Deep in the heart of your home Rodeo vendors offer Lone Star touches to deck out your space
There’s something about a touch of turquoise, nailhead trim on a heavy leather chair or deer-antler accessories that just oozes Texas.
You don’t have to own a hunting cabin or even go full-on western style to bring the Lone Star State vibe into your home.
Deer antlers as accessories or incorporated into a chandelier or table lamp can look good in a traditional or transitional-style home. Nailhead trim looks as good on linen as it does on embossed leather, and a beautiful wood table with a live edge can work anywhere.
And turquoise, well, in home design as in fashion, it always works.
You can get all of this at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo’s Cowboy Crossing shopping area in NRG Center.
Not far from each other are furniture booths Rustics West and Mesquite Wood Gallery, where wood has been turned into works of art.
Jerry Axton, a former Houstonian who now splits his time between Phoenix and Thailand, hand-selects monkeypod trees in Brazil and Southeast Asia for his tables.
Monkeypod trees grow in the neotropics and 80 to 100 feet tall, with a canopy that’s often just as wide. Their leaves fold up during rains, funneling water to the tree’s roots and earning them the nickname “raintree.”
Polished live edges and bow-tie-seamed natural flaws lend to the rustic nature of the wood, but its beautiful color and vivid swirling grain help it transition into any home. Rectangular tables — they sell for $25 an inch in length — with finished edges and rivers of glass running in the middle of two planks of wood look downright modern.
There are thick slices of monkeypod tree trunks that you can stand up for a hall table or lay flat for a coffee table, with or without a glass top added.
Axton also carries a variety of animal hides, which look great on their own or layered with a natural fiber rug. His are tanned to have a soft-pliable texture, and he expects to sell at least 500 of them during the run of the show.
He sells his wares only at the rodeo here, the Texas State Fair and at the Cowboy Christmas in Las Vegas, so availability is limited. You place your order by March 22, and your table will be ready by the end of October.
Robert Lerma’s mesquite tables and home accessories have veins of inlaid turquoise, and this retired U.S. postal worker mills his own goods in South Texas with his son, Carlos.
He makes tables and wine racks but also has affordable smaller goods including cheese boards, wine coolers and lazy susans, starting at $25.
Axton isn’t the only vendor selling animal hides. At Monique’s Leather, you’ll find cowhides in their more natural state but also in contemporary, acid-wash colors. Soft sheepskins have been sewn together — four to eight, depending on size — and come in a soft white or even dyed colors such as orange or pink.
If you like the heavier look of big furniture and embossed leather, Jeff and Ashlee Miller bring their
Slick Rock Designs pieces — all made in Texas — to a booth filled with furniture and accessories. You’ll find lamps and chandeliers made of deer antlers, too.
Booths with small home goods such as pewter serving pieces, decorative tiles and even colorful wine-bottle stoppers share space with vendors selling all sorts of western wear.
Melinda Smith of Tiles Across Texas in Killeen — she and her husband are native Houstonians — sell tiles adorned with Longhorn images, crosses and the state flag for $24 to $160.
Beaded pewter bowls and serving pieces — and, yes, a dish shaped like the state of Texas — are big sellers for Carol Stallings at her Pewter Ranch booth. Most of her pieces are made in Mexico; smaller bowls run $10-$15, and larger ones are $35-$45.
Pat Durant’s floor coverings at Skyhawk Rugs are made for your lodge or man cave, with images of cowboys or other western icons in all shapes and sizes. He’s sold his rugs at the rodeo here since 2002, and they range from $49 to $800.
What surely is the cutest new booth — dolly estelle — is filled with designs by Jodi Hatfield of Austin. She made a fabric and wood teepee for her own daughter to play in and was bombarded with requests from friends and family.
That organic demand launched her business, and now she sells fully assembled fabric teepees that will hold a crib mattress or a twin or queen-size version. She also sells hippie-chic denim quilts, and when she discovered a knack for watercolor painting a year ago, started making farm-animal pictures and prints that are perfect for a child’s room.