Name: Clay Ferguson (aka FERG), vinyl toy designer and owner of toy companies Playge and Jamungo, his wife, artist Sarah Ferguson, their daughter, Georgia and delightful dog, Blackie.
Location: Hyde Park — Austin, Texas
Size: 1200 square feet
Years lived in: Owned 2 years
We love a sleek, modern-looking home, but don't love a space that seems too serious to be enjoyed. Sarah and Clay Ferguson, a modern artist and toy designer respectively, have a sweet 1920s bungalow in the popular Austin neighborhood of Hyde Park that they've used as a canvas for their art, their toys and their simple, modern sensibilities.
Sarah and Clay's house is a study in elegant simplicity — with a lot of touches of fun and casual playfulness. Their furnishings are sparse and carefully chosen for comfort. Walls are kept white to allow the great bones of the place to shine and to give a fresh, open feel to the entire place. Soft textiles with fun patterns mingle with sophisticated and neutral furniture choices. Art is a mix between Sarah's great, controlled, modern pieces and Clay's more whimsical, youthful picks. And of course, the house is sprinkled with Clay's toy design work — but not overwhelmingly so.
With not a lot of space or storage they didn't have to come up with a lot of storage-maximizing ideas — they just try to keep stuff to a minimum. They did do a great job with creating spaces: in the master bedroom they had a bookshelf/room divider built to divide the large, open space into a cozy sleeping nook and office, with plenty of storage for clothes and all of Clay's toy designs and toy collection. With their friendly Boston Terrier Blackie following us as I shot the house, I just loved how clean, open and inviting everything thing felt. Their house illustrates perfectly that a home's best accessory is a good, clean style and residents who love where they live.
Apartment Therapy Survey:
Our Style: Simple, clean, fun
Inspiration: Our daughter's endless energy.
Favorite Elements: The master bedroom was just one huge room and we designed a double-sided, built-in cabinet/bookshelf to break up the space. We now have two smaller, but well-defined and fully functional spaces; a cozy little sleeping nook and the office. Also, we created some much needed storage space!
Biggest Challenge: Ancient plumbing, lack of storage space inside the house, one bathroom with a girl who will be a teenager in no time at all!
What Friends Say: Clean, cozy and cute, and they love the blue front door. People also enjoy discovering the quirky things they find around the house; from the massive toy collection hidden in the office to the small "fortune" bowl in the living room.
Biggest Embarrassment: The lack of landscaping. Both the front and back yards suffer from neglect and need A LOT of work. We'll tackle that eventually.
Proudest DIY: Painting the nasty linoleum floors in our master closet. Wow, what a difference a little blue paint makes!
Biggest Indulgence: Hasn't happened yet, but it will be new window treatments throughout the house.
Biggest Advice: Be patient and fill your home with items you absolutely love. Don't worry about things matching; if you love it, you will find a way to incorporate it into your home.
Dream Source: Wherever we stumble upon something we love.
Resources of Note:
FURNITURE
Living Room:
- • FERG Sqube side tables
• Della Robbia Monti sofa
• Eames molded plywood coffee table and chair
• Antique Edison record player
Dining Room:
- • 17th Century Irish Wake table
• Antique dining chairs
• Antique chest-of-drawers
• Emeco Brushed Aluminum Barstools by Phillippe Starck
Master Bedroom:
- • John Kelly Bamboo Bed
• Nelson Bench by Herman Miller
Office:
- • DIY desks made out Ikea leg frames and MDF
• Eames Aluminun Group chairs
ACCESSORIES
- • Toys designed by Clay and other various toy designers
• souveniers from travels
• vintage and antique finds from stores, garage and estate sales
• family heirlooms
• handmade gifts
• wedding presents
• objects from nature
LIGHTING
- • Nelson Saucer Bubble Lamp in dining room
• hallway wall sconces by Restoration Hardware
ARTWORK
- • Sarah Ferguson
• Clay Ferguson
• Georgia Ferguson
• Jay Ryan
• Dalek
• Jeff Soto
• Frank Kozik
• Kaws
• Brandt Peters
• Ashley Wood
• Aaron Horkey
• Jesse LeDoux
• Aesthetic Apparatus
• Johnathan Bergeron
• Darrell Roberts
• Eliza Thomas
• E.O.Golbeck
• Wil Klem
• Monty Carter
PAINT
We painted the front door Sherwin Williams color, Cloudless, and a section of our daughter's bedroom wall with Benjamin Moore Chalkboard paint. Other than that, we haven't painted at all. Not that we are completely content with the color of our walls, but we haven't felt the overwhelming urge to change the paint color yet. We have our sights set on wallpaper designed by friend, neighbor and textile designer, Nancy Mims, owner of Mod Green Pod.
Thanks, Clay and Sarah!
Images: Adrienne Breaux
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Wow! I love it! I love the blue door and the whole exterior shot. I also love that your sectional has a spot for your doggie.
Love this so much. Not too "done" and it feels comfortable and inviting. I live in Austin, too, and this is Hyde Park as I remember it from college!
One of my favorite tours! You've mixed traditional with modern and playful so well.
Love it. Love his toys--I have a few! And most of all, love Austin!!!!
This looks like it could be our house! I have vinyl toys, and my wife and I have a Boston also, and it seems our tastes are very similar.
I also have that same arch lamp that I purchased from a neighbor. Is there any way you could send me a picture of the top of it so I can see how the arch attaches? Right now, it's kind of hacked together.
Hello sofa, what's your name?! Love the exterior also!
Love this! All of it!
Very cute: inviting and cozy.
Kitchen and bathroom photos should be a requisite in these house tours. I don't care for the close ups of knick-knacks and tchotskes.
SO COOL! It's like a residential take on a Kid Robot showroom. I love how you manage to make your home inviting, artistic, individual, and just plain awesome. VERY well done!
Major front door envy brewing here! ;)
Can the owners please identify the low storage unit in the bedroom, below the 2 blue art pieces, and what is used to hold the clothes? It looks like Muji. ...
This is SO good. You rock.
Does one of you design for/sell through Kidrobot? I like the overall blend of sophistication and playful humor.
Sing this to "Put a Ring on It" by Beyonce...
"If you wanna geton AT put a dog in it, put a dog in it..."
All the best posts on AT have cute dogs (or cats). Just sayin'.
Sweet and adorable! You are very fortunate to own such a lovely home~ and I saved the shot of your front entry for future ideas for our own new (old) house.
Wow! Thanks for the lovely comments!
@Scoot: Our bedroom storage units are from Ikea. Sorry, can't recall the style name. They are sold as bookshelves; we positioned them horizontally rather than vertically. Clothes and such are stored in items from The Container Store.
@bad2121: Clay has sold designs through Kidrobot, but he primarily sells limited releases directly through his online store (www.playge.com)
Love your home. What caught my eye/attention was the photo, #34 there's a portrait of a child. My daughter had one done very similar in Central Park by Michael Lee in August of 85.
such a simple and beautiful home! love your daughter's bedding, where did you buy it?
The sofa is fantastic. I love the side tables too. Fun house.
@ jenrob Thanks! The quilt is from Anthroplogie and the duvet cover (folded at the foot of the bed) we purchased from PB Kids over 10 years ago.
Love the house. Where is that couch from?
Awesome taste. But how did they not reference the ARCO lamp by Achille Castiglone!?! It's practically the best thing there! Besides the art and the toys which rock.
Please tell me where you found those bedroom pillows, the ones on the white bed?
@g2theg: We bought the couch at Wildflower Organics here in Austin.
@lmcomstock: The pillows were a little DIY project. The decorative textile panels were gifts from a family member's vacation somewhere in South America ages ago. I chose to sew them onto old Pottery Barn velvet covers dipped-dyed green.
How come no curtains behind the head of their daughter's bed, brrrrrrr. second the motion for compulsory kitchen inclusion :)
Sorry if I missed it - where is the yellow pillow on the couch from?
@kiacook: the yellow pillow is from Pottery Barn too.
Yay! Austin. We are moving there this summer. We're hoping to live in either Hyde Park or Crestview. Can't wait.
Should it be playge.net?
Yea, a couple of the links were lost in translation; www.playge.net and www.colorblox.wordpress.com
Beautiful! The paint, I am so excited about the paint, because I've been grappling with the "should I go with white or color?" for a clean, bright bedroom, and seeing this I know that a pale cream with white ceiling and accents is the way to go. (You don't happen to know the brand/color, do you?)
Love it! I love the fun of it all, and am trying to go with the same idea in our house too.
And I LOOOOOVE your dog!!!
Oops! I just read the "paint" info! Sorry, missed that on the first pass.
Love your place! Love. Great style. Love the broken egg shells and the darling salt and pepper shakers.
Where did you get the shakers?
@lkmace: Thanks! Clay's friends company, Bigshot Toy Works, designed and produced the shakers for Knorr. We were lucky enough to receive a set. You might find them on ebay. Warning: they are little spendy.
Love the dog.
@colorblox: Thanks! They are on ebay and are definitely spendy!!! Thank you though :)
I love the dining room table - would look perfect in my place! I'll have to keep my eye out for an antique Irish Wake table.
I love Hyde Park and I'm always happy to see house tours featuring toy collections.
The ceiling fans kill it.
@Tacobell... really? You thought hard about that. Glass half empty :(
Totally dig it!...only thing I propose is redo of dining room seat covers to update and separate chairs from the dark island they make when pulled up against dark table ...typically an easy diy makeover.
Very crisp and sweet house.
Hi Sarah,
your house is amazing! would you mind telling me who the print/painting is by (the one in the living room above the couch that the puppy is sitting on)? I saw you have a very extensive list of artwork sources but I wasn't able to figure out which of them this one came from.
Cheers.
@MishyMoo Thanks! We love that painting. The artist is a friend of ours from Chicago. His name is Jay Ryan. We are very fortunate to have a few of his pieces. He just had a gallery show at Rotofugi in Chicago. You can check it out here: http://www.rotofugi.com/gallery/exhibits/jayryan2011/
Those side tables are so COOL! Are they for sale somewhere?
@macayster The side tables (known as "Squbes") are a design of Clay's. For more info., email info@playge.net.
Lovely home! Is it really in Hyde Park which is bounded by Guadalupe St., 38th, 45th, and Duval? It seems like the designation for this area has become very hazy lately.
@RajOne Yep, we are really in Hyde Park... within your designated street boundaries, no less. ;)
Great house! Love the arrangements of the books by color. Great toys & art! The person commenting on the lack of curtains in your child's bedroom is obviously not from Austin. Brrr indeed. Ditto re the ceiling fan comment. With 30 plus days of 100 plus weather so far,it can make life a lot more pleasant.Maybe I am obsessing about our extreme heat tho! Love everything you have done!
Yeah op art and disco ball. A display of egg shells. It always amazes me how clever people are with their decor.
The bathroom looks very REstoration Hardware. Is that the look you were going for?