other things. Closed storage and drawers under the bench provide extra storage.
Holender also used a scalloped motif as a cornice. The Roman shades and draperies are fixed, but there are blackout shades tucked up top. These are motorized. “Mom can put them down using her phone at bedtime,” the designer says. The Roman shades have pom-pom trim.
The stripes in the wallpaper have a line of dots down the center. This picks up on the pom-pom trim on the drapes.
Holender repeated the scallop detail on the bottom of the custom vanity. There’s also motion-sensor lighting beneath it for when the daughter has to get up in the middle of the night. The flooring is composed of blue and white penny tiles.
The cabinetry seen in the mirror’s reflection includes a hamper in the bottom portion. The designer also designated a drawer for ribbons and bows.