Eye for design launches lawyer’s new career
Living in a bungalow is generally about navigating life in smaller spaces: efficient kitchens, shared bathrooms and furniture that both looks good and provides storage solutions.
For Katie Davis and her family of four, plus their 10-year-old golden retriever, Lucy, much of their life is spent in 2,200 square feet — the downstairs of their Houston Heights home that began its life as a 909-square-foot bungalow.
“We managed just fine with a family of four and a big dog,” she said. “We also don’t buy a lot of stuff, and I don’t have a problem getting rid of things.”
It’s Katie’s third Heights bungalow, and she and Billy Davis, her husband of eight years, bought this one in 2014 for the neighborhood’s schools and another chance to make a fixer-upper their own.
Built in 1920, the home started quite small; a previous owner added 400 square feet in the
1970s. The Davises demolished the addition in 2016, and built a much larger one. The new addition includes a big kitchen, family room, master bedroom suite, powder room and space over the garage with a guest room, workout room, playroom and Katie’s office for her interior design business, Katie Davis Design. The home is now 2,700 square feet, with most of the space downstairs.
Katie, a Houston native, and Billy, a native of Geronimo — in Guadalupe County between San Marcos and Seguin — both went to the University of Texas at Austin but didn’t meet until they were students at the South Texas College of Law. Billy specializes in construction litigation at Andrews Myers, and Katie practiced criminal law for nine years before launching her design business.
“This was always my passion, and I helped people decorate,” Katie said. “I started helping people more and more, and my husband said, ‘If you’re going to help people, you ought to make some money off of it.’ ”
It was a big step, and a relief from the grind of criminal law, working crazy hours on stressful cases and starting a family at the same time.
“There are victories where, in the end, someone was helped, but there was still something horrible that happened,” Katie said of her cases. “Even property damage, it affected someone’s life. It was a constant negative environment, and (interior design) was my creative outlet.”
In her last year as a lawyer, Katie took on decorating jobs on the side, then launched her business in 2018. Now she has two other designers on her team and a cadre of new design friends who have been informal mentors.
Early on, she embraced picking the hard finishes in remodeling jobs but was nervous about furnishings.
“The more I got into it… I found that I really love pattern,” Katie said. “Pattern play, as we call it, matching patterns you wouldn’t think go together, like the marigold wallpaper (in the powder bathroom) is a risk, but it adds so much to the space, so much color and warmth.”
The front of the Davises’ home has a formal sitting room, with two white chairs on a seagrass rug — a material that can stand up to kids and a big dog. Beyond is the dining room with a round table and faux bamboo Chippendale chairs, then a pantry bar that originally was the home’s small kitchen and is where the house ended.
Two bedrooms at the front are occupied by the couple’s children — a son who’s 6 and a daughter who will be 4 next month — and they share a small bathroom with a shower/tub combination, a sink with a Carrara marble counter and black-and-white floor tile.
The bathroom used to be larger but was reduced to add space to their son’s bedroom, which has a sweet window seat and a pair of closets for storage.
Because these two bedrooms are on the small side, Katie chose smaller-scale furniture: a full-size bed in her daughter’s pink-andblue room and a twin in her son’s room. That leaves them both with a little more floor space for playtime.
The home’s architecture is Craftsman style, but there was no moulding when the couple bought it. Since they wanted it in the rear addition, they added it to the front, too.
The table near the kitchen and the family room beyond is where the Davises spend a lot of time, with chairs upholstered with performance fabric and the sofa Scotchguarded to protect it.
“I caught my daughter drawing on pillows with a marker once. Luckily, it was with those spy markers so you can only see it if you hold a black light up to it,” Katie said with a laugh. “It is what it is; they’re young kids. We do teach them to be respectful of stuff.”
She has 25 active projects, some requiring a lot of attention and others waiting for permits or contractors to be ready.
Her practice reflects what’s on trend in home design, with clients asking for “clean lines,” more color and pieces with a midcentury-modern influence.
“We are not a midcenturyheavy firm, but we ask clients to show us pictures when we get started, and nine out of 10 times there’s something midcentury in there,” Katie said.
The Chippendale chairs are a big request, and woven goods — rattan or basketweave — are also trending and another midcentury vibe.
“More people are open to color now, and that’s great,” she said. “Some are afraid of color, so they want pops just in pillows. One client we had last year said ‘anything but beige,’ and we decked out her home in color. We love that.”
“The baseline between all of our projects is we design for real life — nothing too precious, nothing you would not sit on or not touch,” she continued. “Most of our clients have children and animals, so the furniture has to be durable.”