Interiors

The combined kitchen and dining room, featuring two pieces of family-heirloom furniture, feel spacious thanks to a vaulted ceiling; it and the walls are clad in Douglas fir.

Homeowners Heather Thompson, a literary specialist in Lake Oswego School District, and Sam Gaty, executive director at a nonprofit that supports documentary filmmakers, loved almost everything about their spacious, light-filled 1965 ranch house in Portland, Oregon’s West Haven neighborhood. But the one pain point was the kitchen, a cramped, dark space with a bad layout.

OFFBeat by Nick Deaver Jes Deaver Architecture is one of nine cleverly designed homes featured in the 2024 AIA Austin Home Tours lineup.

To install Charles Willson’s prefab house, Stillwater Dwellings lifted the structure over an existing barn on the one-acre property. Willson, who is often on the road, wired the house with the latest in smart technology.

Designed by Prinz and Brooks, the 6,400-square-foot Hayes-Bernstein Residence has only had two owners in nearly seven decades.

The cork flooring from the den continues into the primary bedroom, which opens to a semi-private outdoor garden.

In the primary bathroom, Mariana picked a Portuguese marble in desert pink for the countertops and shelf. "I love the contrast of the pink with the green and the wood,

Mariana's father Eduardo lives with the family, and was in need of his own private spaces. In Eduardo's bedroom, Koetter and Studebaker converted an oversized closet to a small study and lounge area with built-ins in Baltic Birch.

Designed to feel like the cabin of a boat, Eduardo's bedroom is clad in marine grade plywood.

The lower level den received new flooring in cork to warm up the space, and nod to Mariana's Portuguese roots, where cork is a major export. New built-ins help define and ground the space, which previously felt like a transition zone.

Inside, the original ceiling complements new Douglas fir slats. A teal sofa from Crate & Barrel picks up on a color in the stained-glass panels. The coffee table is from Salty Home.