Houzz Tour: Spec Home in Austin Gets a Personal Touch
Custom finishes and local art bring a breath of fresh air to this contemporary Texas home
Jess McBride
January 4, 2018
Houzz Contributor. Custom decorating professional and content creator for the home design industry with a lifelong passion for color, pattern, and texture of every "stripe"
Houzz Contributor. Custom decorating professional and content creator for the home... More
Photos by Merrick Ales
House at a Glance
Who lives here: A fun-loving family with three young kids
Location: Austin, Texas
Size: 3,788 square feet (352 square meters)
Designer: Christen Ales
Designer Christen Ales started working on her clients’ new home before she’d even met them. She had been working with a builder, selecting the lighting and finishes for a fresh, modern spec home. When a couple with three children bought the home, they were so impressed with the finishes that they brought in Ales to decorate the entire house.
Ales’ goal was to create a minimalist but warm look with clean lines and wood elements, adding meaningful art and colorful fabrics to bring life to the spaces.
Here, the open kitchen leads directly to the backyard pool area through a set of sliding doors.
House at a Glance
Who lives here: A fun-loving family with three young kids
Location: Austin, Texas
Size: 3,788 square feet (352 square meters)
Designer: Christen Ales
Designer Christen Ales started working on her clients’ new home before she’d even met them. She had been working with a builder, selecting the lighting and finishes for a fresh, modern spec home. When a couple with three children bought the home, they were so impressed with the finishes that they brought in Ales to decorate the entire house.
Ales’ goal was to create a minimalist but warm look with clean lines and wood elements, adding meaningful art and colorful fabrics to bring life to the spaces.
Here, the open kitchen leads directly to the backyard pool area through a set of sliding doors.
A half wall that demarcates the kitchen and dining room also doubles as a buffet and serving bar. “If it wasn’t there, the space would feel too open,” Ales says. For the custom cabinetry, the designer chose a modern flat-panel door style.
Slab-Style Cabinetry Offers Flexibility and Value
Slab-Style Cabinetry Offers Flexibility and Value
The waterfall countertop is another streamlined feature. “With the kitchen being white, we needed some more pattern or texture, so the countertop is real quartzite with a marble look,” Ales says. Many find quartzite every bit as elegant as marble. It’s also stronger, less porous and antimicrobial, making it a functional choice as well. Using a waterfall drop on either side of the island mirrors the symmetry of the wall cabinets on the range wall, which are bordered in natural wood to add another warm, textural element.
Find quartzite countertops
Find quartzite countertops
Ales added color in the room with a quartet of bar stools covered in performance velvet slipcovers. The fabric is made to withstand stains and roughhousing, and slipcovers make for easy cleaning.
This photo gives you a sense of the first-floor layout: Every room has its own identity and is distinguished by the judicious use of half walls, but the overall floor plan is open.
Open Plan Not Your Thing? Try ‘Broken Plan’
Open Plan Not Your Thing? Try ‘Broken Plan’
Ales put a strong emphasis on art, and the gallery-white walls allow it to shine. The designer partnered with art advisor Alicia Emr to find just the right pieces for each room. For the dining room, Emr selected a painting by local artist Jill Lear that depicts a native Texas tree.
The console table in the background and artwork by Court Lurie above it mark the entryway; there’s an office back there that the designer and the clients are still working on.
Find interior designers in your area
The console table in the background and artwork by Court Lurie above it mark the entryway; there’s an office back there that the designer and the clients are still working on.
Find interior designers in your area
Because the dining area is relatively small and narrow, Ales didn’t want it to feel too heavy. She chose a leggy table with a glass top and found chairs with a black-brown chrome finish that coordinates well with the light fixture and adds some contrast to the white oak floors.
Ales decided to forgo a rug in favor of preserving the clean, open feel of the space. For the homeowners, not having a rug means one less thing to clean.
Ales decided to forgo a rug in favor of preserving the clean, open feel of the space. For the homeowners, not having a rug means one less thing to clean.
The living room, however, was designed around a rug — one from Turkey that the family brought from their previous house. Ales layered it over a larger sisal rug to scale up the look.
The fireplace surround and adjacent half wall are covered in the same stone used on the home’s exterior. Ales designed the media console, adding drawers to hide kids’ toys and bordering it in wood to match the kitchen cabinets.
The fireplace surround and adjacent half wall are covered in the same stone used on the home’s exterior. Ales designed the media console, adding drawers to hide kids’ toys and bordering it in wood to match the kitchen cabinets.
For the main living space, Ales wanted a piece of art that was both striking and meaningful, so Emr found a large-scale painting titled Take You With Us by Austin artist Elizabeth McDonald Schwaiger. The artist is known for subtle Catholic references in her work, and this particular piece resonated with the homeowners because its composition resembles that of Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper.
The master bedroom draws its color palette from the homeowners’ collection of blue-and-white Wedgwood china, which is displayed in this room on a media console across from the bed. The upholstered bed frame is from Room and Board and features a storage drawer underneath. The nightstands were custom-built by Weego Home to fit the height of the bed.
See more rooms with storage beds
See more rooms with storage beds
Ales likes to keep the main furniture neutral in a bedroom while bringing in pattern with art, pillows and window treatments. Here, art by Jill Pumpelly and a striking shade fabric from Kelly Wearstler are clearly the stars. “Wearstler’s aesthetic fit really well in the house,” Ales says.
The guest bathroom upstairs is simple but sophisticated, with a neutral but fun floor tile and long, symmetrical cabinet hardware.
Ales added a hexagon-shaped mirror to play off the patterned floor. One of the family’s daughters loves flamingos, so Emr sourced a small print of one and Ales framed it in white.
See more hexagonal mirrors
Ales added a hexagon-shaped mirror to play off the patterned floor. One of the family’s daughters loves flamingos, so Emr sourced a small print of one and Ales framed it in white.
See more hexagonal mirrors
For the nursery, Ales brought in gender-neutral gray with accents in mint green and coral. She wanted a place for the child to take naps and read books when she grows out of her crib, so she had a daybed built into the bay window. Now it’s the focal point of the room. A whimsical Caitlin Wilson fabric covers the daybed.
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More home tours: Apartments | Small Homes | Colorful Homes | Contemporary Homes | Eclectic Homes | Farmhouses | Midcentury Homes | Modern Homes | Ranch Homes | Traditional Homes | Transitional Homes | All
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Where did you get the coffee table, I love it. Thanks.
Interested to know where the living room coffee table is from. Thanks!
Maybe the small window in the bedroom is so there is an egress window (and one that doesn't look into the house next door.)