Houzz Tours
Houzz Tour: Design Lessons From a Deluxe Spec House
This luxurious Austin home was built on spec, but you'd probably never know it if we didn't tell you. Discover 10 reasons why
Elements of a successful spec house can offer ideas for your own home remodel. Developer Becky Fuller creates high-quality, stylish homes with a passion beyond dollar signs: “My houses are kind of like my babies,” she says. “I really don’t want to let them go until everything is just right.” Read on to discover Fuller’s top 10 tips for designing a home to sell. You just may find inspiration for your own dream home.
1. Location, location, location. Fuller wholeheartedly believes in this old real estate adage. “Always try to find a good piece of property in a high-demand neighborhood,” she says.
As a tech executive, Fuller learned the value of bringing in top talent, and that lesson has extended to her career as a home builder. For this home, she teamed with interior designer Suzie Page of Page Home Design and Jodi Jacobsen and Kevin Alter of Alterstudio.
As a tech executive, Fuller learned the value of bringing in top talent, and that lesson has extended to her career as a home builder. For this home, she teamed with interior designer Suzie Page of Page Home Design and Jodi Jacobsen and Kevin Alter of Alterstudio.
2. Set the stage. “The key to a well-staged home is making it appear as if it isn’t staged,” Fuller says. Working with Page and Jacobsen, she chose furniture, art and accessories that add color and character to the space. “You don’t want people to know the house is staged the second they walk through the door,” Fuller says. “You want them to assume somebody lives there.”
3. Quality counts. Here, floor-to-ceiling sliding doors lead to an ipe wood deck. The original plan was for the arbor over the deck to be made from ipe too, but when Fuller heard that over time the slats would begin to bow, she nixed that idea in favor of more expensive steel slats. “Quality is everything in this business,” she says. “You don’t want people to buy your house and complain about stuff falling apart. You should be conscious of quality and willing to pay extra for it.”
4. An eye for details. Along with quality, Fuller also appreciates the importance of aesthetics. The kitchen of this home features quartzite counters and walnut cabinets. “We originally had a stainless steel refrigerator but it stuck out like a sore thumb, so I had it covered in a walnut veneer,” Fuller says. “If something isn’t working, you have to be willing to do it over and get it right.”
5. Keep up with trends. “Formal dining rooms just aren’t that important to many families today,” Fuller says. “I prefer to keep them open to the kitchen, but still want them to have their own individual character.” A sculptural chandelier, oversized art and an area rug help delineate the space from the kitchen.
6. Know your buyers. Fuller likes to include an office on the first floor in all her homes. “In Austin, so many people work in the tech industry and often work from home, it’s important to create a distinct workspace for them,” she says. A first-floor office can also easily transition to a guest room or a bedroom for an aging couple who can no longer utilize stairs.
Discover these 95 dazzling deskscapes
Discover these 95 dazzling deskscapes
7. Know where to make sacrifices. When it comes to making the most of a home’s square footage, Fuller prefers to make the living spaces larger and is willing to go a little smaller with the bedrooms and bathrooms. “Bedrooms really don’t need to be that big, especially if you make them feel bigger than they actually are,” she says. This master bedroom features high ceilings and a dramatic floor-to-ceiling sliding glass door that gives the illusion of more space.
8. Be willing to take advice. A sliding panel reveals a window running along the floor of the master bedroom that looks out to the backyard pool. “This clever window was completely the architect’s idea,” Fuller says. “I was a little suspicious at first, but it’s such a neat little surprise and it’s really pretty at night when the pool is all lit up.”
9. Work in the wow factor. Though the master bathroom might not be overly large, it’s definitely dramatic. High-end marble tiles, floating walnut cabinets and a skylight create a distinct space that’s likely to make most people completely forget about square footage.
Learn these important basics for designing a master bathroom
Learn these important basics for designing a master bathroom
10. Fix your mistakes. The backyard’s infinity pool was originally covered in a mirrored tile that Fuller describes as “stunning,” but the Texas summer sun caused a few of the tiles to literally pop off, so she had the pool recovered in a dark gray porcelain tile.
Builder: BF Homes LLC
Architect: Alterstudio
Design: Page Home Design
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Builder: BF Homes LLC
Architect: Alterstudio
Design: Page Home Design
Browse more homes by style:
Apartments | Barn Homes | Colorful Homes | Contemporary Homes | Eclectic Homes | Farmhouses | Floating Homes | Guesthouses | Lofts | Midcentury Homes | Modern Homes | RanchHomes | Small Homes | Townhouses | Traditional Homes | Transitional Homes | Vacation Homes
Location: Austin, Texas
Size: 5,400 square feet (502 square meters); five bedrooms, seven bathrooms
Six months into retirement, after working nearly 30 years as a tech executive, Becky Fuller was bored. She also knew that taking up a hobby like tennis just wasn’t going to cut it. She needed something to sink her teeth into, a new endeavor. “I had always loved real estate. I’m one of those people who like to go to open houses for the fun of it, so I decided to try my hand at flipping a house,” Fuller says.
For her first project, she bought a small house in Austin for $190,000, rehabbed it and sold it for $475,000. Since then, her projects have grown from flips to complete tear-downs. Her latest project is this contemporary gem with loads of custom features that go far beyond the typical spec house. It recently sold to a California couple for $2.9 million. Here are Fuller’s top 10 tips for successfully designing a spec home.