After Linda Gray inherited the central Texas house built in 1888 by her great-grandparents, she and her husband, Rod, realized that they would soon have a wreck on their hands. The tiny two-bedroom structure had, over the years, served as a bunkhouse and hay barn. A 1973 renovation added indoor plumbing, but there was no living room, windows leaked, and beams were beginning to give way.

"Either the house was going to fall down or we had to fix it up," says Linda, who loved its wood-plank walls, painted rooms, and rough-hewn floors. She wanted to adapt the house as a comfortable weekend retreat for her Houston-based family without compromising its charm.

Linda's German immigrant ancestors had settled in the rolling hills around Bellville, an hour west of Houston, because it reminded them of their homeland. To capture every breeze during the hot summer months, her great-grandfather built what locals call a "dogrun" house. All rooms opened to a wide center hallway. When the front and back doors were opened, breezes circulated, creating the closest thing to air-conditioning in 19th-century Texas. For further shelter from the heat, the farmer added a wide, south-facing porch.

The house stood unadorned until 1906, when the family hired an itinerant French painter to decorate its simple rooms. The artist stained the walls in bright shades of teal, purple-pink, and green that, over time, have faded like the colors in an old quilt. He added stenciling in many of the rooms and painted murals on two walls.

"To preserve its integrity, Rod and I decided we'd make the old house into a bedroom wing," says Linda. Working with Houston architect Phil Schawe, the Grays had the house moved 400 yards onto a new foundation. It now nestles among a grove of trees next to a gurgling creek.

The Grays added a second wing that repeated the footprint of the old house. Its open-space plan includes a kitchen, dining area, and living room. With new porches added (one of them screened), the house is now triple the size of the original homestead. Linda's next challenge was to meld the two sections of the house. For help, she hired Houston interior designer Ginger Barber. "Our goal was to showcase the old walls rather than compete with them," says Barber, who limited the palette in the new wing to quiet colors. Faux painters Randy Jones and Bea Morrow restored any damage to the old walls and even uncovered additional stenciling in the dogrun that had been painted over.

Old beams divide space in the new wing, where Barber opted for neutrals—a beige-and-white striped couch, leather armchairs, simple rag rugs, and soft Orientals. Cabinets in the kitchen were distressed and painted a dull gray-green. Counters of poured concrete were tinted mustard-brown to look, says Barber, "like old leather." A breakfast nook was extended out onto a porch so that windows could surround it on three sides.

For furnishings, the two women did most of their shopping at Round Top, a twice-a-year Texas antiques fair that specializes in rustic Americana. "We didn't want anything new," says Barber, who loves the look of old wicker on the screened porch and furnishings with put-your-feet-up comfort.

The results are pure Texas farmhouse, just right for the growing Gray family. On weekends, sons Carson, 7, and Alex, 11, pull on their boots and go exploring along the muddy river bottom.

On holidays, Linda's extended family gathers to celebrate, as they have for years. "I often think, 'If these walls could talk', " says Linda. "You just can't put a price on family history."

Text: Julie Michaels

Photography: Bill Holt

Architect: Phil Schawe

Interior Design: Ginger Barber