A young professional couple bought this Austin house for the location, which they love. But after years living in a Tuscan-style builder home, replete with elaborate faux finishes and ornamentation, the couple sought a simpler, more modern aesthetic that would better fit their lifestyle.
“The house was filled with turrets, twists, and turns,” designer Patrick Ousey says. “They wanted a home instead that reflected their youthful, sophisticated personality and love of nature, with honest, simple materials.”
The project began by turning the entrance into a modern front porch with limestone floors, metal roof, glass canopy, and steel columns. A limestone and gravel path leads from the street to the front porch.
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The Corbusier-style living room is a composition of forms that are tranquil yet sleekly muscular. Tucked behind the fireplace and in front of the curved wall is a staircase that leads to the basement. The dark plaster helps the curved wall recede from the brighter living space and echoes the furnishings’ ebony finishes. A square window brings in valuable light. The fireplace surround was kept low so that sunlight could reach the stairway to the basement.
A white oak cabinet divides the kitchen from the living room, allowing the areas to feel separate while maintaining a nice flow between the spaces. The kitchen features Calacatta Gold marble mosaic tiles — similar to those on the living room fireplace — which run from countertop to ceiling. A skylight next to the custom range hood brings in light that makes the tiles sparkle. The perimeter white countertops are Calacatta marble, and the central island is topped with a local limestone. The floors throughout the house are white oak.
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The kitchen also includes a breakfast nook. The designers didn’t alter the architecture, but they added a new upholstered sofa and chairs, a shell chandelier, and a Saarinen table to modernize the space.
In the dining room, the design team squared off an arched alcove. Rift-sawn oak boards are juxtaposed with an ornate Italian mirror, a 1940s-era console, and gold Murano sconces. Modern, leather-upholstered dining chairs with black backs and legs continue the bold color theme, which includes ebony, white, and gold, throughout the house.
In the master bedroom, a cream-toned midcentury leather chair and ottoman encapsulate the sense of comfort and lightness generated by light coming through the floor-to-ceiling windows and the muted color palette.
In the master bath, floor-to-ceiling windows replaced glass-block windows behind the new freestanding tub. The contoured tub sits on a diamond-pattern mosaic floor of Calacatta Gold marble tiles.
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The house is now open from front to back, with the front porch visually leading to the rear porch. Located off the kitchen, the back porch includes a grill to one side. Steel columns support a ceiling of Spanish cedar. Modern glass railings provide unobstructed views. Limestone tile covers the floor. The glass doors lift and slide.
“Our goal was to bring a sense of authenticity to the project by erasing the cliche elements of the original house and replacing them with a materials palette that strives to surpass the trends of the day,” Ousey says.
The fireplace surround was kept low so sunlight could light the stairway to the basement.
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