How a Meal at Paris’ Most Incredible Restaurant Changed Everything for This Texas Design King

You lose some, you win some. For showroom owner George Cameron Nash, losing a 19-year exclusive on Christian Liaigre’s collection serendipitously led him to an exciting discovery. Nash lamented the loss to a visiting Floridian colleague, who phoned a Paris contact and passed the phone to Nash.

On the line was Maxime Hurel, Philippe Hurel’s son. Twenty minutes and two days later, Nash was aboard a plane to France to connect in person with the Hurel family, including “sweet and gentle Papa Philippe,” and to learn more about the three-generation family-owned furniture design and fabrication company founded in 1911.

One thing he learned? Hurel was the original fabricator of Liaigre’s coveted designs (the two houses have since parted ways).

Over a decadent meal at Le Taillevent, which Nash calls the most incredible restaurant in Paris, he and the Hurels inked a deal for Nash to launch a 45-piece collection of Philippe Hurel’s innovative and provocative French furniture in Houston and Dallas.

The refined simple aesthetic of Hurel is informed by the Art Deco and Bauhaus eras, updated for modern living with harmonious lines, sumptuous natural materials, and an exacting attention to detail. Which piece excites Nash most?

“Without a doubt, the $65,000 Anaïta dining table. It has two husky bronze bases and a 10-foot-length tabletop of glassy lacquered Brazilian dogwood that looks like a river of the most exotic veneer I have ever seen — a very sexy, sensual, up-to-the-very-moment must-have for the next generation of luxury furniture connoisseurs.

“Don’t set the table — just look at it.”

To the trade at George Cameron Nash, Decorative Center Houston, 5120 Woodway, 713.892.5710, and Dallas Design Center, Suite 150, 214.744.1544, georgecameronnash.com.