Leather bag maker, vintage dealer, and set designer Chad Isham has lived everywhere from Sweden and Little Italy to the inside of a 1970 Chevy truck while traveling across the country selling Guatemalan textiles. But he feels most at home in his twenties-era cottage on thirty acres south of Weatherford. The No. 1 house rule? Nothing plastic on the premises. “I’m inspired very much by primitive things that are made by hand—anything vintage or antique. Everything in my house has to have a story,” Isham says. Take a tour through Isham’s abode, filled with horseshoes, horns, and Western art and artifacts.
Chad Isham can often be found on the front porch of his home, looking out on the Brazos River Valley.
Photograph by Scott Slusher
"I basically acquire and then stick things in a spot where I feel they belong," Isham says. "I don't like for my home to look like it's decorated. It just kind of happens." The screen on the fireplace came from Old Home Supply in Forth Worth, and the vintage boots atop the mantel belonged to his grandparents.
Photograph by Scott Slusher
Isham still remembers finding his mustard-colored shirt at a Goodwill in Midland in 1983. His hide chair came from his parents' home in Mexico, and the vintage sign from a friend who used to work for him; she'd found it in a pasture at her family's ranch.
Photograph by Scott Slusher
Isham does all kinds of leather work, but bags are his greatest passion. His signature piece, the "Chiapas Bag," is named after his favorite state in Mexico.
Photograph by Scott Slusher
The horseshoe coat rack by the front door is a catch-all to store many of Isham's thrift store finds, as well as the leather pieces he makes.
Photograph by Scott Slusher
Isham studied art in San Miguel de Allende in the eighties and spent a lot of time around Mexico, importing one-of-a-kind pieces to a Dallas shop he ran for a while. The Mary statue came out of an old church in Mexico.
Photograph by Scott Slusher
Penelope the Pig came into Isham's life when his daughter wanted to have a pet pig four years ago. "I'm kind of stuck with her but love her dearly," he says. He also has a Barbados blackbelly ram, five dogs, sheep, a horse, and a cat.
Photograph by Scott Slusher
The artist has always loved horseshoes, and they appear in a variety of ways throughout the house and property.
Photograph by Scott Slusher
Chad's father bought this 1970 Chevrolet new and gave it to him a decade later. It's been used to drive all the way to Guatemala on buying trips, to follow the Grateful Dead, and as his home base when he lived out of it while traveling and selling Guatemalan textiles.
Photograph by Scott Slusher
The barn on Isham's thirty acres is where his sheep sleep and his chickens are housed. "I prefer living alone with space for all my animals that I love," he says. "I spent a lot of time in Mexico as a kid, where I was influenced by artists and eccentric people that my parents knew. I've always done my own thing, and that's when I'm happiest."
Photograph by Scott Slusher
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