Rooms that look collected over time, filled with current, vintage and antique furnishings and accessories fill the portfolio of Emily Spanos, founder of Emily June Designs.
“My style is timeless and layered. I’m textile-forward and like to get color and pattern early on and let it guide the rest of the project,” said Spanos, who has been named the March Leader In Design by the Houston Design District. “We’re all about making meaningful spaces that bring joy and soul to the home.”
For one client who loves lime green, the bright color was used in draperies as well as on a pair of chairs that sit in front of bookcases painted a deep blue-gray. A stained wood antique side table brings a little history and holds a dainty vase found in a local thrift store. A rug that had the perfect color but was too small for the space was placed on top of a larger natural fiber rug. The room is a mix of old and new, bold and subtle.
“I always want to incorporate natural materials, vintage finds and antiques. That really helps the look of the space not feel so sterile – like it all just came out of a furniture store. A lot of clients have a great art collection, and we like to incorporate that, too,” said Spanos.
A 4th-generation Houstonian and 2006 graduate of Baylor University, Spanos began her design career at a full-service drapery work room, then worked for Ethan Allen before helping builders with custom homes.
One custom home client asked her to help them furnish the home, and Spanos used that to launch her residential interior design business. She and her husband have two sons, an 8-year-old and a 15-month-old who’s taking his first steps.
She custom designs some pieces and shops trade-only showrooms, but she also scours thrift stores such as The Guild Shop and Bluebird Circle and is a regular at Round Top antique shows, especially for favorite vendors such as Joyce Horn Antiques and Janet Wiebe’s Murano glass chandeliers and lamps.
Her home shopping list frequently includes vintage and antique lighting, side tables, chests and small accessories, and it’s hard for her to pass up anything made of brass.
Spanos has three storage units filled with things she’s bought through the years and in April she hopes to hold a pop-up sale to scale back a decade’s worth of her own collecting.
Inspiration often comes from her travels. Her husband grew up in Greece, so visits there are frequent. A recent trip to London brought inspiration from English-style architecture.
“Travel inspires me. The architecture, the castles, I think about those and reimagine them,” Spanos said. “Just looking at vintage pieces and seeing how they were made, I’m very inspired by that.”