Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/184563
for a carnet to come from Europe with something that Anna [Wintour] was going to wear the next week, and I had to be there to sign for it. brick, big gas lanterns, gravel driveway. I'd love a reason to use more cake trims and gild the lily. GUEST LIST FOR A DREAM PARTY (OR WORKING DINNER). I love to cook. I have the coolest garden. I don't use cookbooks, but I compiled a binder of recipes from my late grandmother, Mimi; my dad, who's a fabulous cook; and the Internet. Love Gwyneth Paltrow's site. Tory Burch, Kelly Hoppen, Celerie Kemble, Aerin Lauder, Randy Powers and my mom. We would all talk interior design. When Tory Burch was in Houston last, I told her, "Okay, you have got to come out with an interior design line. Fabrics! Furniture!" She is just waiting to happen. INTERIOR DESIGN DO. A textured wall — linen, grasscloth — adds so much depth and dimension. INTERIOR DESIGN DON'T. Too much pattern in a room. PROJECT PARADOX. KITCHEN CONFIDENTIAL. TOP: Playtime, on a rug from West Elm. "My house is very much a mix of high and low," Nix says. Antique Spanish sideboard from George Cameron Nash. Nix wears an Isabel Marant shirt from Leap and J. Brand jeans from Tootsies. OKRA ASCETICISM. BOTTOM, LEFT TO RIGHT: "That black chair and a stuffed pheasant were the only things Lee brought to our marriage," Nix says. "Nobody wanted the chair until they saw it in my house, and then they're all like, 'That's so cute!'" Painting by Wimberleybased artist McKay Otto. Woven neoprene sculpture from Found. I've got three huge okra plants. Okay, I love it fried. But we only do that on weekends. "We call this 'the Nix bedroom' – it's where Lee's parents stay." Pillow fabric by Schumacher. MOTHER AND CHILD REUNION. In the living room, a ceramic lamp designed by J. Randall Powers for Circa lighting, purchased at Longoria Collection — "It was a splurge" — sits on a table from George Cameron Nash. Nix found the painted wood-framed mirror, one of a pair, "in my mom's storage unit. I thought, 'Eh, those will be temporary.' But now that I've got them in here, I like them." I wanted a little girl so badly, and I didn't realize I was going to love a little boy so much. There's something really cool about this opposite-sex relationship. He's a people person, and he's like my husband, where he does things very thoroughly, in the right way. He loves to play cooking. He's a little OCD. He cleans up after himself. That's very useful. I'd love to do a traditional Georgian family house — painted "They had the house listed at lot value. The man who had lived in it since 1992 liked us because we weren't going to tear it down." — Kristen Nix NOVEMBER | PAGE 62 | 2012