Inside a Custom Metal Workshop with an Interior Designer

About This Episode

After years spent designing spaces filled with meaning, moving on is never just about packing boxes: it is about honoring what came before and imagining what is next. Casey Brand begins the day saying goodbye to her former Houston studio, the place she has worked for almost eight years. She walks through the drafting table set by the bright window, the art and books she is keeping, antique horse medallions she has had mounted onto leather and fabric, and the podcast room where she records Reframing: The Art of Interior Design with Rainey Richardson.

From there she heads to an antique store on 19th Street in the Heights, a place she calls a live history channel, and reflects on the grandparents whose collected pieces first taught her that objects hold people’s stories. Over coffee and fries she refines sketches for new lighting concepts she hopes to develop with a maker.

That maker is Peck & Company, the Houston metalsmiths led by Levi Stovall, who had recently moved the shop after 35 years at its old location. Levi shows Casey a finish cabinet with more than 150 finishes, square bar twisted on a retrofitted industrial pipe threader, a cast bronze chandelier being restored, a brass-trimmed table in progress, custom mirror frames built to fit, bronze chairs being straightened and repolished, and the drapery hardware department that works hand in hand with designers and workrooms. He also explains how the shop rewires antique fixtures and gets them UL certified.

Out back is a yard of antique iron from around the world, including panels that predate welding and are notched and pinned together, waiting to become headboards, fireplace screens and tables. The visit ends at the forge with a scroll demonstration and a talk about training fabricators, planning a larger shop, and why handwork still matters. This is a day fueled by curiosity, creativity and connection, where inspiration is found in antiques, process, and the hands that quietly shape the spaces we live in.

“It's like walking through a live history channel.”

Casey Brand

What You’ll See

• A last walk through Casey's former Houston studio before the move
• Antique hunting on 19th Street in Houston's Heights
• Sketching custom lighting concepts over coffee
• A finish cabinet of more than 150 metal finishes and twisted bar made on a converted pipe threader
• An antique iron yard with panels that predate welding
• A hand-forged scroll demonstration at the forge