Vieux Interiors – On The Move

Houston now has several great shopping destinations for antiques and decor – the Bissonnet-Kirby area is one, another is Lower West Alabama.  There is also the Westheimer area, the Heights, and Ferndale.   Each destination is home to many wonderful shops - after all, competition brings more customers.   Lately though, the area around Upper West Alabama is the hottest destination, garnering lots of attention and traffic.   It is teeming with antique and decor stores such as Indulge, Thompson-Hanson, 2620, Chateau Domingue, Pilie, and The Gray Door.   Within just a few blocks along this stretch of Upper West Alabama, you can satisfy every need for the home – antiques, landscaping, bath, bedroom, architectural elements, furniture, and you can even satisfy your appetite at the trendy Tiny Boxwoods. 
 

The latest neighbor to move in is Vieux Interiors.   Last January, Vieux finally pulled up stakes from their former, God-forsaken address to move to 3701 West Alabama.  I’m teasing about their former location, but honestly, I could NEVER find it!!!  It was so isolated and out of the way, that I’m thrilled Vieux is now inside the loop!!!  I dropped by the other day to say hi and check out their new shop.   The store is large and bright with windows and doors that run along the front and back entrances.  The merchandise is a wonderful collection of old and new - antiques mixed in the mid century designs and even contemporary pieces.   There are also lots of accessories, things with a small enough price tag to make shopping guilt free.  As usual, the staff is super friendly – DeWayne Formby might just be the absolute nicest person in the business. 

The store is large, but nicely organized into smaller vignettes.   This gray painted furniture section was one of my favorites.

Vieux Interiors – On The Move

Houston now has several great shopping destinations for antiques and decor – the Bissonnet-Kirby area is one, another is Lower West Alabama.  There is also the Westheimer area, the Heights, and Ferndale.   Each destination is home to many wonderful shops - after all, competition brings more customers.   Lately though, the area around Upper West Alabama is the hottest destination, garnering lots of attention and traffic.   It is teeming with antique and decor stores such as Indulge, Thompson-Hanson, 2620, Chateau Domingue, Pilie, and The Gray Door.   Within just a few blocks along this stretch of Upper West Alabama, you can satisfy every need for the home – antiques, landscaping, bath, bedroom, architectural elements, furniture, and you can even satisfy your appetite at the trendy Tiny Boxwoods. 
 

The latest neighbor to move in is Vieux Interiors.   Last January, Vieux finally pulled up stakes from their former, God-forsaken address to move to 3701 West Alabama.  I’m teasing about their former location, but honestly, I could NEVER find it!!!  It was so isolated and out of the way, that I’m thrilled Vieux is now inside the loop!!!  I dropped by the other day to say hi and check out their new shop.   The store is large and bright with windows and doors that run along the front and back entrances.  The merchandise is a wonderful collection of old and new - antiques mixed in the mid century designs and even contemporary pieces.   There are also lots of accessories, things with a small enough price tag to make shopping guilt free.  As usual, the staff is super friendly – DeWayne Formby might just be the absolute nicest person in the business. 

The store is large, but nicely organized into smaller vignettes.   This gray painted furniture section was one of my favorites.

Minimalist home design-Modern Living Room Furniture design

Minimalist home design-Modern Living Room Furniture design

Are you looking for modern living room furniture design four your minimalist home design? This blog provides sample picture of modern and minimalist living room furniture design, or contemporary living room design with solid wood living room furniture.

Minimalist home design-Modern Living Room Furniture design

Minimalist home design-Modern Living Room Furniture design

Minimalist home design-Modern Living Room Furniture design

Are you looking for modern living room furniture design four your minimalist home design? This blog provides sample picture of modern and minimalist living room furniture design, or contemporary living room design with solid wood living room furniture.

Minimalist home design-Modern Living Room Furniture design

This really irks me...

Restoration Hardware is peddling antique unbound "book bundles" as objets de art. Firstly, I despise the idea of buying books as purely decorative items. Certainly, bindings and covers can be -- and even should be -- beautiful (see the new Penguin Classics series HERE), but I'm a firm believer that books you display in your home should be books that, you know, you've actually read and enjoyed. Secondly, the idea of filling your shelves with packages of mistreated, long forgotten literary works to achieve some monochromatic, industrial "style" strikes me as incredibly sad.

Salvaged Wood Kitchen Island ($2695) + {Reproduction} Vintage Barstools ($295)

On a related note, can Restoration Hardware, Pottery Barn, Wisteria, etc. just stop with the "found" and "antiqued" furniture and accessories? I'm all for vintage and antique, but can't we just buy real vintage instead of faux? Decorating your home with items that look like they have history (but in reality either don't or, if they do, said history has no particular meaning to you) strikes me as incredibly fake. 

Burlap sack turned tablecloth, for a mere $69

I don't really understand spending the big bucks just to decorate your home with discarded soda boxes and burlap. I know that many antiques are (quite rightly) expensive, but why is 50-year old trash suddenly a design statement worthy of a mark-up befitting its newfound trendy status? If you're going to decorate with inexpensive, "humble" materials, then the prices should reflect that. It's like buying a plain white tshirt for $100: just plain stupid. Beyond the absurdity of these prices, the idea of elevating the ordinary and everyday (of the Great Depression!) to designer status strikes me as bizarre and even a bit condescending: We aren't poor, we just decorate like it.

On a final note, prices and subtext aside, the Belgian/industrial look is just too damn depressing for me. I'm a big fan of gray, but we've taken the whole gray, linen, limed wood look way too far. A piece or two here or there (or gray walls) is one thing, but when its thrown altogether (as staged by Restoration Hardware in particular), a monochromatic color palette in gray tones makes a room look like it's had all the life sucked out of it. When used en masse, gray is just as blah as beige. Where's the joy?

Lest you think I've got something against the big name retail stores (which I really don't -- much of my own home is filled with PB, RH and C&B), here are two items that I'm drooling over:

Weathered Zinc Single Fex Mirror ($849)

I adore the quatrefoil shape of this mirror. And, while I think I'd prefer the frame's finish in something a bit more glamorous (silver leaf, perhaps), I don't even mind the weathered zinc. As it is though, I'll be waiting for this piece to go on sale before I consider making the purchase.

Lafayette Chandelier ($399)

I was absolutely shocked when I saw this chandelier in the latest Pottery Barn catalogue. It's so chic! So Pieces, etc.! The red faux coral is the perfect hit of color for a breakfast room or den. I'd maximize the beachy feel of it by pairing it when blues and turquoises -- and speaking of turquoise, wouldn't this be fabulous if there was a turquoise version? [Are you there, Pottery Barn? It's me, Averill. Bring back your Summer 2008 collection!]

bedside beauty

as I've said before, this blog serves as many things-- one of them being a virtual bulletin board for all of the rad ideas that I come across while wading through the deep, deep ocean that is the internet. if I spot a great idea and don't post it, I'll totally forget about it.
take for example, this amazing IKEA-hacked bedside table that I found on my new favorite blog, Little Green Notebook...
first, pick up a pair of IKEA Rast dressers at just 40 bucks a pop...

then head to Home Depot to pick out an accent color. the final product in the photo below features a dreamy shade of barely-pink, but I think it'd be fun to play around with a light seafoam or even rich navy...



hunt around online to find new pulls for the drawers. LGN featured these beauties from Bellacor (for $3 each!) and Anthropologie is also a good source for pulls, as is eBay, of course.

put all that together and what do you get? oh, just a perfectly glam bedside dresser, that's all.

this is something I'll absolutely consider when I start decorating my new apartment this spring. thanks, Little Green Notebook (via Penny People Designs)!

bedside beauty

as I've said before, this blog serves as many things-- one of them being a virtual bulletin board for all of the rad ideas that I come across while wading through the deep, deep ocean that is the internet. if I spot a great idea and don't post it, I'll totally forget about it.
take for example, this amazing IKEA-hacked bedside table that I found on my new favorite blog, Little Green Notebook...
first, pick up a pair of IKEA Rast dressers at just 40 bucks a pop...

then head to Home Depot to pick out an accent color. the final product in the photo below features a dreamy shade of barely-pink, but I think it'd be fun to play around with a light seafoam or even rich navy...



hunt around online to find new pulls for the drawers. LGN featured these beauties from Bellacor (for $3 each!) and Anthropologie is also a good source for pulls, as is eBay, of course.

put all that together and what do you get? oh, just a perfectly glam bedside dresser, that's all.

this is something I'll absolutely consider when I start decorating my new apartment this spring. thanks, Little Green Notebook (via Penny People Designs)!