Real-a-Stalking

Every once in a while, I'll browse the HAR (Houston Association of Realtors) website for fun.  I love seeing what type of homes have hit the market around the city and browsing through the interior photographs.  It almost never happens that I see a house listed with a gorgeous exterior AND a lust-worthy interior.  As an interior designer, you often have to be able to look past bad furnishings to see the potential of a home, so I generally look at the bones of the space and overall layout.  However, while browsing around on HAR today, I saw a house I fell hard for- and apparently someone else did too, because it's under contract.  Nonetheless, I wanted to share it with you all before the listing comes down.

Obviously, what drew my eye to the house first was the exterior.  I LOVE  the mix of white stucco and brick that blends seamlessly together.  The front entry and windows are steel-framed with corresponding black lanterns, which creates a beautiful pop against the white.  I even love the Art Deco-esque font of the house number! The landscaping is minimal yet beautiful, tying in nicely with the vibe of the home.

Townhomes get such a bad rap in Houston.  Because our city is so densely populated, many homes "in the loop" are built up rather than out.  I live in a townhome myself, and don't mind it at all (although it might be difficult for a young family).  I think a lot of people are tired of seeing the same cookie-cutter style of townhome, which is totally understandable, and I would agree.  I think the clean, fresh feel of this home, with the right amount of architectural detail, is really special.

The living room flooring is a beautiful hardwood, and the fireplace is a nice touch.  I would probably build built-in bookshelves with cabinetry on each side of the fireplace for extra storage if I was able to design the house.  Here is another view of the main living space- with a 260-bottle wine cellar!  As a wine lover and aspiring sommelier, I totally dig this.

The kitchen is gorgeous with a perfect layout in my opinion.  I love seeing an open window above one side of lower cabinetry.  The cabinetry is beautiful and I even love the paint color they chose.  However, I would definitely change the light fixture,and does anyone really need that large of a refrigerator?

The house is equipped with an elevator for ease of use, and we see a peak of the staircase handrails in the background.  While I don't hate the hand rail, I'd probably prefer something more like this, with just a tad more detail.

 

 Unfortunately, they don't show us a picture of the master bedroom, but they do share what I assume is the master bath.  While I love the wall stone and flooring, I'm not a fan of the cabinetry, bath, or lighting.  It's very boring in my opinion, and I'm just not a fan of cabinetry that isn't seamless.  I think they should've designed the tub within the wet shower area, like this.  I assume the builder wanted to keep the modern, streamlined feel of the house by choosing fixtures and fittings with minimal detail, but for a home priced at 1.875 million, I think the buyer would want more.

This is another of the bathrooms.  I like the tile in the bath along with the glass partition, but again, I'd change the cabinetry fronts and fixtures.

The master closet is pretty fabulous, too.  I love the mixture of exposed rods and cabinet doors hiding other hanging clothes.  That way, you could put away your winter coats and pants during summer, and vise versa. To glam it up a bit, I'd probably want to change the middle counter top to a beautiful marble slab with a lot of veining.

Overall, I think this property is tasteful and interesting- and I'd LOVE to live here and make it my own!  If you're curious, you can see this listing in it's entirety here.

I also saw the southwestern-inspired property below while browsing HAR, and got so excited to look through the images.  How gorgeous and unique is the exterior?

And check out the backyard pool and landscaping!

The stucco car port and xeroscaping feels very "Austin" to me.  I was getting so worked up over this house, clicking through the photos with anticipation, and then I got to the interior.  It looks like Restoration Hardware threw up all over this home.  I think EVERYTHING in this home is from Restoration Hardware.  Really?!  You have to see it to believe it. 

How could someone let this happen?  It's like a bad blind date- you get so excited to meet the person because they appear very attractive, despite your best intentions to remain indifferent.  And then once you've spent a few hours with them, you realize there's really nothing special there and you can't hide your disappointment.  Come on Houston developers!  You're better than this. 

I hope you all have a great Tuesday!