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POP QUIZ. Flower: Orchid. Soap: Mrs. Meyer's Basil. Scent: Not a perfume girl. Song: Currently "When I'm Small" by Phantogram. But anything by Sade. I've listened to her music since I was a little girl — like, my mom picking me up in the carpool. Sade's my soundtrack. P roof that adult sensibilities are formed in childhood? Exhibit A: Kristen Nix. "I grew up in a home that appreciated quality materials, good design and artwork," she says. Her father sold modernist office furniture, lines such as Herman Miller and Knoll. Her mother, Sheridan Williams, is an interior designer. "My mom also set the example that a woman can have it all." Now, at 31, Nix has launched a business, Kristen Nix Interiors. She's married to Lee Nix, an investment banker. They have a two-year-old son, Ryan, who just may turn out to be the restaurateur of the moment around — who knows? — 2035. And then there is the house. That would be a soft-spoken 1963 contemporary masterpiece by the late Houston architect and art patron Preston Bolton — the kind of house you don't inhabit so much as curate. "It's taught me to keep things simple," she says. "I don't want to mess with its integrity." So she resists frequent suggestions that its natural brick be painted, in the current fashion. She resisted her own impulse for window coverings, realizing that glassy as it is, the house App: Duh! Diptic. It's awesome. is sited for complete privacy — and that glassiness is the building's essence. "Houston's going through this phase where everybody wants the country French farmhouse look, reclaimed wood everywhere," she says. "Every one of my girlfriends has that. But it's not me." And now, our subject's double-time dossier: UT degree in journalism. Internship at Vogue. Stint as one of five art directors for The Book for Neiman Marcus. Gig as event coordinator for Dancie Perugini Ware Public Relations. Degree program in interior design at Houston Community College. Intensive workshop with superstar London designer Kelly Hoppen. Internship with Houston's Randy Powers, who remains "a key mentor for me." Just a word to the wise: Keep your eye on Nix, and don't blink. She's going places, and if we're very, very good she'll take us with her. On interning at Vogue. I was 21. It was totally Devil Wears Prada. I thought I was going to New York to have a fun summer. But I worked my butt off, even if that was just waiting on a Saturday NOVEMBER | PAGE 61 | 2012 Book: Gone Girl. Restaurant: Da Marco, during truffle season. Uchi, for the hama chili. Getaway: Turks and Caicos. Car: Sixties-vintage Mercedes convertible. Pet: No more pets! Do you need a Yorkie? Guilty pleasure: Tate's chocolate chip cookies. OPPOSITE PAGE: In the dining room, accessories from Area dress up a sampling of Nix's design books. Donald Sultan's Morning Glories from McClain Gallery. Tray from CB2. THIS PAGE, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Nix in a Karl Lagerfeld dress from Tootsies, and Alexander McQueen booties, Neiman Marcus. In Ryan's room, a Jonathan Adler buffet provides storage. "That's his little wooden kitchen at the left," Nix says. "He loves to play cooking." Nix in an Isabel Marant dress from Leap, Michael Spirito earrings from Sloan/Hall. Fortress of solitude: Behind the privacy of this street-facing wall is a strikingly transparent house.