When Amanda Rivera first saw the 1930s Spanish Mediterranean–style house that would become her family home, she was awestruck. “My jaw was dropped the whole time we toured it,” she recalls of her and husband Luke’s first visit to the home, in Austin’s Travis Heights neighborhood. “A lot of the original details were preserved, like beautiful vaulted ceilings, arched doorways, and latches on the doors.”

Then when Amanda found out the home had an artist studio, she was sold. A ceramicist, Amanda leads Mother of God Ceramics with her artistic partner Diana Welch; she had been working out of a studio on the Austin’s east side for years. “The studio wasn’t part of the real estate listing, so it was a really nice surprise,” says Amanda.

She and Luke lived in the house for a few years before deciding to renovate its cramped kitchen and a too-small bathroom upstairs. Working with local architect Murray Legge, Amanda added handcrafted details that complement what she loved about the home in the first place. “Amanda has a great design sense, which we noticed immediately,” says Legge. “She has a really interesting approach in her ceramics—a play between the primitive and the refined. Those qualities were also reflected in the house itself.”

Here, Amanda shares how she collaborated with Legge on a renovation brimming with her artistic eye.

Dwell: What did you love about the house when you bought it?

Amanda Rivera: The house’s Spanish Mediterranean style really spoke to me. I’ve traveled to Spain quite a bit, and have always told myself I wanted to live there in a little casita one day. When we first saw the home, it had lots of nice surprises. There’s an artist studio, and a rooftop patio with great views of downtown. We fell in love with it for what it was, not the potential of what we could do with it renovation-wise.

What finally pushed you to do a renovation?

My husband is all about things being functional, and I’m more the type of person who can live with things if they look nice. But eventually, I jumped on board. The kitchen renovation needed to happen, because it was a strange space that was separate from the dining room with a wall and a door, so it just made the kitchen feel small. The layout also wasn’t really workable for how much we use it. We also renovated the upstairs bathroom, which is the main one, because it was just too small.

How did you approach the renovation?

My big goal, which I probably brought up with our architect Murray Legge a zillion times, was how important it was for us to maintain the integrity of the home. We didn’t want to stray too far from the unique architectural elements that gave it its character. That was so important to me. There are so many cool original features, like the scallop design above the fireplace and the vaulted ceiling in the living room. We wanted to expand on those details with what we added.

What did you want to add, and how does your work as a ceramicist figure in?

I had some ideas of decorative features I wanted to do in the house, including tilework in the kitchen. It’s been a big goal of mine for a while to make my own tile for an interiors project, so it was something I brought up with Murray at the very beginning. I was super ambitious about it and Murray was putting some fuel to my fire, which was very motivating and inspiring.

I’ve been a ceramicist for about ten years and have been wanting to take on a tile project like this, and it just so happened that it was my own home. It felt like a big deal to choose the right design because I knew I would have to look at it every day for the rest of my life. It was a lot of pressure, but also a lot of excitement. The funny thing is, I came up with about ten different tile designs, and we ended up using the very first one I came up with.

I knew I wanted to have a convex element in the tile and make it in a way that would add texture to the space. The walls in the dining area have this very interesting texture with little swirls, so I wanted to bring that through the rest of the kitchen and build on it. My studio became a little factory—I ended up making around 1,000 tiles. I love the way the kitchen came out.

How did you change the main bathroom?

It was my least favorite part of the house, because it had this yellow and black tile and just felt a little out of place. We took some space from one of the bedrooms and made the bathroom a lot bigger, and we knew we wanted terra-cotta floors because I love the way the roughness of the raw tiles feels on your feet. The walnut cabinets have very special pulls on them that Murray designed.

In the bathroom, walnut cabinets have pulls custom-designed by Murray Legge Architecture." layout="wide" credit="Photo by Blaine Davis" photoUserId="6268489098316840960"/>

What else did you add to the house?

I loved the idea of barrel vaulted ceilings, because I had seen it in a lot of Spanish-style homes, so Murray helped us achieve that with scalloped vaults in the dining room and kitchen. It was also inspired by the scalloped wood decorative elements around the stairway.

I also designed and made a lot of the lamps and furnishings. We have a good friend, Jack Haggerty, who’s a master woodworker and built several things for us, including the floor-to-ceiling bookshelf in the dining area. I made most of our table lamps and side lamps. I also like to find old chairs and reupholster them, and I always use durable, kid-friendly materials since we have a young daughter. One of my favorites is the striped chair in the living room—I found it at a garage sale and thought it was such a cool shape. I got it reupholstered and love the way it came out.

How did renovating your home impact you as an artist?

I always loved interior design and architecture, and knew it was a strong influence on my work, but this renovation opened my eyes to how much I love actually doing interior design. It also ignited my interest in designing original tile patterns and compositions. Unexpectedly, it’s been a driving force in my professional development as I pursue other possibilities for custom tilework and interior design projects.

As a ceramicist, I’m a super methodical person, so with the house, it felt like I had this huge palette to work with. It’s been fun to use my home as a showroom and try out different things in all the spaces and create little tableau vivants with my ceramics.

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Project Credits:

Architect of Record: Murray Legge Architecture / @murray_legge

Builder: Level on the Level

Structural Engineer: Tom Kam

Interior Design: Amanda Rivera / @mother_of_god_ceramics

Custom Furniture: Jack Haggerty

Also Appears In

My House: She Custom Made More Than 1,000 Kitchen Tiles for Her Austin Renovation