Houzz Tour: 700-Square-Foot Getaway in Texas Hill Country

After: The renovated facade has fiber cement board-and-batten siding, painted in Sherwin-Willliams’ Urbane Bronze. The new windows have black frames. “With the Texas heat, painting a house black can result in a hot box,” Lowry says. “But this house is so nestled in the trees that we knew the shade would keep it cool.” The dark color also helps the house blend in with its surroundings.

They also moved the main entry door from the front to the right side of the house.

Lowry likes to start a project with an inspiration piece. A beautiful fish wallpaper was the jumping-off point for the style and vibe of the home. “The fish related to the nearby lake and rivers,” she says. “Also, I knew I wanted vintage rustic pink in this house, even though I’m not usually a pink person. I wanted the house to be romantic and feel like a hug.”

Browse wallpaper in the Houzz Shop

Before: One of the biggest draws of the original home was the low vaulted ceiling and large windows that provided expansive views over the tree canopy and the hills. The biggest drawback was that nothing had been touched since it was built in 1972. The peninsula and upper cabinets blocked the kitchen, making the space feel smaller.

After: Lowry’s vision was to open up the kitchen to the family room. Part of the hands-on transformation was freshening up the dark-beamed popcorn ceiling. The couple painted the beams a light color and added beadboard over the popcorn with glue, nails and caulk. Then Lowry spent hours on a ladder painting the beadboard. The paint has a semigloss finish that reflects the natural light coming in through the glass doors.

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Keeping to a tight budget was the main driver of the design, but with her bargain-hunting skills and artistic eye, Lowry was able to give the home enviable style. She mixed new items from a range of big-box stores with vintage finds from local haunts and secondhand pieces found at estate sales and online. She also bought items from Houzz and likes the convenience of online shopping.

She also added her own touches and treatments. “I knew I wanted sheers across the back to filter the light and to get a romantic feel,” Lowry says. The sheers she bought were bright white, but she wanted a softer look so she dyed them in 5-gallon buckets of black tea overnight and then put them through the rinse cycle in the washing machine. “If the sun fades the color, I can repeat the process and age them all over again,” she says.

The jumping-off point for the family room was the secondhand sofa. “I knew I wanted a well-worn leather sofa in here,” Lowry says. The swivel chairs and the kilim ottoman are online finds that add texture and pattern. In addition, the kilim brings in subtle dashes of vintage pink. Strolling through a large home improvement store one day, Lowry was stopped in her tracks by the rug. “I knew it was exactly what I needed,” she says.

Throughout the home, she kept the paints consistent, using Sherwin-Williams’ Nurturer color palette. The walls, ceilings and trim are Oyster White. “I wanted to bring paint colors through the whole house because the space is so small,” Lowry says. “I considered that you could see almost all of it from one vantage point, so I wanted to make it all flow together.” She used an eggshell finish for the walls and a semigloss for the trim.

One spot where she added some contrast was with new beadboard wainscoting in the family room. Here she used Sherwin-Williams’ Sage Green Light, which brings color from the foliage seen through the expansive glass to the opposite side of the room.

Before: This is how the existing kitchen looked from the family room.

After: Lowry opened up the galley kitchen and placed a table for two between the two spaces, adding a beautiful light fixture overhead. “It has brass bands and netted fibers,” she says. “It reminded me of the minnow nets my grandfather used to use on the Blanco River. It had a nostalgic feel to it that nods to the lakes and rivers here.”

She found a table with the base she wanted secondhand, but she didn’t like the top. So she had a carpenter friend create a new one.

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With the kitchen now within full view of the family room, it needed to look good. “I knew I wanted it to be neutral so it would not compete with the views. I also knew I wanted open shelves,” Lowry says. Upper cabinets weren’t a good fit with the angled ceiling. Open shelves also would make plates, bowls and glassware more accessible. Lowry mixed in vintage ceramic bowls and art with the everyday dishes and glassware.

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Cost-effective moves in the kitchen include using ready-made cabinets, natural butcher block countertops and inexpensive backsplash tiles. Lowry continued the same paint color palette, adding in Sherwin-Williams Fawn Brindle for the cabinets, which she painted herself. The artwork and vintage pieces, the high backsplash and the brass hardware elevate the look of the value-engineered kitchen.

“When collecting art and furnishings, I like to keep a story in mind,” Lowry says. For this Hill Country cottage near a lake, creeks and rivers, the story was rustic and romantic.

“I typically lean toward vintage photos, and I looked for vintage lake photos,” Lowry says. “One thing I like to do is buy a digital download online, print it locally and put it in a vintage or ready-made frame. It makes it look custom for an affordable price.”

After: The new deck is gray Trex, a composite product with a long life. The railings are painted Sherwin-Williams Urbane Bronze to match the home’s siding. The new deck has spots for a couple to lounge, dine or slip into the hot tub while enjoying the view over the hills.

They moved the main entry from the front to the right side of the home, and instead of it opening into the bathroom, it now opens into the family room. Lowry sourced the solid wood door at ReStore, a secondhand home improvement reseller that benefits Habitat for Humanity.

Lowry wanted to include brass in the decor, and she found a secondhand brass bed. By choosing slim nightstands, she was able to fit a king-size bed into the cozy bedroom. The rug picks up on the vintage pink tones and lends a sense of age. She continued the Oyster White paint on the walls, ceiling and trim and painted the closet doors Fawn Brindle, the same color she used on the kitchen cabinets.

A pink tumbleweed that Lowry’s mother brought back from New Mexico was also an inspiration. The designer researched how to safely transform it into a one-of-a-kind light fixture, adding a rope fixture she sourced online to hang it from. The light bulb is an LED that doesn’t emit heat — an important detail to note for safety.

Also adding a sense of age is the patinaed piece under the TV. “This was an old garage shop piece that I found at a favorite local vintage store in New Braunfels called Max’s Haus,” she says. “With a piece like this I sanitize it. I wash it, scrub it down to remove chips, dry it and seal it with polycrylic spray. It’s water-based, and it seals in the rusty and chippy stuff.”

After: Now on to the new bathroom, where the fish swim in vintage pink. Please note that this isn’t a true “after” photo of the space seen in the previous photo. Lowry reconfigured the floor plan, moving the bathroom into a former bedroom and turning the former bathroom into an office (not photographed). The placement for the new bathroom allowed her to give it two entry points. One is directly from the bedroom and the other is from the hallway.

Lowry envisioned a cement harlequin-patterned floor but saved money by swapping in a less expensive ceramic tile that has a cement look. These are 12-by-12-inch tiles. The tub has the look of a vintage cast-iron tub, but it’s actually less expensive acrylic. New windows let in the light, while blackout fabric behind the matchstick blinds provides privacy.

“I knew I wanted to tile as much of the walls as possible for wipe-ability,” Lowry says. “I chose a simple 4-by-4-inch tile that people have had in their homes for 100 years. Done en masse like this, it’s more dramatic, and I used a brick pattern to give it vintage vibes.”

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Lowry outfitted both entries to the bathroom with pocket doors to save space. A ready-made vanity she found online repeats the green color seen on the family room wainscoting. “I love the way the green ties in to the wallpaper too,” Lowry says.

The wood-framed mirror is also a new find, but it has a vintage look. “Everything in this bathroom is new except for the accessories, including a vintage makeup mirror and a pink Depression glass tray. You can make a bathroom feel vintage by accessorizing like this,” Lowry says.

Out on the property, the couple set up a fire pit, a barbecue pit and hammocks.

The designer says the key to keeping to a tight budget while giving a space a special and elevated look is to take your time buying things and to mix big-box store items with secondhand and vintage finds. “Also, I never pay full price for anything,” Lowry says. “I love to hit the outlet malls, estate sales and garage sales. A lot of people can get really overwhelmed when shopping at a big vintage emporium or an antique market. Keep a story in mind, or have an inspiration piece, color palette or overall aesthetic idea to help you weed through.”

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