Houston’s Long-Awaited Wisteria Draws a Crowd — Dallas Home Store’s Already Bayou City Beloved

After nearly two decades in business, beloved Dallas-based home store Wisteria opened a Houston store on West Alabama next to Found. New president Caryn Lerner was in from Dallas to fête the new store in an evening, sponsored by PaperCity, that celebrated the global design for which Wisteria is known.

The airy 9,000-square-foot store, which was designed by Murphy Mears Architects, is ideal not just to showcase the beautiful furniture and accessories, but also for parties, with its numerous styled vignettes and plentiful places for a tête-à-tête.

Champagne flowed and heavy hors d’oeuvres were passed as designers and longtime customers relished the opportunity to view the pieces in person and get a better sense of scale and texture. The skylit terrarium room proved particularly popular, as it was filled to the brim with blue-and-white ginger jars and glasses of bubbly.

More than a few guests went home with vases, sconces and acrylic bookends, excited to find that missing piece. Wisteria’s reputation in Houston preceded itself.

“We’ve been eagerly waiting for you to open!” many a guest revealed to Lerner.

Founders Shannon and Andrew Newsom first published a home decor catalog of items they discovered on international travels in 2001. They soon began designing product in-house and opened a Dallas storefront. The Newsoms sold Wisteria to United Kingdom-based OKA last year, hence the welcomed expansion to Houston.

PC Seen: Christine Ho, Trish Matute, Courtnay Tartt Elias, Erica Levit, Tom Juarez, George Lancaster, Jillian O’Neill, Bill Stubbs, Lindsey Herod, Oscar and Bruce Banta, Melanie King, David Brown, Ewa Hannifin, Ryan Reitmeyer, Ruth and Neil Davis, Hannah Swiggard, Rachel Werner, Shannon Hall, Avery Freeman, and Trisha Allen