For design duo Austin Carrier and Alex Mutter-Rottmayer of Hommeboys Interior, searching for the perfect furniture pieces can make or break an interior space. ‘Moving around together we would constantly be making and developing the spaces we lived in. We would build custom furniture to fit perfectly into awkward spaces in the homes we would rent, and when the pieces no longer served us we would gift them to our friends,’ said the couple. ‘Our friends joke that they have “Hommeboys originals” that might be valuable someday. We love seeing them when we walk into their homes, reminding us of where we started.’
Listening to the wise words of their friends, the Hommeboys founders launched Haus of Hommeboys, a custom millwork and cabinetry studio, and furniture atelier, to serve as a creative outlet for the furniture designs that they could not find, but wanted for their clients and for themselves. Haus of Hommeboys will also launch its inaugural collection ‘Ocotillo’ which is inspired by the golden hills of Northern California, and the first of three furniture collections in the making.
Get to know Haus of Hommeboys
The creative couple have always had an immense passion for furniture and creation. Having met while studying at Evergreen State College in Olympia, they instantly bonded over a deep love for nature and innovative design. Carrier studied architecture, with a minor in furniture design, while Mutter-Rottmayer grew up in a woodshop amongst artists and makers. The co-founders told Wallpaper*, ‘When we first moved in together, and even before that, we were both making furniture and building our first prototypes. This shared passion was one of the things that drew us together as a couple.’
They created Hommeboys Interiors to capture their creative evolution. Haus of Hommeboys seemed like an organic extension, emphasising design from ground-up construction to rooted pieces of furniture design.
‘The transition into furniture design was easy for us, not only because of our creative background, but because we had access to our own millwork and cabinet studio that was already operational. We were always prototyping, creating and collecting furniture and kept finding a need for unique pieces in our projects that we just could not find anywhere else,’ they explained. ‘People would inquire about our designs over and over and we knew we really needed to hone in and develop our own collection. As an interior designer you must love furniture and you intrinsically understand how its design affects how you live. To be able to see a space, know what is missing and design something that fits perfectly, makes our designs more unique and interesting. Our clients not only get to live within our designs, but get to utilise these pieces day to day.’
Their studio’s location, nestled in the heart of Bay Area’s wine country, Sonoma, California, has always been a font of inspiration feeding into their work, telling Wallpaper*, ‘The golden hills of Northern California are something we look out at every day from our second-floor barn apartment. The rich gold colour of the grass is so quintessentially California and, after the many fires we’ve experienced in our area that have scorched the earth, we were inspired by this juxtaposition of this golden hue and this dark ebony veining that covers many of the hills around us.’
Their inaugural collection, ‘Ocotillo’, embodies this aesthetic. ‘The stain we chose for this collection was a deep ebony stain that is reminiscent of the ashy scars on our local landscape. The wood being western red cedar, which is native to California and the west coast, gives a more rough and rustic texture to the pieces. Capturing all the elements of these pieces with the perfect golden hue of native grasses during their peak, with the oak woodland hills in the background, really set the scene for how the collection was dreamed up and created.’
Fascinated by Anthroposophical design and hand-carved elements, they merged the two, creating a tension between the jagged asymmetrical nature of the shape while blending in a traditional hand carving technique that has been around for centuries, effortlessly adding an organic element.‘We wanted these pieces to not only be useful but feel like a living sculpture, one that is not meant to be put on a pedestal and stared at, but to be used and age with the owner over time.’
It is this slow ageing process that is the underlying ethos for Haus of Hommeboys, as they explained, ‘We are always pushing ourselves and our clients to remember that the furniture piece itself can be art, it doesn’t just have to be something on a shelf or on the wall. "Art as Object" is a design ethos we live by to make the rooms we design emote an energy we are trying to evoke for each unique space. We want each of our pieces to read as art and evoke an emotional reaction but as furniture, also serve a functional purpose beyond their look. The characteristic of ageing over time makes the pieces inherently more beautiful and individual. They are the new heirlooms to be passed down and objects that feel worthy of being called art.’
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