Upon returning to his native Austin after living for a decade in Los Angeles, Scott Ballew set his sights on the storied Travis Heights neighborhood. Just steps from downtown, the area is known for its bohemian roots and historic craftsman homes. “It’s where the artists, gypsies, and misfits used to gather,” says Scott of the locale where he bought a home in 2016. Committed to maintaining the bungalow’s historic character but needing more space, Scott enlisted friends and neighbors Annie-Laurie Grabiel and Arthur Furman to design a sensitive addition.

“It started with me inviting Annie and Arthur over for cinnamon rolls and coffee and casually asking for advice, without prying too much,” says Scott, who directs documentaries and short films but has been moonlighting as a songwriter of late. The home’s shotgun layout wasn’t working for Scott, who loves hosting meals and jam sessions with friends. “The layout was asking a lot from a small space—it was a living room and music area, but also a dining room and kitchen. Something had to go,” says Grabiel, who co-owns Side Angle Side with husband Arthur Furman.

Drawing on Marfa modernism and the aesthetic of artists like Willie Nelson—who owned a studio in the neighborhood in the 1970s—Scott envisioned a compact new dining room bump-out extending from the kitchen and connecting to a new screened porch. “I was inspired by films like Heartworn Highways and videos of musicians like Townes Van Zandt and Willie Nelson sitting around dining tables with guitars in sun rooms,” says Scott. “I wanted a space that could be a hub for creativity in the house.”

Scott sent plenty of inspiration images to Grabiel and Furman, and since the trio were already close friends, capturing Scott’s vision wasn’t hard. “Scott’s interior design includes a collection of cacti and cowboy boots—he’s cultivated a high desert vibe that didn’t need to be explained,” says Furman.

Extending off the kitchen, the new dining room incorporates a rustic material palette that makes the space feel like it has always been there. The floors are 140-year-old reclaimed Chicago brick arranged in a herringbone pattern, and the walls are century-old wooden shiplap reclaimed from a local Austin dancehall that was built in 1925, the same year as Scott’s house. “We wanted the addition to feel lived-in and not too precious,” explains Furman.

Half-height wraparound custom steel windows help draw daylight into the dining room and adjacent interior spaces, while the international orange color conjures Scott’s California alter ego. It’s the same color used on the Golden Gate Bridge. “I wanted to blend the light of the West Texas high desert with the low-key, open-plan sensibility of a California ranch home,” says Scott. “I call it ‘Surfer Cowboy.’”

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A new screened porch extends from the dining room through glass-and-steel doors, creating more space for dinner parties that often extend to late-night jam sessions. “The thing I’m most proud of is the bench out here that I built myself. This was my safe spot during quarantine,” says Scott.

All told, the project added only 312 square feet, but the new addition has become the creative heart of the home. Scott even wrote his first full-length album there, and much like the addition itself, the music was produced with the help of friends. “I recorded the album last Fall, and all the songs were written or tweaked or mixed in this dining room with the artists who were part of the album,” says Scott.

For Scott, collaborating with friends like Furman and Grabiel is more than a business venture. “Sometimes it’s worth pushing those boundaries of professional working relationships with friends who inherently know what’s in your spirit—it can yield a creative output that’s really special.”

A Courtyard House in Austin Resembles a “Reverse Coconut”

Project Credits:

Architect: Side Angle Side / @sideangleside.co

General Contractor: Red Tail Construction / @redtailconstruction

Steel Window Fabrication: Mother Built / @motherbuilt

Fence and Screen Porch: Leisure Rodeo / @leisurerodeo

Structural Engineer: Duffy Engineering

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A Historic Austin Bungalow Rides Again After a “Surfer Cowboy” Revamp