H
ugh Randolph was trying to avoid morning traffic when a detour took him right past destiny. “I took a side street and noticed this pretty little house I’d never noticed before. There was a For Sale sign out front and I thought – gee, that would make a really nice project for someone,” says Randolph, founding principal of Hugh Jefferson Randolph Architects in Austin, Texas. As luck would have it, a family he knew was in the market for a character home like the historic 1935 Greek Revival cottage in the Clarksville neighborhood. Just as quickly as they signed the purchase papers, Randolph’s architectural and design firm had a contract to begin renovations. “Our goal was to create a home that honored the past while not being overly reverential,” he says. “The homeowners fell in love with the charming curb appeal and traditional aspect of the older home so they did not want to do a complete tear down, but at the same time, they wanted to transform it into a place they could put their own modern mark on.” Requirements included adding on two new bedrooms and an extra bath for the homeowners’ two teen daughters. It also needed to be more functional and reflect the family’s lifestyle. For example, they love to cook, entertain and simply hang out together in the kitchen – so greater emphasis was put on creating a spacious, all-inclusive kitchen area rather than on having a sumptuous living room.
Opposite: Eschewing the traditional tiled kitchen backsplash, the homeowner instead found a fun wallpaper pattern that is protected behind durable, hygienic and easy-to-clean glass plating. This page: The pitched roof was rebuilt and raised four feet above where the original roof had been, and yet looks perfectly in place as if it had always been that way.
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