RQ Designs Brings a
Fresh Eye to Camp Bowie
By Stephen Montoya
Briana Moss has always had a soft spot for furniture other people might overlook. Fifteen years ago, what started as a hobby of refinishing pieces at home slowly turned into a business. Now, the woman known as the “Refinishing Queen” has brought RQ Designs to Camp Bowie Boulevard, opening a storefront at 5800 Camp Bowie Blvd. this summer.
Moss didn’t exactly set out to become a furniture refinisher. She is a nurse by profession, and refinishing furniture began as something she did for fun. Then people started seeing what she was doing and asking if she could do the same for them.
“One way or another, it turned into a business,” she says.
Before coming to Fort Worth, Moss had a storefront in Aledo. But she already had a following in Fort Worth, where customers kept telling her the same thing: Come closer. She knew she wanted to be on Camp Bowie and waited for the right spot.
The right spot appeared almost by accident.
“I was driving by and saw a hanging sign for lease on this space,” Moss says.
She went in, met the realtor, and expressed her interest while the space was still being built out. By the end of June, RQ Designs was open for business in the shopping center that includes Mama’s Pizza and Aventino’s.
The store extends the way Moss approaches furniture: Find something with good bones, give it some attention, and see what it can become.
RQ Designs carries refinished and new furniture, along with home décor, art, florals, candles, and gifts. Moss describes it as a one-stop shop for decorating a home or office, but the store is deliberately different from a place where rows of identical pieces wait to be taken home.
“I pride myself on finding really unique pieces that you don’t see elsewhere,” she says. “It’s really kind of a very curated, eclectic look.”
The refinished furniture remains central to the store. Moss likes older pieces because they were often built to last, and she enjoys figuring out what they need to become useful again. Sometimes that means changing the hardware. Sometimes it means a new paint color or stain. And sometimes it means looking past an exterior that seems hopelessly dated.
“I just love updating things that people would see normally as ugly,” she says.
A 1970s dining set with orange cushions and wood that looks like it belongs in another decade, for example, might not seem like an obvious candidate for a modern home. But with new fabric, paint and stain, Moss says, the same piece can take on an entirely different character.
Much of the furniture in her own home has gone through the same process. Refinishing has a practical appeal — it can be more cost-effective than buying new — but Moss also likes the idea of keeping well-made furniture out of the landfill and giving it another chapter.
That is where the business becomes personal.
“It’s so rewarding,” she says emphatically.
What began as a hobby still gives her the same feeling 15 years later. She enjoys seeing customers discover a piece they love, take it home, and imagine keeping it for years.
“It’s such a source of pride, and it makes me so happy that other people love what I do,” Moss says.
The new Camp Bowie location has given her another reason to be excited. In the first few weeks, she says, business was already extremely busy. Some customers came because they knew her work. Others simply happened to be walking or driving through the area.
“So much of [the business] has grown organically by people just driving by and coming in,” she says. “That’s been super exciting.”
That kind of organic traffic has been particularly encouraging. For Moss, it was proof that she had landed in the right place.
Inside, Moss has created a similarly approachable environment. She works with a small crew of women who share her interest in décor and home design, and she wants the store to feel relaxed rather than intimidating.
“Decorating, after all, can be intimidating enough,” she says.
Sometimes, she says customers bring in photographs of their homes and ask for help. Maybe an empty wall needs art. Maybe there is a piece they love but no idea what to put around it. Moss is happy to help build the vision.
“Just find something that you love and work from there,” she says. “Just take it in small steps. You don’t have to tackle the whole project at once. And ask for help.”
Now, inside a new storefront on a busy stretch of the boulevard, Moss is still doing what she has always done — looking at something that has been overlooked and seeing what it could become.
“Refinishing furniture is just something I’ve really enjoyed,” Moss says. “And I guess I’m good at it, and people like it. It’s just so exciting to see everyone’s response so far.”