Peek Inside Interior Designers the Hommeboys’ Gorgeous Sonoma Home
“I imagine there is just so considerably possible here,” says designer Austin Carrier, as his partner and structure lover Alex Mutter-Rottmayer nods in settlement. “We want to be a section of that—new progress and a new technology coming to town,” he claims.
He is referring to an energetic and sustainably minded design community springing up all around the city of Sonoma. But he could just as very easily be chatting about the potential other tastemakers see in the two young standouts by themselves, who operate together below the identify the Hommeboys.
Interior Style and design magazine praised the firm’s modern day California design for the new tasting space at Healdsburg’s Maritime Layer Wines, and the couple was not long ago tapped to collaborate with retailer Crate & Barrel. And their new line of home furniture debuts later on this year—all of which is to say that the two would unquestionably acquire the award for “Sonoma residents most most likely to be on the address of Elle Décor,” if these an honor existed.
Austin and Alex’s have richly layered house is located just east of the city of Sonoma, on a spouse and children assets that also contains a household for Alex’s mom and dad and a cottage for his aunt. Alex, who grew up in Marin, and Austin, who grew up in Memphis, Tennessee, moved to the residence in 2015 following a detour running an natural and organic farm with each other in Washington condition. Their massive, barnlike apartment, which sits atop a design studio and a cabinetry workshop, has come to be a artistic hub and tests laboratory, a location to feel massive and extend their boundaries with new seems and materials. “I consider we have finished 5 remodels on our apartment at this stage,” says Austin.
“If you took the wood ceiling off around there, there’d be wallpaper underneath, and then black paint, and then blue. All the levels you’d see as if you have been uncovering the decades in an outdated house—but we did it in five yrs.”
“We usually chortle that everyone who moved in in this article would be like, ‘Whoa, what is that?’” states Alex.
The household is a spot to experiment with resources and procedures, strategies the pair are intrigued by but want to expertise firsthand ahead of recommending to a client. Therefore, the striking Roman clay on the interior walls upstairs, painstakingly applied by hand last summertime (“before we ever attempted that for anybody else, we did it for ourselves and fell in adore with it,” clarifies Austin) or exposing the delicate wood trusses in the ceiling earlier mentioned their massive stone eating table.
The jewel box of a living region is constructed about dialogue pieces, like a specimen cactus and a tall wood armchair, a standard Windsor type stretched to cartoon heights. Two prototypes from the couple’s approaching furnishings line—a zig-zag stop desk and a nubby, glossy black coffee table—bookend a navy velvet sofa, when personalized arched shelves display screen African art and mementoes from a latest scouting journey to Venezuela. It is a playful mix, saturated with color and texture.
Across the home, the darkly remarkable open kitchen, with boldly veined stone counters and backsplash, took form around time. Back in 2015, they made a undertaking out of developing their kitchen area cabinets out of oak, then lived with reasonably priced butcher block counters even though they saved up for stone. “We constantly sort of giggle because it’s like the cobbler without the need of the shoes… We’d get a single portion wanting superior, and then we’d get started in on the future. Immediately after a period of time of time, it was like, ‘OK, now we can truly manage to put in the countertops,’” says Austin.
The method in their personal home echoes how they’ve labored with clients on greater overhauls that consider position in phases, aiming always for good quality more than quantity. “We’ll say ‘Do these issues initial,’ and then here’s the notion for the next stage, two yrs from now,” clarifies Alex.
Downstairs, their new style studio, with wenge wood cabinetry to keep tile and fabric samples and open shelves for their library of style books, has launched a layer of healthier separation involving operate and leisure.
Alex admits, however, that it is tricky for the couple to set jobs apart entirely. “I don’t think there are nonworking several hours. I suggest, significantly, our brains are in no way turned off. But we adore it so much that it does not come to feel like function.” The pair share an straightforward back again and forth, an unspoken comprehending of every single other’s strengths and weaknesses. They operate aspect by aspect at a very long, shared desk, each and every occasionally pausing to change the personal computer display towards the other to get suggestions on types.
“After all,” states Alex, “if I simply cannot offer my thought to Austin, then I know it’s not going to be a go with the client.”
They say a key to their work with consumers is hardly ever using them selves much too critically. “We constantly want customers to like our to start with style, but it’s just about a lot more attention-grabbing when they are pushing back again a bit, since that will make us consider of so quite a few other unique ideas,” claims Alex.
“I generally explain to persons that this is a collaborative course of action, and if it wasn’t, it wouldn’t be entertaining,” explains Austin. “Part of the pleasurable is observing what the client’s quirks are, their likes and dislikes, and evolving our design about those people principles.”
The studio room downstairs connects to the outdoor via big image windows, just one found correct previously mentioned their shared desk, and a pair of classic doors from Egypt that the pair identified on a scouting trip to Spherical Prime, the well known antiques competition in Texas. The bordering gardens involve elevated beds for veggies, a grove of olive trees, and a line of tall San Pedro cactus the couple bought on Craigslist and propagated to fill in beds at the edge of the barn. Previous summer season, upcoming to a vintage Airstream they use as visitor quarters, they planted a lush new yard of natives and succulents. “There’s one thing so incredible about living on the land,” claims Austin. “In Sonoma in particular, it is so intense how much life arrives out in the spring.”
The expansion they notice in the back garden in spring is paralleled in their business’s latest success. “A great deal of people today talk to us what is our magic formula,” suggests Austin. “And I’m like, I don’t know if there is necessarily a secret. We’re just quite passionate about what we do.”
Around Sonoma with the Hommeboys
Austin Carrier and Alex Mutter-Rottmayer moved to Sonoma in 2015. Two of the places they return to all over again and again are Sonoma’s Valley Bar + Bottle and Healdsburg’s Marine Layer Wines, both of those of which they helped layout. And they love Scribe Vineyard, where they celebrated their wedding a couple of a long time again. Other community favorites include:
Artefact Design and Salvage: “Dave Allen travels the entire world and provides again unbelievable finds to the city of Sonoma. Special, interesting, and sudden.” 20490 Broadway, Sonoma. 707-933-0660, artefactdesignsalvage.com
Jungle Bamboo & Palm Nursery: “If you at any time discover your self fantasizing about owning a tropical paradise, go here! It is comprehensive of distinctive palms, bamboo, and dryscape plants.” 503 W. Railroad Ave., Cotati. 707-7948292, junglebambooandpalms.com
Reeve Wines: “Tucked in a quintessential California oak woodland, Reeve is one of our most loved destinations to get misplaced for a handful of several hours. Just about every single wine is killer, but a beloved is the Riesling. As well as, they have cute goats and are canine pleasant.”4551 Dry Creek Street, Healdsburg. 707-235-6345, reevewines.com