Driftwood: New construction at Driftwood Golf Club in the Texas Hill Country

The brief

The reference the client offered was Napa, not traditional Texan. Clean lines, a restrained palette, real materials. With views that big, the landscape stood on equal footing with the art. “So we kept the palette restrained and let real materials do quiet work,” Mark Cravotta told Austin Home. The house also had to carry one person and a full family in the same rooms.

Scope

Jenkins Design Build developed the architecture and managed construction. Cravotta Interiors led the interior program: the material point of view, finishes, custom millwork and banquette, and a furniture plan organized around how the family lives, inside and out.

The design

The entry pairs a custom woven leather wallcovering by Lance Woven Leather with charred cedar from Delta Millworks, the Austin shop that pioneered shou sugi ban in the United States. A sculptural fixture by Giopato & Coombes sits close to the compressed entry ceiling.

Two perpendicular moves anchor the living room. A continuous white oak slat ceiling turns down one wall. A display wall in Mark Alexander’s Synamay Chalk wallcovering from Romo holds the audio system, a McIntosh amplifier driving flagship Sonus Faber loudspeakers. A Rita chandelier by Maison Leleu in raw bronze and white onyx hangs above BOB sofas from the Delcourt Collection and Sheffield club chairs by Fern. The staircase, developed with Jenkins Design Build, floats between two panes of glass.

The plan removed the formal dining room. In its place are three eating zones: a kitchen counter that seats six, a custom banquette by Litmus, the Austin shop, that seats six more, and a ten-seat table on the covered terrace. The kitchen wall slides fully open, so the kitchen and outdoor table read as one room. “The outdoor rooms have to be furnished with the same quality as the inside,” Cravotta says, “and every material has to work on both sides of the glass.” The terrace carries the living room’s slat ceiling outward, with pieces by Roda, David Sutherland and B&B Italia.

Collaborators

Architecture and construction: Jenkins Design Build. Landscape: Craft Outdoor (Micah Langdon). Photography: Antoine Bootz.

Materials and makers

Lance Woven Leather, Delta Millworks, Litmus, Giopato & Coombes, Delcourt Collection, Fern, Egg Collective, Maison Leleu, Bianco Light + Space, Pierre Augustin Rose, Barbara Barry for McGuire, Holly Hunt, Adam Court, Roda, David Sutherland, B&B Italia, Espinoza Stone.

Press

Austin Home, July 2026.

Awards

2026 Austin Home Awards, Library / Study / Home Office category.