Happy home
Museum District townhome is filled with owner’s lively personality
After years of worrying about what other people thought about her home, Staci Henderson decided to let it go and, finally, decorate the way she really wanted.
Instead of a home filled with neutrals and furniture she didn’t want anyone to use, everything has color, pattern and function. There’s bold wallpaper, bright colors, rich textures and so much animal print that she jokes she’s turning into Mrs. Roper, the landlord’s sassy wife on “Three’s Company.”
“I’m getting ready to turn 50. When we moved into our big house in River Oaks, I felt extreme pressure to make it what everybody thought it should be,” said Henderson, a California native who moved to Houston for college and stayed. “I started thinking, ‘What would it be like if I could do anything I wanted?’ … It has been such a great creative outlet for me.
“I wouldn’t have had the courage to do this when I was younger. I used to worry that everything should match so people would come in and say, ‘Oh, it’s so beautiful,’ ” she continued. “This is my house, and I want to be happy in it. That was the switch for me — I know it’s quirky, and I like it.”
In early March 2020, just before COVID-19 shut down Houston and the rest of the world, Staci and Quang Henderson had gone to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, where they liked to vacation. They’d decided to build a home there — one that could be their main residence — and then Quang, an emergency-room physician, could fly back to Houston 10 days a month to work at Signature Care, the chain of free-standing ERs that he coowns.
Married 13 years, Staci and Quang each have a son and daughter from a previous marriage — 22-year-old Tien and 18-year-old Lilan Henderson and
21-year-old Khyle and 17-year-old Jade Danhach — and they have one daughter together, 11-year-old Sophie Henderson.
Quang Henderson, 50, is a native of Vietnam who grew up in Conroe.
Their home in River Oaks sold quickly, and they had to be out in 30 days, so they leased an apartment in a high-rise. After months living there, the couple still hadn’t broken ground in Cabo, and Staci was tired of living in such close quarters with so many others.
They found their 3,664-squarefoot Museum District townhouse, a three-story spec home, and bought it. The family moved into the new place in mid-December.
Just inside their front door, the message is clear: This is a lively place.
The first floor’s wood flooring was replaced with squares of black and white marble laid in a diamond pattern. Staci revved up the office by repainting the fretwork around its entrance bright red. A wall of shelves and cabinets is high-gloss black, and woodwork that frames the coffered ceiling is trimmed in black, repeating the high-contrast color scheme on the floor.
A yellow 1970s vintage desk and an antique chair painted a vivid red-orange sit on an animal hide dyed to look like zebra skin, with bold art that includes framed Hermès scarves. It’s a look that Staci says harks back to her Hollywood Regency years.
“The townhome was a spec
home and was extremely neutral,” said Staci, who is a former co-owner of Joybox Flowers, the luxury floral gift company she founded with her friend Layla Asgari. “Everything was cream and gray, a total blank slate. I think that’s good for hotels. It feels so zen, but I don’t want to live there.”
At the back of the first floor is a small living room, a place Staci uses mostly to visit with girlfriends. Lively wallpaper from Anthropologie features peacocks and botanicals and is a backdrop for a yellow-gold sofa and emerald-green
velvet chairs, colors drawn from the wallpaper. Surrounding artwork is primarily by Houston artists.
The main living area is on the second floor — a large living room, dining area and a spacious kitchen.
To find furniture, Staci shopped all over, both high and low. She found things on Wayfair.com and firstdibs.com and through a picker, Claire Wilson, known as “thesalvagesavant” on Instagram.
“I have kids and dogs, and they’re dirty. They spill things and rub it in. I’ve always been big
on only having tile or hardwood,” Staci said. “I don’t go super high end so if something kills it, I can get rid of it and buy another one. I have five kids; I have to accept that things happen.”
Her dining table is a retro 1970s-era piece with a glass top and metal base, paired with contemporary yellow leather chairs. In the kitchen, the long island with a quartzite counter had a wood front, but Staci knew that it would get kicked and knicked, so she added porcelain tile in a geometric pattern to the front.
A powder bathroom on this floor has more drama, with leopard figures in wallpaper with a black background.
The home’s four bedrooms are on the third floor. Daughters Jade and Sophie each have their own room, and they share a standardsize bathroom.
For now, they’re both attending school virtually, and Sophie has a bunkbed set up with a desk underneath to provide a quiet place to study. Even though she’s learning from home, the fifth grader still likes to wear her school uniform on school days.
Jade wanted a larger queensize bed, but it seemed large for the room. They opted out of a headboard and set the bed sideways so it looks like an oversized daybed. It’s a little different, but it makes Jade very happy. She helped select her wallpaper, a tropical Tahitian print on a pink background.
In the primary bedroom suite, Quang and Staci have his-andhers closets, and their very contemporary bathroom is lined with gray-and-white marble. There’s more leopard-print wallpaper with animals and botanicals on an aqua background. A canopy bed with sheer draperies has a dreamy quality, as does a fireplace covered in mirrors with a rippled effect.
“I caught a lot of flak for this wallpaper but, over time, Quang has accepted it,” Staci said. “He is so Cabo-focused that he just said, ‘Do anything you want.’ That’s the first time in our marriage he has ever said that, so I took every liberty on everything I could. Besides, he has bigger fish to fry.”
With her daughters settled into their own routines and Jade looking forward to college next year, Staci is looking toward a new business venture: hosting women’s travel groups.
With her kids settled and Quang busy at work, Staci looks around her home and sees the energy she has created.
“It’s a work in progress, but I’ve gotten off to a great start. I hope that when people come into my house they feel happy and comfortable,” Staci said. “I don’t want to ever have a home that feels so austere — like I did before — that people are afraid to sit on anything. If you spill your red wine, we’ll figure it out.”