The GREATEST SHOW HOUSE ON EARTH?
what a designer learned at The Houston Modern Home Tour
I couldn’t resist the title ‘The Greatest Show House’ y’all….
And it’s YOUR fault, because that’s how you made me feel with comments like:
“This house belongs in Architectural Digest”
(Wow! THANK YOU!!) ☺️🙏🏽
“Your space is modern, but has so much soul”
(I LOVE that you SEE us!) and
“You guys are lighting queens!!”
(We really DO love our lighting at Taashki Studio…. it’s jewelry! And check out our new post this month to learn all about Lighting.)
and
“every detail is exquisite"
(And that is why Interior Designers spend hundreds of hours on a project… we obsess over the details because they make ALL the difference)
And then, to top it off, one fabulous lady said:
“we’ve been to eight houses and you’ve won! Hands down, you’ve won”
You might have seen that quote from the video we posted on Instagram because, of course, we had to shout that sweetness from the rooftops.
What we didn’t post was probably the most fun of all - I gave my husband a large etched metal plaque that’s hanging in our kitchen. Well, people kept trying to figure out what it was and where it was from - their guesses were mind-blowing and hilarious! Only three people got it, right, would you believe?
So I’m wondering if YOU know what it is? Here is the plaque. Let me know if you know what it is or post in the comments below. First one to post a comment with the right answer gets bragging rights forever! And probably also ages themselves… 😂
Anyway, that comment on lighting made me think that I REALLY should do a blog post on lighting for you: the different types, how to layer it, and why it makes such a difference to your overall mood and design. So that’s what you get this month. Check it out here.
Where was I? Right - all the fun. I knew the Modern Home Tour would be ‘good for business’, and an honor, but y’all, I didn’t expect it to be so much fun!
There was the lovely, older gentleman who spent an hour studying our fireplace mantel before finally pulling me aside and asking me where it came from. When I told him it was a reclaimed piece of wood from an old Irish church, he was even more enamored! He told me how much he loved history and then we talked about history for a while. But it was his reaction - his non-stop smiling - that blew me away. He just LOVED that the piece had been somewhere else, hanging in a church halfway across the world for so long, and was now in front of him, in another incarnation. And then he regaled me with stories of his own… Priceless!
There was the woman who saw our bar with Hibiki Japanese Whiskey and immediately declared us kindred spirits. Pretty soon, she and the two older relatives she came with - I think they were her aunts? - were exchanging our life stories and talking about how to weave your life’s journeys into your home. Loved those three women! ❤️
Or the fabulous globe-trotter who, like me, had been to every Anantara Resort I had been to in Asia - and was as well-traveled as me, except she hadn’t been to Bali and I hadn’t been to Vietnam. So we traded travel recommendations and telephone numbers!
Then there was the guy who contemplated our Living Room light fixture - it looks like a branch with flowers emanating from it. The funny thing was that his shirt matched the light fixture perfectly - so of course, we had to take a picture! Check it out in the pictures below. I put in an extra picture to show it to you lit up - it’s hard to photograph it well, but it’s stunning in person. It is custom made and the maker I commissioned it from is a true artist.
Or the two lovely women who had lived in Singapore, who said that walking through our home was making them nostalgic for the time they spent there. Love that!
And the fabulous girl with the ‘slippery English’ who I knew immediately couldn’t have grown up here. We played a fun game of ‘which British colony were you raised in?’ and discovered how small the world really is.
So the day started at 10am and was supposed to end at 4pm. But I still had some of you regaling me with your fabulous stories at 5pm! And I basked in every minute! Because, as with everything design-related, it’s always the people that make a place home.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. I promised you a post full of lessons that I learned from the Houston Modern Home Tour, but here I am - chatty Cathy - without a single one yet. Except, if you read between the lines, you might have caught a few already. If you haven’t yet, here they are:
Design Tip & Lessons:
Reflect Yourself. Have you ever walked into a spec home and thought, ‘Hmmm, this home looks just like the one we just saw?’ Chances are, it did. And it probably will look just like the next one. When you design a home for everybody, you design a home for nobody. That’s why weird homes sell. Because they make an impact. They make you curious about the people who lived there. And we are curious beings. I’m not saying to make your home weird. I AM saying, don’t be afraid to bring some ‘YOU-ness’ into your spaces. Don’t blindly follow trends or you’ll look like every other spec home out there. And we all know the word that describes those babies. Boring. And you, my darling, are anything but boring, right?
Separate Your Stories. Whether you are opening your house up to the public, or to your friends and family, you are effectively putting a part of yourself on display. YOU get to choose what remains private and what is seen. An easy way to leave yourself less vulnerable is to control the narrative. Separate your home into your Entertainment Spaces (e.g. Living Room, Dining Room, Powder Room, Kitchen) and your Private Spaces (e.g. Bedrooms, Closets, Study, etc). In your Entertainment Spaces, keep items out that you don’t mind others seeing, and things that refer to stories that you don’t mind telling. You can also keep your more general memorabilia here, such as decor, travel souvenirs, paintings you’ve commissioned or collected, family heirlooms, etc. Reserve your most precious and intimate memories for your Private Spaces - these are the stories that you only want to share with a special few. For example, in our Living Room, we have things like a Gong that we brought back from Singapore and a set of resin elephant tusks (no, they’re not real!) that leads to a story of my youngest daughter and her meeting a real live elephant on her first trip to Thailand when she was four. But in our Bedroom is where we keep a framed speeding ticket that we got on our first date and a singing bowl from a trip that meant a great deal to my husband when he backpacked through India and Nepal.
People Stay for the Stories. That said, don’t edit your stories so much that there’s no personality left in your Entertainment Spaces! I always tell my clients to make sure that there is something around every corner that makes them smile. Something that reminds them or makes them start with: ‘Remember that time when…?’ Not only does it make for scintillating conversation, but you’ll find people don’t ever want to leave your dinner table - your kids included. And by the way, you can still do this if you’re a minimalist!
Minimal and Modern does not equal Cold. You guys get a bad rap. There’s a belief that contemporary, minimal, or modern automatically means boring, stark and cold. And I’m living proof that that doesn’t have to be the case. How do you achieve this? Modern is about cutting out the fussy and the extra. It’s about clean lines. So start with a minimal shell. Then layer in your warmth with soft furnishings in muted colors with a warm undertone. Bring in furniture with clean silhouettes. Layer in your accessories, edited, of course. This could be a whole blog post in itself and maybe it will be. Let me know if this is something you’d be interested in or tell me in the comments below.
Home is about the People. The people who live there, the people who visit and the people who come as guests to stay for a while. Every single person who walks through those doors make a mark. So MAKE your home about the people. It never fails to amaze me when people buy these ridiculous pieces of furniture and then get all protective about it, and edgy when you sit on it. They can’t relax in their own homes. Don’t get precious about your furniture. If it’s valuable, then put it high up so people can admire it from afar or away. But for goodness sake, don’t get precious about your sofa. Get a sofa that you can spill red wine on, carry on your conversation and all the while get up, get a dish cloth and wipe it up while still laughing. THAT’S the kind of home people want to be in. You included. I had a freaking showhouse and I didn’t mind ANYONE using our Powder Room, sitting on our sofa or any of our outdoor furniture. You know why? Because it’s bullet-proof. Well, not bullet-proof, but as hard-wearing as you can get. Dog-resistant, kid-resistant. So what’s a few grown ups?
Go Big or Go Home. This one boils down to fear - again. I don’t know why there is so much fear around design. I see this happen time and again where people just go too small with everything - too small lighting, too small rugs, too small dining tables. Everything is just too small for their space. And this is especially apparent in Houston where homes are just generally bigger. If you’re not sure what size to get, ask us - we’re happy to help - or google it. Here’s why. Forget that it looks weird, but when you place a rug that is too small under a dining table, then your chairs are going to keep slipping off and you have that irritating problem of your back legs being off the rug and your front legs being on - annoying. A rug that is too small in a Living Room makes you feel like you’re jumping onto a little island. In an open plan room, a rug of the right size delineates your separate areas without walls, effectively separating your Living Room, Dining Room and Kitchen without effort. Another area people go too small is Lighting - but we’ll talk about that in this post.
I have never been afraid of moving. Moving on, moving apartments, moving house, moving countries. I figure there is always something better waiting on the other side. I believe that where you are is where you're supposed to be.
Maybe it's because I've never had trouble making friends. Talking to people is something that comes to me easily. I love hearing their stories. Finding out more about their lives. I love hearing about their journeys. Maybe that's why I absolutely LOVED having so many of you come into my home. It was so special that so many of you shared your unique points of view with me around my kitchen island. It was like welcoming friends into my world.
662 friends. That’s right! 662 people came through our doors at the Houston Modern Home Tour!
To say I was humbled is an understatement. I was blown away by your love, your generosity of spirit, your glowing comments, your laughter and your ability to sit down with me as old friends and share. I was excited - and full of nerves - opening my doors to you all. Strangers. But the minute you walked in, you weren’t strangers any more. The most fabulous thing was that you made my vision for my home come to life. My design process always starts with figure out the feeling I want the home I’m designing to have. And with this home - MY home - I wanted it to feel like we’d left Houston and stepped into our favorite resort in Asia. Bali, Thailand, India - take your pick.
I wanted our kitchen to feel like our favorite whiskey bar, complete with a gorgeous view. Well, as I poured glasses for your parched throats - you can always count on Houston to bring that sun - and you perched on those bar stools, I FELT like we had transformed it into that whiskey bar together. And the vision was complete. You’ve made me so happy…
In fact, we were so busy chatting, we kept forgetting to take photos! So if you took any, please send them our way! Or post them and tag us @taashkistudios
Having so many people walk through our house felt surreal. But I loved showing you all our design elements and telling you where things came from. If you’re interested, you can find out all about the home and design in the Write Up on our Show House.
For so long, this home only existed in the swirling color-drenched visions in my head until I was able to make it come alive in reality. In these rooms, I combined our heritage with our journeys, and wove in modern comfort, all to conjure up my idea of Home. And I loved knowing that the home I designed made you feel like YOU could come in and feel at home as well. That was the greatest gift.
Because fabulous design means absolutely nothing without soul. To me, the true magic lies in marrying inspiration with the journeys we've taken and where we come from. So I was thrilled to have struck a chord with so many of you...
So THANK YOU for all that you said...
Your energy was infectious. And ensured that even though I was running on pure adrenalin - 3 weeks of working non-stop will do that to you - I was at my finest, and making friends, left right and center. I couldn’t believe that we ran out of 500 business cards! Christine had to run to her car and check my handbag to get some more! And we signed two brand new clients on the spot!
Perhaps you came as strangers. But some of you definitely left as friends. I met new photographers, contractors, vendors, realtors, and many of you who just came to soak in what we all have in common - the love for design. I loved that our home made you feel comfortable enough to linger, especially in our Verandah - I told you that porch swing was hypnotic! And I SO look forward to welcoming you back for another Taashki event!
When it was all said and done, you know I curled up - exhausted but happy - with my own (very cold) glass of wine!
I talked to a LOT of you about your own homes and how to bring magic into your spaces. If we had the chance to speak about the conundrums you have, fabulous. But if you walked away and had questions, or need help with your own home, know that that is exactly the reason I created this newsletter. Send your questions, challenges and quandaries in - photos and all - and we’ll do our best to answer them for you!
And if you want to have a Taashki Studio-designed house, book a Design Consultation now! We are now booking for Fall 2025 and beyond, or it’s the waitlist, my friends. So if you’re looking for some Taashki design love, reach out soon!
Love you. Mean it!
xxx Tash Loved reading this and want to turn your home into a space you absolutely adore? Follow @taashkistudios on Instagram and join the Taashki Tribe newsletter below if you’re not already signed up! Write and tell me what you struggle with in your home design and I’ll help you through your design woes!