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perfect. This has to be the rug color,'" she recalls. She took a screenshot and brought it to Sanaa Sahi at Carol Piper Rugs, who matched the hue exactly. The dining room is handsomely cocooned in black-and-cream herringbone grasscloth by Phillip Jeffries that reminds Persia of a cool '90s-era New York City apartment. "It creates a mood that feels nostalgic," she says. She designed the dining table and console from black and cream marble streaked with orange and red; the chairs are part of the previously mentioned prototypes designed by Philippe Starck — a line her father's store carried — which she retrieved from her childhood home. The linen light fixture, designed by Italian designer Tobia Scarpa for Flos in the 1980s, was a labor of love. "I was dying to get one but they are so hard to find," Persia recalls. "I'd get on the Internet for hours and I finally found one at a tiny shop in The Netherlands." The light's soft halogen glow adds to the room's intimate feel. The cozy TV room's long, narrow layout allows for seating at one end with a flatscreen on the opposite wall. It's one of the family's favorite hangouts. She designed the sofa to run the width of the room and added a custom ottoman to go with the vintage '60s Pierre Paulin Ribbon chair, both upholstered in greenish Pierre Frey fabric. Houston artist Jaime Herrera painted a custom design on the Noguchi lantern that features trees and frogs, and an antique Art Deco Chinese rug is on the floor. Persia loves art — she was an art history major at Ole Miss — and often works with her close friend and art advisor Illa Gaunt, who relocated to Houston from London in 2012. "She's let me tag along to Art Basel for the past two years. We look for things together, and if I see something I like and get her approval, I know it's a good purchase," she says. One of the contemporary works Persia has collected is a large atmospheric painting by Mexico City artist Ana Montiel, which hangs over the sofa in the living room. Her latest purchase, a surrealist shell painting by L.A.- based artist Kristy Luck hangs next to the fireplace. The painting's swirls are textural, just like the wavy glass sconces by Ron Rezek flanking the windows and the stacked layers of the De Sede sofa. "I like the way older European s p a c e s d o n 't f e e l d e c o r a t e d o r perfect," she says. Still, everything is carefully considered. "I absolutely love everything I have — nothing is filler. I have to be obsessed with it, or I don't bring it home." Opposite page: In the TV room, sofa designed by Olivia Persia. 1960s Pierre Paulin Ribbon chair in Pierre Frey fabric. Noguchi lantern painted by artist Jaime Herrera. Art Deco Chinese carpet from Carol Piper Rugs. Chrome 1960s table from Reeves Art + Design. Olivia Persia with Reno. 44