He Needed His Texas Dwelling to Resemble a ‘Groovy’ Opium Den

When Kirk Ferguson requested Sara Story to design the interiors of his new home in Austin, Texas, his request was not like any she had heard earlier than.

“He needed one thing like an opium den,” mentioned Ms. Story, who spent a lot of her childhood in Texas however is now based mostly in New York. “He actually needed a spot with a ’70s vibe, and groovy.”

Mr. Ferguson and Ms. Story had been buddies for years, and after speaking extra about what the home might develop into, they arrived at a design idea. “It sounds a bit of foolish,” mentioned Mr. Ferguson, 55. “However it was Lenny Kravitz meets Italian ’60s meets ‘As soon as Upon a Time … in Hollywood.’”

It began when Mr. Ferguson, who labored in funding administration in New York however now focuses his vitality on tasks associated to the humanities, wildlife conservation and well being and wellness, determined to maneuver his main residence to Texas. He purchased a not too long ago constructed fashionable home of about 5,000 sq. toes on a hillside on the outskirts of Austin, paying about $6 million within the fall of 2021.

The concrete, metallic and glass construction, designed by Ravel Architecture, reminded him of the Case Research Homes that modernist architects like Richard Neutra and Pierre Koenig inbuilt Los Angeles within the mid twentieth century. And its lengthy views throughout a canyon to the town middle reminded him of the Hollywood Hills, a favourite place.

“It’s mainly a glass-and-concrete field on stilts, hanging off the aspect of a cliff, wanting over the town of Austin,” Mr. Ferguson mentioned. “That spoke to my design sensibility.”

However the minimalist inside didn’t really feel just like the form of place the place he belonged. “That’s the place Sara got here in,” he mentioned.

Ms. Story, who’s used to working with eye-catching artwork and design, and daring colours and patterns, was stunned by how energetic Mr. Ferguson needed to make issues.

“A lot of the time, individuals need to play it protected,” she mentioned. “However he was at all times asking for extra coloration and extra sample. He actually pushed me out of my consolation zone.”

By the point they have been completed, they’d crammed the house with visible surprises. Probably the most audacious room often is the bar and lounge going through the pool. Beforehand a crisp white field, its partitions at the moment are lined by a mural of thick yellow, orange and brown curving strains painted by Caroline Lizarraga.

On one aspect, Ms. Story put in a curvy Nineteen Seventies chrome bar by Willy Rizzo, which she purchased from an antiques vendor in Belgium. On the opposite, she put in a {custom} sectional couch lined in gold velvet inside a distinct segment lined in mercury mirror.

In the lounge, she put a B&B Italia Camaleonda sectional on the middle of the house, with seating on all sides, envisioning it as an inverted dialog pit.

To create a media room, she enclosed a lined patio with glass, wallpapering the ceiling with a design of hand-painted dots from Porter Teleo and including a shaggy faux-fur rug below a sinuous espresso desk sculpted from a tree trunk by Adam Birch, a South African artist.

Within the main bed room, she positioned a plump custom-made mattress towards a wall painted with one other mural by Ms. Lizarraga, this one with smoky ribbons that curl up from the wall onto the ceiling. On the home windows, Ms. Story added ombré wool-and-cashmere curtains over lacy gold-and-purple sheers that she had created from a trend cloth present in Manhattan’s garment district.

For the three different bedrooms — one for every of Mr. Ferguson’s three grown kids once they go to — she chosen a special graphic wallpaper to animate the house. Lastly, within the powder room, she added Londubh Studio wallpaper with mushroom shapes outlined in shiny gold.

The interiors have been accomplished in about six months, simply in time to be photographed for Ms. Story’s new e book, “The Artwork of Dwelling,” revealed this month by Rizzoli. The fee, Mr. Ferguson estimated, was greater than $1 million, however he and Ms. Story proceed to search for distinctive items so as to add to the combo.

“I’m very comfortable,” he mentioned. “It’s an ideal place to have individuals over, have a cocktail and watch the solar go down.”

Ms. Story’s design has resulted in only one drawback. “I noticed she’d finished such an ideal job that I’m a bit of reluctant to have events to mess it up,” Mr. Ferguson mentioned with fun. “Possibly it ought to have been finished in a means that was rather less superb.”

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