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As he was on the verge of renovating his two-story Austin home, Texas native Randall got the idea to fly a drone over his property—just to take a look. “I realized that if you could get a third floor, you’d actually have a beautiful view of downtown,” he says. At that moment, he had a change of heart. Instead of fixing up the space, he would save up for a little bit longer and build a taller home from scratch.
What he didn’t know then was that his design plans would take another dramatic turn. After drafting initial blueprints with his brother-in-law, a builder based in Dallas, and tasking Davenport Builders and interior designer Taylor Clouse with bringing the space to life, he and his partner, Sebastian, got engaged. Suddenly, they were faced with the reality that the house Randall had in mind might not be big enough for the two of them. Randall, who is in health-care technology, mostly works remote, and Sebastian, also with a background in tech, is currently on sabbatical. “We both need our Zoom call space, and we both need our space to exist outside of work,” says Randall.
Once again, construction was put on hold as they figured out how they would coexist. Their solution was to extend the third-floor roof deck to encompass a dedicated office for Randall and carve out an office for Sebastian on the second floor, where the bedrooms are located. Once they landed on a layout, they addressed the other major challenge: making sure the house didn’t look too new.
“There are a lot of modern farmhouse/new-build vibes going on around town, and we wanted to give the space some personality that didn’t feel off the shelf,” Clouse says. During their initial debrief, the designer asked Randall to share inspiration references—and, specifically, to leave out any photos of other people’s homes. Instead, they pulled together an aesthetic based on Ted Baker suits, black-sand beaches in Iceland, and films from the 1970s like The Holy Mountain. Of course, once Sebastian entered the conversation, he added his own ideas to the mix. They leaned on Clouse to help them find a balance.
Collecting art turned out to be something they both felt passionate about. Sebastian’s Nicaraguan grandmother had given him a number of pottery pieces over the years, a handful of which now live on the open shelves in the kitchen. Meanwhile, during construction, Randall became obsessed with shopping estate sales and online auctions. “Within almost three months, he got 60 or 70 pieces,” recalls Sebastian. Clouse kept a running list of everything he scooped up so she could map out where to display them. In some cases, she was pretty strategic about it. By hanging a Gertrude Abercrombie painting in the middle of the windows in the primary bedroom, and by mounting the drapery on one continuous rod, she made the offset wall appear symmetrical.
For Clouse, it’s the small details, layered on top of each other, that ultimately make a home feel like it’s been around for decades. The designer warmed up contemporary white oak floors with a finish that felt more lived-in. When it came to paint, they went with standard black around the windows, but spiced up the stair railing with Farrow & Ball’s Brinjal, a moody aubergine. Even the ceilings on the first floor got a splash of pale green—a decision Clouse swears makes the space appear larger.
While hunting for bits of history, the designer paid a few visits to the nearby Round Top Antiques Fair, even taking her clients with her on one of the trips. They splurged on Hans Olsen leather sling chairs from the ’60s and a Svante Skogh love seat that was in need of reupholstery. But with the couple in the middle of wedding planning, Clouse peppered in affordable picks, too, like $7 kitchen cabinet handles from Amazon and tile from the Tile Shop.
As the place started slowly coming together, Randall got nervous about the color palette: There was a lot of red and green. “I had this overwhelming fear that we were making a Christmas house,” he says with a laugh. But Clouse assured him that by playing with varying shades (peep the merlot velvet bed topped with an olive green Pierre Frey pillow) it wouldn’t feel so holiday in the end—and she was right. “They’re complementary colors, but [people] forget or are afraid to mix them,” she says. “They work really well together as opposites.”
With their nerves calmed, Randall and Sebastian went all in on red in the third-floor bathroom. After landing on a punchy Fogia Bond shelf in the adjacent bar where Randall makes a mean mezcal Negroni, Clouse went to Portola Paints and asked the company to create a bespoke limewash that perfectly matched the unit. When the painter’s quote came in too high to do the space, Clouse offered to tackle it for half the price because she was convinced it would change the vibe and then topped it off with a light-up Hillebrand mirror. “That’s the party bathroom,” Randall says. It’s hard to imagine life these days without that extra staircase.
