One of the best remodels comprise a number of necessities: a transformative earlier than and after, no scarcity of setbacks turned design epiphanies, and naturally, a narrative. It’s a story born by means of an intensive artistic course of—one which’s formed organically by means of intention and a collaborative method. For Harper Smith, an achieved vogue life-style photographer, and her husband, Midland guitarist Cameron Duddy, it was evident from the start of their Dripping Springs, Texas top-to-bottom rework: they wouldn’t be afraid to have just a little enjoyable.
Alongside that, an entire dismissal of conference. (In spite of everything, innovation solely occurs once you function exterior the traces.) The couple labored with designer Amy Pigliacampo to convey their imaginative and prescient for the four-bedroom, three-bathroom mission to life. And relatively than conducting the primary assembly in-office or through Zoom, Amy packed up her truck and drove 17 hours solo to camp with Harper and Cameron of their Airstream. She displays on the journey, calling it “a crash course in all issues Harper.” The expertise helped Amy and Harper attain a shared design center floor—discovering frequent footing in every girl’s “undefinable artistic course of.”
Featured picture by Claire Schaper.
Tour Cameron Duddy and Harper Smith’s Dripping, Texas Residence
It’s proof that persistence and an unfettered embrace of creativity pays dividends. What’s extra, with a lot of their lives spent on the highway, Harper and Cameron naturally sought a rustic haven for his or her passions and pursuits exterior of their skilled work. With that, the house is grounded by an evident worth of household. The couple has a younger son, Kitt Cassidy and an always-budding farm of canine, cats, pigs, chickens, donkeys, and extra. Ample area is devoted not solely to deal with the {couples}’ classic finds however to assist their love of gathering and connection.
The lengthy eating desk shortly transforms right into a post-dinner card sport and the stand-up piano is the place of many an impromptu live performance. You step inside, and it’s instantly evident: artistic folks dwell right here. Considerate folks dwell right here. Individuals who each need to make the world all of the extra lovely and vibrant—whereas additionally leaning into its simplicity. Let’s take a tour.
This mission was conceived with distinctive beginnings—tenting along with your purchasers of their Airstream, permitting you to realize a deep understanding of what they wished from their house. How did attending to know your purchasers on such a private degree positively affect your course of and the ultimate consequence?
I ask Amy this, deeply curious in regards to the extent to which this mission differed from different remodels she’s labored on up to now. She displays on her and Harper’s mutual historical past—a background that reaches again to the previous decade when each girls labored in vogue. They have been briefly launched, however as Amy notes “the universe clearly had plans for us, however we have been just a little early.”
Quick ahead these ten-plus years to when Amy discovered herself highway tripping to Spherical High, Texas the place they kicked off the mission. “We principally had a sleepover that evening and talked about all of the issues.” (She provides as an apart, a want to repeat this with each shopper.) From the expertise, it was clear that “in the end, we wished the identical issues out of the mission.”
What in regards to the property resonated with you? Contemplating that the whole lot within the house was redone, the place did you see the potential within the area?
With Midwestern roots, Harper is not any stranger to a life on the farm. Having grown up in Iowa, area to roam and discover her passions took precedence. “The wraparound porch was main,” she says. Nostalgia—that inescapable sense—sealed it. “The stream of the home jogged my memory of my childhood house, with the hearth because the central pillar.”
And naturally, Harper loves a problem, significantly within the type of a home mission. “This house had simply sufficient to like with simply sufficient to repair.” An ideal stability of give and take.
Had been there parts of the unique construct that you simply wished to maintain? How did you weave in elements of the unique structure into the ultimate design?
Good bones give a designer lots to work with, providing the liberty to iterate whereas additionally offering a peek into a house’s previous. From growing such an intimate understanding of her purchasers’ wants, Amy knew that whereas the “virtually quintessential Texas farm home” format was a bonus, Harper and Cameron wished to seek out their private imaginative and prescient inside the closing design. “The principle traces and form of the home stayed the identical,” notes Amy. “Along with main repairs and a major suite addition they have been ready to make use of supplies that felt contemporary however nonetheless basic.”
What have been among the main modifications you targeted on within the redesign?
Amy shares that the first focus centered on the house’s exterior, noting that it was in determined want of a refresh and a strategy to tie the addition into the unique house. “Their builders, SRD, actually listened and collaborated. [They cleaned] up the traces, textures and drained supplies, unifying the whole lot with easy board and batten siding, a steel roof, and wonderful new home windows.”
But it surely took changing the home windows and including a brand new, customized entrance door that reworked the house “from drained to love new with out stripping away any of the character,” Amy observes. Aware of this push-pull pressure inherent in any renovation—desirous to honor the unique character whereas additionally giving the area a contemporary really feel—required a lot enter and leaning into totally different views. “In the long run, everybody acquired it and made it occur,” says the designer.
What’s your thought of “farm life”? How did that affect what you wished from the house? How does it manifest within the closing mission?
As a metropolis lady myself, I ask Harper this with real curiosity. I need to perceive how a quiet life—one which’s deeply related to the character and animals that encompass and assist it—informs not solely the design course of, however how one inhabits that area.
“If I may have put a ramp as much as each window to permit my animals to greet me every morning, I might have,” she says, noting that “all rational folks concerned within the mission” shut the thought down. However with an unfaltering conviction and maybe a tone of wistfulness, she clarifies: “Farm life to me is just listening to the noises of your personal human and furry household. Every day chores devoted to caring for the animals, and the potential to lift and rescue extra.”
“We simply added a brand new buddy to the household (my Christmas current). Honey Bear, the Highlander cow. So I suppose the brief reply is that I can commerce within the finer presents in life for soiled, noisy, loopy farm associates.”
There’s a deep sense of character woven all through the house. From the pictures alone, it’s simple for somebody to construct an understanding of who lives there. How would you describe the expertise and feeling you have been trying to create within the closing design?
Harper’s fast to slate herself and Cameron as “eclectic,” and I really like her conviction when describing her final want for what the house could be. “I wished this place to be painfully private, i.e., not for everybody. We wished to take dangers and steer clear of secure.”
Her phrases apply in a much wider sense, chatting with what one ought to really feel in any artistic endeavor when bumping up towards a real and genuine closing consequence. “There have been occasions I assumed we went too far, which looking back I believe is what you need to really feel when making a eternally area.”
In the end, it was a daring and unabashed breaking down of boundaries that led Harper and Cameron to a house reflective of the place their lives have been and the way they want to orient themselves to the longer term.
This space of Texas is understood for its beautiful panorama and exquisite pure parts. How did you search to combine the redesign into the encompassing setting?
Amy sums up this space of Texas in naming its definitive “magical” high quality. There’s romance alive in its lush, considerable nature—an ideal place to play with the design of a house. “Harper and Cam’s private type had advanced, they usually each wished to include extra fashionable supplies in some actually enjoyable and shocking methods.”
As a result of the rework required a lot work, a stretched price range compelled the couple to get artistic. Amy cites a number of examples, together with calacatta viola marble, customized cabinetry, and plaster work—to not point out making their very own tile when what they wished was out of price range.
Amy embraced the couple’s need for a deeply private home. The house “is crammed with so many home windows and light-weight”—to not point out an absence of neighbors because of the property’s 22 acres. As such, “there wasn’t actually a have to deliberately combine the surface in.” And in that manner, as she notes, it grew to become merely one other factor of the house.
With something we take from an thought to concrete actuality, it’s gratifying to see it evolve into one thing that expands previous the place you initially sought to land. It’s a simultaneous intentionality and openness to the method that leads you to someplace that feels so clearly and distinctly like house.