For Alex Mutter-Rottmayer and Austin Carrier, husbands and the designers behind Hommeboys Interiors and Haus of Hommeboys, the separation between life, work, and play is infinitesimal. Considering this, it’s no surprise that the AD PRO Directory members’ office, showroom, and home all sit under one roof. Their lives unfold in an admittedly nondescript circa-1970s Sonoma, California, barn—and that’s just the way the pair like it. That unremarkable rectilinear exterior sets the stage for a happy surprise when guests, clients, and friends cross the threshold and find exactly the opposite inside: a treasure trove of luscious materials pulled from nature and arches dancing across their ground-floor professional space and private 1,200-square-foot apartment upstairs.
This is the result of an extensive remodel Mutter-Rottmayer and Carrier designed and contracted themselves, answering a major need for space for their rapidly growing business, which they founded in 2018. Now the deluxe interior is a true reflection of not only the idyllic environs beyond its walls—olive groves, vineyards, expansive blue skies, and prolific cacti—but also of the two men responsible for its loving evolution.
There’s history in the barn, which sits on a three-and-a-half acre family compound where Mutter-Rottmayer’s parents and aunt live in separate abodes. In 2015, his father offered to teach them the ropes of his design and homebuilding company with the goal of taking it over when he retired. That invitation, Carrier says, “was very mesmerizing. So we moved down here from Washington, essentially took hold of the barn”—which comprised a 40-by-60-foot rectangle and a 20-by-60-foot volume above it—“and started transforming it on our own, making it a space that was ours.”
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