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Feeling burnt out from work and new parenthood back in 2015, Adam and Kallie Thomson took a globe, spun it, and asked themselves: Where to next? The couple were itching to leave Southern California, but they had two requirements: sunshine (for Kallie) and surf (for Adam). They landed on Bali.
“It was pretty easy for us to make the decision to go,” recalls Adam. For starters, they had been living in an eight-by-three-foot trailer with their daughter, Honey, so they didn’t have that much to pack up. “We took our six bags with all our life in them and left,” he says.
Their intention wasn’t to create more work for themselves, but that’s what ended up happening. When the family moved into their new three-bedroom home, Adam and Kallie were faced with empty rooms—and cruising up to an IKEA in Bali isn’t an option. They had no choice but to have most things built from scratch, but it turned out that the couple loved working with local makers and materials, like teak and rattan. Then, friends from the States visited and asked if they would create pieces for them, too. “We were like okay, let’s go figure out how to make furniture,” says Adam.
In 2018, with the help of co-founder and brand director Kayla Adams, Häti Home was born. Their designs balance Indonesian craftsmanship (around 90 percent of their pieces are still made there today) and practicality (read: spill-proof, kid-friendly fabrics). After six years of calling Bali home and welcoming their second daughter, Golden, the Thomsons decided it was time to head back to California, where they could grow their brand and see the girls’ grandparents more often.
Moving across an ocean during the middle of the pandemic resulted in the family buying a house in Costa Mesa sight unseen. The fact that the house backed up to a nature preserve and was close to friends made up for it needing a gut renovation. The couple’s plan: Keep the 1,000-square-foot house intentionally small. “It helps me not consume so many things, and while I didn’t want our family to be on top of each other, I love that it keeps us connected. We can still rub each other the wrong way,” says Kallie with a laugh. In the end, they only tacked on another 200 square feet in the form of a primary bedroom, laundry room, and expanded living area.
After flipping the placement of the living room with the kitchen, they added six skylights for sun-seeking Kallie and a Dutch door leading to the backyard that brings the family back to their Bali days, where indoor-outdoor flow is a way of life, not just a design perk. In the mornings, they’ll crack open the French doors in their bedroom so they can watch the hummingbirds buzz around the backyard and catch a whiff of the honeysuckle.
The Thomsons tasked a good friend, Blake Goodfellow, with landscaping the property and recreating the lushness of their previous garden. Out back, there’s Adam’s separate home office as well as another small building with swings hooked up to the ceiling for the girls. “Kallie’s been slowly trying to turn our small house into a farm,” Adam says of the four chickens that now roam the land. Their kids are on board: the other day they found Golden hiding out in the coop before school.
At the same time Kallie was coming up with ideas for the kitchen, she was also designing Häti Home’s Aya counter stool. The seat, which features slinky leather adhered to a wood frame with brass nails, inspired her to lean into raw, warm materials. Adam’s top request? Somewhere to stash all the produce that used to clutter the countertop. “I’m a big fruit girl,” admits Kallie. On the back side of the island, closest to the range, their woodworker I&C Craftsmanship added rows of open baskets so she can easily track what’s perfectly ripe.
Having a network of talented artisans in Bali meant almost anything is possible as far as furniture went. The long, L-shaped couch was customized for their space—and life. “The girls probably spend a quarter of their day bouncing between the sofa and the banquette with our French bulldog,” says Adam. The pull-out sofa in the wood-paneled TV room was also crafted by one of their go-to makers in Indonesia. The piece is meant to serve as a bed for out-of-towners, but most of the time, they keep it unfurled for family movie nights.
In the primary bedroom, the headboard is swathed in plant-dyed fabric made by a group of women on the island of Sumba. All of the patterns are done solely by memory, passed down from generation to generation. “I was just enthralled by that,” says Kallie. The nightstands are a new addition from Häti Home’s collaboration with interiors firm Pure Salt.
For their shared bunk space, the girls requested color, which Kallie delivered in the form of an animal print rug, gingham bed curtains (sewed by Kallie’s own mother), and a window shade of stitched-together scarves from Uganda (tailored by Adam’s mom). The Thomsons might just turn Häti Home into a proper family business in 15 years or so. Already, Honey says her dream job is to be a designer. “She’s six and she’s already made a chair and a side table,” says Kallie. We’ll be patiently awaiting her first official launch.
