By Lauran Claridge
Originally Published in Paper City Houston
We think Jill Brown was a mathematician in another life. Look closely at the geometry of her new shop: You’ll see loads of angels, from isosceles to right, but nary a curve. Brown admits she’s a perpetual student — her pulled-back, sophisticated antiques-and-lighting store (formerly home to Lewis & Maese) has all the trappings of grade school, from vintage maps to beautifully worn benches. Brown was reared on a Midwestern egg farm but lived in Belgium for several years and quickly assimilated the simple aesthetic she found there — one she made her own and brought stateside. Her eponymous shop houses antiques, vintage-style lighting and accessories and furniture from Belgium, France and Holland. The result fairly glows with pewter and zinc. Brown’s spot-on taste has found purpose in the most quirky objects, from sawhorses soldiering the weight of hefty butcher blocks to industrial furnishings such as carts with wheels.
