MOMENT IN THE SUN
Stunning Backyards, Balconies, Patios, And Pools In Central Texas GOING ZEN
Austin & The Hill Country
The JapaneseInspired Design Aesthetic Of A Lake Austin Residence
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AUSTIN HOME Inspiration For Your Space TKTK
SPRING 2020 / Vol. 15 / No. 1
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Editor’s Letter
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Indoors
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Austinticity
Elements Nole Creative makes colorful travel-inspired art prints for the home; spruce up your bedroom decor with Lublini’s design-yourown collection By Anna Mazurek
This lavish Central Texas home has pops of color, patterns, and even butterflies By Lauren Jones
Designed for just the two of them, this West Austin home suits its married owners perfectly By Sarah Thurmond
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My Space A family rebuilds their Westlake Highlands home to take advantage of its stellar vista By Laurel Miller
LARS FRAZER
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ents DROR BALDINGER
(Summer)
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Branching Out
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East Meets West
A country dweller moved to South Austin to live in a vibrant urban treehouse By Mauri Elbel
A whole-house renovation on Lake Austin seamlessly blends a Japanese-inspired design aesthetic with locally sourced materials By Lauren Jones
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Before Sunset
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Resource Guide and Ad Index
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Curtains
This Hill Country lake house gets an upgrade with a cabana and sleek pool By Erin Quinn-Kong
On the cover Photograph by Lars Frazer
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Austin & The Hill Country E DITOR IAL Editor-in-Chief Madeline Hollern Contributing Writers Mauri Elbel, Lauren Jones, Anna Mazurek, Laurel Miller, Erin Quinn-Kong, Sarah Thurmond
ADVE RTISING Publisher Stewart Ramser Associate Publisher Julie A. Kunkle Digital Sales Manager Misty Pennock Account Executives Mike McKee, Tina Mullins, Maxine Pittman Ad Sales and Sponsorship Coordinator Jillian Clifton
ART BUSINESS Creative Director Sara Marie D’Eugenio Contributing Photographers Dror Baldinger, Chase Daniels, Lars Frazer DIGITAL Digital Manager Abigail Stewart Digital Media Coordinator Rosie Ninesling
Mailing address 1712 Rio Grande St., Ste. 100 Austin, TX 78701 Phone (512) 263-9133 Fax (512) 263-1370 Subscription inquiries (818) 286-3160 or subscriptions@austinhomemag.com Advertising inquiries advertising@austinmonthly.com Job inquiries jobs@austinmonthly.com Letters to the editor amhome@austinmonthly.com Story ideas ideas@austinmonthly.com Postmaster Send address changes to Austin Home; P.O. Box 15815; North Hollywood, CA 91615-5815
© Copyright: Austin Home is published by Open Sky Media, Inc. The entire document of AUSTIN HOME is © 2020 by Open Sky Media, Inc. No portion may be reproduced in whole or in part by any means, including electronic retrieval systems, without the express written permission of the publisher. Editorial content does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the publisher of this magazine. Editorial or advertising does not constitute advice but is considered informative. AUSTIN HOME is locally operated. Occasionally we make our subscriber list available to carefully screened companies that offer products and services that we believe would interest our readers. If you do not want to receive these offers, please advise us at AUSTIN HOME Attn: Opt-out; P.O. Box 15815; North Hollywood, CA 91615-5815. Please include your exact name and address as it appears on your subscriber label.
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Editor’s Letter
As I write this letter, I have now been working from home for nearly four weeks.
These days, instead of writing and editing articles
Madeline Hollern, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
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MEGAN BEFORD
from our downtown office at my desk, I get my work done while seated atop my bed, on my couch, or at my dining room table inside my condo. Instead of meeting up with friends for dinners and happy hours, I socialize via Zoom, FaceTime, and phone calls, and daily exercise often involves walking up and down my stairs repeatedly. As with everyone, my life has completely changed in the wake of the shelter-inplace ordinance and social-distancing measures enacted to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. And with the disruption, a wave of feelings has erupted: anxiety, sadness, confusion, restlessness, hope, and especially gratitude. More than ever, I’ve begun to view my home as a sanctuary—a comforting place to take shelter as the sky feels like it’s falling and uncertainty reigns. That sentiment was echoed by many of the homeowners that were interviewed for this issue of Austin Home, including Jackie Davies, whose beautiful South Austin home is pictured on the cover and featured on page 42. “Given what is happening, it is such a blessing to be sequestered in this house,” Davies says. “There’s nowhere else I would want to be.” While I’ve always been a lover of the outdoors, I’ve really come to appreciate my time outside after being cooped up indoors so often during the pandemic. Just sitting in the sunshine on my patio or taking a walk around my East Austin neighborhood has proven so restorative during this unprecedented period. So, it worked out perfectly that we are featuring our annual Outdoor issue right now. In the following pages, we highlight homes with incredible patios, balconies, yards, pools, and views of nature. Whether the shelter-in-place ordinance ends by the start of summer or persists throughout the season, we can look to our outdoor home spaces to provide us with fresh air, a reprieve from the daily grind, and a much-needed sense of calm.
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ACCENTS AUS TIN DES IGN NOW
COURTESY EUN BARRON
Bali and Kyoto are just two muses for Nole Creative’s globally inspired art prints. Page 28
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AROUND THE WORLD
Local graphic designer crafts travelinspired art prints for the home In 2018, fueled by career burnout, graphic designer Eun Barron and her husband made a bold decision: They quit their jobs in Washington state and spent a year traveling to 13 countries with their two children. A former designer for cosmetic brands, Barron had also launched her own design studio, Nole Creative, in 2015. After their year of globetrotting, her family relocated to Austin, and Barron transformed Nole to focus solely on her art. “[My travels] really encouraged me to be influenced by other cultures and to be more creative,” she says. ¶ A shrine near Kyoto,
Japan, and a snorkeling trip in Bali were two of the many muses for her minimalistic art prints, which feature colorful landscape images such as a blue lagoon in Bali, a sun rising behind mountains in Chuncheon, South Korea, and a cloud forest dome in Singapore. Her creative process often starts with sketching onscreen with a digital pen, but occasionally, she begins with pencil and paper to organize her thoughts for the abstract pieces before translating the work digitally. To browse the full collection of framed and unframed art, visit nolecreative.com. —Anna Mazurek
Sweet Dreams her long-term goal was to offer a line of custom bedding and other woven fabrics. A decade later, she was able to develop her design-your-own offerings at long last. “Technology finally caught up!” she says. Now, customers can make bespoke design requests or choose from one of her 20 existing collections, with images that range from crystals to flowers to fine art. Digital mockups are created and emailed for preview before production begins, and all textile products are made in America from 100 percent organic or percale cotton. Aside from endless options in twin-to-king-size duvet and pillow covers, sheets, and bed skirts, Lublini also specializes in wall art, curtains, and nursery collections. Oh, baby! lublini.com —A. Mazurek
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COURTESY EUN BARRON AND LUBLINI INC
When Natti Lublini launched her eponymous home textile goods brand online in 2010,
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TA K I N G F L I G H T
This lavish Central Texas home has pops of color, patterns, and even butterflies As a project that took nearly three years from idea to execution, this family home in Leander Cove was certainly “a long time coming,” says builder Eric Olson of Olson Defendorf Custom Homes. Olson met with the homeowners in the summer of 2016 and began working on the near-6,000-square-foot property alongside architect Ranjit Gupta of Cornerstone Architects in January 2018. Hill Country Contemporary in style, the house features high-end custom finish-outs like hardwood flooring, Wolf and Subzero appliances, and stone, stucco, and metal accents. The buildout, which took approximately 14 months and was finished in March 2019, included construction of a large circular driveway, an
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advanced septic system, and the biggest overall challenge: a single-slab foundation big enough for the entire home. Mainly situated on a single story, the home has only one room upstairs, so they had to make sure that the foundation was “flat, true, and technically sound throughout, even on those parts that were half of a football field away,” Olson says. To solve the issue, the foundation was engineered with deeper and wider concrete beams and additional steel for reinforcement. Another sizeable element of the home is the back area, which has a 55-foot-long covered porch with room for a fireplace, grill, and pizza oven. “The back kitchen is bigger than ones I’ve built for inside of people’s homes,” he says.
CATE BLACK
By Lauren Jones
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Inside, the family worked with Martha O’Hara Interiors’ senior designer, Heidi Feliz-Grimm, who leads the Minnesota-based company’s Austin office and was called in to marry modern design with a touch of traditional. Unafraid to put full trust in the interior designer, the clients didn’t come with a “Pinterest board full of ideas like many do,” she says, but instead were very open and offered varying patterns and colors they liked. Leaning toward a natural palette but with pops of blue and orange, Feliz-Grimm made sure to include butterflies (per the wife’s request) on the outdoor pillows and custom ottoman in the master walk-in closet. She also chose a vibrant floral pattern for the dining room seating. “I love
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to mix in organic and geometrical patterns, so we decided to bring that organic look into the dining room with the dining room chairs, which also brought color into the space,” she says. Other special details throughout the house include the powder bath with a custom-designed vanity and a natural stone basalt floor, plus 3-inch by 12-inch porcelain tiles with a bit of shimmer in the master bath to keep the large room from seeming one-dimensional. “I always tell my clients that I want to create homes that others will look at and be inspired by,” Feliz-Grimm says. Indeed, good things come to those who wait.
CATE BLACK
Clockwise from top right: The master bedroom has jewel-toned accents and curved ribbing on the bedding, headboard, and lamp; the powder bath features a custom blue vanity and colorful wallpaper; the outdoor living area includes an alfresco kitchen and dining and lounge areas.
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Accents Austinticity
HIS AND HERS
Designed for just the two of them, this West Austin home suits its married owners perfectly
an Austin couple decided it was up to them to build their dream home. The duo wanted a large kitchen, spacious rooms and closets, and plenty of storage space. But, because they didn’t have children, they only needed two or three bedrooms. Despite some concern that building a 3,800-square-foot house with few bedrooms might hurt the home’s potential salability, the homeowners followed the advice of their architect, Philip Keil of Furman + Keil Architects: “Why spend all this money for somebody else? Just build the house for you.” So that’s what they did. Set off from the street by a long driveway—occasionally mistaken for a nature trail by unfamiliar strollers—the modern-day, three-bedroom Hill Country ranch house rests in a private meadow overlooking the Barton Creek valley. “You’re not that far from the city, yet it feels like you’re out in the middle of nowhere,” the husband says. The structure is divided into three “wings,” with one end containing the master suite, an office with built-in his-and-her workspaces, the living room, kitchen, and a dining room for six (they prefer intimate gatherings over big parties). The other end is a guest wing with two bedrooms that can be closed off for privacy by a hallway pocket door. An offshoot wing holds a gym, utility room, and a long hallway leading to the garage. Taking advantage of the beautiful setting, every room, including closets and bathrooms, has windows
DROR BALDINGER
By Sarah Thurmond
After years of searching for the ideal house,
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to let in natural light and offer views of either the valley toward the back of the house or the redbud trees in the front. A sliding glass wall in the living room opens onto a screened-in porch, bringing nature into the home. This is the couple’s favorite spot, a place to read, visit with friends, or just relax and watch birds congregate by the pool. For the decor, the couple requested soothing colors, patterns, and textures that could be easily exchanged over time. Inspired “to bring the outside in,” Beth Powers of Kopfer Taylor Interiors used earth tones for a base, then incorporated pops of purple throughout the house, such as in pillows, patio chairs, and the dining room rug.
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Other than the couple’s collection of Telluride Film Festival posters that line a hallway, there is very little art. Instead, wood functions structurally and as a visual element, like the oak panel wall in the living room and the built-in headboard for the bed in the master bedroom. But you can’t beat the natural art outdoors. “When [the redbuds are] blooming, you feel like you’re in this beautiful natural jewelry box,” Powers says. Ultimately, the couple desired more of a sanctuary than a home. “We wanted a place that felt like when you go on vacation. I wanted to miss my house when I went away,” the husband says. “And we do!” says the wife. “You always want to be here. You don’t want to go anywhere else.”
DROR BALDINGER
Clockwise from top right: White oak siding brings warmth and texture to the living room, and an oversized sliding door connects the room to the screened porch; custom kitchen cabinetry is detailed with a flush frame-and-panel design; the screened porch features views of the Barton Creek valley.
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Accents My Space Perched near the summit of The High Road VIEW FROM THE TOP
A family rebuilds their Westlake Highlands home to take advantage of its stellar vista By Laurel Miller
in Westlake Highlands, Jeannie and Hunt Cairns’ original 1971 two-story ranch house had a great location, but its views were largely obstructed due to its layout. Desiring an upgrade but not wanting to move, the couple hired architect Dianne Kett of DK Studio to design a new 3,651-squarefoot contemporary home with natural light and scenery in mind. An accounting manager at Austin-based national advertising agency GSD&M, Jeannie purchased the original woodsy property, situated on just under an acre of mostly flat land, in 2003. She met Hunt in 2013, and a year later, Hunt—a financial professional who was living downtown—moved in. The couple had numerous discussions on how best to update the deteriorating 3,067-squarefoot property; Jeannie was concerned a major renovation would lead to a “Frankenstein house.” Luckily, a bid from local builder David Bratton of Watermark Homes led the couple to realize it would be less costly to just rebuild instead. In early 2017, the couple consulted Kett, a long-time friend of Jeannie’s who specialized in
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The back of the house has a dazzling view of Mount Bonnell.
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residential and small commercial design. “She knows we like very clean, simple lines, nothing fussy, so we let her take the reins,” she says. Adds Kett, “You really need to understand how people want to live in their house to provide them with a design that fully supports them. Here, it was also about those incredible views; as you move through the house, there’s always a window capturing something—oak trees, sky, or great vistas.” Austin interior designer Helen Hagan of Helen Hagan Interiors did the fluid, minimalist-modern interior in a charcoal, cream, and neutral palette with brass accents and easy-to-maintain polished concrete floors. The effect is a soothing, Zen-like ambiance that Hunt says visitors find “comfortable despite the stark lines.” The Cairns family—which includes a teenage daughter, two dogs, two cats, and two hermit crabs—moved into their rebuilt house a year to the day after construction began. The new high-ceilinged home has a spacious second-story deck, a master bath with a “spa-sized steam shower,” a pool with a view and a screened porch, and expanded garage space, part of which acts as Hunt’s music studio. “I can’t describe the privilege of the location here,” he says. “The back of the house faces east, so there’s a view of Mount Bonnell, and the morning light is amazing.” Community is important to the family. Jeannie is an accomplished cook, and the couple loves to entertain, something Kett incorporated into the design. “The floor plan has a very easy circulation flow, allowing for large dinner parties, a spacious pantry, a marble-slab island with bar seating, and use of indoor/outdoor spaces,” says the architect. Hunt prefers to host gatherings on the screened-in porch, where a 16-foot glass telescoping door separates it from living room. The porch is anchored by a stunning 12-foot wood farm table just steps from the pool and hot tub. “It’s a great place to eat a casual lunch or dinner in your bathing suit,” Hunt says. Near the pool, raised concrete garden beds are also situated to escape the scorching midday heat, while an 8-foot fence (much of it hidden due to the ridge) keeps deer out and protects the dogs from coyotes. This time of year, the beds are bursting with herbs and plants like butterfly bush, planted to attract beneficial insects. But it’s the front yard that’s undergone the most dramatic landscaping transformation: A fence and decades’ worth of shrubbery were removed to open the space and highlight the towering live oaks, and the custom glass-and-steel front door has been crafted to bring the outdoors in. “Even when we travel, it’s nice to come back here,” Jeannie says. “There are not many hotels that are more comfortable or peaceful than our home.
Opposite page: Jeannie and Hunt Cairns stand on their secondstory deck above the screened porch. This page, from top: Interior designer Helen Hagan chose a charcoal, cream, and neutral palette throughout the home, including in the screened porch; the kitchen area has a spacious pantry and a marble-slab island with bar seating.
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East Meets West page 50
Before Sunset page 56
CHASE DANIELS
From a wabi sabi plaster hood in the kitchen to a Zen garden outside, this West Austin home is filled with Japanese-inspired decor. Page 50
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M AU R I E L B E L
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P h o t o g ra p h y b y
LARS FR AZER
Out A COUNTRY DWELLER MOVED TO SOUTH AUSTIN TO LIVE IN A VIBRANT URBAN TREEHOUSE
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The living room includes an oversized area rug by the Rug Company, a white linen sofa from Restoration Hardware, and upholstered chairs in a Schumacher wool sateen by De La Espada.
M More than a year after moving into her dream home–– an urban sanctuary tucked into the trees with a bird’s-eye view of the downtown Austin skyline—Jackie Davies still feels as if she’s living in a fantasy. “I have been here for a year, and I still go from room to room and pinch myself,” says Davies of her modern glasswrapped treehouse perched in an eclectic South Austin neighborhood. “I just love it all—it is so harmonious. There’s so much color. Each room looks like a piece of art.” Davies—who started Austin-grown restaurant delivery company Eat Out In in 1986 and propelled the company forward for three decades until she sold it in 2015—had lived in the country for 18 years, where she raised her daughter as a single mom. But the desire to be closer to downtown and spend more time with her daughter, whom she considers her best friend, prompted Davies’ move from the country to the city. “My daughter had bought a modern house in South Austin, and I just loved it,” Davies says. “But this was a total 180 for me. I was going from a Country French home surrounded by tons of acreage to a modern house in downtown Austin. I knew I didn’t want to feel hemmed in.” Inside her vibrant and playful urban retreat—a design collaboration between SLIC Design’s principal designer, Sara Cukerbaum, Joseph Design Build, and architect Ryan
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The modern home’s exterior is made of onyx brick, white stucco, and Douglas fir wood paneling.
Rodenberg—Davies feels anything but confined. Even during the interview, which took place in the midst of Austin’s shelter-in-place order this spring, she remained grateful to have to be “stuck” at home. “Given what is happening, it is such a blessing to be sequestered in this house,” says Davies, who credits Cukerbaum with creating a home she never wants to leave. “There’s nowhere else I would want to be.” The main living area sits on the second floor—a bright, open treehouse featuring 12-foot ceilings and oversized windows that bring in leafy views and sunlight, blurring the lines between inside and out. Playful colors and thoughtful textures add warmth and interest in the clean-lined, modern space featuring a well-edited art collection.
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“I didn’t want a black-and-white house; I wanted color,” Davies says. “And Sara nailed it. She is a businesswoman and a creator, and her eye and tastes are just impeccable. You just can’t teach that—I think that is innate.” Creating a clean and modern yet colorful and warm space actually began in the main living area with a patterned rug Cukerbaum found from the Rug Company. “It has these bursts of color that gave us so much to pull from, and we built everything else around that,” Cukerbaum says. “We wanted it to be bright and colorful and fun, and it really is.” Above the rug, Cukerbaum selected a bursting brass light fixture, an elegantly playful statement that creates a strong focal point in the room and plays off various brass
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The entry features a 4-foot-wide pivot front door. The steel-andglass railing ties in seamlessly to the glass entry, allowing the transparency to create a very open space.
“Jackie wanted color, and she wanted texture,” Cukerbaum says. “She didn’t want a super minimal house. It’s all still modern, but in a very fun way.”
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and glass elements inside the space. White oak floors flow throughout the house, highlighting the natural light that pours in from generous windows. Balconies extend from each room, giving way to surrounding greenery that creates natural privacy away from neighbors. One of the home’s most stunning design features is the custom steel-and-glass railing staircase, first seen as you approach the white stucco, Douglas fir siding, and charcoal brick home and enter through the glass front door. Outside, a tranquil breezeway connecting the home and garage flanks a serene pool, hot tub, and impeccably landscaped lawn featuring a covered patio. An elevator, installed to allow Davies to age in place, runs from the first-floor glassed entry to the rooftop, which features unparalleled views of downtown. Inside the airy kitchen, cabinets from Crystal Cabinets are finished in a smoky midnight blue, an eye-catching feature that contrasts beautifully with a row of white oak cabinets designed to match the floors as well as the white Silestone Calacatta gold quartz countertops, which provide texture and warmth with their gold and grey veining. “Jackie wanted color, and she wanted texture,” says Cukerbaum. “She didn’t want a super minimal house. It’s all still modern, but in a very fun way.”
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For example, the master bathroom features a tranquil white palette, but Cukerbaum created shape and movement by curating interesting patterns and curves like white trapezoid tiles by Emser, oval mirrors, and unique pendants that loop down from the ceiling. A free-standing tub sits serenely before an expansive window that frames the city’s skyline. And just beyond the master bathroom, Davies’ bedroom features oversized glass-and-steel pocket doors that create a continuity with the glass-and-steel staircase running through the house, while a custom wool sateen headboard extending from the bed to the ceiling echoes the smoky midnight color seen on the kitchen and bathroom cabinets. Davies, an entrepreneur at heart, admits it was an interesting journey during the design process to release the need to control everything and to surrender trust to Cukerbaum. But, in the end, it’s a decision the homeowner couldn’t be happier that she made. “Whenever I am in this house, I am just so grateful I listened to Sara,” Davies says of the interior designer. “There is such positive energy here—this is such a happy space to be in. There are just so many favorite spaces in this house. I love them all.”
This page: Floor-toceiling Emser tile adds subtle texture to the master bathroom, which has a view of the Austin skyline. Opposite page: The master bedroom features a Gubi chaise lounge in a pink mohair, a custom wool and silk area rug from Tai Ping, and a custom headboard in a Schumacher wool sateen designed by SLIC Design.
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By P h o t o g rap h y b y
L AU R E N J O N E S
C H A S E DA N I E L S
East Meets We s t
A WHOLE-HOUSE RENOVATION ON LAKE AUSTIN BLENDS A JAPANESE-INSPIRED AESTHETIC W ITH LO C A LLY S O U RC E D M ATE R I A L S
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K Kim and Jiro Okochi wanted a modern home that was not only beautiful and functional, but also paid homage to Jiro’s Japanese heritage. The couple, who moved to Austin in 2016 from New Jersey with their two children, quickly became captivated with a property on a cliff overlooking Lake Austin that had stunning 360-degree views. But when it came to the home itself, which was a traditional brick-andstucco two story built in 1989, they were less than impressed. “They loved the property but didn’t love the house, which had a labyrinth of rooms with differing circulations,” says architect Ed Richardson of Clark Richardson Architects, who was hired alongside his wife and business partner, April Clark, by the Okochis after they toured a home the firm had renovated in Lakeway. Ultimately, the home wasn’t livable as is for the family of four, and they knew a full renovation was in order. Thus, Richardson and Clark came up with a plan that would yield a contemporary and warm open-concept residence. One of the first challenges was maneuvering within the 1980s floorplan. “It was a renovation, which, in itself, is difficult,” Richardson says. “But we also had to accept many aspects of the house.” Because of zoning constraints, they
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couldn’t add any additional square footage to the existing first floor and had to get creative with the way they went about the entire architectural plan of the four-bedroom, five-bath house, carving out “vessels to create more open space.” For materials, the architects utilized a variety of locally sourced wood siding, limestone, and floor-to-ceiling glass windows to capture the views. They also went with darker interior finishes, an aesthetic the couple leaned toward.
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Corner glass doors slide open to a panorama of river, sky, and wooded hills. From the inside, that natural splendor is as much a design element as the curated material and finish palette.
“We absolutely loved working with Ed and April,” Kim says. “Because they are husband and wife, it really felt like we were working on a team project, and we really appreciated both of their perspectives.” The kitchen, which was originally facing the front yard, wasn’t taking full advantage of the views. There, the architects went with a light-meets-dark palette with plenty of space for family meals, plus a custom-made, hand-worked
Venetian plaster hood, tying in the Japanese concept of wabi sabi, which embraces the beauty in imperfection. There’s also a separate breakfast nook, where the family can often be found enjoying meals or lounging in the afternoons. “When you lay down and read a book in that nook, you can see all the way up the river,” he says. Across the central space lies the living room. “This house is about two different relationships,” Richardson says. “One
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is this idea of the kitchen facing off across an axis with the fireplace in the living room, while the other is the relationship between the views terracing throughout the deck and up through the main space.” As soon as you enter the home, “You see all the way through, and it’s a jaw-dropping moment when you realize the incredible expansiveness of the hills,” says Kim, adding, “The home is a feast for the senses.” The living room includes authentic Japanese tapestries from Jiro’s family (his ancestors were part of the Samurai class), plus a carved wooden fish that hangs in the center of the room, which is based on the Japanese practice of jizai
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kagi. History details that people used to cook meals over a sunken hearth in the middle of the home by hanging pots over the fire from an adjustable line in the ceiling. The fish acts as a 21st-century spin on the culinary tradition. The dining room, which features milled, hand-stained, and wire-brushed cypress with knots and patterning, is a second play on wabi sabi, while the pendant is an antique find from Round Top. One element that has largely remained from the original 1980s frame is the ceiling height, which is 9 feet in the main spaces but was slightly lowered in the dining room to support the second floor. And while this is unusual for a modern home, horizontal decorative elements,
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Opposite page: The kitchen, which blends American and Japanese aesthetics, features high contrasts, sumptuous textures, and personalized touches. This page: The entertainment room is a space for the family to play musical instruments and watch movies together.
massive windows with unobstructed views, and easy access to the outdoors keep the first floor feeling airy and open. Beyond the main hangout spaces, the family likes to gather in the entertainment room, which was actually where the original kitchen and laundry room stood and has a comfortable sectional and a projector for movie night. Outside, Richardson and Clark made a dramatic improvement by adding a sunken wrap-around patio that no longer blocked the views like the original. They redid the decking to line up to the edge of the pool for “a more minimal feel.” The home’s Japanese inspiration continues with the frontporch Zen garden that the homeowners planted themselves
with an entrance statue, a plastic washing bucket and stool with a built-in showerhead to cleanse and wash off before bathing in the tub, and an efficient mudroom for footwear of all sizes, as the family doesn’t wear shoes inside the house. Furthermore, the architects added an alcove for the family’s altar, a place where they remember their ancestors with pictures, candles, and the occasional offering. “They really nailed the aesthetic, and you begin to appreciate all the details starting from the second you walk inside,” Kim says. “I was as excited for the laundry room and mudroom as I was for the main spaces like the kitchen and dining room.”
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By
E R I N Q U I N N - KO N G
P h o t o g ra p hy b y
DROR BALDINGER
Before Sunset
A HILL COUNTRY LAKE HOUSE GETS AN UPGRADE WITH A WHIMSICAL CABANA AND SLEEK POOL
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E Every year from January through April, Nebraska-based philanthropists Kim and Tom Dinsdale escape the cold by heading south to their house on Canyon Lake, about an hour outside of Austin. Since purchasing the traditional Hill Country–style home in 2009, the couple has spent most of their time boating on the lake. But after 10 years of talking about it and admittedly “dragging their feet,” the couple pulled the trigger on adding a pool and cabana to the property. The result is pure magic. To create the ideal oasis, the couple turned to Heather McKinney of McKinney York Architects, who has worked with them on several properties in Nebraska and Texas. The modern cabana and sleek 28-foot by 48-foot pool are the perfect place to relax, swim, and entertain. “I call it my happy place,” says Kim, who is originally from the Lone Star State. “I can’t imagine not having it now.” The cabana and pool were built just downhill from the main house in an area that is surrounded by oak trees and features a stunning view of the lake. Twenty-foot-long glass walls on two sides of the cabana open completely, providing uninterrupted views of the water and blurring the line between indoors and out. “We were really pleased with the alignment of the views,” McKinney says. “You can look through the cabana, and the view of the lake is framed past the pool. Something about the composition is very soothing. Everything is meant to take your blood pressure down.” Inside the cabana, a 22-foot-long shuffleboard table is the star of the main room. (The game was a request
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With large windows and doors retracted into side walls, the alfresco pavilion captures breezes and views.
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The clean decor focuses on blues and whites that mimic the water on the lake. from Tom, who owns car dealerships in Nebraska.) Alongside the shuffleboard sits an extra-deep, blueand-white banquette that’s large enough for guests to sleep on when they visit. There’s also a full bathroom, a stocked kitchenette and bar, a teak dining table and chair, and an outdoor fireplace. Large fans create breezes on the hottest Texas days. “They’re doing a lot of outdoor entertaining,” says McKinney of the Dinsdales. “They find that they are living in that pavilion on a daily basis.” The clean and simple decor focuses on blues and whites, since the owners wanted to mimic the water and being on the lake. Every detail was considered, including a subtle nod to the lake’s waves with abstract waves on the bathroom tile. “Kim has lovely taste, and she has a little bit of whimsy to what she likes,” McKinney says. “They wanted it to really feel like a pool house. All the fabrics are outdoor fabrics, so they can sit around in their swimsuits.” Because the property slopes, McKinney had the idea to add a garden on the roof of the cabana, so the Dinsdales could look down on wildflowers from their house. The rooftop garden provides a habitat for birds and butterflies while preventing deer from eating the plants and flowers. The garden is dotted with native plants and grasses that change from blues and purples in the spring to yellows and reds in the summer. “I’m originally a Texas girl, so bluebonnets are near and dear to me,” Kim says. The Dinsdales had a blast working with McKinney and her team on this latest project. “Heather is amazing to work with—the way her brain works and her demeanor and ability to manage all situations,” Kim says. “Whenever there are challenges, she always says, ‘Let’s find a way.’” Now that they’ve been using the cabana and pool for almost a year, Kim says the couple only has one small regret: “The pool has been the greatest thing we ever did,” she says. “We spend so much time down there—in hindsight, we would have made the cabana even bigger and added more cooking equipment.”
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Dotted with native plants and grasses, the rooftop garden provides a habitat for birds and butterflies.
The random-patterned tile of the pavilion bathroom mimics shapes in nature.
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The interior of the cabana features a 22-foot-long shuffleboard table and an extra-deep, blueand-white banquette.
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Resource Guide Prospect Architecture prospectsw.com
Elements, Page 28 Lublini lublini.com
SLIC Design slic-design.com
Nole Creative nolecreative.com
East Meets West, Page 50 Clark Richardson Architects clarkrichardson.com
Indoors, Page 30 Cornerstone Architects cornerstonearchitectsllp.com
Before Sunset, Page 56 McKinney York Architects mckinneyyork.com
Martha O’Hara Interiors oharainteriors.com
Curtains, Page 64 Matt Garcia Design mattgarciadesign.com
Olson Defendorf Custom Homes odcustomhomes.com
AD INDEX
Austinticity, Page 34 Furman + Keil Architects fkarchitects.net
Anthony’s Patio, Page 24 anthonyspatio.com
Kopfer Taylor Interiors kopfertaylor.com
Arete Kitchens, Page 23 aretekitchens.com
My Space, Page 38 DK Studio Architecture studiodk.com
Austin Granite Direct, Pages 4-5 austingranitedirect.com
Helen Hagan Interiors helenhaganinteriors.com
B. Jane Gardens, Page 7 bjanegardens.com
FEATURES
Cantera Doors, Page 18 canteradoors.com
Branching Out, Page 42 Joseph Design Build jdbatx.com
My Space, Page 38
CDC Carpets & Interiors, Page 33 cdccarpets.com
Austinticity, Page 34
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LARS FRAZER AND DROR BALDINGER
ACCENTS
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CG&S Design-Build, back cover cgsdb.com
Kuchenalia, Page 9 kuchenalia.com
CountertopSmart, Page 37 countertopsmart.com
Levesque & Co., inside back cover levesqueco.com
Dalgleish Construction Company, Page 13 dalgleish.net
Luxury League Austin, Page 12 luxuryleague.com
David Wilson Garden Design, Page 10 dwgd.com
Native Edge Landscape, Page 63 nativeedgelandscape.com
Four Hands Home, Page 15 fourhands.com
Olson Defendorf Custom Homes, Pages 2-3 odcustomhomes.com
Jauregui Architect, Page 19 jaureguiarchitect.com
Plush Fabric-Home Interiors, Page 40 plushhomefabric.com
RisherMartin Fine Homes, Page 1 rishermartin.com
Tim Cuppett Architecture + Interiors, Page 11 cuppettarchitects.com
Schroeder Carpet, Page 31 schroedercarpet.com
Urbanspace Interiors, inside front cover urbanspaceinteriors.com
Shoal Creek Nursery, Page 29 shoalcreeknursery.com Skandinavia, Page 6 skandinaviatexas.com SWING Door Company, Page 25 swingdoorcompany.com The Natural Gardener, Page 35 tngaustin.com
Vuse, Page 8 vusevapor.com Wally Workman Gallery, Page 26 wallyworkmangallery.com Wilson & Goldrick Realtors, Page 14 wilsongoldrick.com Zach Savage Homes, Page 21 zachsavagehomes.com
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Curtains
Water Works
CASEY DUNN
To suit his clients, who are avid runners, residential designer Matt Garcia of Matt Garcia Design created this outdoor shower space for their West Austin home. “They wanted a spot where they could rinse off and cool down outdoors after a run without going inside,” he says. Read more about the home at austinmonthly.com/ stratfordcreekrambler.
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AUSTIN HOME For Your Space AUSTIN HOMEInspiration Inspiration For Your Space THE OUTDOOR TKTK ISSUE
SUMMER2020 2020//Vol. Vol. 15 15 // No. No. 21 SPRING
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