Oak Forest couple’s new build takes them into next chapter
Patrice and Tim Richards’ home journey is a common one, as Houston’s relentless traffic snarls continue to frustrate commuters.
For 24 years, they lived in Sugar Land’s Greatwood neighborhood — almost as far as the Grand Parkway reaches on the city’s southwest side — and Tim made his 30-mile trek to work in the Garden Oaks area. The distance may have stayed the same, but it took more time and became more stressful.
“You work (in Houston) and drive around and see all these pretty homes, and you start thinking, ‘Why am I driving all the way in from Sugar Land?” Tim said of working at Acme Architectural Hardware, the commercial business his dad and uncle bought in 1949, and he and Patrice now own. “Then the trick is, you’ve got to talk the wife into it.”
They didn’t like most of the existing homes they saw. The few they did like sold immediately.
“We don’t make decisions quickly, and if you find the right house this morning, you better make your decision this morning,” Tim said.
When the couple decided to build a new home in a gracious Southern style in Oak Forest, they quickly realized that the process would involve hundreds of decisions, from where to put electrical outlets to which flooring, tile and other finishes to pick.
“You could not get away from it. It was two years of our lives,” Patrice added, referring to both designing and building their 4,200-square-foot home. (Sam Gianukos of Creole Design was their architect, and Tradition Custom Designs was their builder.)
They got through it, of course, and Patrice has adjusted to bigcity life as Tim embraced his new, 2-mile commute.
Standing in the hallway between the study and the dining room, the Richardses smile as they describe the day they went out for breakfast and a movie and came home to a big reveal after Nikole Starr of Nikole Starr Interiors installed new furniture and accessories and did a major edit on things they already owned.
The couple were living with the furniture they’d accumulated throughout their 33-year marriage while raising their three sons. They knew they wanted a good number of new pieces and brought in Starr to guide them. They did a little shopping for themselves at Bartholet Home Furnishings in Conroe — where they like to stop when they go to their weekend lake home — texting pictures to Starr for her opinion.
Since Patrice’s parents owned an antiques store in Sugar Land, she’s been around antiques all of her life. One guest bedroom has furniture she used as a child, and another has a dresser Tim made in woodshop class in high school. Another upstairs bedroom — a mini-master — is used by their youngest son, Tyler, 25, when he’s not in school at Texas Tech University. The couple’s other sons, Josh, 28, and Matthew, 26, both work for their dad at Acme.
Starr persuaded them to be less matchy-matchy with a new china cabinet, dining table and chairs that didn’t come in a set. They have the casual-but-elegant vibe that the Richardses asked for, and a tall distressed mirror that Patrice loves, even though she never would have thought of that herself.
Patrice has been a stay-home mom for much of their marriage, and Tim doesn’t work from home, but they felt they should have a study or office in case they need a quiet place to do computer work.
Starr found a cowhide rug and a rustic desk with an iron base and wood top, both strong organic elements that sync with the style of the room’s brick fireplace. She also added charming shiplap in the breakfast nook, the master bedroom and in a few places upstairs.
Gianukos originally designed the home with a wine closet in a hallway, next to where the staircase would be. When Patrice decided she’d rather have the stairs spill into the kitchen, the wine closet became a full-on room, now lined with weathered barn siding and the same brick that’s in other rooms of the home. On a trip to New Orleans, they found a pair of antique doors to front the wine room, and when they spotted a second pair they couldn’t live without, they decided to hang those at the entrance to the master bathroom.
While the home was under construction, the Richardses picked a pair of stainless-steel pendants to hang over the kitchen island, and they’re still pondering whether they’ll stay there permanently or if they’re placeholders till they find something Patrice can finally declare “perfect.”
They’re still testing drawer pulls and knobs, uncertain if they want to mix the stainless finishes on appliances with champagne-bronze hardware. They opted for porcelain tile on their kitchen island and soapstone for counters around the perimeter.
In the same open space are the family room and breakfast table, casual places where they like to kick back and listen to the crackle of burning wood in their other fireplace at the back of the home. The breakfast table tucks into a niche with an L-shaped built-in banquette and a few chairs. They chose their table wisely — its sides drop down, making it easier to get to the back of it to clean.
In working with Gianukos and Starr, the Richardses learned to trust professionals, but they also built the confidence they needed to keep moving forward with such a bold new plan for this new phase of their lives.
Friends and family love the finished product, and the Richardses are glad to be finished and living in it.
“People ask us if this is our dream house. It’s not, but we do get a lot of compliments on it,” Tim said.
diane.cowen@chron.com
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