Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/1462584
F or Elizabeth Young, fashion and interiors go hand-in-hand. "I've always been o b s e s s e d w i t h fashion, and there's a huge crossover between the way I dress and the way I design rooms," Young says. "I have a dress by La Double J that I absolutely love that I want to make into a wallpaper if I can figure out how." When it comes to interiors — she opened her Houston design firm in 2008 — she's inspired by French design legends Jacques Grange, François Catroux, and Madeleine Castaing, and Argentine-French architect and designer Luis LaPlace. Young has recently returned from a shopping trip to Paris, skipping the flea markets this time but hitting the chic boutiques brimming with ideas, including the flagship Pierre Frey showroom and a "tiny shop with exquisite tassels and trim." After Paris, she headed to Morocco to shop the souks for lighting, rugs, and other items for clients; in Marrakech, she fell madly for Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé's opulently patterned Villa Oasis. Ideas gleaned from these trips are already percolating. "My house is truly my laboratory," she says of the classic brick traditional in River Oaks where she also offices. "I take a lot of risks here — it's a luxury that I don't have in a client's house." She and her husband, Barry Young, who works in wealth management, bought the house in 2003, with a 3-year-old and an infant in tow. "You wouldn't believe what the house looked like when we moved in," she says. "There were certain things we renovated immediately, like the kitchen and bathrooms, and we added a garage and pool. Now that the girls are in college, there are things we can finish — if you drive by the house now, you'll see 10 people out front redoing the driveway." There's a benefit to designing slowly. "The interiors have evolved over the past 20 years, and it really gives the house a collected feel," she says. They acquired the first piece of art for their collection decades ago: a 1999 Richard Serra etching titled Al Green, from his series on musicians — a similar one hangs in DESIGN EVOLUTION BY REBECCA SHERMAN. INTERIOR DESIGN ELIZABETH YOUNG. PHOTOGRAPHY PÄR BENGTSSON. ART DIRECTION MICHELLE AVIÑA. ELIZABETH YOUNG'S RIVER OAKS HOUSE IS A LABORATORY OF IDEAS WHERE SHE EXPERIMENTS WITH PATTERN, COLOR, AND NEW IDEAS. of 65