The Romance of Home | Marcus Mohon
Suzy Chase: When two podcasts collide, magic happens. Welcome to Dinner Party, the podcast where I bring together my two hit shows, cookery by the book and decorating by the book around here. We're all about cooking, sharing stories behind recipes, and creating a cozy home. I'm your host, Suzy Chase, a West Village wife, mom and homecook. Inspired by Martha Stewart trying to live in a Nora Ephron movie, surrounded by toile, plaid, cookbooks, decorating books and magazines, cooking in my galley kitchen and living my best life in my darling New York City apartment in the cutest neighborhood in the city, the West Village. So come hang out and let's get into the show.
Marcus Mohon: Hi, I'm Marcus Mohon with Mohon Interiors in Austin, Texas, and our brand new book is The Romance of Home.
Suzy Chase: In the book you talk about how when you were younger, your vision was one of nostalgia and of longing you were looking to recapture the home of your youth personally. That's my main goal in decorating my home. So tell me how your design vibe has evolved over the years.
Marcus Mohon: Well, I think it's always been approachable. That's been the one constant in the whole thing because I think comfort and warmth and approachability has been the constant that was the home of my youth that I always sought when I was younger and first decorating that I feel like we achieved as a family. We have four kids and our place was always dynamic and moving and crazy with three teenage sons at one point. But the approachability and warmth is the one thing that has stayed constant. The part that has evolved has been, I think the level of elegance. I think you can be both approachable and elegant. You can be warm and stylish. I don't think the two are diametrically opposed. I've thrown out the words formal and informal through my career because formal often has a negative connotation for modern American living. It's something people say, I don't want to be formal, but if you're coming to someone to design your house, you want it to be very stylish. So the goal is how do we achieve great style and still be warm and approachable? So the style thing has continually ratcheted up. It's what I try to do with my clients. It's what I try to do with our kids in teaching them how to live elegantly and graciously and kindly, and it's hopefully what we do with our own home.
Suzy Chase: So I'm dying to hear about your not so secret wish. What is that?
Marcus Mohon: The wish I have for my clients is that they live elegantly, like I was talking about. I want the interiors to be a backdrop for a truly elevated life. The goal is not a beautiful interior. The goal is a beautiful interior that changes how you live, and that's my aspiration for all our projects.
Suzy Chase: So you and Autumn, your wife launched Mohon Interiors September 1st, 2001, 10 days before September 11th, and subsequently all your projects canceled. Talk about starting a business and you were starting a family when the world was turned upside down.
Marcus Mohon: Yeah, it was crazy. My wife had, you can call it, she's always right about all our decisions. She had a premonition the universe, God, ya know we're in Texas, so it's usually God here, but she had this idea that we were starting our own business. So she was out telling people we were starting our own business and I had a distinct impression that we would be on our own September 1st. And my boss, whom I'm still friends with, my boss at the time called me in and he said, Hey man, I'm so sorry. The jobs we were hoping for didn't come through and August 31st is going to be your last day. And so I had already gotten an attorney and an accountant. I didn't know how to start a business, and my wife's father was always, I mean, he's always had entrepreneurial plates spinning, and so she was used to it.
She was like, of course, this was what we do. So we started September 11th happened. We all remembered distinctly where we were, what was going on, Autumn. Autumn. My wife and I had just closed on our first house in Austin and we had a one-year-old and we were already in a recession because the tech bubble had burst. And the three projects I started with all cancel their projects. And we thought, well, if we can make it now, we can make it anytime. And we had our little three bedroom house and one bedroom was the office, one was ours and one was our son's. We had the best year that year. As far as memories, as far as adventure, it seemed like anytime the well run dry, there would be a rain shower and another job would come along. I spent probably 80 to 90% of my time chasing down leads.
And one thing led to another. I met some different architects, worked on some better projects. I had one family who built the house that's on the cover of the book that we're still dear friends with, and I've done several projects for them through the years. They called a showroom in Dallas to ask about, they had just moved to Austin and called a showroom in Dallas to ask about any new designers, young designers in Austin, and a showroom recommended me. The funny thing is Autumn, my wife had spotted them across the auditorium at church about three weeks beforehand and said she'd be great to work for because of her style. And then we found out that they were those people. And here we are almost 25 years later and we're still dear friends and they're acknowledged in the back of the book and their home is on the front of the book, A house that I actually got to decorate twice, once for them. And then again for the new owners, one thing led to another. It's the building blocks. It's all about being grateful for the one that's in front of you, but also continually pursuing the one that's down the road.
Suzy Chase: So yeah, chat a little bit about the cover because you call it an authentically Tuscan project and it's perched above the rolling hills of Barton Creek in Austin.
Marcus Mohon: Yeah, it's a great area. It's on a ridge. The property was actually five acres and the house meanders across the ridge. And there are many houses in Austin built in the late nineties, early two thousands that I had referred to as dreaded uranium. Their big scale is huge. The finishes were heavy handed. I'm working on one right now that the owners would've called it that. And the architect completely stripped all the things from the outside and inside and we're revamping it. The property is so incredible. So the owners of the house in Barton Creek wanted it to be authentic. We wanted it to feel like it actually was misplaced or out of time. So every mortar joint was wire brushed by hand. The parts of stone that weren't consistent where the same artisan wasn't doing it were pulled down. All the materials were and details were authentic as they could have been using materials that we've used for a hundred years.
I think that the most green products are the ones that have stood the test of time and don't have to be replaced, plaster stone wood that you use it and it stands the test of time and it stays and it stays and it stays. And I think that's one thing that made it authentic. We didn't try to get too cute with any of the details on the home. We didn't try to make any one thing jump out. We wanted the house to feel like it doesn't necessarily fit. One place we used as gen detail that you find in the south of France. It could have happened in Spain. I just returned from Spain the other day and I'm looking at the houses going, this could have been that house. And so I think we used details that were, I hate to use the word amorphous because I don't want them to see they didn't have intent or distinct style, but were common enough to the entire southern European area across the Mediterranean so that you do have a little ambiguity as to geographically where it sits.
And I think that's what all those houses have because people borrowed details from one another and that's why you see them lap into different parts of that region. They came with a very thin set of construction documents. Most of the time a house like that has a, if you lay it flat, a super thick set of construction documents and a lot of theirs. We worked out on site, we drew things on the foundation, we worked with the artisans in place as it went. And I think that maybe is another reason it has such an authentic vibe is because the original houses like that sort of meandered and developed along the way because the artisans were creating the details as they went.
Suzy Chase: So how much does the geography play into your design process?
Marcus Mohon: A lot. It's about the architecture. It's about the client's personality. It's very much about the geography. For example, one of the homes in the book is a large hacienda on the Texas coast, and it's not going to have the same kind of architecture that a house here in the Texas Hill Country will have. It has similar characteristics. They both had a lot of this romantic Mediterranean influence, but they're very different architecturally. So clients will come to me and will say we and some of the architects we'll work with, we can tell them that's great, but it really doesn't fit this geography because I think you have to look at houses that through history were situated and detailed in certain ways and certain climate types to take advantage of the temperatures, the winds, the sun in that region where it was. Now obviously we can mitigate all that with climate control, with air conditioning and heating these days, but you still wanted to have that authentic nature. I think you could build a distinctly Tudor house in a really hot environment on the coast and still love it, that it would always feel like it's out of place and out of time. So you want things to feel like maybe they've been there for ages and still be new and fresh.
Suzy Chase: What if a client asks you, what are people doing now? What do you answer?
Marcus Mohon: Who the heck cares? Okay, maybe that's a little too blunt, but honestly, I go back to what I said before about the influences. You talk about the architecture, the client's preferences and good design and where all those overlap. That's where we should make the decisions for the home. I'm not really that interested in what's hot now. In fact, everything has rounded corners right now and rounded corners fine if it's appropriate to the project and will look good 20 years from now. But you don't want to go too far with what people are doing now because your house is going to look like it was built in 2000, whatever. When you have too many of those details, when some of those details are based in longevity and classic details, you can use 'em in a new fresh way. But if you put too many of them stuck everywhere, like that's a grandmother word, but things stuck on places to try to make it more stylish, I don't think that's as authentic as letting the piece have the best style. And if that's a trendy element, so be it. We'll do it because it's right for the project, but those elements are not our goal. So I would really say when a client says what's happening now, I would say it doesn't really matter because we're designing for you, your home and this style of architecture that's going to be great forever.
Suzy Chase: God, that's so smart.
Marcus Mohon: It's just learning experience and learning to tell people. If they know you have their best at heart, you can tell 'em things that are just a little bit like a splash of cold water. If they know you're out for them, if you're working for their project, they're a lot more likely to listen. If you're snarky and you have attitude, you can tell 'em things all day long and you'll lose the job.
Suzy Chase: One especially unique aspect of this book and your design process are your original watercolors. I love how they offer a huge peek behind the scenes. Talk a little bit about that. They are magnificent.
Marcus Mohon: Thank you. Thank you. They were a lot of fun. I've drawn since I was a kid as long as I can remember, and I never thought about this career the first time through college. So eventually the creative side worked its way out. I went back to design school and I remember the classes where they're teaching perspectives and I used the model for the first couple of times, but then I realized I know how to do this. It was just teaching how to do it for furniture. So I freehand all the perspectives and then layer in the watercolors and it helps if you can help people see where you're going. It makes all the difference. Now we still use 3D modeling some, but I think the soul of a house comes out when you draw it. I think my own vision develops as I'm drawing something.
There have been times I've created a room, I've selected the pieces, I'm doing the rendering, and I think, oh, and as the pencil moves around the table, choices might change or the details on the sofa might change. And it's helped me see, and it helps the client see to get to the ultimate place where we want to go that I talked about earlier, A beautiful room that then becomes the backdrop for your beautiful life. And I look at it, this is a little cheesy, but I look at it almost like a torch bearer. The picture is seen from Lord of the Rings as they're going through a passage somewhere, but it's hard for people who are not visual to see the outcome. Just using words, the old adage, a picture is worth a thousand words is so true because it's like a torch lighting the path ahead of them and deciding which way we want to go, because sometimes with drawing there are branches in the pathway.
Suzy Chase: Here's a great example on page 138 of a watercolor sketch that you did for this huge home in Fort Worth. The description is a little grouping of stools, an hourglass shaped table flowers and an easel mounted painting lends graciousness to a gallery that runs between the homes foyer and dining room without impeding traffic or interfering with the view of the courtyard Outside with those words and your watercolor, you can so vividly see what your vision is. So talk about the creative process
Marcus Mohon: This was an existing home. This client is really gutsy. They moved two doors over, they sold the house, they had raised their children and moved two doors over to a larger house that had more space for their art collection. So we got to walk the house and see the space. But I think I approached it the same way that I would've approached it even had the house been under construction, because these are clients that embody the philosophy that I was talking about earlier when we talked about throwing out formal and informal and living with style, but living approachable. That is who these people are and they have a very elegant home with an outstanding art collection, but they don't want it to be fussy. And I think a word that got retired a while back was eclectic because it was so overused and incorrectly used.
But these guys really like in a somewhat eclectic environment, they like to combine pieces that are designed well from different styles in different manners. So they wanted some place. This is in a gallery, the powder room is nearby, it's on the way to the dining room. It's pictured in the page across from it, the results. And these stools are, I mean the proportions are just exquisite, but we use this sort of looking like it's raw oak stain and leather on the top to make sure that it'd be really fine for people to come sit down and perch there and not feel like they couldn't sit on it. And plus there's a courtyard beyond. So we wanted people to experience the courtyard as they're in the space too, moving toward the dining room. The table is gorgeous. It's a bunny Williams table. We did the platinum finish on it so that it wasn't silver, it's not gold.
And then we threw in the little almost modern easel with the art light over it for, and the piece on this changes out quite a bit because they're collectors. This is maybe the favorite, latest small drawing or sketch or acquisition often ends up in this space on the way to the dining room. So you have something interesting to see. You have an easy place to sit. You have things that are beautiful and it connects to all the spaces around it. And it really did develop by the sketches. The two sketches, there are the same thing that developed little by little. So one was just, Hey, how can I combine the pieces that have different shapes, different styles? And then the next one was how did these pieces look in the overall space? And then obviously the photograph is the final result.
Suzy Chase: It is so interesting how you get the, I want to say measurements and spacing. So correct in your watercolors. I don't know if I'm saying that right, but if I drew it, it'd be like uhoh. That table was way too close to whatever that other thing is. But yours is such so sort of realistic.
Marcus Mohon: Thank you. Well, and part of the trick in that is knowing in realism what to exaggerate at times to make it feel realistic. If you lay it out perfectly, sometimes it doesn't feel right to the eye. It's like on a photo shoot, you move things around in crazy ways so that the room feels like it does in person. There are some things that I will exaggerate perspective on a watercolor so that it feels like it does when you're standing in the room. The other thing is it's just kind of how my brain works. My mom is a math teacher. I almost majored math. I actually have an economics degree. Geometry is a big thing. That's how I see, that's how I've always seen is in geometry. And that works into my design quite a bit. My whole philosophy is that if the room could be entirely white and you get the geometry right, it'll be a warm approachable room.
And so that's the other thing I can work out in the drawings is getting those things in the right place and getting the pieces to relate well together. And there's a beautiful thing, it's called an eraser because there are times that I don't get it right. I mean, I do work on drawing it correctly. It's not just the first time I lay the pencil down, but it's a matter of standing back often when you're drawing, you're over things like this. So if you can stand back and have perspective, you realize, oh, this table's doing this. It's all got to be in the same plane and work. But a lot of it's just intuitive.
Suzy Chase: Wow, if I had a thousand erasers, I could never,
Marcus Mohon: Well, and if you see some of the things I started when I was three, they didn't always look like this.
Suzy Chase: So pivoting to a 2025 trend, you had a quote recently in Homes and Gardens magazine that said if you can use a color that can't be described with one word, your room will have more mystery, depth and charm. Chat a little bit about the in-between colors.
Marcus Mohon: Yeah, I love those. In fact, Autumn and I are in the middle of redoing our own bathroom. The book dropped. We have the book tour going on and she decided to rip our bathroom out. So great. Good timing. Yeah, I think part of the hardest thing is choosing things for yourself because I can choose things for other people all day long and say this is exactly right, but the color thing, we ended up with an off black color in our bathroom, which sounds nutty, but we'd have to talk about the rest of the stuff. But it is not black and it changes with light throughout the day. It has blue tints, it has, you think it might be charcoal gray and at times you think it is black. I mean, I didn't do this intentionally, but the color behind me, is it blue green right here?
Is it kind of olivey right here? Is it charcoal gray right up here? I like colors that as the light changes the primary influence in our lives that the colors change with them. If you can say, my room is red, is that exciting? I'm not sure. I think even whites have to have the right depth of variation to feel right with the right spaces. And it all has to do with the light around the outside environment. I can use the same color in a different environment and it appears as a completely different color. So those colors that change as the sunlight changes throughout the day, I think give you, I don't know, this sounds cheesy, but give you energy. They give you fresh perspective. It helps with all our bio rhythms. If a color can get darker with you and not shock you at night, I think that's a good thing.
We have a color in the main area in our house called Castle Walls. It sounds like it'd be harsh gray, but it's got a little bit of blue green got, I grew up on the Gulf Coast, and so with this house I wanted to experiment with colors of a storm cloud. And in my own house, I do a lot more sometimes than I would in other people's homes, but I wanted to see, hey, as we use gradients of this color, it says the clouds approach. I wanted that feeling as you move through the house. And people don't often realize that it is a different color as you shift from space to space. So those in between colors give you, I think peace and quiet as you move through the day and energy at the times you want them to.
Suzy Chase: I love the photo at the back of the book, A long dining table situated outside under the most beautiful tree. And it looks like you're pouring wine for Autumn, the love of your life, your best friend and your business partner. What does that photo capture about your life together, both personally and in your work?
Marcus Mohon: I think what that picture says about our relationship is that on top of being in love, we like each other. We like to be together. We could set a dinner party for just the two of us and we'd have a ball. We love to go out just the two of us, and we have the best time of our lives. But if you look at the table, it's set for a lot of people. And that's also who we are as a couple, as a family. We have a big family, four kids, we've always had a lot of people in, so we also love entertaining. So we want to share who we are together with those around us. And I think that's spilled over into the rest of our lives that's spilled over with our kiddos, with our friends around us and extended family. And that table is emblematic of how we'd like to live our lives. And we like to tell people, come over, come to the table, come have a glass of wine with us, and we might have good bottles or the cheap bottles, but we're going to share it all with you.
Suzy Chase: Where can we find you on the web and social media?
Marcus Mohon: Yeah, the Instagram is Mohon Interiors and Mohon.com is our website.
Suzy Chase: Well, I just adore this book and I cannot thank you enough for coming on the show.
Marcus Mohon: You bet. Thank you so much for having me. I can't tell how much I appreciate it.
Suzy Chase: Okay, so where can you listen to the new Dinner Party podcast series? Well, it's on substack suzy chase.substack.com. You can also subscribe to Dinner Party for free on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Additionally, the episodes will be available on both Decorating by the Book and Cookery by the Book. Long story short, you'll be able to listen to it virtually everywhere. Thanks for listening. Bye.
