West 9th Street: A 1934 Clarksville renovation

Cravotta Interiors Case Study

Taken down to the studs and built back with intent.

The brief

In Clarksville, a 1934 home stripped to the studs. The original staircase survived. So did the long-leaf pine floors. Everything else had to earn its place. This was our fifth built project for a semi-retired entrepreneur couple who split their time between Austin, Whitefish, Montana, and international travel. The relationship began thirteen years ago with the W Penthouse downtown and has continued through a jet interior and a cabin in Whitefish, with more buildings on the way there, along with other projects that never left the drawing board.

West 9th is their Austin home base. A little over three thousand square feet. Many small rooms. A brief that wanted a smaller house, more considered.

One rule held throughout. No paint. Every wall and ceiling in the house is Venetian plaster, shiplap cladding, wallpaper, or tile.

The spine

The most distinctive move inside this Clarksville renovation is a wood-and-steel spine that runs south to north through the downstairs, dividing the living room, powder room, and guest suite on the west from the dining room, kitchen, and breakfast room on the east. A spine existed from the earlier renovation, but it was tired and it reached the ceiling, cutting off the light and compressing the rooms. We rebuilt it at the level the house deserved and stopped it short of the ceiling. Light now streaks across the house.

The wood is white oak, hard and durable, deep-wirebrushed for texture, then burned and stained to a furniture-grade finish that anchors the downstairs. The steel shelving is the counterweight. It balances the weight of the burned oak while reading lighter, because steel carries the same visual mass in far less dimension. Mule Studio built the millwork. Arclight Fabrication built the steel.

Architecture, construction, and landscape

Tom Hurt, who had renovated the house twenty years earlier, returned to specify new windows, a back deck, and an exterior spiral staircase. EEF Homes built the work. Campbell Landscape Architecture, founded and led by Cameron Campbell, handled the exterior.

The design moves

Downstairs

Entry

The clients asked for a shoes-off house after move-in. That meant a place at the front to sit, take shoes off, and store them. The only spot was under the entry window, where light streaks across the floor in a way worth protecting. So we designed a bench with a steel frame holding a field of solid glass brick, the brick seeming to float above the frame so the light still passes through. The brick alone weighs roughly five hundred and eighty pounds. The finished bench comes in just under a thousand. The floor had to be reinforced with steel to carry it. The bench does the utilitarian job and reads as sculpture.

The entry is plaster, walls and ceiling, beside the original long-leaf pine staircase. The ceiling fixture is the Scala by Dimore Milano.

Living Room

West of the spine. A pool table of our design holds the room. When it came time for a cue rack, nothing on the market met the standard the room required, so we designed one and commissioned it with Dutch studio Nestor Rotsen, clad in their signature large-scale handmade ceramic tile. The cabinet hides its function. Until you know what it is, it reads as a dimensional art piece on the wall, and the homeowner saves the reveal for guests on the tour.

The sofa is a classic by Pinch Design. The chair is by Rose Tarlow. The coffee table was made for the room, a solid maple slab two and a half inches thick. A McEwen chandelier hangs over the seating. A Fuse Lighting fixture hangs over the pool table.

Dining Room

East of the spine. A custom bronze floral sculptural chandelier by 7 Gods anchors the room. The dining table is by Arno Declercq, the Bunker design scaled to dining proportions, burned and waxed solid iroko built by hand in his ateliers outside Brussels. It answers the burned oak of the spine in a darker wood. The chairs are Campaign Folding Chairs in steel, leather, and shearling, handmade by Jim Zivic out of a decommissioned belt factory in Shiner, Texas. A pair of vibrant original works by Tom Hammick hang in the room, alongside a large textile piece by Anya Molyviatis.

Kitchen and Breakfast Room

East of the spine, and built from scratch. The spine is the divider here, separating entry, dining, living, and kitchen. It is mostly deep-wirebrushed, burned, and stained white oak cabinetry with integrated steel shelving, the steel precision water-jet cut so it holds tension against the softer wood. Three sets of oak shelves hang from steel rods, roughly twenty linear feet each, open storage and display for dishware, glassware, serving pieces, and objects collected from around the world.

The range is La Cornue. A trio of Roman and Williams Nantucket pendants hangs over the island. The breakfast room sits off the kitchen, an Ironies Jackdaw pedestal table under a Trueing Lilia fixture with apricot glass shades, ringed by upholstered Pinch Avery chairs.

Powder Room

West of the spine, and truly tiny. It was grandfathered in. Today's code would not allow it. The sink is eleven inches deep, the most it could be without overhanging the toilet, wall-hung with a cast-brass wall-mount faucet by Studio Ore. The sconce is by Lindsay Adelman. The tile is Nerosicilia's Perle in Grafite, designed by Rodolfo Dordoni, pigmented recycled glass fused into pearl-like drops that catch the light. The wallpaper is hand-marbled by Calico. The room is dark, moody, and a little bit fun, closer to stepping into space than into a powder room.

Guestroom

Small, like the rest of the house, so the play was a simple space with a few good pieces. The bed and the bedside tables are by Pinch Design. The art mixes flea-market finds with a large-scale ink drawing.

Guest Bathroom

Handmade tile in a mix of deep orange and earthy red. A sconce by Urban Electric Co. The mirror is antique French in white gold leaf, late eighteen hundreds.

Staircase

The interior stair is original to the house, early twentieth century, long-leaf pine against a shiplap wall in the same pine. It is not up to current code and would not be allowed today, but it was grandfathered in with the home's historic designation. Anyone over five foot ten has to duck between floors.

Upstairs

Media Room

Upstairs is mostly an oversized landing that works as a hub between the office, the sleeping porch, the dry bar, and the primary suite. We claimed part of it for an intimate media room, just enough for two people to lounge in grand fashion. The seat is a double chaise we customized from a design by Jiun Ho, the San Francisco designer known for rich woods and textured fabrics. An antique Khotan rug anchors it. The art is a pair of original paintings the artist imagined as vintage Frankenstein movie posters.

Bar

A dry bar, no sink. It was one half of a jack-and-jill bathroom. We claimed this side for the bar and left the rest to the adjacent guest ensuite. The bar serves the media room. A pair of under-counter Sub-Zero refrigerator drawers handle beverages, clad in bridle leather for a crafted, casual detail. The countertop and backsplash are aged brass. The walls are Zak and Fox Cimaruta, a hand-printed New York paper named for the Italian folk amulet hung over a bed to turn away the evil eye. A brass-and-porcelain ceiling fixture by Urban Electric Co sits overhead, and an In Common With lamp sits on the floating steel-and-leather shelves.

Office

His office, where he spends most of the day on the phone. The brief was a warm, masculine room, natural light flooding in by day and a romantic warmth at night. The ceiling fixture is the Willem by Urban Electric Co, antique brass and milk glass. The desk is the Warren by Fern, bench-crafted in New York's Hudson Valley, in a fumed finish. The desk chair is the Rodeo executive by Lucas L.

Sleeping Porch

The owners' favorite room. Coffee here every morning, a glass of wine most evenings. The house sits on the highest ground in Clarksville, so the porch looks straight at the downtown Austin skyline. We took it dark, a muddy green over nearly everything, the feel of a summer camp in the woods. Set among the trees, it already had that quality. The green makes it cool in summer and a little hidden. A Paola Lenti rug in dark earthy green covers most of the floor. A Paola Lenti swing by Francesco Rota hangs inches above it, facing downtown, hand-woven in rope yarn on a sassafras frame, with a pair of rocking chairs facing it.

Primary Bedroom

The renovation opened the bedroom to downtown with a window that covers the whole wall. Motorized shades handle privacy, with a layer of linen sheer drapery over them for an ethereal softness. The bed wall is covered in Mark Alexander Grid Natural, a handwoven weave of abaca and water hyacinth behind the sheers. The bed is the Carlton by De La Espada, upholstered in tan suede. The nightstand is the Barton side cabinet by Fern. Reading sconces are the Lou Lou by Urban Electric Co.

Third Floor

Gym

A compact gym on the third floor opens to downtown views, packed with Olympic-grade Eleiko equipment. Tiny but mighty, by design.

Rooftop Deck

A Paola Lenti rug, lounge chairs, and a loveseat face downtown. The views are the point, with a steady breeze for evenings and sunsets.

Basement

Recovery Room

The basement recovery room is the project's contrarian decision. Cold plunge, hyperbaric chamber, sauna. A small windowless space. The conventional question would have been how to brighten it. We asked the opposite. We leaned into the dark. Faux wood vinyl floors handle the wet environment, the right material here, not the obvious one. Clear western cedar lines the sauna and the hyperbaric chamber. Walls and ceiling are finished in deep charcoal Venetian plaster. The mood is peace and restoration, not brightness.

Photography

Photographer: Antoine Bootz.

Collaborators

• Architecture: Tom Hurt

• Construction: EEF Homes

• Landscape: Campbell Landscape Architecture (Cameron Campbell)

• Spine millwork: Mule Studio

• Spine and kitchen steel: Arclight Fabrication

• Entry bench, glass brick: Growler Domestics (Cravotta-designed bench)

• Entry ceiling fixture: Dimore Milano, Scala

• Living room cue cabinet: Nestor Rotsen, handmade ceramic tile

• Living room sofa: Pinch Design, Angelo, solid hardwood frame, hand-built London

• Living room chair: Rose Tarlow, Ezio

• Living room coffee table: Fern, custom maple slab

• Living room chandelier: McEwen, Quay Suspension

• Pool table light: Fuse Lighting, Cambridge

• Kitchen range: La Cornue

• Kitchen island pendants: Roman and Williams, Nantucket

• Breakfast table: Ironies, Jackdaw pedestal

• Breakfast light: Trueing, Lilia, apricot glass shades

• Breakfast chairs: Pinch Design, Avery

• Kitchen counter stools: The Future Perfect, Karl Zahn for Roll and Hill

• Kitchen backsplash tile: Timeless Tile and Designs, through Architerra

• Dining chandelier: 7 Gods, bronze floral sculptural, through Georgina Magnolia

• Dining table: Arno Declercq, Bunker design in burned iroko, dining proportions

• Dining chairs: Jim Zivic, Campaign Folding Chair, Shiner TX

• Dining art: Tom Hammick (pair); Anya Molyviatis (textile)

• Powder room faucet: Studio Ore, cast brass wall-mount

• Powder room sconce: Lindsay Adelman

• Powder room tile: Nerosicilia, Perle by Rodolfo Dordoni, Grafite, recycled glass fused into pearls

• Powder room wallpaper: Calico, hand-marbled

• Guestroom bed and tables: Pinch Design, Christo bed, Harlosh tables

• Guestroom rug: Matt Camron Rugs

• Guestroom lighting: Gallery L7 chandelier through 1stDibs; Danny Kaplan table lamp through Spartan

• Guest bath sconce: Urban Electric Co, Parallel

• Guest bath tile: Pratt and Larson with Tabarka, through Architerra

• Media room seating: Jiun Ho, customized double chaise, San Francisco

• Bar refrigeration: Sub-Zero, under-counter drawers, bridle leather clad

• Bar wallpaper: Zak and Fox, Cimaruta

• Bar ceiling fixture: Urban Electric Co, Posy flush triple

• Bar lamp: In Common With, Puck, hand-blown glass and steel (also in West Austin)

• Office ceiling fixture: Urban Electric Co, Willem

• Office desk: Fern, Warren, fumed, Hudson Valley

• Office chair: Lucas L, Rodeo executive

• Office guest chair: Jean De Merry

• Sleeping porch rug and swing: Paola Lenti (Francesco Rota), Parallelo rug, Wabi rope swing

• Sleeping porch rocking chairs: Jangeorge

• Primary bedroom bed: De La Espada, Carlton, tan suede leather

• Primary bedroom wallcovering: Mark Alexander, Grid Natural, abaca and water hyacinth

• Primary bedroom nightstand: Fern NYC, Barton

• Primary bedroom sconces: Urban Electric Co, Lou Lou

• Primary bath tile: Ann Sacks

• Primary bath lighting: LumFardo wall sconce; Allied Maker flush mount

• Rooftop seating: Paola Lenti, Smile two-seater and pair of lounge chairs

• Outdoor lounge seating: Design Within Reach; West Elm

• Outdoor dining chairs: Design Within Reach

• Outdoor dining table: Cravotta-designed, fabricated by Mule Studio

• Gym equipment: Eleiko

• Custom by Cravotta: the downstairs spine, the entry bench, the living room pool table, the cue cabinet, the outdoor dining table

• Photography: Antoine Bootz