Heights Holiday Home Tour.

It's hard for it to feel like Christmas when it's 70 outside. To be fair, we're in a bit of a cold snap this week (it's currently 38, excuse me Houston?!), but there are still palm trees, & I just don't think of Christmas when I see tropical trees.

Anyway.

Noelle is a good friend & invited me to come down to Houston to go through the Houston Heights Holiday Home Tour Saturday night. I think that it would be safe to call the Heights the East Village of Houston, so I assumed it would be interesting. We like the Heights! If we lived inside the loop, we'd be living there, but since we're living in The Woodlands (which is beautiful, & lovely...), I have a frequent craving for different (different isn't exactly included in our HOA guidelines & requirements). 

The homes were all decorated really beautifully for Christmas, but they were more interesting from an interior design perspective. It was an eclectic mix of design & style, & it gave me a hundred new ideas (um, dreams) for our own space. If I actually knew anything about interior design, I would start using a lot of design-y words right now to describe all of the homes.

House #1 - Why did I not take more photos of the interior?! It was absolute perfection. Like the perfect mix of vintage & modern, with perfect little collections everywhere & perfect frame collages. & perfectly charming everything everywhere you went. Everything was warm & cozy & just made me want to curl up with a warm drink & listen nice music while chatting with friends. That's my kind of home.

Interior features include an extensive art collection, period antiques & modern furnishings, which uniquely complement the Craftsman style of the home. The owners restored the foyer's antique clock after salvaging it from an early 20th Century Heights home that was slated for demolition. Thomas & Phil love to entertain & designed the home for that comfort with a spacious gourmet kitchen, big open living areas with vaulted ceilings & an inviting fireplace.

House #2! Beautiful. And they had a band playing Christmas carols in the backyard. AND they gave us hot apple cider.

George Henry Burnett purchased this Queen Anne-style home, now listed in the National Register of Historic Places, in March 1904. The house was precut at a mill in East Texas, shipped by rail, & transported to the site by horse-drawn wagon. Mr. Burnett moved to the Heights after tragically losing his family in the Great Storm of Galveston in 1900. Historic features of the home include original storm shutters, windows, heart-of-pine floors, mahogany doors & antique furnishings in the two front rooms. The leaded glass in the front sitting room was imported from France & features a palmetto & urn, depicting the Tree of Life. It's current owner, Mr. Burnett's grandson, Arlen Feguson, acquired & remodeled the original home in 2000 & completed a second renovation project in 2010.

I want this floor mirror.

House #3. And that is all (they had really pretty lights, & a guest cottage & a closet that was so perfectly folded that I want to spend all day perfecting my own).

House #4! Owned & decorated by crazy people. Crazy!! So much plastic, so much Americana. And really, it smelled vintage. You've seriously never seen a home with so much stuff in it. I have no idea how they live there without their brains exploding. It was a total trip to walk through & my photos do it absolutely no justice. I really just shouldn't even try.

Built in 1920, this wonderful two-bedroom cottage retains its orginal floor plan & the interor & exterior design reflects a free-spirted artistry common to the neighborhood. Kristal, owner of Jubilee - a favorite boutique in the Heights - collects vintage Americana & antiques, including coin-operated vending machines, mid-century furnishings, & Depression-era Fiesta dinnerware. A separate space recently renovated behind the home is a music studio for Kevin - a drummer in several local bands. The holidays at the home are ushered in with a large collection of vintage Christmas Americana, including a lighted angel choir & plastic Santa collection, & assorted trees - one adorned exclusively in pink ornaments.

A painting of their pets, of course. 

The bathroom had a mermaid theme, which I'm sure inspired many to go home & bedazzle their own nipples.

A functioning television!

Hi, Noe!

Noelle & I skipped out early & finished off the night with a nice little dinner at Lola. My Day After Thanksgiving sandwich makes me want to make Thanksgiving dinner all over again (almost - at least order it from somewhere, which is what we're doing next year for 1/4th the price of what we spent on groceries this year!).

It was really just a super, duper good time - doing adult things, with really nice girls, in an area of the city where we could walk from place to place (mostly)! It all made me feel a bit nostalgic (for a lot of things - being with a group of girls I know well & am comfortable with, walking everywhere, culture) - but it was really so much fun, & a happy night in Houston. Hooray!