Built for a family seeking a greater connection with the property around them, this contemporary residence provides plenty of views in a modern, luxurious package. Located in Austin, Texas, the spacious two-story home was built by the well-known local firm Cornerstone Architects. Its exterior consists mostly of a sandy beige stone brick pattern, left roughly cut, and also includes dark wood siding on its upper portion. Black metal accents around doors and windows help create a contrast and to enhance the warmth of the light spilling from the structure’s tall windows. Those windows provide an expansive view of a slope behind the house, allowing the residents to see all of their property and much beyond.
Inside, the house is a marriage of aged materials and contemporary design influence. Ornate chandeliers and high-backed chairs mingle with glossy modern surfaces and bright spot lighting. The first floor’s public rooms make great use of thick, squared-off wooden beams running across their length and framing each entryway. Additionally, each private room has its own flavor, with a different color scheme and materials. Even with such differentiation, each room also follows the design ethos of combining vintage with the cutting edge of residential design, making the house both familiar and modern.
The design of the home is two stories tall, but the vertical impact of the building is minimized by its low-sloping roofline. The roof’s large overhang also helps to create a natural-looking cover for a patio area at the back.
Every material used on the outside of the dwelling is well-picked, creating a blend of warm tones and elegant surfaces. Two different types of wood are used outdoors as accents: a darker hue for sections of the major exterior walls and a light breed (which matches the home’s stone brick) for the underside of roof overhangs.
Inside the front entrance, one wall continues the stone pattern from the outside, effectively transitioning between the decor elements of the exterior and interior of the residence. Tall ceilings in all the public rooms allow for large windows and emphasize the light those windows bring in.
The main floor of the home is laid out around a fairly open central portion, with universal flooring throughout all the public rooms. Low-backed living room furniture and wide entry gaps between spaces help to unite them and give an overall flow to the level.
The overall decorative theme of the interior marries traditional formal influences with modern style, placing aged materials within the context of a contemporary structure.
The living room intentionally forgoes a single focal point in favor of two; a large, angled fireplace wall provides warmth and a TV mount, while a bank of windows at its right side gives a view out over the property.
Built-in storage solutions can be found throughout the house, reducing clutter and providing a convenient way to present items for display. This also frees up floor space where standalone storage might otherwise go.
Aged and weathered wood timbers are used extensively on the first floor, creating exposed ceiling beams and framing room boundaries. Again, this materials use shows the adaptation of aged materials for a modern purpose.
The kitchen is a blend of traditional suburban comfort and contemporary minimalism, with a marble-topped island and glass-backed stovetop combined with flush-faced cabinetry and stainless appliances.
One of the most unique aspects of this design is its creativity in lighting, with a different sort of stylish fixture used in every area to supplement the spotlights which dominate the house.
This room, intended as a guest room is currently being used as a secondary living room off the patio. Smooth strips of warm light provide some definition to the wall covering that stands about room height on the area’s shortest edge under a sloping roof.
Most of the private spaces of the house feature heavily-aged wooden double doors, adding further character and a feeling of permanence to the dwelling.
Near the master bedroom, a private study contains books and an office-like space for the residents’ use. The industrial hanging lamps and intentionally weathered clock give a vintage character to the room, while the carpeting on its floor enhances the sense of privacy and separation from the public rooms of the floor.
The master bedroom is dominated by grey and soft browns, its walls covered in tiles featuring vaguely horizontal lines that curve naturally and calmly. The back of the bed is framed by a large speckled wall covering in contrast.
The master bedroom is perhaps the best demonstration of the dwelling’s blend of traditional and modern elegance, with lace patterns and a vintage brass light fixture worked into a room with smooth contemporary cabinetry and furniture.
A second bedroom on the first floor, this one for a child, features a colorful floral pattern on its walls and bright pillows and lamps to continue the theme beyond the wall covering. Its bathroom, as well, is full of pink and orange in contemporary yet comfortably chic fashion.
The house’s upper floor contains two storage spaces and a large guest suite, which is why the second guest bedroom downstairs need not be set up as such unless more than one set of guests are actually staying. The guest suite is done up luxuriously and elegantly, with a commanding view that stretches down a hill and far beyond the property of the house.
Cornerstone Architects
