Tour an Extra-Cozy, Holiday-Ready Home In Houston

Moving into a just-built home is exciting. You’re the first ones to live there, everything’s new, and the potential is infinite. Only then you might realize that extra-large windows and soaring 10-foot-ceilings don’t exactly make you want to grab a throw and curl up on a couch. That’s the realization Fariha Nasir and Hassaan Anis had after they bought their Houston, Texas, house in 2019. “It had a lot of features we wanted, but it felt cold,” says Fariha. With 3,200 square feet to fill and no budget to hire jobs out, Fariha created the features she craved. She placed molding on walls, hung congenial wallpaper, painted rooms enveloping colors and dreamed up the best play area for her son, Zaki. The way she arranged furniture, hung art and mixed in textiles that remind her of Pakistan, where she and Hassaan grew up, also bolstered the cozy factor. Says Fariha, “Now it’s the most warm and welcoming place possible.”

Talk about epic DIYs: Fariha framed out the wall for a plug-in electric fireplace from Modern Blaze, did a concrete border, and put in a wood ledge topped with more concrete. Chairs with thick cushions (from Bassett Furniture) and a cute handmade coffee table grouped around it made a gathering spot even more enticing.

Fariha and Hassaan didn’t get to choose any of the finishes — the builder did — so they lucked out with gray-blue cabinets (try Lazy Gray by Sherwin-Williams for a similar look) and a marble subway tile backsplash. To cozy them up, Fariha put in brass knobs and cup pulls from Pottery Barn and a brass and black pendant by Rejuvenation. The piece of art above the cooktop (from Heirloom Print Shop on Etsy) and the one between the windows look nice and homey.

Faced with a room that had nothing interesting about it, Fariha installed picture-frame molding that she painted a complementary color to the kitchen cabinets (Motor City by Clare), and wallpaper by Magnolia Home. “The pattern reminds me of hand-loomed fabric from Pakistan called khaddar,” she says. The woven texture of the chairs from Target “is common back home. It all incorporates my heritage in a modern aesthetic.”