![]() ![]() Members are also able to book the space for their clients. Once accepted, members can book a free two-night stay through next July. To book Stay Bungalow, interested industry professionals (designers, architects, developers and the like) can apply for a free membership on Stay Bungalow’s website. “And, that way, they’re able to interact with so many items through that cooking experience-not only the Sub-Zero, Wolf, and Cove products, but the feeling of the faucet handle and the weight of the cabinet pulls.” “That’s automatically loaded onto their app, so members can cook alongside the chef within the same kitchen,” says Morgan. The resulting app acts as an accompanying feature to a physical stay, allowing guests to access information about the products using augmented reality among other features, like a cooking tutorial led by a Sub-Zero, Wolf, and Cove chef, who filmed the video in the actual Stay Bungalow kitchen. ![]() Morgan, whose marketing company PaperBrix specializes in the luxury home sector, started developing an app based on the Stay Bungalow concept in 2017. “We maximized every square inch and created a thriving space that features a dynamic first floor and a flexible loft space upstairs.” “The lot itself is just under 5,000 square feet, so it was pretty tight,” says Marks Haydon. The original hope was to renovate the existing structure, but it was ultimately in too poor a condition to make a renovation worthwhile, so James LaRue and his project manager Emily Marks Haydon decided to tear down and start fresh. ![]() To bring his idea to life, Morgan’s company bought a property in Travis Heights, a trendy neighborhood in an already-trendy city, and tapped local firm LaRue Architects to create the bungalow. I want to experience it for myself and then share that with our clients.” I don’t want to go into a design center and have a salesperson following me around trying to sell me on something. So, when Barrett pitched this to me, I was like, ‘That is brilliant.’ That’s how I want to experience product. I do a much better job of selling luxury when I’ve stayed at a fabulous hotel where you’re more immersed and you have more interaction with the product that you’re trying to sell. “The showroom experience just feels so manufactured. He followed up with her a week later and, once she heard him out, they were off to the races. “He was like, ‘You’d be great for this project, but you’ll have to sign an NDA before I could share more specific details,’ and I remember thinking, ‘Alright, get over yourself.’” But Morgan was serious about his vision. “I remember making fun of him a little because he was being so secretive about it,” says Krueger. Krueger recalls first hearing about the concept four years ago, when she was seated next to Morgan at a dinner party. Left: The dining room at Stay Bungalow Courtesy of Stay Bungalow | Right: The bedroom of Stay Bungalow Courtesy of Stay Bungalow “We were able to get them out of their everyday noise and allow them to connect at a really organic level with things within this space they were staying in. “We would put them up in a condo, and they’d have questions about the area, the building, how we’d decorated the space and what brands we’d used,” says Morgan. The concept came to Morgan more than five years ago, after he realized that his design industry clients who came to Austin from out of town seemed especially open to new experiences. It is currently accepting reservations through next July. The house was designed by Austin’s LaRue Architects and Chicago designer Elizabeth Krueger, with a kitchen by Chicago-based NuHaus. Located in Austin, Stay Bungalow features product from several dozen sponsors, including Sub-Zero, Wolf and Cove, Vispring, Phillip Jeffries, Caesarstone, Lutron, Circa Lighting, Kohler, Holly Hunt and Artistic Tile, to name a few. Stay invites industry professionals and their clients to spend 48 hours immersing themselves in a thoughtfully designed home full of spec-able products. Who among us has not walked through a showhouse and wanted to stay for a few days? To plop down on that luxurious-looking bed or see how that beautiful gourmet steam oven could improve a favorite breakfast recipe? Barrett Morgan, a design industry marketing veteran, has taken that idea and run with it with Stay Bungalow, a concept that lies somewhere between a shoppable showhouse and a luxe Vrbo. ![]()
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