Laura Gall: Dude Ranch Style

Have you ever been out west to visit an official dude ranch? Well, we’ve just returned from a great family vacation where we did just that! I was so thrilled to pull on my new Frye boots, purchased from a great boutique in Portland, Maine called Bliss, and toss on an easy dress/cowgirl hat and call it good!

Photo courtesy of Laura Gall

Here we are (pre-coffee/pre-shower/did I say pre-coffee?). Okay, it’s 6a.m. on vacation and we are waiting for the horses to arrive. Each morning we watched a real live wrangler hustle 95 heads (that’s slang for number of horses) from the pasture into the coral for the daily trail rides (and in our case, a few rides in the coral for our youngest buckaroo!)

Photo courtesy of Laura Gall

Now let’s not kid ourselves, there’s no vacation in our household if it doesn’t include golf (the hubby is a scratch), so here’s what’s so great about Rancho de Los Caballeros in Wickenburg, Arizona. There’s a beautiful golf course designed by Greg Nash and Jeff Hardin and since it’s located at an elevation of 2,100 feet in the upper Sonoran desert AND on a ranch, you can hop off your horse in your cowboy hat and jeans and step onto the course! Here’s our youngest colt taking a swing.

Photo courtesy of Laura Gall

You can learn more about this ranch by logging onto loscaballerosgolf.com.

You’re probably asking, how the heck does a dude ranch correlate to New England? Okay, for you anxious folk, let me bring it home. As New Englanders know, there is a plethora of rolling hills, not to mention stunning farms, located throughout the Northeast. Take for example, this amazing farm located in Orford, New Hampshire. For a “mere” $4.2 million, this East Coast farm could provide the sense of a bucolic lifestyle to anyone willing to pony up. It’s stunning!

Photo courtesy of casasugar.com

Along with those farms, and other houses across New England, come many western design elements that we have modernized, coined “Modern Americana,” and transitioned into our homes whether they be on a hillside or rocky coastline. From French country to contemporary styling, we have incorporated the “check” print as well as real and faux leathers and animal hides for upholstery, wallpapers and rugs; not to mention repurposed wine barrels and trunks for side tables, as well as used decorative “animal heads” as wall art…just to name a few.

This is a beautiful and very modern chair, yet dependent upon which room it sits, could help to create a completely different design scheme in one house compared to another.

Photo courtesy of luxeyard.com

Who doesn’t like a summer dinner party either? Especially one with friends, on a beautiful piece of property, and even western themed!

Photo courtesy of images.search.yahoo.com

Here’s the same check used as the placemats shown above, but in a cottage-styled home!

Photo courtesy of House Beautiful

Repurposing trunks into beautiful tables…

Photo courtesy of digsdigs.com

Here’s a modern take on animal hide…

Photo courtesy of decorpad.com

Well, it’s time to hit the hay so we can lasso these little guys for school in the morning.

I hope you’ve enjoyed these thoughts and will consider honing your inner cowboy or cowgirl the next time you redesign your space.

Enjoy the design journey and remember LOVE YOUR SPACE! LG

-Laura Gall

A driven entrepreneur with a love for design, Laura Gall opened the doors to Spaces by LLG in 2011. She offers interior design, decorating and home staging services throughout Maine and New England. Laura was recently recognized by the Real Estate Staging Association as a 2013 Top 10 “Rising Star” Professional Home Stager in North America. www.spacesbyllg.com