Country & Seaweed is a design build firm like no other. We create experiences through great architecture and design. We believe in craftsmanship, timelessness, and most importantly, leaving things better than when we found them.
LAUREN@COUNTRYANDSEAWEED.COM
Founder Lauren Himmelvo started building her body of work from about the time she could walk. Her love of all things built runs in her blood, having grown up with accomplished parents in the worlds of interior design, hospitality, restaurants, and real estate development. As a kid, her family inhabited numerous home renovation projects, and she fell in love with the process, the smells, the chaos. Raised in a small New England coastal town, her mariner roots have become the defining arc in her life and work. Building, reviving the old, and bringing a handcrafted quality to every project are all elements she strives to bring to every project.
Lauren's design influences evolved from a collision of worlds and a creative journey that has spanned 30+ years. In her early 20’s, she had the opportunity to live and study in Florence, Italy, to delve into the fabric of symphonic music, art and design, which ignited a lifelong passion for Italian culture. From rustic Tuscan pastoral vineyards to olive groves in Lucca to the sublime waterways of Venice and the stripes of the Duomo in Florence, Italy has become her home away from home. Having grown up in the hotel and restaurant business also gave Lauren a window from which to view and explore new worlds, from Swiss mountain villages to Germany’s black forest or the fishing villages of Nova Scotia, Lauren was blessed to have the opportunity to travel the world at an early age and to form a unique perspective on designing the fabric of one’s life.
But probably the most meaningful impact on Lauren's life has been the Far East, having married into an extensive Asian family. She opened a Vietnamese noodle bar in 2011 and designed every aspect of the experience from the ground up. Her work began to blend more natural materials, clean lines, and general functionality. She designed with more compact, green, and sustainable living in mind, building a one-of-a-kind country cabin or renovating a San Francisco city dwelling, she not only took from her experiences growing up by the sea but gave nod to her continued exploration of the mindfulness and simplicity of a Zen space and landscape.
In 2012, on a drive through central Texas to purchase a 1968 Flying Cloud Airstream for a restaurant project, she discovered the Texas hill country, and it was pure kismet. In the landscape, she saw everything she strives to incorporate into her work - rustic modern simplicity meets the Far East and warmth of California wine country.
Lauren’s lifelong journey led to her to create Country & Seaweed, an experiential design build company. And as her story continues…In 2022, just after the global pandemic was coming to an end, Lauren and her family relocated to Paris, France where she finally had the opportunity to formally study architecture in a masters program.
For 10+ years in Austin, Texas, Lauren worked in the design build world, as a general contractor and project manager on numerous projects, having been mentored along the way by award-winning builders, such as founder of Pilgrim Building Company, Branson Fustes. Her love of west Texas architecture continues to this day, as she cites one her greatest influences to be San Antonio’s renowned architecture firm Lake Flato.
Over the years Lauren has produced and directed numerous award-winning films, including the 2022 television pilot Fault Line. She holds a masters degree in film from Boston University and a United States Coast Guard Launch Tender License.
Lauren Himmelvo - Founder
