I love antiques and I think you need some in your home to bring the past in with the future. I'm just seeing a lot of throwaway furniture in houses. I want to show people that you can mix the new with the old; you can still honor both.
Pamela Pierce, an interior designer in Houston, to Julie Lasky of the New York Times regarding the perspective she will bring to her new magazine, Milieu, due on newsstands in September.
The cover of the September 2013 edition of Milieu, a new design magazine founded and edited by Houston interior designer Pamela Pierce.
Pamela Pierce is a much-beloved interior designer who lives in Houston, Texas. Her work has appeared frequently in Veranda, and the blog post I wrote last December - Pamela Pierce's "Rustic Sophistication" - has been one of my most popular. Pierce's style typically has featured neutral colors, European antiques and an abundance of ruffled linen slipcovers. However, she has updated her own home - giving it a more streamlined, modern feel - by eliminating the flounces and adding pieces by Saarinen and Eames to her antique-filled rooms. Pierce hopes to share this same type of new-old mix with readers of her design magazine, Milieu, which debuts this month. The first eight photos in this post come from Milieu's website. The last nine pictures feature Pamela Pierce's own home in Houston. Take a look . . .
"The lap pool is surrounded by clipped hedges of myrtle and sweet gums."
Houston home of Andrew and Annette Schatte.
Photography by Peter Vitale.
"A French 19th-century stone fountain."
Houston home of Andrew and Annette Schatte.
Photography by Peter Vitale.
Milieu.
Houston home of Andrew and Annette Schatte.
Photography by Peter Vitale.
Milieu.
"When Pamela Pierce's French-style house first graced these pages in 2006, it featured an armada of European antiques, many with flouncy skirted slipcovers and all set in a sea of surpassingly calm neutrals. The look — stately yet sassy — signaled an emerging design-world view toward lightening up, both in attitude and palette. And it still holds sway. Pierce, however, has moved on, continuing to edit, to update, and to reinvigorate her 1926 stucco manse, set in Houston's Museum District."
Eames lounge chair and ottoman.
Interior design by homeowner Pamela Pierce, Pierce Designs and Associates.
Photography by Laura Resen.
"Well-Lived: Pamela Pierce's Houston House" by Frances Schultz.
"Why mess with such a lovely perch? 'I had the feeling it really wasn't me. It was too proper,' she begins, in her soft, native West Texas drawl. 'You can't take the West Texas out of a girl. Some of that just had to come into play.' Cue the tree-branch tables, the deer-antler sconce, and the rugless — albeit 18th-century cathedral stone and 19th-century chestnut — floors. 'I wanted things that were a bit edgier,' she says. Make way for the outsized French ceramic lamp on a wooden sculptor's stand, steps from a Flos Arco lamp and white Eames chair. From a professional perspective, she says, 'I got tired of gathered skirts and gray paint. I wanted to show my clients that you can mix good contemporary pieces with antiques. I certainly still love my antiques, and for me an entire house with contemporary is too cold. I love the mix.' Enter the cardboard Frank Gehry Wiggle Chair next to the curvaceous 19th-century English sofa next to the salvaged-wood coffee table."
Casamidy chairs in Perennials canvas.
Interior designer Pamela Pierce's 1926 stucco manse in Houston's Museum District.
Interior design by homeowner Pamela Pierce, Pierce Designs and Associates.
Photography by Laura Resen.
"Well-Lived: Pamela Pierce's Houston House" by Frances Schultz.
"In the dining room, presided over by a 19th-c. carved saint, every object has presence. Custom white oak table. Custom chairs with slipcovers in Christian Liaigre linen. Flos Arco floor lamp, custom finish."
Interior designer Pamela Pierce's 1926 stucco manse in Houston's Museum District.
Interior design by homeowner Pamela Pierce, Pierce Designs and Associates.
Photography by Laura Resen.
"Well-Lived: Pamela Pierce's Houston House" by Frances Schultz.
"Such an emphatically edited assemblage could veer perilously close to artifice, but it's probably fair to say that West Texas girls don't do artifice. As interesting as the house is visually, it is equally accommodating. Rooms are thoughtfully arranged for conversing or relaxing, with a place to put a book or a drink within reach of every seat. There are reading lights where you need them and chairs where you want them.
The old, the new, and the unexpected all have a place in the living room. Rolled-arm antique English sofa, W. Gardner, Ltd., and custom sofa, both slipcovered in Christian Liaigre linen. Frank Gehry Wiggle Chair, Vitra. Tri-leg 19th-c. elm table, Area. Floor lamp from 18th-c. iron candlestand, W. Gardner Ltd."
Interior designer Pamela Pierce's 1926 stucco manse in Houston's Museum District.
Interior design by homeowner Pamela Pierce, Pierce Designs and Associates.
Photography by Laura Resen.
"Well-Lived: Pamela Pierce's Houston House" by Frances Schultz.
"Sofa in Christian Liaigre white linen. Song Dynasty table lamp, Watkins Culver. 18th-c. French fireplace. Saarinen table, Sunset Settings."
Interior designer Pamela Pierce's 1926 stucco manse in Houston's Museum District.
Interior design by homeowner Pamela Pierce, Pierce Designs and Associates.
Photography by Laura Resen.
"Well-Lived: Pamela Pierce's Houston House" by Frances Schultz.
"The designer's apparently fearless use of white everywhere, however, does give pause. It shouldn't, Pierce says, even though her pale furniture keeps company with two dogs and visiting grandchildren. 'If it's linen, you just wash it.' She has her fabrics pre-washed and dried so that they are pre-shrunk. 'My slipcovers in the family room get washed about once a week. We put them back on slightly damp and they work great,' she says convincingly. 'I just like white. I've been known to paint a bedroom a color and then the next day call my painter to repaint it. After working with color and pattern all day, I need serenity at home.'
A wall of steel doors opens the kitchen to the garden. Custom stainless steel island. Bull from a 19th-c. French butcher shop."
Interior designer Pamela Pierce's 1926 stucco manse in Houston's Museum District.
Interior design by homeowner Pamela Pierce, Pierce Designs and Associates.
Photography by Laura Resen.
"Well-Lived: Pamela Pierce's Houston House" by Frances Schultz.
"In the master bedroom, C and C Milano white linen bedding on 19th-c. Italian four-poster. Wing chair with cowhide upholstery and C and C Milano linen cushion."
Interior designer Pamela Pierce's 1926 stucco manse in Houston's Museum District.
Interior design by homeowner Pamela Pierce, Pierce Designs and Associates.
Photography by Laura Resen.
"Well-Lived: Pamela Pierce's Houston House" by Frances Schultz.
"Pierce's palette confers a softness, a sense of quiet romance. This is especially true in the bedrooms, where haven trumps hip and luxury is defined by comfort. Though her iron tester bed has shorn its former life's ruffled curtains, a plump snowy duvet awaits. In a guest room, lace-trimmed linens beckon on tufted twin beds with coverlets cleverly rolled at the feet. Glass pendant lights in the shape of fruit, a Paris find, cascade above the pillows. 'This is my granddaughter's room when she visits,' Pierce points out, 'although now she prefers hot pink and turquoise.' Pre-teen predilections aside, Pierce, it seems, has hit upon the next big thing: curated but not overly controlled rooms that are by equal measures welcoming and inspiring.
Pierce repurposed a painted Gustavian console table for the guest bathroom sink. All plumbing fixtures from Fixtures and Fittings. Bathtub, Balmoral from Cheviot. Villeroy and Boch basin. Custom ceiling-mounted mirror."
Interior designer Pamela Pierce's 1926 stucco manse in Houston's Museum District.
Interior design by homeowner Pamela Pierce, Pierce Designs and Associates.
Photography by Laura Resen.
"Well-Lived: Pamela Pierce's Houston House" by Frances Schultz.
"To allow forms and textures to come to the fore, the house, down to the guest rooms, is pattern-free. Napoleon III tufted beds and 18th-c. Venetian fauteuil in Bergamo Oseille Sauvage linen. The console table is the mate to the one in the guest bath."
Interior designer Pamela Pierce's 1926 stucco manse in Houston's Museum District.
Interior design by homeowner Pamela Pierce, Pierce Designs and Associates.
Photography by Laura Resen.
"Well-Lived: Pamela Pierce's Houston House" by Frances Schultz.
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