Restoration Hardware makes big opening in Houston

from Retail Customer Experience - November 13, 2011

Houston's Restoration Hardware Gallery in Highland Village opened its 14-foot doors Friday, revealing a European-flavored residential setting that looks more like a mansion than a store, according to the Culture Map.

"Shoppers arrive in the vestibule that leads to the ground floor where furnishings, accessories and lighting fixtures, all in pleasing neutrals, are assembled in vignettes so beautifully transitioned that the space evokes the esthetics of a vast mansion," the story stated. "Or as press material relates, the setting was 'envisioned as a majestic estate with beautiful European proportions . . .'"

Architectural Digest Top 100 architect collaborated with Restoration Hardware Chairman and Co-CEO Gary Friedman and retail architect Richard Altuna on the design.

The store features a 7,000 square-foot rooftop garden featuring the line's collection of outdoor and garden furniture in a setting of trimmed boxwoods, olive trees and trickling fountains.

It also includes:
• A tea "atelier" by Bellocq.
• A biblioteque(library) of international design publications and
• A floral boutique operated by floral designer David Brown.