Braeswood Place, Houston
Glen Arbor Residence
Glen Arbor sits on a wooded lot in the Braes Bayou floodplain, and because one team designed and built it, the client kept shaping the house with us through construction.
Franco Albarran, Founder
A Tall Room Made Intimate
The great room in this home rises two stories, which can leave a dining table marooned under all that height. The client wanted the room to feel open and full of light, and still feel like a place to linger over dinner.
So we brought the scale back down through what fills the room. White shiplap draws a horizontal line across the height, a herringbone fireplace and built-ins hold the far wall at eye level, and a linear bronze chandelier hangs low over the table, giving the eye a ceiling well below the real one.
Height impresses on the first walk-through and wears on you by dinner. Where in your home should a big room still feel close?
Raised for the Flood, Built to Belong
This property sits in the Braes Bayou floodplain, where FEMA required the finished floor to be seven feet above grade. A house lifted that high, at the size this family needed, can loom over its street.
So we broke the mass down through shifts in geometry, siding, and color until a large home reads at the scale of its neighbors. At the base, a brick plinth handles the flood plainly: water washes off it, the block behind stays sound, and there is nothing to replace after a storm.
A code requirement can either fight the design or disappear into it. What on your property feels like a limit that could become the starting point?
An Island Left Clear
This is where the family gathers first thing every morning, so the island had to stay a clear place to gather even as everything else in the kitchen fills up.
We started from a marble slab the client loved and worked back from it with the fabricator, sizing the island to the largest run one continuous piece could yield with no seam. Then we moved the range to the wall behind, so the whole surface stays open for hosting.
An island earns its keep when one surface stays clear for people. Which counter in your kitchen would you protect from the clutter?
Reclaimed Wood, Wall to Ceiling
A crisp white kitchen can start to feel catalog-perfect, without a trace of age or hand. This room needed one warm, tactile material running through it.
A reclaimed wood surround wraps the range hood and continues overhead as an exposed beam. One material and one grain, carried from the wall up across the ceiling, so the precision of the cabinetry has something older to sit against.
One honest material can keep a polished room from feeling untouched. What in your home earns the right to show some age?
Finishes That Look Collected
Coordinate every finish in a kitchen and it can look ordered all at once, more showroom than home. The client wanted a room that felt gathered over time.
So we let the pieces sit in different registers on purpose: floating wood shelves, a worn Persian runner, brass pendants, and mixed metals that deliberately do not match. Each brings its own age and tone, so the room feels like it came together over years.
A room can be installed in a day or look like it grew over many. Which feeling do you want yours to have?
Set Among the Trees We Kept
This lot came wrapped in mature live oaks, and the client chose it for them. The risk in any new build is clearing the very trees that made the property worth choosing.
So we set the two-story living room into the gap between the oaks we kept, with a wall of stacked windows that puts you up in the canopy. Inside, we held the finishes quiet, plaster, smooth drywall, and warm oak, so the trees and the moving light stay the focus.
The best view on a property is often the one already standing on it. What would your home be designed around if you let the site lead?
A Mantel That Anchors the Room
A chimney that climbs a two-story room can leave the hearth below feeling lost in the volume. The fireplace needed enough weight to hold the floor.
A reclaimed timber mantel and rough-sawn shelves give the base of the plaster chimney real heft, with an iron ring chandelier scaled to fill the height above. The hearth grounds the room without crowding it.
A tall room needs something solid to gather around. Where does a space of yours need weight at the bottom?
The Vanity That Wasn't in the Plans
This vanity was not in the original drawings. Partway through construction, the client decided she wanted it to read as a freestanding piece of furniture, the kind of thing you would buy for a room.
Because one team was designing and building, a change this late could happen without a handoff or a stall. We designed the piece with our carpenter, inset white oak under a clear coat, pulled off the walls and topped with a single marble slab.
The best ideas do not always arrive before the drawings are signed. Who would build yours if it came to you mid-project?
A Window to the Trees
A primary bath is usually the most closed-off room in a house, shut tight for privacy. This one had a chance to open to the landscape.
A large window pulls the mature canopy right up to the vanity, while three glass globe pendants wash the shiplap in warm light. Daylight and lamplight meet at the mirror, so the room feels lit by the trees as much as the fixtures.
Privacy and a view can share the same room. Where could your most private room still borrow the outdoors?
One Stone, Tub to Shower
Set side by side, a tub and a separate shower can read as two fixtures crowded against a wall. The client wanted them to feel like one calm corner.
We ran a single stone from the tub deck into the shower bench so the two surfaces read as one piece, sized with the fabricator to span them without a seam. Where a plain ledge was first drawn beside the tub, the client asked for storage, so we built open shelves into the space.
Small asks during a build are where a home starts to fit the people in it. What would you want changed once you could finally stand in the room?
Building a home is a big undertaking. You won’t take it on alone.
Build the team early
Architect, builder, and designer aligned from day one
Design around real life
We study how your family actually lives before drawing plans
Eliminate surprises
Budget and design evolve together throughout the process