No Ordinary Antiques Store: This Chicly Rustic Warehouse Defies Any Limits, Grows Into Much More

With a slight name change — and a few thousand extra square feet — Back Row Home has expanded from one of Houston’s best resources for American and European antiques (then known as Back Row Antiques) into a vast 12,000-square-foot emporium that now includes bedding, rugs, accessories and gifts.

“The word ‘antiques’ was so limiting since we now have a bit of everything,” says Kelly O’Donnell, who co-owns Back Row Home with partners Tracey Shingledecker and Leighton Hale. Their chicly rustic warehouse brims with sumptuous vignettes such as 18th- and 19th-century farmhouse tables and seating, mid-20th-century chrome-and-glass coffee tables, vintage leather club chairs (including the occasional Mies van der Rohe Barcelona), French pottery, antique butcher blocks and kitchen utensils, candlesticks, lighting, architectural elements and mirrors. Hale is an experienced antiquarian who shops in France, Belgium and Spain; he’s just returned from a buying trip to France with two large containers of antiques. “I recently brought in some old hotel silver service pieces I’m excited about,” he says. “Hotel silver was made for use in the grand European hotels, restaurants, railways and ocean liners, and I buy it from a collector who has it re-dipped in England. It’s truly special.”

O’Donnell and Shingledecker recently returned from the Atlanta gift market with a sheaf of orders for vintage-inspired bedding by Pine Cone Hill, Pom Pom at Home’s organic Belgian linens, floral and striped woven cotton and wool rugs from Dash & Albert Rug Company, candles, and more. The two women, who have been friends for years, joined forces in 2005 to import goods from France after traveling there together to source an antique fireplace for Shingledecker’s house. Hale has owned his own antiques businesses since 2009; he became part of the team in 2015.

“Our personalities work well together,” O’Donnell says. “We have a big old repurposed table in the store that we use as a communal area, and every day we sit down and have lunch together and talk and laugh. We’re customer-friendly, and people often come in for a glass of wine with us. It’s a comfortable place to be and we have way too much fun.”

Back Row Home, 8570 Katy Freeway, 713.827.9292