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A stainless-steel hood custom-designed by a California artist mimics the lines of the poured-concrete island.
Project Details
Project Story
It’s no surprise that Sherry Matthews takes home decorating
seriously. The quality of her very life depends on it. A life-long
sufferer from allergies, Sherry is the award-winning dynamo
behind Sherry Matthews Advocacy Advertising, the Austin-based agency that handles only clients who have an ax to grind for the common good.
Sustainable design is high on her list, so Sherry knew exactly what she wanted from architect Dick Clark’s design for her new home: the greenest environment it would be possible to construct. Not a problem for Clark, Matthew’s close personal friend and an
architect whose eponymous firm has been involved for nearly three decades in what he labels “common sense design.”
“Green design is really about principals we used to apply automatically, but seem to have forgotten when air conditioning came into the picture—like orienting a house to the sun, figuring how to capture the breeze, collect rain water, things like that,” the
architect explains.
Clark explored them all for Sherry’s new 2400-square-foot home in Westlake Hills, near Austin, which was designed in a style he describes as “slick Mexican contemporary.” But what really
distinguishes the house is its major commitment to sustainable design, a commitment acknowledged with the first Four-Star Green Builder Award in the city of Austin.
Take, for example, the lengths to which Sherry was willing to go for the kitchen’s handsome old-growth oak floor: she combed the U.S. to find standing dead-growth hardwood. Finally scoring with a source in Wisconsin, Sherry purchased the entire harvest, then made sure the trees were brought out of the forest one-at-a-time by horse team to avoid damage to the surrounding woods.
The wide planks cut from the old-growth logs underscore the overall au naturelle attitude of the kitchen. Cabinets are built of fir, wiped with thinned paint to bring up the graining. The counter is poured concrete, colored with black marble dust and sealed like a terrazzo floor, according to Clark. Its distinctive triangular shape recurs in the stainless-steel vent hood custom crafted by a California artist.
A Texas farmer’s daughter and a dedicated chef—her agency’s first-ever client was Whole Foods—Sherry entertains constantly, often for business, always at smallish dinner parties, and
frequently including harvests from her own herb and vegetable gardens (watered by rain from a roof collector). Her house has no formal dining room. Guests eat in the kitchen, literally the warm center of both Sherry’s home and her homelife.
As architect Clark reports, “She really cooks, even when it’s just for herself. This is no painted-on kitchen. It works!”
Healthy Design Habits
GO FOR THE GREEN Spurred by increasing consumer demand, more manufacturers are offering green and non-allergenic products, such as Energy Star appliances (rated for efficiency) and paint with low- or no VOC (volatile organic compounds).
CHOOSE MATERIALS WISELY Pay attention to the flooring and kitchen cabinets you choose, says Clark. Ask your contractor to use formaldehyde-free flooring and cabinetry made with non off-gassing glues.
CONSIDER CONCRETE Concrete counters are allergy-free, yet that’s not their only virtue, as Clark points out: “A concrete counter has a warm feel. It’s basically indestructible—spills blend in, and stains become part of the patina. You can also pour it in any shape you want.”
OPEN WIDE Operable windows can be great energy-savers, Clark reminds. Simply open them to the breezes and cut down on air conditioning to reduce energy-use dramatically.
