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SEPTEMBER | PAGE 73 | 2015 jobs come into play when I do interiors." Núñez's work brought the couple to Houston in the early '90s, and Smith ran an art gallery in town and continued to fly back to New York for interiors jobs. While he has select Houston clients, most clients are friends located in far- flung corners of the Middle East and Europe. Smith's house in Houston is a visual biography of an extraordinary life lived among some of the most fascinating people of the time, including artists such as Warhol, who gave him 15 original works over the years, and Liza Minnelli and Peter Allen, who introduced him at a young age to design by such iconic Art Deco names as Russell Wright and Gilbert Rohde, which he began collecting. The walls are pavéd with more than 150 works of art (with more in storage), including eight large Robert Rauschenberg paintings and works by other modern masters such as Cy Twombly, Juan Mirò, Jasper Johns, Ellsworth Kelly and Robert Motherwell. His collection of 18th-century antiques, he says, "came from spending a lot of time in France shopping the flea markets. You could get such great deals 25 to 30 years ago." There's a lot going on inside these rooms, but the accouterments of Smith's well-lived life don't feel piled up or dominating — a testament to his skills in space planning. In the living room, multiple pairs of furniture and accessories (such as pairs of black Ultraseude sofas, glass lamps, Empire-era sconces, mid-century stools and cowhide Corbusier chairs) provide balance and harmony in an other- wise difficult-to-decorate space, he says. Large rugs define seating areas, Clockwise from top: In the dining room, a triptych by New York artist David Parke. Quarter-sawn black oak table, 1940s. Charlotte Perriand chairs. Rug from Creative Flooring Resources. An 18th-century French drawing mixes with marble Grand Tour busts and an Art Deco lamp. Eighteenth-century oil paintings ranging from portraiture to Orientalist paintings and interiorscapes. Painting above the fireplace is by Houston artist Michael Tracy. Art in the stairwell includes works by Robert Motherwell and Ellsworth Kelly. Serge Mouille three-arm ceiling fixture, circa 1950. An important work from Robert Rauschenberg's "Moscow" series hides a door to the coat closet. Small painting by Jasper Johns.