About

It didn’t start here, but it did.

My university education is rooted in architecture and art history, but it is my long history of art-based work (and accumulation of design books and magazines) that informs my skills and aesthetic in interior design.

Since 2005, I’ve worked as a gallerist, art framer, seamstress, upholsterer, workroom manager, and interior decorator and designer. In 2007, I started Spruce, a workroom and design studio specializing in hard-to-find textiles, furniture transformations, soft furnishings, upholstery education and interior design.

At its inception, Spruce was a fresh perspective in the traditional field of upholstery, and it garnered attention from bright and bold prints on unconventional furniture pieces. We also did the labor-intensive work ourselves, which was unusual at the time for a team of young women.

I taught classes and wrote articles for HGTV, Design*Sponge and various other publications, and authored Spruce: A Step-by-Step Guide to Upholstery and Design (Storey Publishing, 2013). As the business grew, my role naturally shifted towards interior design. My business was already fabricating custom furniture, draperies and other soft goods for clients and designers, and my expertise in these areas and knowledge of architecture and art history gave me the eye and experience to put together beautiful spaces.

In 2014, I had my first child, then another in 2015, and a third in 2018. When Covid hit, Spruce got even busier, and what started as a passion for creating beautiful furniture and spaces transitioned into HR, financial planning, and business management. Life felt out of balance.

In 2021, I sold Spruce and immersed myself in motherhood and family. I sought refuge in my own home and completed a full-scale restoration of our 1950s bungalow. A year later, I dipped my toe in home relocation, moving a small cottage from South Congress to our homestead in South Austin. In 2023, I searched Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana for another, larger home to move and found the Fox House – a two-story Colonial with a small backhouse, built in 1874.

And this is where it began.

Demo, deconstruction, relocation, reconstruction. Shiplap walls, wavy glass, long-leaf pine, and square nails. Reclaimed materials, window restoration, and lots of scraping and painting.

The project became much more than making a pretty space. Honoring the history and preserving the layers of the original home while infusing a new and functional aesthetic pushed me to the edge of my creative abilities and crystallized my intention behind interiors. I researched the people who were born and passed here – whose predecessors left their countries and sacrificed their lives to build this. one. home. The restoration and interiors needed to represent this strength, endurance, and timelessness.

Fox House 1874 is the relaunch of my interior design business inspired by honoring the past and creating something fresh yet lasting in the present. Let’s create a refuge that grounds and strengthens you, moves you emotionally and creatively, all while being livable and comfortable.

— Amanda Brown