Meredith Owen Interiors Breathes New Life into Entertainer’s Dream House

Meredith Owen has been an interior designer in the Austin area for over 15 years now. She graduated from Texas State University in 2006 with a degree in interior design and got a job right out of college working for a high-end interior design firm in Austin. She always knew she wanted to open her own company, though, and went for it in 2016.

Now, over six years later, Meredith Owner Interiors is a bustling, successful firm with a staff of six. One of her goals in founding her own company was to create a space that offers approachable, collaborative design that doesn’t feel pushy.

“We want your house to look like a reflection of the family who’s living inside,” says Meredith. “All of our projects speak to that particular client, and that’s what keeps it interesting for us but speaks to how collaborative we are with our clients.”

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When Copper Moon Custom Homes hired Meredith to turn a spec home on Amarra Drive into a future family’s dream home, she had to start the project without the specific needs in mind since the house hadn’t been purchased yet. She brought in Geschke Group Architecture and Charles Martin Custom Homes for support. This team had collaborated on a lot of projects in the Barton Creek area over the years, but this is the largest spec home they had ever worked on together.

Due to the challenging nature of the steep plot of land, the floor plan was designed as an upside-down concept. This allows you to enter on the upper floor and immediately take in the sweeping tree-filled views (and a peek of the downtown skyline!). You can walk downstairs to access the game room, kids’ bedrooms and pool area. The folks who ended up purchasing the home — a couple originally from California with two teenage kids — loved the indoor-outdoor aspect.

“It worked out really nice for them because they had a really nice big entertaining area downstairs as well as upstairs,” says Meredith. The house is a fun mix of neutral palettes with slight hints of blues translated through the cabinetry and tile. “It’s one of my favorite projects I’ve worked on,” says Meredith. “The home purchasers brought their California aesthetic to the house. It was fun to play that up a little bit.”

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When it came time for Meredith to help with the furniture, the family was starting from scratch, which is fun but also puts more pressure on the designer. She took the couple shopping with her so that they could sit on all the furniture. They even did a big trip to Houston together for the furniture in the shared spaces. Meredith thinks it’s important for clients to test out what fabrics are comfortable and attractive to them. They pulled concepts together from the Houston trip.

The couple are big entertainers and love to have people over. This was achieved with additions like that butler’s pantry behind the kitchen and the ample comfy seating both indoors and outdoors.

“It’s like an entertainer’s dream,” says Meredith. “You have huge sliding doors that exit onto the balcony overlooking this beautiful Austin vista, and you have a great island. It’s very approachable, comfortable, a place where people want to come and linger.”

While challenging, Meredith liked working with the upside-down floor plan, which made the house unique. In addition to the kids’ bedrooms and game room, the downstairs has a bar area, a place for a pool table and another full laundry room. This all laid out into the pool area beautifully so that they have it all accessible when entertaining poolside.

“It’s just ease of living,” says Meredith. “Everything was very approachable and comfortable.”

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