By DAVID KAPLAN via HOUSTON CHRONICLE

There may be no store like Kuhl-Linscomb in the world. The high-end Houston retailer is the size of some supermarkets, filling 70,000 square feet of space in five buildings with everything from greeting cards to modern chandeliers that sell for thousands of dollars.

Asked if they will add more buildings to their campus, owners Pam Kuhl-Linscomb and her husband, Dan Linscomb, give the impression they might.  "I would love to have a restaurant and tea room," said Kuhl-Linscomb, her face lighting up.  "Don't start that," her husband replied.  They work together 12 hours a day, seven days. They have no children, they noted, and the store is like their child.  "When we go home, we're still looking at magazines and arguing about the store," he said.

What they agree on is a stylish, playful, eclectic collection of things for the home. Categories at the store on West Alabama in the Upper Kirby District include gifts, apothecary, fragrances, bedding, bath, kitchen, baby and children, home accessories, jewelry, music, pets, cards, books, furniture, garden, lighting, and antiques. Much is high-end.

The ambitious concept makes a profit, the owners say.  Among the thousands of items there: A modern take on the antler chandelier, made of ceramic and costing $5,900; a stylish cardboard longhorn trophy, starting at $28; and a chalkboard table cloth that kids can color on for $57.

Pam Kuhl-Linscomb runs the store day to day. It can be overwhelming, staying on top of all the categories, going on buying trips around the world, and keeping up with every employee and customer issue, she said.  Asked why there aren't more independently operated stores on this scale, she said: "Nobody's crazy enough to do it. It's too hard. You have to have a passion and put your heart and soul in it."

Kuhl-Linscomb has to be as big as it is to be viable, she said.  "Originally, we had only one building, but we soon realized that to get people truly serious about buying here, you have to expand each category significantly," she said. "Otherwise you're just a gift store."

The recession killed many luxury retail shops, but Kuhl-Linscomb survived with simple adjustments. For example, they added more sterling and costume jewelry at the expense of gold. Pam Kuhl-Linscomb also credits her "artistic, talented and devoted" staff.  Kuhl-Linscomb is in a perfect position, said Howard Davidowitz, chairman of Davidowitz & Associates, a national retail consulting and investment banking firm in New York. The luxury sector has made a strong comeback, and specialty luxury is doing particularly well, he said.  Independently owned luxury retail is not unusual, he said. What is extraordinary about the Houston store is its scale.  "Dan and Pam are retail visionaries," said renowned New York-based home furnishings designer Jonathan Adler, whose products are sold in the store. "The experience of going there is fun and luxurious."

Robert Munzer, co-owner of Cornell & Munzer, a San Francisco-based trade agency representing modern European furniture collections, some of which are at the store, said he has seen only a few independent stores on the level of Kuhl-Linscomb: Andreas Murkudis in Berlin, 10 Corso Como in Milan and Colette in Paris.  Those European stores focus more on smaller items and have more of a fashion focus, he said, while Kuhl-Linscomb's strength lies in products for the home.  Customer Annsley Popov described the store as "a nugget of heaven right out my back door. I never expected to find such fabulous and unique items in one store."

Pam Kuhl-Linscomb studied fashion and design at the University of Texas and then did management and buying for department stores. A few years after she started a design firm with Richard Holley in 1984, House & Garden Magazine included them among "the best American designers working today."

In 1971, Dan Linscomb founded what would become Linscomb & Williams, a Houston-based wealth management firm with more than $3 billion in assets. He is still fully involved with the firm, he said.  They met a gas station. She couldn't locate the gas cap of her rental car, and he found it. They married in 1991.  They first took some retail space at Decorative Center Houston in 1994 and moved to the current location seven years later. They had to sink personal funds into the concept, because most banks considered it too risky, Linscomb said.

On top of everything else, Pam Kuhl-Linscomb looks after her dog and four cats that hang out at the store during the day. They are all rescues. She has also saved baby opossums and a number of birds that fell out of trees.  "I should have been a vet," she said.