Barbara Hill, who was born in Beaumont and crowned Miss Texas in 1956, is an expert in both conventional and unconventional beauty. She has lived “with every style you can think of,” but some of her fondest memories are of the 1970s, when she turned her Houston house into a gallery, representing artists such as Daniel Buren and Sol LeWitt early in their careers. “Minimalism is where my heart is,” she says.
The first time Houston-based architectural designer Barbara Hill set foot inside what would become her future second house, a 100-year-old adobe in Marfa, Texas, she found a cramped warren of rooms filled to the brim with trash. The structure, originally built as a private dance hall, had lived through many incarnations, from a grocery and candy store to, more recently, a haven for detritus. Undaunted, Hill purchased the property and spent the next year and a half transforming the derelict building into a sophisticated and slightly rough-around-the-edges retreat. Here she shares the story of a true West Texas revival.
Designer Barbara Hill applies her polished take on minimalism to a traditional 1920s abode in Atlanta for a transplanted Houston family.
All of the money Barbara Hill poured into remodeling her 1960s condo in Houston was spent taking things out—and she couldn’t be happier.
When designer Barbara Hill decided to renovate her 1960s condo in Houston, Texas, she stripped the bathroom down to its bare bones and saw beauty in the blemishes.
