Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/1546313
G reg Lofgren was persistent about hiring New York interior designer Ryan Lawson, even though the two of them — and the project — were nearly 1,500 miles apart. His first email, essentially a cold pitch, asked Lawson to take on the design of his Houston bungalow entirely remotely. It came back with a polite no: Lawson told him he wasn't set up to work that way. Lofgren let a few months pass and tried again anyway. He'd been following Lawson's work on Instagram for a long time and particularly admired the way he handled pattern and color. He didn't want a simple refresh: He wanted the house to feel entirely transformed. "I was searching for something new," he says. "I was searching for an experience." Lawson, an AD100 designer, finally reconsidered, suggesting a single phone call to start. "What's the worst that can happen?" he remembers thinking. "I have a call with somebody, and it doesn't work." That first quick call turned into three years of intensive collaboration, with weekly video meetings, FedExed fabric swatches, and photographs of scale prototypes designed by Lawson. They didn't meet in person until Lawson flew to Houston to have the house photographed, where Lofgren and his spouse, Don Bayer, picked him up from a barbecue joint near his hotel. By then, they already felt like old friends. The couple's 1926 bungalow is located in Houston's vibrant Museum District. Lofgren, a retired graphic design professor, and Bayer, who spent his career in the law department at Union Pacific Railroad, have shared each other's lives for 42 years. They bought the 1,470-square-foot brick house in 2000, when it was in rough shape and the garden had gone completely wild. They renovated it 10 years later. By the time Lawson came aboard four years ago, the house already held a lifetime of collecting. There are paintings by friends and acquaintances, including a hanging sculpture from the late 1970s by James Surls, one of Lofgren's professors, along with a painting by his former student Paul Kremer. There are also wood sculptures made by Bayer himself, several of which Lawson found stashed in a closet and promptly moved to the dining-room mantel. And there was a charming little cat portrait that was a gift to Lofgren from a drag queen he knew back in the 1980s. Lofgren had kept it stored away in a drawer for years, never quite sure what to do with it, although it always meant something to him. Lawson hung it low, near the floor — "where a cat would be." Lawson's job, as Lofgren described it, wasn't really to redecorate; it was to edit and elevate their collection by layering in pattern, color, and fabric around what was Vintage Danish sofa in shearling, from Rath, Austin. Custom coffee table designed by Ryan Lawson, made by Hawk & Stone. Bruno Mathsson vintage Eva chair from Found. Antique Navajo rug, from Shiprock Santa Fe. Antique hall chair from France. M.Naeve antique faux-marble column. Scarpa sconce for Flos. Mexican blown-glass vase. Opposite page: In the breakfast nook, an antique Chesterfield sofa. Custom dining table and custom mirror by 9 & 19. Marolles three-leg chairs. Pillows in Clarence House fabric.