Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/660802
DECORATION D allas-based Interior and furniture designer Jan Showers is poised to launch an extensive collection for Kravet Couture this month, with a lineup of her signature glamorous furniture that includes 16 silhouettes for sofas and chairs inspired by vintage pieces discovered during her European travels. Sleek and curvaceous details include bronze, brass and gold metals, along with lightweight faux concrete and animal-friendly faux-leather wrapping. Up next? Showers designs wall coverings, rugs and lighting for Kravet Couture, which roll out in September. Stay tuned for all the stylish specs. To the trade at Kravet, Dallas Design Center, 1025 N. Stemmons Freeway #720, 214.741.2331, kravet.com. Rebecca Sherman JAN W hen Dwell with Dignity opens its month-long pop-up store Thrift Studio Friday, April 8, expect long lines and flying elbows. Seasoned Thrift Studio shoppers queue early and wear comfortable footwear — but the real trick to snagging a treasure is to attend the VIP Preview Party Thursday, April 7. Tickets for the private pre-opening sale start at $125 and benefit Dwell with Dignity. This year, shoppable vignettes are created by top designers and showrooms including Amy Berry, Rob Dailey, Brant McFarlain, Shelly Rosenberg, Farrow & Ball, Jean de Merry, Kravet, IBB Design Fine Furnishings, Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams and Schumacher. Styled with discounted designer furniture and accessories, this year's event should sell out fast. Preview Party co-chairs are sisters Rachel Hutchinson, Tess Hutchinson Merriman and Holly Hutchinson (dad Bill Hutchinson owns The Dallas Design District). For more on this year's vignettes, visit papercitymag.com. Gratis to the public, April 8 through May 7, 10 am to 5:30 pm, at 1444 Oak Lawn Ave., Suite 545, thriftstudio.com. Rebecca Sherman Chic THRIFTING Clockwise from above: Riviera banquette, Pauline chair, Blair ottoman, Parker Nesting tables, all Jan Showers for Kravet Couture. Miles Redd Schumacher Glass Paneling by Miles Redd SHOWERS REIGNS Designer Brenda Houston rocks. Gemstones and minerals make up her handsome furnishings and decorative objects, all exquisitely exhibited in a new showroom off Riverside Drive near the Dallas Design District. Besides stocking her staple sparklers, the showroom serves as a launch pad for Houston's freshest ideas, such as shimmer wallpaper with a three- dimensional texture in beaded abalone and tiger's-eye patterns (available through Allan Knight Associates). Also new are wood objects — an 8-foot-tall banana- leaf sculpture carved by a Burmese artisan, fossilized wood from Morocco in striking red hues, a massive mounted natural vine from Thailand and tall peaks of termite wood — that provide a sculptural organic element to a space. Stones, however, are still Houston's mainstay. The showroom brims with onyx lamps, giant jasper bowls, malachite boxes and agate tables. We can't get enough of the selenite, glass and brass coffee table that won Best in Show at the 2015 International Contemporary Furniture Fair in New York. Brenda Houston, 1218 Manufacturing St., 626.354.1559, brendahouston.com. Rebecca Sherman NATURAL RESOURCE S usan Sully's ninth book, Past Present: Living with Heirlooms and Antiques (The Monacelli Press, $45), is a highly personal one. After inheriting china, cut glass and 19th-century French furniture from her mother, the Southern architecture and design expert set out to make it work together inside her 1950s cottage in Charleston, South Carolina. In this book, Sully opens the doors to 20 beautiful houses throughout the South, Texas, East Hampton and Sag Harbor, all in an inspired effort to see how others handled the challenge of integrating old with new. A Dallas home made the cover: the sun-drenched dining room of the 1940s West Highland Park home of David Feld and partner Kurt Purdy. Their chrome- and-granite 1980s D'Urso for Knoll table sparkles with 18th-century Venetian candelabra, gilt-rimmed champagne and water glasses, and Wedgwood lusterware. Another residence in the book belongs to one of Dallas' best-known civic leaders; while the owner is anonymous, we hear from her interior designer, Beverly Field, that she deftly integrated the homeowner's ultra-contemporary pieces — such as a pair of fuchsia cone chairs by Verner Panton and shagreen-covered tables — with her collection of English, European and Chinese antiques. Sully, who spent her childhood in Greenwich, Connecticut, moved to Houston at age 13. She attributes the Bayou City's reputation for entertaining, along with summers spent at her grandmother's house in Georgia, with introducing her as a teenager to beautifully set tables and rooms filled with antiques. "Parties were hosted with great panache and silver, china and crystal shone brightly at afternoon tea parties and evening affairs," she says. "There was a boldness and exuberance. I love exuberance." Rebecca Sherman FONDEST MEMORIES Jan Showers David Feld and Kurt Purdy's Dallas house Here, above and bottom left: Anonymous Dallas house designed by Beverly Field Brenda Houston's new showroom