Sandra Lucas Designs Houston Home with a Sunny Disposition

“When my clients purchased their 10-year-old home in 2020, their goal was to make it feel warm and welcoming despite its generous footprint,” says interior designer Sandra Lucas of Lucas/Eilers Design Associates. “We had worked with them on their previous homes in Texas and Virginia, and it was important for us to achieve a fresh look that matched their friendly spirit and joyful outlook.”

According to Lucas, the home’s “great bones” are what attracted her clients to the brick manse in Houston’s tiny Memorial neighborhood. Rich architectural details, including molding, shiplap, and coffered ceilings, convey character and add texture along with the antique Coffeyville brick and reclaimed wood.

But its heavy lighting, stained paneling, and layers of brown and beige made the interior look too dark and dated. Lucas softened spaces by whitewashing some of the wood and stone elements and introducing a punchy palette ranging from cool blues and greens to warm corals and yellows. Even the lighting got a fresh coat of paint. Pleasing in their design and perfectly proportioned for their designated spaces, several of the existing fixtures were revived—not replaced—and hand-painted in a champagne finish.

“Choosing hues that play well together is the key to successfully designing a home filled with color,” Lucas says. “During the planning phase, I filled in a copy of the floor plan with colored pencils to determine how the colors would flow from room to room. I used those that were neutral or ‘calming’ to break up the more vibrant ones in order to give the eye a chance to rest as it transitions throughout the spaces. This tactic also helped to create balance, which, to me, is one of the most important principles of design. It is what makes us feel good about our built environments.”

Creating balance among patterns was also an integral part of Lucas’s design strategy. In the breakfast room, for example, she upholstered chairs in a solid but textural fabric to temper the room’s large-scale printed grasscloth wallcovering while, in the dining room, she chose a solid wool fabric for the fronts of the chairs to honor and highlight the fanciful Fortuny pattern she used for the inset backs.

Juxtapositions such as these run rampant throughout the interior’s furnishings, as well as pairing classic with contemporary. Lucas peppered rooms with pieces from the homeowners’ antique collection, including consoles, commodes, tables, and chairs. Among the most eye-catching antiques is a massive 18th-century Welsh dresser that displays a host of marbleized Christopher Spitzmiller dinnerware. The simple form and playful pattern sparks youthfulness to help deflect from the formality of the dresser.