Lagniappe House TX, Horseshoe Bay home, Modern Texas residence, USA interior architecture images

Lagniappe House, Horseshoe Bay, Texas Residence

September 19, 2025

Design: Dick Clark + Associates

Location: Horseshoe Bay, Texas, USA

Photos by Dror Baldinger AIA

Lagniappe House, Horseshoe Bay, Texas, USA

This 4,500-square-foot home is a downsize from the couple’s previous residence and a move from North Texas to Horseshoe Bay in Central Texas. Filled with art and artifacts gathered on travels, the house is designed as a backdrop not only for vibrant art but for the art of joyful living happening inside.

A carefully choreographed experience, the house, designed by Austin architects Dick Clark + Associates, moves guests and residents though a series of curated spaces that break the large footprint down into intimate experiential moments.

The design is expressed as three connected pods: the living area, a primary bedroom wing, and a vertical wing that houses a dedicated casino room and rooftop terrace. The transparent entry vestibule immediately connects to the sweeping lake view beyond and roots the house in its place along a ridge high above the water. The Johnsons liken this moment to entering a museum or gallery that brings a sense of excitement that something interesting is at hand.

The entry vestibule opens to living, kitchen and dining spaces, each scaled to comfortable proportions. It was important that people feel comfortable and that Lisa Jane and Steven’s emotional connection to home be palpable to the steady stream of friends and visitors who enliven the house on a regular basis. The entertainment aspect of the house was a major consideration in the design.

Steve and Lisa Jane were clear on what spaces suited their lifestyle. With two bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths, five fireplaces and one bar, it is a tribute to a life focused on informality, leisure and pleasure, surrounded by cultural and familial touchstones. Connections to LSU and Louisiana abound. Lisa Jane insisted on no formal dining room, preferring instead to create a dining lounge.

A large table underneath a custom metalwork chandelier evokes branches of a tree canopy, a reminder of the connection to nature. The galley sink system in the kitchen creates efficiencies in food preparation and additional counter space for easy buffet service, further reinforcing the sense of informal hospitality.

The casino room with regulation size blackjack table – and custom designed chips– floats above the tree canopy and provides a dining nook for late night dinners, an homage to the crazy hours and mealtimes of Steve’s days in medical school. The library, by contrast, is a secluded retreat that opens to a private patio, bookended by indoor and outdoor fireplaces.

A dramatic David Yarrow photo of two male tigers (the LSU mascot) on one wall converses with the World War II uniform and memorabilia belonging to Lisa Jane’s father (an engineer who worked on the LSU stadium) on the opposite wall. Carefully considered, multi-layered moments such as these permeate the house in deliberate dialogue with each other and their observers. While working with the DC+A team, the Johnsons planned where each piece would go using three-dimensional models and images to place the art prior to commencement of construction.

The primary bedroom is a sedate respite space with a custom designed storage unit that doubles as a room divider and headboard, orienting the room towards the terrace, pool, and views beyond. A short hallway leads to the home office, a comfortable lounge and addressing area, his-and-hers closets, and similar baths. These sun-lit spaces convey a sense of privacy with large windows facing the side yard of scrubby Hill Country flora and deer.

Interiors and exterior spaces flow smoothly, without making the residence feel super-sized. The simple forms are rendered in a Hill Country palette with Texas rough-back Lueders limestone, creating a warmly colored texture for the exterior. Expansive windows create a comfortable transparency and pocket behind the living room bar create an 18-foot opening to the terrace. The shed roof slopes downward, mirroring the topography and creating a 14-foot overhang for the terrace, which allows the west-facing orientation to be used comfortably throughout most of the day.

Again using the sloping topography of the site, the architects tucked the lower level into the landscape, deferring to the site’s opportunities and creating a less imposing, site-specific building. A small garage for a golf cart, a guest suite, and a media room are nestled in the slope under the main floor, with ground level views into the thicket. This level is accessible by an exterior stair that leads up to the terrace and entry, as well as an elevator that also travels to the third-level observation deck that provides a premium vantage point for enjoying sunsets and wide-open skies.