Red In Fred!

RED IN FRED!

The picture highlighting this missive is of a fabulous retail store in the hub of Fredericksburg, Texas called, Red. Red is a store which is one of a very small number of modern retail concepts in the Texas Hill Country. Let's just, for a moment, think about what one would consider as great, traditional Texas interior design? For me it would be animal hide, dark leather, dark cedar wood, limestone, wool blanket, enormous scale furniture --due to the massive square footage of homes in Texas. I mean, everything is BIG in Texas think of the new football stadium for instance. Gorgeous, no question, but huge! Most homes in the Dallas area are huge, but this is not the case in Fredericksburg.

Fredericksburg is what most people consider to be the epicenter of the Texas Hill Country. It was founded or settled in the late 1800's by German immigrants. The homes in the downtown area of Fredericksburg are small in scale and for the most part look as if they have been periodically remodeled to increase the square footage. You'd be right and here are the reasons ::

When the immigrants settled they purchased enormous tracks of land for their cattle to graze on. With this came the large family home, barns and more. As one would think of in a large family farm estate, the sheer size and magnitude of these ranches made reaching out to your neighbor for a little socialization, difficult at best.

So, the ranchers would hitch up the buggy, throw the family into it and run into town. Unfortunately, running into town took one to two, sometimes even three days to drive to. However, what would happen was that the family would begin their trip to town early Saturday morning, do a little shopping and enjoy some social interaction with their neighbors, spend the night, and then attend church on Sunday. Spending the night was a bit of a problem. However, by being solidly Texans by now, the family simply built a small home in Fredericksburg so they would have a place to spend the night and then attend church on Sunday, which was a VERY important social activity in those days. These types of homes and architecture came to be known of as the Sunday House. And as the family grew, so did the Sunday House, which is why most of these homes look as if they have been repeatedly added on to -- they have been! Hah!

I do wish that I could figure out how to place my TrendSavvy Magazine pdf file on this darn blog. I went into much more detail about the Sunday House and the settling of Fredericksburg in that first issue. You all would have loved it. It could still be on my old website, http://www.trendsavvymag.com, but I am not sure of that either. For health reasons, when I went on my work sabbatical these past few months, I allowed some of my many, way too many actually, websites to perish so that I could make way for the new positivity and energy to flow forward from me, trusting that this process would be an enormously creative endeavor and one that is very important for me to capture and move forward with. That is my mantra you know, move forward--actually it is:: Trust God - Move Forward. I am still somewhat cautious when writing or speaking about God because God is such a HOT topic. Some people are extremely turned off by the subject-for unknown reasons- and simply can't communicate at all about our Creator, but I can't tell you how much enjoyment and joyfulness just this act has provided for me. Speaking about God is an essential act for me. It is in my soul. Plus, this mantra is on my lips constantly through out my day mainly because God saved my life in every way possible. Period. I have died spiritually and emotionally a couple of times and God has literally lifted me out of this horrid and self-destructive place and saved me from being one of the walking dead. What a horrible place to reside. Looking like you're alive, when you're really dead inside is an awful way to live. It is a sad, sad place to be and one that I would not wish on anyone. However, of course, I digress...back to the positivity of the Sunday House and fabulous Fredericksburg retail!

Close your eyes for minute and think about what images come to mind when you consider Texas interior design. Do you think about gigantic square footage, enormously scaled furniture, animal hide, woven wool, longhorn bone, dark leather, mahogany, cedar plank and more. I would wager to guess that this type of home furnishings have been the standard for years in the state. Not bad at all, unless your leanings for home furnishings run more towards cleaner lines and a more creative use of the materials I just mentioned above.

Red is a store which is the epidemy of modern interior design for a smaller scaled Sunday House or any house for that matter. As you can see from the picture the use of materials are creative and interesting, fun, and eclectic. During the time I have been visiting the Hill Country and Texas in general nothing like this type of a retail store has been noted except for recently...meaning within the last two to three years. Seeing a more modern batch of home furnishings crop up in this area has been exciting to watch. Equally exciting is the continued housing growth taking place in the hill country. Red had perfect timing when it came time to open its doors and since I haven't recently been back down to this area of Texas, my hope it that they are still finding success with their business. The manager is a woman who was the visual merchandiser at Homestead {a fabulous retail store by Carol Hicks Bolton}, so Red is exceptionally well merchandised and the selection of merchandise could not be better.

The next blog will be about the store that USED to be in Fredericksburg called Homestead. The store concept was from nationally noted interior designer, Carol Hicks Bolton and was probably one of the most gorgeous retail stores I have ever seen. Similar in many ways to ABC Carpet and Home in New York City, so if you liked that store, you will love seeing Homestead. The other retail store still in Fredericksburg and also a very good retail concept is a shop called Slick Rock. Hopefully, I still have some great pictures from both stores so that you can see classic, but fun, Texas home furnishings.

Enjoy!! Oh, and, http://redinfred.com