Designers and architects are rethinking the materials that shape our built environment, driven by a growing demand for sustainable and low-impact choices. This conversation explores how the industry is embracing circularity, reducing environmental harm, and balancing aesthetics with responsibility. From innovative surfaces to new approaches in reuse and lifecycle planning, panelists will share how sustainable materials are reshaping design practice and influencing client priorities.
Credits:
Surface: IRG Stone
Construction: Reliez Builders Valley Builders
Photography: Bess Friday
MODERATOR:
Mary Jo Bowling, Homes Editor, Luxe Interiors + Design
Like many of the people she covers, Mary Jo Bowling has had a passion for interior design and architecture from a young age. She grew up to become a design writer and editor and a serial remodeler. Mary Jo has written about beautiful homes around the country for magazines like Sunset, Better Homes & Gardens, San Francisco and California Home + Design; as well as websites such as Houzz and Curbed. For the last several years, she’s focused on homes in Northern California and the Pacific Northwest in her role as homes editor for LUXE Interiors + Design. She lives in the Bay Area with her family where she just finished restoring a 106-year-old farmhouse and is busy remodeling a condo constructed in 1978.
PANELISTS:
Katie Monkhouse, Katie Monkhouse Interiors
Originally from the East Coast, Katie has spent more than ten years living in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and two young children. Katie’s work is highly influenced by the casual approach to life that is distinctly Califonian, as well as the natural beauty of the surrounding landscape. Merging her warm, modern style with her inherent love of antiques and European aesthetic, Katie has cultivated a unique point of view that juxtaposes clean lines and balance with the patina and imperfections that come with living well.
Emily Mughannam, Founder and Principal Designer, Fletcher Rhodes
Emily Mughannam is the founder and principal designer of Fletcher Rhodes, a Sonoma-based interior design studio known for creating, refined, classic spaces that reflect the lives of the people who inhabit them. With more than two decades of experience starting in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and now in Sonoma Wine Country, Emily brings a keen eye for architecture, materials, and storytelling through design.
Her work has been featured in Milieu, Architectural Digest, Vogue, House Beautiful, RUE, and Traditional Home. Emily leads a team dedicated to delivering full-service luxury interiors, From concept to installation, Emily’s classic design sensibility is paired with a deeply personal approach—building lasting connections between client and designer, and creating homes that feel truly connected to the people who live in them.
Hommeboys Interiors is an award-winning, multi-disciplinary design studio focusing on coast-to-coast luxury residential and hospitality design. Based in the heart of the Bay Area’s wine country, Sonoma, California, Hommeboys specializes in the seamless blend of indoor-outdoor living. Led by designers Alex Mutter-Rottmayer and Austin Carrier, Hommeboys offers in-depth knowledge of both design and construction, as well as direct access to their custom millwork and cabinetry studio and furniture atelier, Haus of Hommeboys. Co-Founders, husbands and Principal Designers, Alex Mutter-Rottmayer and Austin Carrier met while studying at Evergreen State College in Olympia, instantly bonding over a deep love for nature and innovative design. After graduating, they returned to California, joining Alex’s family firm, Rottmayer Design + Build, as designers and project managers. Further immersed in their shared passion for architecture, creating one-of-a-kind designs, and being involved with every aspect of the process, they created Hommeboys to encompass their creative evolution.
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This is a collaboration between IRG Stone and Design Bay Area.
