In a Sonoma Barn, a Design Couple Conceives a Cozy and Creative Apartment

Kathryn Romeyn
·11 min read

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Bess Friday

For Alex Mutter-Rottmayer and Austin Carrier, husbands and the designers behind Hommeboys Interiors and Haus of Hommeboys, the separation between life, work, and play is infinitesimal. Considering this, it’s no surprise that the AD PRO Directory members’ office, showroom, and home all sit under one roof. Their lives unfold in an admittedly nondescript circa-1970s Sonoma, California, barn—and that’s just the way the pair like it. That unremarkable rectilinear exterior sets the stage for a happy surprise when guests, clients, and friends cross the threshold and find exactly the opposite inside: a treasure trove of luscious materials pulled from nature and arches dancing across their ground-floor professional space and private 1,200-square-foot apartment upstairs.

The transition from office space to living space happens in this grand foyer-like entry to the curved staircase, with immense 15-foot-tall windows (and custom Roman shades from the Shade Store in Kelly Wearstler fabric) and Eco Outdoor Arbon Limestone flooring. In the remodel they blew out the side of the barn to “volumize,” letting in light from the west that “refracts off everything and really changed the space dramatically,” says Carrier. Marmorino plaster, which they’d been dying to use for some time, covers the walls, while a Noguchi Akari B pendant hangs over the Bishop stool by Haus of Hommeboys.

This is the result of an extensive remodel Mutter-Rottmayer and Carrier designed and contracted themselves, answering a major need for space for their rapidly growing business, which they founded in 2018. Now the deluxe interior is a true reflection of not only the idyllic environs beyond its walls—olive groves, vineyards, expansive blue skies, and prolific cacti—but also of the two men responsible for its loving evolution.

There’s history in the barn, which sits on a three-and-a-half acre family compound where Mutter-Rottmayer’s parents and aunt live in separate abodes. In 2015, his father offered to teach them the ropes of his design and homebuilding company with the goal of taking it over when he retired. That invitation, Carrier says, “was very mesmerizing. So we moved down here from Washington, essentially took hold of the barn”—which comprised a 40-by-60-foot rectangle and a 20-by-60-foot volume above it—“and started transforming it on our own, making it a space that was ours.”

Shop out the look of the house here⤵

Portola Paints Roman Clay in Rustica meets stair rails, walls, and ceiling in custom Marmorino plaster at the top of the staircase, where a painting by Jessalyn Brooks greets guests. “There was no architectural detail to it, all of that we added to create interest on the inside,” says Carrier, “because it is really just a rectangular box.”
A crane was needed to get the gargantuan custom stone table into the dining room. It sits with pine Rainer Daumiller chairs from the vintage collection of Haus of Hommeboys and beneath a custom clay ceramic light fixture made in Oaxaca by a “lady who had to take it to the next village over” to find a kiln large enough to fire it, according to Carrier. “It has this force; you walk inside and it just hits you,” he adds of the dining room, which is defined by a vaulted ceiling and faux engineered trusses. “It excites me the most and made me fall in love with the house all over again.”

At first the couple lived in half of the upper level and used the lower as a woodworking shop. Their dwelling was a “test kitchen” for clients and projects and underwent a dozen or so DIY renovations over the years. This mega overhaul, however, is its final flip: metamorphosis realized.

Carrier recalls their excitement: “We’re gonna do it right! Make this ridiculous curved staircase we always wanted to do and cover the walls in materials that aren’t just painted drywall.” And they did. Befitting a couple who talk about design during most waking moments, they can’t go home without walking through the office. “We have a very short commute,” laughs Mutter-Rottmayer. The entrance to their one-bedroom, two-bathroom dwelling is a shapely plastered interior staircase that he says “divides the work from the play.” Instead of adding square footage, they “volumized,” says Carrier, adding, “you get pulled up into our space.”

“We love a huge coffee table, one that’s so big you can dance on it,” says Carrier. Their Haus of Hommeboys Bishop ottoman covered in Metaphors Pampa fabric was designed for that purpose. It doubles as their dining table and kickback space, says Mutter-Rottmayer, adding, “we spend most of our time in there—it’s very relaxing.” The lounge-y living room features custom Pierre Frey Teddy Mohair drapes in Mousse, a custom sofa in black velvet, Audo’s Tired Man chair in chocolate sheepskin, a vintage Moroccan Tuareg rug, and Difane’s Estela lamp. They saw the painting by Alejo Musich in an Argentina gallery and talked about it all night before rushing back to make sure it wasn’t sold to someone else.

Prior to this, “there was no architectural detail,” Carrier says of the barn. “It’s not a grand home from the outside, but it has this intriguing quality once you’re inside because it feels cozy.” Mutter-Rottmayer, in fact, calls the aesthetic “sexy cozy.” That’s owed partly to the way they created distinctive spaces without walls—a lounge-like living room nook framed by a wide arch and lush moss-hued mohair Pierre Frey drapes, a dining “room” defined by a ceiling of faux engineered trusses, and a kitchen where three different gracefully curving forms come together for a transition that might not make sense on paper but functions beautifully in real life. Whimsical arches are a cohesive constant rendered in everything from cane to clay—and an antidote to the boxiness of the original architecture.

To create an abstracted take on a stacked stone wall for the island and hood, Haus of Hommeboys woodworkers hand-carved white oak and stained it ebony. “Nine thousand hours of sanding later, it was so smooth and three dimensional,” says Carrier. “We really wanted it to feel handmade.” The kitchen contains Café Appliances in matte black, natural bronze Schaub and Company hardware, and Fusion Wow Quartzite marble they fell in love with even before starting this project.
The curved island is a perfect meeting of form with function. “In our house, every opening is an arch,” says Carrier, “and we really wanted it to follow through in a lot of different spaces, [even] into the island.” The kitchen features ebony-stained white oak cabinets built by Haus of Hommeboys, custom brass monopoints from Italy, an Adrian Wong painting, Sarah Kersten Studio dinnerware, and an Oatmeal sculpture.
The end of the kitchen features the juxtaposition of three different curved forms coming together: stone, plaster, and flooring. “We wanted this wild transition,” says Carrier. Also pictured: Haus of Hommeboys’ Ocotillo Scroll bench in Ebony, vintage raku fired pots, and a Forbes & Lomax aged brass light switch. “From the outside it’s very unassuming, so people walk in and they’re like, ‘Whoa! This is not what I was expecting was going to be inside the space,’” says Carrier.

The Hommeboys, who are homebodies, prioritize natural materials, and in that arena they fully committed, down to using Forbes & Lomax aged brass light switches in lieu of plastic. Velvet mohairs, Fusion Wow Quartzite, and Marmorino plaster were earmarked even before the design process began. Knowing they couldn’t afford to plaster the barn’s entire interior, they opted to DIY Roman clay upstairs. “That’s where we almost killed each other,” says Carrier, “because we’d committed to this and we’d done two walls and still had 1,000 square feet to go.”

Otherwise, the process was filled with joy, especially when designing furniture they see as “new heirlooms.” (They’re about to debut three furniture lines.) “That was both a very hard part and also a really special part—I feel so connected to our house because of it,” says Carrier. “Our things feel very precious.”

The 2,400-square-foot Hommeboys Interiors office includes a limewashed (Portola Paints’ Fairview) conference space with a custom Haus of Hommeboys table in walnut-stained oak with a Taj Mahal quartzite inset, CB2 chairs, a stoneware sculpture by Oatmeal, and a James Rottmayer painting. “White walls,” Carrier says, “are not our MO. Now brown is very ‘in,’ but we’ve been doing it for a while.”

The domicile’s small footprint demanded they make the most of it, design-wise. “I definitely felt the need to push and be a little weird,” says Carrier, and his husband agrees: “It being our own house gave us the excuse to go wild.” Every inch of the space was up for grabs, especially the ceilings, which he says, “we thought and overthought. You can really create the energy of the room by finishing out the ceiling.”

A Hommeboys-designed bed and headboard in cognac-colored Dedar Plushy fabric topped with Cultiver linen bedding, a vintage Moroccan throw, and vintage Turkish pillow against Portola Paints Roman Clay walls represent the Hommeboys’ way of creating a serene yet dimensional experience with a punchy color and rich tactility. The funky vintage chair is covered in Dedar Schwarzwald fabric, the lamp is by Marrakech’s LRNCE, and the curtains were made from vintage Turkish suzanis.
“Our primary bathroom is a shoebox, and we wanted the soaking tub to fit into this space, so we had to get creative with how everything would be laid out,” says Carrier. A custom white-oak and caning door designed by Hommeboys Interiors and built by Haus of Hommeboys separates the bedroom from the MTI Alissa bathtub with Watermark fixtures and a custom stool. Both men come from artistic families, and paintings by Mutter-Rottmayer’s father, James Rottmayer, hang against Portola Paints lime wash in Wings, also used on the ceiling.
With a custom marble trough sink and millwork fabricated by Haus of Hommeboys, the primary bathroom manages a lightness with Zia Tile’s zellige tile in Skylight and a mirror, light fixtures, and hardware by Rejuvenation.

Instead of walking downstairs to tinker around, Mutter-Rottmayer now drives to downtown Sonoma, where their millwork operation and furniture atelier occupy a 50-year-old cabinet shop. The couple’s roots in Wine Country are deeper than ever, with all their cabinetry and virtually all their furniture fabricated within miles, by artisans they know personally. Says Carrier of their personal retreat, “It’s the evolution of who we are as designers, where we’ve gotten, and what we’ve sunken our teeth into—our home is a true capturing of that.”

An outdoor shower makes sense in a climate such as Sonoma’s that allows the couple to enjoy being outside most of the year. Their clear cedar deck holds an Orca Living outdoor shower, curtain in Perennials Fabric’s Jake Stripe, vintage stool, and Hawkins New York brass shelves.
The design process was quick, however the build took far longer than expected. “We had a big hole in the side of our house for months.” This 1972 Airstream is a four-year renovation project that sits near their cedar hot tub on Eco Outdoor Pendall cobblestone flooring with chairs covered in Perennials Fabrics’ Jake Stripe.
“We’re outdoors most of the time,” says Mutter-Rottmayer. Their alfresco dining setup includes a vintage marble table with Crate & Barrel chairs and a wet bar with a Zephyr outdoor fridge and Zia Tile’s zellige tile in Casablanca. Over a decade, says Carrier, “we really transformed it from a barn sitting in a gravel pit to this very luscious Northern California vibe space that really represents what we love and who we are.”

Shop it out:

Chiltern Handmade Rug

$1598.00, Lulu & Georgia

Brass Shelf

$98.00, Hawkins New York

Cova Flower Vase

$60.00, Light and Ladder

Rica Whitewash Grasscloth Nightstand by Leanne Ford

$749.00, Crate & Barrel

Pillar Lamp

$318.00, LRNCE

Assisi Textured Towels

$13.00, Kassatex

Set of 2 Linen Euro Pillowcases - Olive

$110.00, Cultiver

Estela Lamp 2.0

$8700.00, Difane

Akari B Ceiling Lamp

$1800.00, Noguchi

Flat Roman Shades

$490.00, The Shade Store

The Tired Man Sheepskin Lounge Chair

$11855.00, Audo Copenhagen

Essential Kitchen Oil + Vinegar Bottle

$44.00, Hawkins New York

Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest

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