Midland’s Cameron Duddy and Harper Smith’s Texas Home Tour

One of the best remodels comprise a couple 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 way of an intensive inventive course of—one which’s formed organically by way of intention and a collaborative method. For Harper Smith, an achieved trend 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 a bit enjoyable.

Alongside that, a whole dismissal of conference. (In any case, innovation solely occurs if you function exterior the traces.) The couple labored with designer Amy Pigliacampo to carry their imaginative and prescient for the four-bedroom, three-bathroom undertaking to life. And quite 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 widespread footing in every girl’s “undefinable inventive course of.”

Featured picture by Claire Schaper.

Tour Cameron Duddy and Harper Smith’s Dripping, Texas Dwelling

It’s proof that endurance 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 accommodate the {couples}’ classic finds however to help 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: inventive individuals dwell right here. Considerate individuals dwell right here. Individuals who each need to make the world all of the extra stunning and vibrant—whereas additionally leaning into its simplicity. Let’s take a tour.

This undertaking was conceived with distinctive beginnings—tenting together with your shoppers of their Airstream, permitting you to realize a deep understanding of what they needed from their residence. How did attending to know your shoppers on such a private stage positively influence your course of and the ultimate consequence?

I ask Amy this, deeply curious concerning the extent to which this undertaking differed from different remodels she’s labored on prior 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 trend. They had been briefly launched, however as Amy notes “the universe clearly had plans for us, however we had been a bit early.”

Quick ahead these ten-plus years to when Amy discovered herself highway tripping to Spherical Prime, Texas the place they kicked off the undertaking. “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 “finally, we needed the identical issues out of the undertaking.”

What concerning the property resonated with you? Contemplating that every thing within the residence was redone, the place did you see the potential within the area?

With Midwestern roots, Harper isn’t 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 circulate of the home jogged my memory of my childhood residence, with the fireside because the central pillar.”

And naturally, Harper loves a problem, significantly within the type of a home undertaking. “This residence had simply sufficient to like with simply sufficient to repair.” An ideal stability of give and take.

Have been there parts of the unique construct that you just needed 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 shoppers’ wants, Amy knew that whereas the “nearly quintessential Texas farm home” structure was a bonus, Harper and Cameron needed to search out their private imaginative and prescient inside the last design. “The primary traces and form of the home stayed the identical,” notes Amy. “Along with main repairs and a main suite addition they had been in a position to make use of supplies that felt contemporary however nonetheless basic.”

What had been a number of the main modifications you centered 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 approach to tie the addition into the unique residence. “Their builders, SRD, actually listened and collaborated. [They cleaned] up the traces, textures and drained supplies, unifying every thing with easy board and batten siding, a metallic roof, and superb new home windows.”

However it took changing the home windows and including a brand new, customized entrance door that remodeled the house “from drained to love new with out stripping away any of the character,” Amy observes. Conscious of this push-pull pressure inherent in any renovation—eager to honor the unique character whereas additionally giving the area a contemporary really feel—required a lot enter and leaning into completely different views. “Ultimately, everybody received it and made it occur,” says the designer.

What’s your thought of “farm life”? How did that influence what you needed from the house? How does it manifest within the last undertaking? 

As a metropolis woman 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 help 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’d have,” she says, noting that “all rational individuals concerned within the undertaking” 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 individual human and furry household. Every day chores devoted to taking good care of the animals, and the potential to boost 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 quick reply is that I can commerce within the finer items in life for soiled, noisy, loopy farm associates.”

There’s a deep sense of character woven all through the house. From the photographs alone, it’s straightforward for somebody to construct an understanding of who lives there. How would you describe the expertise and feeling you had been trying to create within the last 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 can be. “I needed this place to be painfully private, i.e., not for everybody. We needed to take dangers and avoid secure.”

Her phrases apply in a much wider sense, chatting with what one ought to really feel in any inventive endeavor when bumping up in opposition to a real and genuine last consequence. “There have been instances I assumed we went too far, which on reflection I feel is what you must really feel when making a without end 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 delightful pure parts. How did you search to combine the redesign into the encircling 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 developed, and so they each needed to include extra fashionable supplies in some actually enjoyable and stunning methods.”

As a result of the rework required a lot work, a stretched price range compelled the couple to get inventive. Amy cites a couple of examples, together with calacatta viola marble, customized cabinetry, and plaster work—to not point out making their very own tile when what they needed was out of price range.

Amy embraced the couple’s need for a deeply private home. The house “is full of so many home windows and lightweight”—to not point out a scarcity of neighbors due to the property’s 22 acres. As such, “there wasn’t actually a must deliberately combine the surface in.” And in that method, as she notes, it grew to become merely one other component 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 residence.