Explore A Brutalist Beauty In The Texas Hill Country

The first time architect Patrick Taylor Winn visited his clients’ property in Johnson City, he was struck by its elemental beauty. Spanning hundreds of acres of central Texas shrubland, the parcel encompasses the owners’ cattle ranch and a lengthy stretch of the Pedernales River. Hearty grasses, craggy boulders and scrubby bushes layer the terrain in a riot of tones that evolve with each season. For the couple, the acreage held a cache of memories because they used to take their children to the property for camping and cookouts. With their kids now grown with families of their own, the pair was ready to build the ultimate haven for their retirement.

According to Winn, living on the river was a lifelong wish for the husband. For the wife, a modern, concrete, glass-and-steel house had always been on her bucket list. Combining the two wishes, the architect designed a riverfront residence with a straightforward plan: two bedrooms (one on either end of the east-west axis) with an open-plan kitchen, living and dining area in between. An upstairs loft is the wife’s office, and two elevated outbuildings, accessed via a custom steel bridge, contain a workout room and a party pavilion complete with a bar and hot tub. “It’s quite a simple layout,” Winn says. “The design is intended to facilitate fun for the family within this clean, modern aesthetic.”

To bring additional personality to the home, interior designer Sara Oswalt led the plan for art, furnishings and finishes. She had worked with the clients before, on an apartment in downtown Austin, so she was familiar with their style and the way they wanted to live. “The wife doesn’t want anything that takes too much care,” Oswalt describes. “She’s very utilitarian; she wants it to be practical.”

The minimalist, industrial materials—steel frame, slick-form concrete walls and floor—are softened by the blond fir ceiling, which brings a sense of warmth to the interiors. Furnishings were kept simple, focusing on functionality: places to sit, sleep and eat. Certain items—a large dining table crafted by a woodworker in Argentina, an heirloom entryway painting, the lamps in the office—were brought over from previous homes and updated with fresh coats of paint. “The wife would take me to their storage space, and we would brainstorm ideas of how to reuse pieces,” the designer recalls. For instance, granite counters from their old residence became the tops of four bedside tables.

In choosing the palette, Oswalt was mindful of the surrounding landscape, highly visible through sweeping windows in nearly every room. The eye-catching, primary colors the clients were drawn to ended up working well. “The landscape provides a softness to the modern scheme because you see it in the background all the time,” Oswalt observes. “It enabled us to do some bold things but without them feeling too harsh.”

The living room is the strongest example of this, with a two-sided sofa in a rich yellow and chairs upholstered in cherry-red velvet. The designer also painted the frame of a vintage oil artwork in an electric blue to add a punch of color and make it feel contemporary. The kitchen and dining area are more muted: The former features the custom Argentinean table, repainted in a deep emerald green, while the latter is done up in white oak, blackened oak and soapstone.

In the primary bedroom, the wall behind the bed is made of rolled steel, so to edge out the harshness, Oswalt implemented soft fabrics, such as wool on the bed and velvet for the rug. “The client had these vintage armchairs she wanted to use,” the designer shares, “and we reupholstered them in a geometric fabric to make them modern.”

Additional swaths of color—a yellow epoxy floor in the upstairs office, mustard-colored curtains in the guest suite—take cues from the late architect Luis Barragán’s Mexico City house, where color blocking makes a significant impact. “We wanted to use it in a big way, so it is very intentional,” Oswalt notes.

The couple still gather with their children on the property, congregating on the patio or around the expansive dining table with views of the sprawling outdoors through floor-to-ceiling glass. It’s come a long way since open-air campfires, but on this ranch, connecting with family and friends will always be at the heart of the home.