Vintage style meets fall décor in this charming Texas fall farmhouse.
For blogger and shop owner Allison Aars of The Festive Farmhouse, interior design begins close to home. Allison, who has been arranging since she was 10 years old, inherited her love for styling from her mom. “My mother is a brilliant interior designer,” Allison explains, “and while our styles are very different, I enjoyed watching her work.” This has become true in her Texas fall farmhouse.
Allison’s 3000-square-foot home in Central Texas is a lovely cedar-plank house. Allison and her family sanded the exterior and painted it white, maximizing the American farmhouse appeal. At the same time, the rustic wooden pillars complement the orangey-brown of the front door, creating a refreshing visual contrast.
Now a wife and mom, Allison is the proud owner of a Texas farmhouse, which she likes to tailor to the seasons. “Designing is something I love to do all on my own,” Allison says. “It’s my happy place.”
Image by Kaitlyn Bullard“I collect old black-and-white photos every chance I get,” Allison says. “My heart breaks a little when I find them at antique fairs, because just like the pictures themselves, the people in them once belonged to someone. They were mothers, daughters, fathers and uncles. I snatch them up every chance I get because they deserve to be honored.”
Family Renovation Project for the Texas Fall Farmhouse
Built in the 1990s, Allison’s Texas fall farmhouse has certainly evolved in the last two decades. “She looked entirely different when we found her,” Allison recalls, “but I had a vision!”
“The front of our home has a long wraparound porch,” Allison notes. “I tried to keep the space simple, with clean lines and a mix of vintage and modern touches,” she says, stressing the importance of subtlety. “I wanted our home to feel light, bright and welcoming instead of cluttered and chaotic.”“I love to add a touch of whimsy to my spaces,” Allison says, “and this wallpaper was perfect for that. Our stairwell leads to the ‘kid zone’ as I call it. So I wanted it to transition the feeling between spaces. The pattern of this paper feels very traditional, but the subjects are whimsical. It was the perfect design.”
For Allison, that vision included various renovation projects that she and her family personally undertook. “We do all of the remodel work ourselves,” Allison explains, “which means we may go slower than most, but the sense of satisfaction when we are done is so gratifying.”
Allison brings flea-market style to her living room with one of her favorite items, a vintage ice box. “I styled it like I would a dresser or chest of drawers, which I like because it’s unexpected,” she says. “I also added a touch of fall flair with these faux persimmon branches and brown glass bottles.”Out in the country, everyone uses the back door, rather than the front door. That’s taken Allison some getting used to, “but I … love it,” she says. Allison opted for a Dutch door, which she’d always dreamed of having. “Once we got this one,” Allison adds, “I knew yellow was her color.”
Another reason Allison loves the work? The personal connection. “It allows us to do things like leaving our own mark, literally,” she says. “Before we installed the countertops we all signed our names and drew pictures. Something silly that we’d all remember was beneath it all.” The entire family worked on the kitchen, and Allison knows the renovation “is a memory [we] will cherish forever.”
“Our dining room doubles as our kitchen nook, so it was imperative that it feel like an extension of the kitchen,” Allison says. “I tried to carry in the feeling of nostalgia with the plate wall, which I’m pretty sure everyone’s grandmother had. But I used fresh white plates with clean lines to create a more modern look.”Whether you’ve inherited your grandma’s collection of children’s classics or love hunting down bargains at your local thrift store, old volumes make excellent accents. “My favorite part about vintage books is the worn, weathered pages,” Allison says, “so I love having them on display.” She chooses to face the books backward so that they’re “less of a distraction and more of a textured art piece.”
Texas Fall Farmhouse Flavor
Even post-renovation, Allison’s farmhouse continues to evolve—with the changing seasons. Allison’s interior décor matches the home’s external environment, which means that fall is the time to bring out the harvest accents. “I tend to be ready for the coming season long before it’s hit,” Allison explains.
“My mother used to work drawing greeting cards for Hallmark,” Allison says, “and one of her card sketches (a black-and-white rose drawing) is framed in my kitchen. This wallpaper matched her drawing exactly, as if she had created it herself, and I knew that simple connection would give us the family feel we wanted our kitchen to exude.”Allison’s streamlined entryway features a subtle stencil pattern that she applied herself. She brightens the area with a beautiful, yet simple, autumnal arrangement. “I always feel like you can get away with bolder color in an entryway because of the surplus of light,” Allison says, “so I took the opportunity to include bright pops of orange and red.”
But she doesn’t rush through the process, haphazardly filling her home with autumn accessories. Instead, she brainstorms to develop a vision for the coming season in her Texas fall farmhouse. “In the heat of the Texas summer, I love daydreaming about fall and the colors/textures I want to incorporate,” Allison says. “Once I have my inspiration, I go to work.”
For Allison, “inspiration” extends far beyond the appearance of a home. “My favorite thing about decorating for fall is the feeling it evokes,” she explains. “I don’t focus on how I want it to look; I focus on how I want it to feel. My favorite fall décor is anything that creates a sense of warmth, family and home.”
This year, Allison modeled her autumn palette (and atmosphere) on “the warm golds of wheat fields.” She uses copper and russet tones alongside simple creams and beiges. She also complements her year-round furnishings with subtle outdoor elements that breathe life into her spaces without overpowering them.
Versatile Vintage
Allison believes that farmhouse style is deeply personal. “To me,” she says, “American farmhouse style isn’t one specific genre. In fact, that’s what I love about it. It can be anything you want it to be. My style is a mix of rustic, elegant, vintage and modern.” Accordingly, Allison embraces a wide range of designs in her decorating. “I love combining all things rustic and elegant,” she says. “Just thinking about naturally worn wood combined with the shimmer of a gold fixture makes my heart skip a beat.”
“The wicker chair was a spur of the moment addition,” Allison says. “Sometimes I see pieces that don’t make sense for a space, by definition, but I just know they’ll work. My husband thought I was crazy when I brought this piece home, but it’s stayed put ever since. It adds the perfect amount of softness and texture.”
Allison frequently introduces secondhand treasures into her Texas fall farmhouse, which she also sells through her online shop. “I love incorporating vintage finds because it adds an element of history,” she says. “Everything has a story, including us. And I love how vintage pieces remind us of that.”
One such item, the family stove, mingles Allison’s story with its own distinct history. Allison and her husband discovered the steel 1940s O’Keefe & Merritt stove at an estate sale. Allison recounts the delightful tale of acquiring it. “It was years before we ever owned a farmhouse, and we had no need for it,” she admits. “But it was love at first sight.”
“For our playroom, I created a global feel by adding a vintage world map and pairing it with the washi tape pattern on the wall,” Allison says. “I wanted to encourage my boys to learn in this space, to dream big and to know that the world is their oyster.”Allison’s mudroom, with its simple yet stylish autumn décor, beckons guests into the interior. “When you live in the country, everyone comes through the back door,” Allison says, “so this space had to be both functional and welcoming. That’s a lot of pressure for one little space, but I think we made it work.”
That would have been the end of the story, but Allison’s husband dropped by the estate sale later that day. “He immediately snatched it up for our anniversary,” Allison says. “We found out later that the gift for that particular year was ‘steel.’ So I guess you could say it was all meant to be.”
“Our guest bath is small but mighty,” Allison says. “I wanted it to feel traditional but rustic, hence the rough wooden shelves and shiny metal touches.” Allison maximizes space with recessed shelving, small furniture and a deep gray-blue paint. “I have a love for dark colors in small spaces,” Allison remarks. “It adds much-needed interest and distracts from the size of the space.” Subtle yet stylish, Allison’s bedroom is cozy and restful. “I kept the seasonal décor light in this space, because I like to retreat to a feeling of minimalism.” she says. “Fall décor doesn’t always have to mean bright color. It can be texture and tone.”
With its seasonal inspiration and vintage hardware, this Texas fall farmhouse has its fair share of stories. But the greatest stories are still being written by its inhabitants.
Want more fall inspiration? Check out our favorite fall Etsy picks! Of course, don’t forget to follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest to get your daily dose of farmhouse inspiration!
Stephanie spends her workdays in a library, then goes home to read and critique books (or ask authors to give her free books that she can read and critique). In addition to reviewing, Stephanie also serves as a literary agent for poet Kimberly Vargas Agnese, and waters Meadow Arc, a young food forest with book-themed spaces. Stephanie lives with her mom in Fresno, CA—along with a dog that Stephanie likes to think is part German Shepherd.
