Having lived in our Mediterranean-style dwelling in Austin for over a decade, I’ve shared a lot of our design course of by way of the years. From easy updates to the kitchen, to plastering our partitions, to fully overhauling the yard—it’s been a journey and I’m grateful to all of you who’ve been alongside for the experience! It occurred to me just lately that I’ve by no means shared a whole tour of the whole home, with the room-by-room particulars multi functional place. So, together with the launch of my Sourcebook that features hyperlinks to every thing in our home, I couldn’t be extra excited to share the official Camille Kinds House Tour. Scroll on for every thing you’ve ever puzzled about my dwelling in Austin, however first: watch the video beneath so I can present you round.
And now, the small print on every house in our home…
The story of our home
My husband Adam found this property again once we had been courting, 16 years in the past! There was an outdated Fifties home on the lot that was in fairly unhealthy form, and the lot itself was so overgrown that you just couldn’t see any of the views. The present yard was fully nonexistent. However we knew that this property had tons of potential, and over a yr after placing within the first supply on the property, we lastly bought it.
We spent the primary yr of our marriage working with our architect, Ryan Avenue, after which constructing a brand new home from the bottom up. On the time, I’d by no means executed a design challenge near this scale earlier than—and truthfully, had no clue what I used to be doing. However fortunately, the expertise sparked a ardour for design and building in each Adam and me. We realized so a lot by way of the method, and I really feel fortunate that we ended up with a closing outcome that I nonetheless love, so a few years later.
Now that we’ve been in the home for 13 years, there are positively just a few issues that I’d like to replace. We method our dwelling as an ongoing challenge—yearly we sort out one or two factor and the home simply retains evolving proper together with us.
The “fashion” of our dwelling
I typically get requested what “fashion” our home is, and honestly, I can’t level to only one specific design fashion since we’ve been impressed by so many alternative sources. Nonetheless, I typically use the phrases “heat minimalism” to explain our dwelling. I’m all the time in search of simplicity, however need each house to really feel heat and comfy.
There’s additionally an plain Mediterranean affect in our design. Adam and I went to Italy on our honeymoon, and we had been so impressed by the structure and the out of doors areas the place we hung out on the Amalfi coast. After we got here dwelling and commenced our design course of, we needed to include supplies like terra cotta and plaster, in addition to so lots of the vegetation we selected for our landscaping, like olive bushes and jasmine.
The partitions
One of many fundamental questions I get requested about our house is—what colour of paint is on the partitions? Three years in the past, we determined to plaster the partitions of the whole home. I’ve lengthy been obsessive about the old-world character that plaster offers a home, so I used to be actually enthusiastic about this replace—and I’ve liked it each bit as a lot as anticipated.
For our partitions, we needed a matte end that’s a bit bit extra earthy than a number of the plaster available on the market, and I discovered this product known as American Clay that I fell in love with instantly. It’s a pure earth plaster made in New Mexico, and the end has the tender, natural vibe I used to be envisioning for our home. It’s additionally unhazardous and eco-friendly. We plastered the whole downstairs of the home in American Clay’s shade known as Forté White, and I find it irresistible a lot that I truly hold a number of the partitions naked in order that the plaster can have its personal second.
The Dwelling Room
Our lounge is all in regards to the pure mild and the indoor-outdoor stream. My favourite a part of this room is the massive metal doorways that open up fully to the patio and create this lovely connection to the yard. We had them designed and constructed by Rehme Metal Home windows & Doorways right here in Austin. My emotional state is so influenced by daylight, so it’s an on the spot temper booster to spend time in right here and let all that mild in. Get the Sourcebook ->
Store my lounge:
Learn extra about the lounge, together with the updates we made.
The Kitchen and Eating Room
Our kitchen is the place the magic occurs—all of my recipe improvement for the location, and all of the meals we make collectively as a household. After we host events, everybody congregates across the massive central island, so I normally set out the drinks and snacks right here for grazing.
This kitchen does have just a few inherent design challenges—primarily the shortage of pure mild. I’ve explored each attainable approach so as to add a skylight or window in right here, however the way in which the home is configured makes it unattainable. So, I’m strategic with colours and styling to loosen up this house as a lot as attainable.
After we constructed the home, we added a stainless-steel venthood that I actually fell out of affection with as my fashion developed. A number of years in the past, we did a kitchen replace and changed it with a {custom} plaster hood encompass that made the most important distinction. The hood has a hidden air flow system that’s mounted to the within of the encompass which we then plastered over in American Clay.
We additionally changed our outdated counter tops with this vivid white Caesaerstone within the Cloudburst Concrete end. I really like Caesarstone and have used it in a number of tasks—it’s lovely and extremely sturdy. This time round, we added a waterfall edge to the countertop and made a steady sink all out of the identical Caesarstone to make all of it actually seamless. Get the Sourcebook ->
Store my kitchen:
Learn extra about our kitchen transform right here.
The Yard
The place do I start with our yard? That is my favourite house on our whole property. The truth that it’s taken us 12 years of labor to get it up to now makes it much more particular—it’s been an ever-evolving labor of affection.
Up prime, we’ve bought our out of doors lounge space – that is the place we hang around when we now have buddies over, and many occasions the 4 of us will truly eat dinner round this espresso desk and simply sit on cushions.
After which, we’ve bought the infinity-edged pool. We designed it to maximise the sensation of being constructed right into a cliff, and I really like that once we’re within the pool, it appears like we’re nearly suspended within the cover of the bushes. We swim all the time—beginning in March right through November, we’re within the pool continually. My favourite factor about our pool is the colour—the darkish tile jogs my memory of the Mediterranean with its deep blue waters.
Since our dwelling sits up on a excessive hillside, our basis is constructed on a 30-foot retaining wall. The decrease yard on the opposite aspect of it has been our dwelling’s greatest transformation over the previous few years. It’s gone from being a dirt-covered hillside coated in brush and bushes that we couldn’t even use, to an area that’s been featured all around the web together with in Architectural Digest. It’s taken us YEARS to deliver our imaginative and prescient to life – we sometimes attempt to sort out one or two massive tasks a yr again right here and we’ll most likely by no means be completed with this space. Get the Sourcebook ->
Tour the total yard right here, together with extra about our yard design, vegetation we’ve used, and all about that fireside pit.
The Main Bed room
Our bed room is my sanctuary – our days are so full, from work to household life, and that is the place the hustle stops and we really loosen up. I really like my nook window spot for morning espresso, and I’ll typically sit right here within the night and journal or learn earlier than mattress.
I get a number of questions on our custom-designed and constructed mattress. It’s constituted of unstained white oak for a matte, impartial end, after which had two sconces hard-wired into either side of the mattress—the switches are positioned into the aspect of the nightstand so that they’re invisible. Get the Sourcebook ->
Heaps extra particulars on how we designed this mattress in our bed room tour proper right here.
Store my bed room:
Camille’s Tiny Workplace
Right here’s a peek on the alcove workplace related to the kitchen the place I normally work. A pair years in the past, I reconfigured the house to be extra environment friendly. We demoed the prevailing desk and cabinetry, and changed it with a clear “floating” slab of white oak to function a easy, streamlined desk setup. I really like having this cozy house to hunker down and get stuff executed, and it’s so handy to pop out and in of right here whereas I’m hanging with the children or cooking dinner.
Take the total tour of my workplace.
This room has been so many alternative issues by way of the years—once we first moved in, it was our dwelling fitness center… then it turned my dwelling workplace… and at last now that our youngsters are a bit older, it’s our media room the place our household watches motion pictures or performs video video games.
I stored the decor on this room actually easy and inexpensive, from the Goal rugs to the CB2 sofa. In relation to designing youngsters’ areas, I normally keep on with the identical colour palette and vibe of the remainder of the home, however I don’t need something valuable or fragile. Let’s be trustworthy—it’s most likely going to get destroyed from the online game enjoying, sleepovers, and snacking that occurs on this room! Get the Sourcebook ->
Store the media room:
The Studio
Welcome to my workforce’s studio! We shoot a number of recipe content material for the location at my home, and as talked about above, our kitchen doesn’t get a lot pure mild. So, we reworked this again room of the home from a visitor bed room right into a light-filled studio the place we shoot recipes, in addition to merchandise for Casa Zuma.
I shared the whole before-and-after means of remodeling our visitor room right into a studio kitchen right here. We did it on a finances, and it’s such a fantastic place for our workforce to collaborate and be inventive.
The Household Workplace
That is our “household workplace”, though normally Adam works in right here and I work in my little alcove off the kitchen (see above.) This room tends to develop into the dumping floor for Casa Zuma prototypes and samples we have to undergo, so our objective for this house is to maintain it as minimalist and clear as attainable. For me, a transparent house equals a transparent thoughts and when there’s an excessive amount of litter I can not assume straight. Get the Sourcebook ->
Take the total tour of the workplace right here.
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The Meditation Room
This loft space has additionally been a playroom, a TV room, and now—it’s what I name my “meditation room.” I turned it right into a cocoon for enjoyable, doing yoga or pilates, or the place anybody in the home can escape when they should chill and expertise a low-stimuli atmosphere.
Take the total tour of the meditation room right here.
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Henry’s Room
I haven’t shared images of my youngsters’ rooms since they had been child nurseries! I’m a fan of letting youngsters specific themselves with their bedrooms as soon as they’re sufficiently old to care, so I don’t get too concerned with the design—I really need it to be a mirrored image of them.
Henry’s room is fairly easy—he naturally doesn’t like litter and retains his stuff weirdly organized. We just lately upgraded his desk to a bigger floor the place he can unfold out his legos and Star Wars paraphernalia. The lovable poster above his mattress has all of the lyrics to Resort California (his favourite tune.) I ordered the digital model from Etsy, then despatched it to Framebridge to have it printed and framed.
Store Henry’s room:
Phoebe’s Room
Phoebe shouldn’t be fairly as minimalist as her brother (lol)—she’s an enormous magnificence product lady, loves her stuffed animals, and has numerous little collections of every kind of issues. One factor I really like about each youngsters’ rooms is that they’ve these big home windows with bushes outdoors them, and it nearly makes them really feel like they’re nestled in a treehouse. After which, they each have these unimaginable views of downtown Austin. At bedtime, we like to look out on the glittering skyline views and it’s so magical when you’ll be able to see the moon up above.
Peek at Phoebe’s toddler room (I miss it!)
Store Phoebe’s room:
And, that’s the tour! This home has been such an unimaginable dwelling for us—it’s developed proper together with us by way of the years and actually has a bit of our hearts. It’s our final canvas for creativity and inspiration, and each room tells a narrative. Thanks for coming by! Drop your questions within the feedback of the video over on Youtube, and don’t neglect to enroll in the Sourcebook beneath to get hyperlinks to every thing!
