This Month's Spotlight: Meet Austin & Alex
Beauty in the Everyday: At Home with Hommeboys
Tell us the story behind what you do—how did your journey begin, and what motivates you today?
Hommeboys began as a natural extension of our life together. We met while studying at Evergreen State College in Olympia, where they immediately connected over a shared love of nature and innovative design. I had studied architecture with a focus on furniture design, while Alex grew up around artists and makers and later joined his father’s design-and-build business. After returning to California, we worked together designing and building investment homes and gradually realized that what we enjoyed most was being a part of the entire creative vision—from architecture and finishes through furnishings and styling. Moving to working with clients has allowed us more diversity of work, more freedom and the joy of getting to see our clients enjoy the spaces we create. Today, we are motivated by creating a complete lived experience for our clients: spaces that are beautiful, tactile and distinctive but also comfortable, functional and genuinely liveable. Each project is an opportunity to enrich the lived experience of our clients, while challenging ourselves to create innovative designs with the organic materials and textures that drive and inspire us.
How have your surroundings or lifestyle shaped your creative process, mindset, or brand ethos?
Living in Sonoma has had an enormous influence on us. We're surrounded by rolling hills, oak trees, vineyards, gardens, changing seasons, and an incredible amount of natural beauty. We find ourselves constantly pulling from that landscape—the colors, textures, materials, and organic forms. We're particularly drawn to natural and tactile materials because they feel connected to where we live. Wood, stone, plaster, leather, textiles, and handmade finishes all have a warmth and authenticity that we love. Our lifestyle has also shaped our belief that a home should feel connected to its surroundings and, most importantly, should be lived in. We think about comfort and function just as much as aesthetics. We want things to age well, to develop character, and to become part of someone's life rather than feel disposable. Our own home is a huge part of our creative process. We treat it almost like a test kitchen or playground. We're constantly moving things around, trying new finishes, making furniture, experimenting with ideas, and seeing how things actually live. Sometimes they work and sometimes they don't, but that experimentation is an important part of how we design.
What’s something about your work or approach that might surprise people?
I think people might be surprised by how hands-on and experimental our process really is. Even though our finished spaces feel very considered and resolved, there's a lot of trial and error behind them. We love making things ourselves and experimenting with materials, finishes, furniture, and construction techniques. Our home and studio is often where we try things first.
It's a place where we can take risks, live with an idea, and see what happens before introducing it into a client's project. While there is a tangible throughline in our work that feels identifiable, each project is truly unique. We take our inspiration from the location, from the home itself, from our clients. We want to make sure that each end result feels authentic to the house and to our clients, that it inspires them and improves the quality of their lives.
What's currently inspiring you—whether it's a person, a place, a project, or something totally unexpected?
Right now, we're really inspired by materials and by the process of making. We're interested in taking familiar materials and finding unexpected ways to manipulate them—carving, staining, shaping, layering, and bringing out their natural qualities.vTravel is another constant source of inspiration. We're especially interested in architecture, craftsmanship, and the way different cultures approach materials. We're also inspired by objects and details that might initially seem insignificant. A small antique object, a piece of jewelry, an unusual architectural detail, or a particular piece of wood can become the starting point for an entire piece of furniture or interior.
At the moment, we're particularly interested in creating things that feel timeless and have the potential to become new heirlooms—pieces that are beautifully made, meant to last, and that become more meaningful as they're lived with.
What are your favorite rituals, spaces, or hidden spots that bring you joy or spark ideas?
We recently purchased a 1870s Italianate Victorian home located on seven acres in Glen Ellen, California. The restoration and remodel of the property has become our greatest joy and obsession as of late. The garden and the landscape around us are also incredibly important. There's something about being outside, watching the seasons change, working in the garden, or simply walking around the property with our dog that helps us reset and often sparks ideas.
We're also very much homebodies. We love cooking, entertaining friends and family, having long meals, and creating an environment where people feel comfortable staying awhile. Those experiences inform how we think about design—we want spaces to encourage people to gather, linger, and actually use them. And then there's the workshop. Being surrounded by wood, tools, samples, prototypes, and things in progress is incredibly inspiring. We love that an idea can move from a sketch to something physical so quickly. That process of making, testing, refining, and sometimes starting over is one of the things that keeps us excited about what we do.
Ultimately, our favorite rituals are pretty simple: coffee in the morning, time outside, cooking and gathering with people we love, making things with our hands, and finding beauty in the everyday.
Photo Credits: Annamae Bafia, Adam Potts / Photography supplied by Rodrigues Public Relations
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Laura Pardini
Serving; L.A. | La Jolla | Coastal Cities
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