By her own admission, Annie Downing doesn’t typically do white houses. Known for her color-happy approach to interiors, the Austin-based designer and AD PRO Directory member, is always more than game for incorporating every shade of the rainbow into her projects, but she also knows when to call a time-out. When a client requested a vibrant Kelly green office in his Texas Hill Country home, she carefully considered whether they had too much of a good thing. “I was using a lot of saturated colors to the point where I was questioning if it would work, but their enthusiasm made it all so exciting,” she says of her clients. “They were so on board with every idea—I wasn’t used to people being so responsive.”
Clients who favor black clothing and white cars are perhaps least likely to express interest in such an eye-popping hue, but Downing says the homeowners—California transplants who wanted to infuse their 8,350-square-foot new construction home with conviviality and personality for their three young daughters—pushed her to go bolder at every turn. “I try not to be too much of a serious person,” says the husband. “We just wanted fun things that make you smile.”
So Downing ran with the design brief, working with the architects at 787 Design Studio to craft family-friendly spaces and sourcing daring patterns and energetic colors to bring them to life. Take the living room, where a jigsaw-puzzle-like custom cocktail table, upholstered in coral-hued Natasha Badararan performance jacquard, features teal pull-away stools for playful seating. “We both grew up in houses where there was a no-touch room,” says the wife, who reveals that the table has become a makeshift stage for after-school dance parties. “I didn’t want anything in the house to be so formal that the kids can’t play with it.”
The laundry room takes that sentiment to heart. Outfitted with durable, easy-wipe materials—ceramic tiles, recycled plastic 3D-printed chairs—the space doubles as a craft area dedicated to the children’s often-weeks-long creative projects, with Montessori-style organization that keeps materials within reach to encourage self-sufficiency. “It’s nice because as soon as you’re done, you throw the clothes straight in the washing machine. And you can shut the barn door,” says one of the homeowners.
Yet Downing’s goal to create a house that remains sophisticated despite its playful spirit helped ground the spaces. In the same room, the sofa is covered in an elegant Pierre Frey pinstriped velvet while a Breccia Capraia marble vanity elevates the updated plaid motif on the powder room’s Porter Teleo wallpaper. A framed Hermès scarf in one of the daughters’ bedrooms and a cloudlike chandelier by Apparatus Studio in the primary suite lend an air of refinement.
With its eclectic mix and amiable atmosphere, the house channels its inhabitants’ energy while also amplifying it. “Every room is so fun,” Downing says. “If this were the last project I did, I would feel so content.” Adds the husband, “I’ve been a serial mover—this is our fifth house in 10 years—so I wanted to make it so amazing that basically we can’t move. I feel like we made something so special that I can see us staying here at least until the kids go off to college. Hopefully they never move out.”
.png)
.png)
.png)
%2520copy.png)
.png)
