{"id":390955,"date":"2026-07-29T19:09:47","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T19:09:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/390955\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T19:09:47","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T19:09:47","slug":"this-retailer-wants-to-see-more-irreverence-in-houston","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/390955\/","title":{"rendered":"This retailer wants to see more irreverence in Houston"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Business of Home\u2019s series Shop Talk<\/a>, we chat with owners of home furnishings stores across the country to hear about their hard-won lessons and challenges, big and small. This week, we spoke with Ruth Davis of the Houston store Found<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s something refreshing about chatting with Davis, a creative who seems to know exactly what she likes, exactly how to find it, and exactly to whom she\u2019s selling\u2014because yes, someone out there amid Houston\u2019s most elite clientele is interested in hanging a big Styrofoam Oreo on their wall. Months away from her shop\u2019s 20th anniversary, she demonstrates an unwavering taste level and steady faith in the city\u2019s lively design community. Ahead, Davis discusses the art pieces she can\u2019t stop thinking about, why she maintains a few pieces the price of the average American annual salary, and how she\u2019d change the Houston style if she could wave a magic wand.<\/p>\n

\"Ruth<\/p>\n

\nRuth DavisCourtesy of Found\n<\/p>\n

Tell me about your career background before the shop.

\nI started out in fashion and realized, I\u2019m not going to make much money in this. I went back and got an MBA in finance and was a banker for a few years, and then retired to raise my two girls. By the time they got into high school, I was like, I cannot chair another committee, and they didn\u2019t need me as much. I had time on my hands, and this opportunity presented itself. My husband was very supportive. He was a chief financial officer for a major American retailer; nothing to do with furniture, but he knew the retail business. He got us all set up, and that was in 2007. It\u2019s always been just the retail store. When we started, I had a business partner who did design work, but I\u2019m not a designer. But you certainly learn a lot from working in this business after almost 20 years.<\/p>\n

How would you describe the store\u2019s aesthetic?

\nI hate the word eclectic, but it applies. It\u2019s a little funky. I might have something 18th century mixed with something midcentury [along] with new things, which I think makes everything more interesting. If we have a pair of antique chairs that we re-cover in a Pierre Frey<\/a> fabric, it makes them more fun and interesting, I think.<\/p>\n

What is your location like?

\nWe are in the middle of town near the River Oaks District. River Oaks is a very nice place to live. We\u2019re convenient to the Galleria and Westview and Memorial, the more affluent neighborhoods in Houston.<\/p>\n

Who is your typical customer?

\nDefinitely most of my business is to the trade. I\u2019m a retail store and anybody that walks in can buy anything, but designers generally use us a week or two before an install<\/a>. They come in, take pictures, go back, look at where they have holes. They email us and they may take $20,000, $30,000 [of merchandise] out on approval and put it in the house. I\u2019m happy if 80 percent of it stays. Sometimes when they see it in place, the owner gets it and says, \u201cOK, yeah, we need this.\u201d We find a lot of success with letting designers we know do this on a regular basis.<\/p>\n

What is your sourcing process like, especially given your wide range of items and styles?

\nI go to High Point Market<\/a>, to Shoppe Object<\/a> in New York. I go to France, Belgium. I go to the Atlanta Market<\/a> sometimes; Atlanta has a lot of dealers who go to Europe, bring containers back, and want a quick turn. I can go to Atlanta and then have those things in the shop two or three weeks later, so it\u2019s a very productive place to go. I\u2019ve been visiting Maine in August because it\u2019s so darn hot in Houston and shopping there. A lot of it\u2019s a little too Northeasterny, but the prices are good. I\u2019ve been to Maison&Objet<\/a> in Paris. I am looking for new sources, though, because I\u2019m finding High Point is getting really expensive. Of course, Roundtop has been expensive. I haven\u2019t been to Brimfield, so that\u2019s kind of on my list, as is West Palm Beach. Switching it up is daunting.<\/p>\n

And I just started using Faire<\/a> a couple of months ago. I got their emails forever and said, Oh, I don\u2019t know. I like to go and meet people and look at things [in person], but I found it very easy, and the minimums are usually lower. If I just need to fill in with baskets or something, I don\u2019t need a huge order. It\u2019s really very productive.<\/p>\n

\"Davis<\/p>\n

\nDavis says chairs are her favorite category to shop for.Courtesy of Found\n<\/p>\n

What\u2019s your favorite category to shop for?

\nI love chairs. I call them personality chairs or purse chairs. They\u2019re not good for much else other than putting your purse on them, but they bring so much personality to a project. I\u2019m always looking for interesting chairs that we can reupholster in a fun fabric. I have too many chairs in my house right now. We built a house about 10 years ago, and I had this fabulous chair that was quite large and we just never found a place for it. I sold it and I still regret that.<\/p>\n

What product flies out of the door?

\nTwo things: I\u2019ve got a lot of different easels<\/a>. I wish it were something that cost $1,000, not $50, but for some reason they were on the website and Google figured out that we were selling easels. They\u2019re just not worth the time and effort to ship them out, so I took the cheaper ones off the website. And we have a lot of ceramics<\/a>\u2014these kind of wavy [vessels] in different sizes and colors, which are made by a local Houston ceramic artist. We do really well with those.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s your approach to e-commerce? I\u2019m sure it\u2019s evolved a lot over 19 years.

\nWhen we started, we had a website that just had our address and a couple of pretty pictures. We are about to launch an updated website that\u2019s a little fresher. We are definitely getting more traction selling things online, but it is a huge effort. I find that a lot of designers in Houston use the site even before they come in, to put their eye on things that they want to see in person. So it\u2019s not only for e-commerce, but for the trade to peruse the inventory. They know they can own that, they can email it to their client, it\u2019s got the dimensions. But it is a huge job to keep it current.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the Houston design scene like? It\u2019s got to be one of the most bustling in the U.S.

\nIt\u2019s very active, and a very supportive community [of people] who all know each other. A big thing I\u2019ve thoroughly enjoyed with this job is getting to know all these very creative, talented people. On the whole, Houston\u2019s more traditional, whereas our shop is a little funky, and if I could wave a wand, I would make the city more accepting of something different. I like some funky things! Like, I had this very large neon ice cream cone. A funny story from a long time ago: My husband, like I said, was the CFO for a large retail company. We sent an email out about this new neon ice cream cone we got from an ice cream store, and my husband was like, \u201cThis is what I\u2019m talking about. You shouldn\u2019t be buying stuff like this!\u201d Then I opened up my computer and the very first email in my inbox says, \u201cWell, how much is this? Can you put it on hold for me?\u201d One time I bought a huge Oreo cookie made out of Styrofoam. It was so neat. I thought, This should be in a traditional River Oaks home, over the sofa. I mean, I don\u2019t know where it ended up, but that\u2019s where I would\u2019ve placed it.<\/p>\n

Have you ever felt pressure to change the style of your store, or did you adapt to trends over the years?

\nNot really. I\u2019ve been doing it long enough, and I want to do what I want to do.<\/p>\n

\"This<\/p>\n

\nDavis says that the assortment at Found is decidedly funky, mixing 18th century antiques with newer pieces to keep things interestingCourtesy of Found\n<\/p>\n

You have a wide price range, and some pieces are really expensive. Do you just have faith, or the knowledge over all this time, that you will find a buyer for them?

\nWell, we do have an e-blast template that says, \u201cWhy is this still here?\u201d Sometimes the best stuff\u2014to me\u2014doesn\u2019t sell, and so we promote it like that. But yeah, prices are very high right now, and it makes me nervous; sometimes I feel like I\u2019m buying too many small things because at least the smaller things have a smaller price tag. It\u2019s really hard to find a chest or a big piece of furniture that\u2019s not crazy expensive. Sometimes you just have to go for it.<\/p>\n

How often does that e-blast go out?

\nOh, every couple of months. We\u2019re kind of making fun of ourselves, I guess. But it\u2019s true, sometimes the best stuff doesn\u2019t sell as easily as something more ordinary.<\/p>\n

But as the owner, you get to follow your heart and pick what you like.

\nExactly. Pick what you like. I\u2019ve got four pieces of artwork<\/a> that I bought at a Paris flea market. Do you know Helena Rubinstein? They were sketched by a French artist, [Jean Pag\u00e8s,] in her salon, and they\u2019re literally ripped out of his sketchbook. He went on to be hired by Cond\u00e9 Nast in New York. I wanted them to be purchased together, for a woman\u2019s dressing room, and they didn\u2019t sell, so now I\u2019ve split them up and they\u2019re individually priced. I just think they\u2019re so fun and different, and they\u2019ve got a story. I may bring one home with me now.<\/p>\n

What are some of your hopes for the future of the business? Any categories you\u2019d like to add?

\nAs I mentioned, we\u2019re making a lot of [exclusive] things with ceramics. We\u2019re also doing metal and marble, and I would like to do more in upholstery. Right now, a lot of our upholstery is vintage, and I\u2019m thinking about adding an upholstery line made here in Houston so we can have a faster turnaround and customizations. That\u2019s what I\u2019m working on right now.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s your favorite day in the shop?

\nWell, buying is my favorite thing to do, but that\u2019s not in the shop. I don\u2019t always know the end client, but over the years I have had a lot of people come in and say, \u201cOh, this designer did my home, and some of my favorite things in my home came from Found.\u201d Or \u201cIt\u2019s the thing that guests comment on the most.\u201d That always makes me feel good. And a favorite day is when a lot of people are coming in, putting stuff on hold, and pulling for a project!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In Business of Home\u2019s series Shop Talk, we chat with owners of home furnishings stores across the country…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":390956,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57,137696],"class_list":["post-390955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-this-retailer-wants-to-see-more-irreverence-in-houston"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390955\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}