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Several months of planning took place before we began the building process. The initial inspiration for this home was brought to us by Kim Bailey at Luxury Real Estate and Design. Kim is our award-winning, exclusive designer. Her vision and creativity are dynamic and progressive. After 20 years in the real estate industry, Kim doesn’t just know what sells, she knows how to make a home a true work of art.
2015 is bringing a new era of design to the Austin marketplace. The Old World European design that flooded Austin for the last 10 years is waning and the clean, contemporary modern look is all the rage. The question Kimberly posed to our team was “How do we best transition from a decade-old form of Old European design to a robust and clean contemporary style, without losing some of the European charm Austin has embraced since 2006.”
Our mission statement is that we don’t just build homes, we create masterpieces. Simply put, we don’t create what sells, but we strive to build something of lasting beauty not easily defined by an era. With this in mind, we carefully explored fusing two styles of design: art nouveau and a warm contemporary architecture. Balancing architecture can be very challenging. The Art Nouveau style developed in the late 1800’s in France and was the modern movement of the time that introduced curves and abandoned all previous styles of Europe. The contemporary, modern style of today is clean lines and an emphasis on function.
You may notice some of the curved elements of the roof and windows on the exterior of the home transition nicely to the interior space (an art nouveau element of curves). An example of this transition is our floating curved-shaped stair design. The iron adornes the floating treads with curved scallops. The lighting and tile elements of this home contribute to the flowing shapes of the Art Nouveau era, while the contemporary color selections add to the warmth of the home. You can’t miss the iron beams (inspired by a Parisian train station of the late 1800’s) mixed with vintage Chicago brick and ultra modern, industrial lighting in the great room.
Our goal for this design was to harness some of the warmth from the Old European design while transitioning into the Hill Country Contemporary look. We have found that our married clients sometimes have greatly differing tastes in home styles. Some spouses might like more contemporary, clean finishes, while their partner may like the warmth of natural stone. It is our specialty to combine different tastes and styles to create something as unique as our clients and of lasting beauty.
This home is a stand-alone masterpiece that was carefully designed to join sophistication with warmth proving that you can create beauty with different styles in home design.