Blue and White Forever: Designer Mark D. Sikes in Houston for Texas Design Week

We just can’t get enough of Mark D. Sikes — and we’re not alone. His obsession with blue and white, big white houses, social LSD (aka Lauren Santo Domingo), Givenchy’s Le Jonchet gardens, and Pretty Pins have us obsessively following his blog and Instagram feed, along with 84,000 others. Aside from a stable of design projects spanning the country and and his collaboration with Reese Witherspoon for her Draper James retail stores, Sikes has launched his predominantly blue-and-white MDS Stripes country-club collection of ball skirts, wide-legged trousers, and tie-tops; a best-selling design book, Beautiful: All-American Decorating and Timeless Style (Rizzoli); rattan furniture for Soane; fabric for Schumacher; accessories for Maitland-Smith; striped dhurrie rugs for Merida; and now a 150-piece furniture collection for Henredon.

From an Asian-inspired armoire that honors his first antique ever purchased (an 18th-century chinoiserie armoire) to a show-stopping canopy bed of Philippine mahogany and kaya veneer (similar to one in his own home), the Henredon collection illustrates Sikes’ breezy, sophisticated, classic style. Upholstered furniture pieces such as the Brentwood sofa are sheathed in his beloved blue-and-white palette, many with slipcovers and skirts for a transformative look. As I settle into a perfectly proportioned slipper chair, I can’t help asking the designer a few pressing questions.

Most used paint color. Farrow & Ball Skylight No. 205.

Favorite museum. The Met.

Prized possession. HRH Lily, our French Bulldog.

Ideal dinner-party guest list (alive or dead). Jackie, John, Grace, Givenchy, Babe, Oscar, Bill… you get the picture!

Impromptu dinner party go-tos. Take out from Joan’s on Third, abundance of myrtle topiaries, always.

Turning point moment of your career. My house on the cover of House Beautiful in 2011.

Best thing about Reese Witherspoon. Southern warmth.

L.A. effect on your design. The weather and the indoor/outdoor lifestyle inspire everything.

Most-loved architectural style. Georgian.

Henredon piece that has you most obsessed. All of them!

Sikes touches down in Houston for Texas Design Week and will sign his book Sunday, May 14, 5:30 pm, at Meredith O’Donnell Fine Furniture, which carries his Henredon collection exclusively in Houston. He will also present the PaperCity Design Awards with Martyn Lawrence Bullard on Monday, May 15, 6:30 pm, at Texas Design Week Event Venue, at West Avenue. Both events are by invitation. For information and invitation request, visit texasdesignweek.com, email events@texasdesignweek.com.

Mark D. Sikes for Henredon, exclusively in Houston at Meredith O’Donnell Fine Furniture, 1751 Post Oak Blvd., meredithodonnell.com.