A Warm New Welcome

A 1950s East Texas ranch-style house finds new footing with a sentimental makeover that's thoughtfully rooted in the past but freshened up for the present.

- written by KELLY RYAN KEGANS photographs by WYNN MYERS styling by JESSICA HOLTAM

The exterior’s original red brick had to stay—that was a nonnegotiable. So was the bathroom’s yellow tile, the kitchen’s swinging door, and the expansive views of the familiar shaded landscape that has surrounded Carl Childress’s East Texas home for more than 35 years.

What began as merely a bathroom upgrade soon spilled over into just about every room in Carl’s 1954 Colonial-style ranch with a renovation led by the interior designer who knows him best, his stepdaughter Marynn Udvarhelyi (@wildflowerhome.interiors). “She understood exactly my style,” Carl says.

Before moving into the home in 1987, Carl, an optometrist and a retired Navy captain, had long been familiar with the neighborhood, having grown up in the house next door. After his wife (and Marynn’s mother), Patricia Binkley-Childress, passed away a few years ago, Carl and Marynn worked together to revive the house—not by erasing memories but by helping create a renewed sense of life.

It was time, Marynn says. “It had just kind of lost its way over the years, so it was sort of a reconciliation to honor the house and the materials, to bring it back to the way it should have always been.”

Bit by bit, Marynn helped Carl remove pieces that had been piling up while bringing back meaningful elements to bridge the past and the present. The house had always been a blend of architectural styles—a mid-century ranch with decorative ornamentation added by the original builder, who was from New Orleans. The mix suited Carl’s style, which had been informed by his mother’s East Coast upbringing with antiques and fine furniture; his love of travel, particularly sailing in Newport, Rhode Island; and a lifetime living in Longview, known for its down-home, Texas-friendly approachability.