The exterior of the new, two-story home in East Austin, Texas was designed with a minimal palette, bronze windows, and steel details in order to blend into the existing cityscape.
The kitchen and adjoined dining space have a light, open feel, as does the rest of the home. Complementary design elements, like the low-slung steel bookcase next to the stairs, which Flournoy’s partner organized according to color, reappear throughout the house. Pops of color add an appealing break from the largely monochromatic palette, and reinforce the couple’s design aesthetic. The Bistro chairs are from Crate and Barrel.
The streamlined elm stairwell connects three levels of living space, from the public living areas to the mezzanine, situated to take advantage of city vistas, and the uppermost private quarters.
Executing subtle design details, even in transitional spaces, was one of the great successes of the collaborative architect-contractor relationship. "Our collective strength," says Dovetail principal Chad Rollins, is that “we genuinely understand each other’s craft.” In the transition from the den to the artist studio, natural myrtlewood stairs meet a wood-grain Daltile landing. Where the stair treads and risers meet the wall, a three-quarter-inch reveal is placed in lieu of conventional baseboard. These simple and clean details so often “can be costly to create and can be jeopardized when the budget is under pressure,” says Rollins.