EVERYTHING BUT THE GRANITE FLOORING
Scaling down means picking people and experiences over things
Houstonian Estates high-rise condo gets overhaul when owner enters new phase of life.
If you had told Pat Miller that someday she’d have modern art in her living room and a contemporary, furry white bench in her foyer, she wouldn’t have believed you.
“I love that bench, but never in a million years, if you had put me in a shop with everything good in the world, would I have picked that out,” Miller said.
Miller, whose tastes run toward traditional, sat down with her longtime friend and interior designer Connie LeFevre of Design House Studio, to talk about their journey through several homes, renovations and, now, her down-sized condo in the Houstonian Estates high-rise.
She has Parkinson’s disease and will turn 80 soon, but she loves her independence. She needed something smaller and simpler that’s near her church, family and friends.
Wayne Miller, her husband of 56 years, died four years ago of heart disease, and before he died, he urged her to carry on the lovefilled life they’d had together.
“He told me, ‘We have had such an incredible marriage and life. If you go around weepy, I will never forgive you. I’m going to be up there, and I’d better not look down and see you moping around,’ ” she said.
Miller has been in her elegant 2,800-square-foot condo for a year now, and the work to get her there was about much more than a floor plan and getting the right furniture and accessories. It was about accommodating this stage of her life, as she adjusts to being on her own.
The Millers moved to Houston some 40 years ago after living on the gas-and-oil circuit: Amarillo, Midland, Oklahoma City and Dallas.
When they arrived here, Wayne Miller declared that if there was ever a city he could start a company in, it was Houston. He started Miller Energy in the late 1970s, and it still exists today.
LeFevre had worked with Pat Miller on several houses — her previous home in Memorial was 5,400-square-feet — so the shorthand they used for this one was easy. She’s also helped others sort through priorities of what to keep, what to sell and what to give away. Miller sold her Brenham-area ranch. She
She needed something smaller and simpler that’s near her church, family and friends.
gave furniture and mementoes to her son and daughter. When she visited her son in Seattle for Christmas one year, the elegant table aglow in candlelight was set with her wedding china and crystal, creating a new tradition for another generation.
Her Chippendale chairs were divided between her son and daughter; other pieces went with them, too. Things she hasn’t been able to part with are in storage, and she jokes that someday she and LeFevre will have a garage sale.
Wingback chairs and a comfortable sofa stayed with her, as did a few antiques. But every piece she kept has a new life in her new home.
Once dark and heavy, the condo got a complete facelift as LeFevre and her team replaced everything except the polished black granite flooring. Even the ceiling got attention, with unique drop/ tray features and cove lighting added, all updated to 2017 standards.
The finished product is sophisticated and elegant in every last detail; it earned a first-place Ruby Award from the ASID Gulf Coast chapter.
Glossy black double doors open to the condo’s foyer and its contemporary sheepskin bench topped with an antique mirror. Then it’s on to the living room and the panoramic view offered by its floor-toceiling windows.
The first thing you’ll notice is an antique console and mirror. The console had been in the foyer of Miller’s previous home; the table’s finish got a touch-up, and now it holds a basket overflowing with deep pink bougainvillea.
One full bathroom was carved up to serve dual purposes. On the living room side, a portion was walled off for use as a bar, enclosed in custom-designed glass-front doors finished with mixed metals.
What was left makes up what is likely the prettiest powder room in Houston, lined with handmade and hand-painted Vahallan wallpaper that offers a metallic glow underneath silver-leaf sconces and a custom-made mirror framed in shards of creamy white quartz.
Living room sofas were reupholstered in gray silk velvet, and wingback chairs now sport gray-and-gold prints. New pieces include a custom-sized Lucite coffee table and a modern multisided table.
Years ago, Miller said, she had a Lucite table when the style was popular the first time around. Hot again in the current midcentury trend, she’s gotten another that blends well with her traditional furniture and antiques.
In one corner, a pair of goldleaf chairs with backs shaped like gingko leaves sits with a small round table holding a few favorite things: a wooden box, a small sculpture, leatherbound books and a white orchid.
Her master bedroom suite includes a peaceful sitting room, where Miller watches TV and reads. One wall of built-in shelving — which previously held a faux fireplace — holds dozens of leather-bound books that her husband collected.
Dark gray walls add a sense of quiet to her bedroom. A gray velvet footboard bench and a plush chaise share space with a custom-designed fourposter canopied bed. Over each nightstand hangs a small chandelier, a feminine touch in an otherwise gender-neutral room.
Bookmatched slabs of Calacatta gold line the walls in her bathroom, and smaller tiles of the marble cover the floor. What used to be a dark, cramped space has been opened up. Its wide spaces, vertical drain and hand-held fixtures in the shower are ready for a time when Miller may need a walker or even wheelchair.
Many dinner parties and family gatherings have been launched from the big, white kitchens Miller favors and although her new one is considerably smaller, it’s still just as functional.
Cabinets in the palest shade of gray line three sides of the room and an island full of drawers show how Miller chooses to live to the fullest every day. Drawers hold her sterling flatware and glass-front cabinets show off her china — things she uses regularly.
Across from the kitchen is her dining area, anchored by a 14-foot banquette that had to be assembled on-site because it couldn’t fit into the high-rise’s elevators. The glass-topped table with a metal base is flanked by two captain’s chairs and three coordinating side chairs.
Then there’s the guest suite, where Miller’s children and grandchildren stay when they visit. An ornate antique bed here got an update when LeFevre upholstered the headboard’s center and left the frilly edging intact.
This room has a second life as well. Big doors, on what looks to be a closet, open wide on piano hinges to reveal office space, where Miller can keep track of all sorts of things.
Together, Pat Miller and her husband traveled the world and entertained family and guests at homes they once owned in Colorado and near Brenham.
“Whatever Wayne did, I did,” she said of his love of golf and tennis. “I was kind of an athlete by marriage. He just wanted me to do everything he did.”
They were active in their church, Second Baptist, where Wayne once was chairman of the board of deacons. Pat Miller still does volunteer work through the church.
She and LeFevre explain how her priorities have changed. Luxuries used to be things that they bought; now they’re things that they do, usually with friends and family.
“People kept asking, ‘Don’t you hate to give up your house?’ I said, ‘No, not at all. I was so ready to scale down.’ More than anything, I wanted a place where I could still have my family and I could entertain.”
Once dark and heavy, the condo got a complete face-lift as interior designer Connie LeFevre and her team replaced everything except the polished black granite flooring.