Go for it. Those are the three little words that every designer longs to hear, and the explicit directions that homeowner Lauren Biggs gave designer Annie Downing when she enlisted her to revamp her family’s “new” old home in Houston’s Piney Point neighborhood. “It’s not every day that you’re given the green light to think outside the box and do something different—no questions asked,” says the Austin-based designer. “But Lauren adores prints, patterns, and color and understands how powerful they can be when they are thoughtfully layered. It took a lot of trust on her part, but she will be the first to tell you that the risk paid off.”

The deep-purple breakfast nook is one such example of Biggs’s free-spirited design sensibility. Initially, Downing thought that if anything would scare her client, it would be the prospect of committing to such a statement-making color; much to her delight, that was not the case, so she trimmed the room in Benjamin Moore’s Elderberry Wine and upholstered the banquette and chair cushions in a laminated Fermoie linen featuring a contemporary, deconstructed version of a classic Buffalo check. The intoxicating grape hue warms up the cool blue-gray notes of the Bardiglio Nuvalato countertops and backsplash in the adjacent kitchen.

The designer took an equally unpredictable approach in the dining room. “Lauren and I are both drawn to beautiful hand-painted wallpapers, but the typical floral and chinoiserie styles felt too frilly and delicate for the way her family lives and entertains,” says Downing. “We had a major ‘aha’ moment when we came across Porter Teleo’s Floral Graffiti. It has the rich, artistic quality that we longed for, but it’s playful and more relatable for a crew like hers, who hosts more game nights and pizza parties than formal, sit-down dinners.”

In keeping with her clients’ wishes, Downing not only stretched aesthetic limits but also designed every room so that no space would be deemed “off limits” to their three preteen daughters, three pets, and constant parade of friends, neighbors, and foster animals who all enjoy the open-door policy. “It is a rare to have a weekend go by when we are not having some kind of impromptu get-together, hide-and-seek game, or cupcake-baking contest,” says Biggs. “I love that our home has become the ‘headquarters.’ I want to savor this stage when we can all have fun together under one roof, which is why it was important to me that the design support and encourage that sentiment.”

Despite describing the interiors as inviting and easygoing, Biggs loves that each room also conveys a sense of Old Hollywood glamour, thanks to the timeless appeal of original architectural details like paneling, molding, and plasterwork, now combined with sleek lacquered surfaces, stone, and avant-garde lighting. “The fixtures are exquisite in their own right, but when they are on, they create the most peaceful glow when the light bounces off the glossy walls,” says Biggs.

Walls in Lamp Room Gray by Farrow & Ball imbue a sense of calm that balances the high-voltage hues and prints throughout the house, but especially in the spaces they envelop: the living room and adjacent gallery-style hallway, where a saturated marigold velvet daybed, scalloped-edge coffee table, and abstract tiger-stripe runner pop with personality.

“Our family is not originally from Texas, so we came to Houston with a different design perspective,” says Biggs. “All of the homes here are amazing and picture-perfect, but we wanted something unique to our style and lifestyle. Clean and modern, but also warm and textural. A home that we could really live in because, for me, livability is the ultimate luxury.”