Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/1539742
Opposite page: In the entryway, a simple folding chair contrasts with a burlwood Art Deco console purchased at a Memorial estate sale. Ward mirrored the kitchen backsplash to add light and dimension This page, clockwise from top: The stylish gym includes Ward's own artwork and a Noguchi-style lantern he tea-stained and painted. Ward discovered the Italian red marble dining table from Facebook Marketplace and painted the large artwork himself. "I love the tension between sculptural and soft, refined and raw, high and low." — Nate Ward 61 He leans into offbeat color pairings. "In Houston, where we are often surrounded by beige and watered-down interiors, I want to be the antithesis with unexpected color pairings like lavenders, mauves, reds, and gray blues, which to me feel a little Italian or Parisian in spirit," he says. He often paints his own canvases, not just for budget considerations but to control the scale and colors of the artworks, refining the composition until it sings. Minutes before the shoot, with the photographer en route, Ward looked at the living room's largest canvas and felt it was missing something. He grabbed a brush and added a few precise red stripes to echo the Bold chair's color. The room suddenly came into focus. "I'm a designer with an artist's soul," he says. Nate Ward