Colorful Home in River Ranch by M. Clare Designs

Retired oil and gas professional Vicki Milam had no need for an interior designer. But one day, she agreed to accompany a friend to a design consultation. Not for herself, mind you. Rather, just to support her friend. No matter that, Milam was planning to downsize the more than 3,000-square-foot home she shared for years with her late husband and — more recently — generously and frequently opened to host her sisters during their regular visits from out of town. After both sisters passed within a few months of one another, however, Milam put her downsizing plans in motion and realized she could use some help. The timing of that fateful design consultation she and her friend had with Clare Broussard of M. Clare Designs and House of Broussard couldn’t have been better. Milam was impressed with Broussard’s work and overwhelmed with the daunting moving project ahead of her.

“After the death of my two sisters, I was fragile,” says Milam.

Clare Broussard of M. Clare Designs and House of Broussard took cues from her client Vicki Milam’s former home, with its colorfully painted rooms, to create an equally colorful home landscape via vibrant patterned wallpaper and painting and upholstering the furnishings.

The new home Milam bought was in River Ranch and about half the size of her former residence. In addition to paring down a lifetime worth of furniture, décor and objets d’art, including Milam’s collection of Versace fine porcelain china, she had to navigate the home buying and selling process and seemingly endless items on a moving checklist.

“I was grieving and not in a good place,” says Milam.

Broussard grabbed the reins, walked Milam gently through the design process, streamlined decision making and, for the color palette, took cues from Milam’s former home, where the walls held the majority of the color. Rather than similarly saturating the walls in the new house with pigment, Broussard flipped the script by employing it in pops via patterned accent walls and colorful upholstery and soft goods, such as throws, pillows, upholstery and drapery. She used Milam’s favorite color, green, generously in a variety of shades throughout the home.

“Clare had my curio cabinets repainted to showcase my Versace collection, which my husband got me started on,” says Milam. Clare also refreshed Milam’s other existing furniture with paint and upholstery and sourced various pieces of furniture and art to fill in any gaps.

Big impact changes like removing barn doors between the living and dining rooms, and Broussard’s clever repurposing — such as transforming a pair of Foo Dog statues into lamps — make the home seem larger and enabled Milam to keep many items she may not have otherwise held onto.

Some might say Broussard went above and beyond the services generally associated with an interior designer. Not only did she help Milam parse through her home décor landscape and decide what to keep, sell or give away, but also, during the week of the move, Broussard arranged for her client to stay in a hotel while she and her team worked to get the entire house moved in, unpacked and decorated.

“I hadn’t seen the house for a week or so while they were finishing last-minute details,” says Milam. Clare set up the entire house, even stocking the refrigerator with food. “When they called me to come from the hotel, she had a spread of cheese and snacks laid out. The kitchen was set up, art was hung. She did everything.”

Amid her season of grief, Milam felt supported and uplifted by Broussard, who created a colorful  and homey sanctuary. Milam says she enjoys puttering around the space when she’s by herself equally as much as entertaining her children (including her biological and her step, or “bonus children” as she calls them), grandbabies, a niece who visits frequently from Houston and her group of fellow River Ranch widows who go by the name of the “Mother Cluckers.” One of the many cozy finishing touches installed in the home by Broussard is a plaque hung by the door in the garage.

“When I walk in, the plaque says ‘Happy Place’,” says Milam. “And it is.”