ASID Designer Show House in Tomball features work of 22 local designers
Workers were drilling and hammering, and interior designers were scurrying around as rugs, lamps and all manner of furniture were hauled in seemingly every door of the sprawling Tomball residence, the site of this year’s ASID Designer Show House.
Running Thursdays through Sundays starting July 7, the 10,000-squarefoot, one-level house will be open to the public, fully decorated by 22 members of the American Society of Interior Designers Texas Gulf Coast chapter.
Shundra Harris, Show House chair and the owner of Shundra Harris Interiors, described the process as a yearlong effort involving many ASID members, D.C. Peterson of Peterson Homebuilders and a long list of vendors.
Proceeds will help support the Alzheimer’s Association as well as ASID’s own foundation that provides education and research for the design community and scholarships for future trendsetters.
The house is in Willowcreek Ranch — and it involves a family who had worked earlier with Peterson in Houston. They were ready for a new home and were willing to work with ASID.
Working from a common palette, designers were assigned to rooms and other spaces such as halls, a vestibule and backyard porches. Though there were some guidelines about color and the general tone — casual but still elegant — designers had leeway.
In all, the house has 30 rooms, including six bedrooms, seven full bathrooms and four half bathrooms in a space that is 200 feet wide.
If that sounds a bit much, consider that four generations of one family — the owners and his parents, their son and 4-year-old grandson — will live here together.
And this tour is about more than walking through rooms full of pretty things from some of the best interior designers in the city. It also brings a number of easy and affordable ideas you can do right now or save for the next home you build.
During the tour, designers will staff their rooms so guests can ask questions about their resources and style. If you’re shy about selecting finishes, the combinations of granite, marble, quartz and quartzite with flooring and wall treatments will give you plenty to think about.
Ceiling treatments alone — domed, vaulted, deep trays and paneling — might make you wonder why anyone would settle for flat, ordinary ceilings.
The budget-minded will see how it’s possible to spend less money on one room (some of the bathrooms) so you can spend more elsewhere (the master suite).
The house has pairs of $300 sconces that look much more expensive, and adorable wall treatments with planks of wood that anyone can buy for $2.15 a square foot at Home Depot.
When you walk through the front door, you’re greeted by an inviting sitting parlor containing four oversize chairs and an unusual coffee table topped with bleached slices of wood. Pretty sconces and antiqued shutters along one wall make for an interesting combination.
“It’s very eclectic. We’ve got the old, we’ve got the new,” said Teena Caldwell of Twenty-Two Fifty Interiors. “We wanted it real soft and inviting, bringing the colors from the outside in.”
Just outside the parlor’s towering windows are enviable porches and a luxurious pool and hot tub.
“Most sitting parlors are very formal, but this has an elegant but relaxed feel to it,” Harris said.
Other public areas are roomy, waiting for extended family to arrive for a pool party, birthday party or traditional holiday dinner.
There is no formal living room — just a spacious family room (23 by 22 feet), a kitchen with room enough for a cook and a dozen helpers, and a media room with a billiards table, game table and plenty of comfortable seating.
The vaulted ceiling in the kitchen has a story of its own.
Donna Jarnigan of Lacy-Boone Interiors describes it as a threelayer plaster application with a faux-paint treatment. There’s a similar treatment on a wood range hood, making it look like copper.
She’s covering side chairs, host and hostess chairs and barstools in shades of mineral blue. And a coach-style chandelier serves as her final touch.
From a vestibule at one end of the home, you’ll tap into the media room and offices. One has spectacular painted paneling on the walls and ceiling, the other a TV set into a long stretch of stacked stone.
An envy-worthy holiday décor closet just might stop you in your tracks. There’s a tall empty corner for a 20-foot tree to stand when it’s not showing off festive ornaments. Deep shelves hold bins of decorations, and an island with several drawers comes in handy, too.
On one wall, you’ll find a gift-wrapping station with drawers and bins for paper and bows and a bar to hold spools of ribbon. There’s an easy takeaway here: a sheet of paneling with horizontal slats that hold clip-on baskets and hooks. You can find this in just about any hardware store and set it up in your own home, maybe even your garage or mud room.
The master suite is a special place, with chandeliers dripping with strings of faceted crystals. There’s a massive bathroom with his-andhers toilets, two vanities to share and another one dedicated as a makeup vanity.
The homeowners have their own closets, too. His is stained dark, and the floor is covered with carpet that looks like deerskin. Hers has a large island with many drawers and cabinets lining the walls with room for rack after rack of clothes.
“Even though it’s larger than she needs right now, the closet is the one space people regret not making larger,” said Saima Seyar, ASID’s communications director and principal designer at Elima Designs. “They addressed that from the beginning, and I think that’s really smart.”
Any grandchild is going to get special attention from Grandma and Grandpa, and these homeowners are no different. Their grandchild’s suite, one he can grow with, has a bedroom, sizable bathroom, full walk-in closet, a clever playroom and loft.
“The whole point of this room is ingenuity, to get kids reading and thinking and not just watching TV,” said Harris, who designed the playroom. “We have built-in reading nooks at windows.”
Walls have lots of shelving, so floor space is clear for playtime. He even has a wooden spiral staircase leading up to a small loft where he and his friends can watch TV and play games.
There’s an impressive home for the in-laws too, separate but connected to the main house through an enclosed hallway.
They still have their independence, two bedrooms and bathrooms plus a half bath. In their public areas, you’ll find a full kitchen, living and dining areas. They even have their own laundry room and garage. diane.cowen@chron.com twitter.com/dianecowen