There are many well-defined and much-discussed interiors styles that emerge from a particular place or time or way of life: the English country house is one we spend a lot of time thinking about at House & Garden, but every part of the world has its own. The USA has plenty of lifestyles (and house styles) to romanticise, but the appeal of the West is surely one of the most compelling. “The American West represents freedom and nature,” says Wyoming-based interior designer Emily Janak. Maida Branch, a designer whose family has inhabited Pueblo lands in New Mexico for millennia, speaks of the appeal of “retreating into the abyss of the West, getting lost in the landscape.” A myriad of Western films and TV shows have spread that appeal around the entire world – most recently for this writer, the inspiration has been the Paramount TV show Yellowstone, which features Kevin Costner as an embattled Montana rancher with a heart-stoppingly beautiful ranch house.
The Yellowstone ranch is a perfect embodiment of a certain kind of Western style, perhaps the most recognisable version for those of us who live outside of the USA. A vision of rustic wood, leather furniture, woven textiles and cowboy art, this style first became really popular in the 1930s and 1940s, roughly at the same time as the West started to be viewed as a tourist destination and Hollywood entered into a golden age of Western movies. Dude ranches were springing up along the line of the Rocky Mountains through Colorado, Wyoming and Montana, with a huge appeal to city dwellers from around the United States and the rest of the world. What had started out life as a genuine local vernacular, born out of necessity and designed with an eye to functionality rather than style, became codified and commercialised.
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Much of this look in its current form derives from the work of Thomas Molesworth, a furniture designer and interior designer who was almost single-handedly responsible for the popularity of the look from the 1930s to the 1960s, decorating all manner of dude ranches, hotels and rich people’s Western retreats. The 1990s saw a huge revival of this look, in large part due to Ralph Lauren, his fabulous and well-publicised Colorado ranch, and the homewares that were inspired by it. Emma Burns of Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler, who recently worked on a Wisconsin cabin that may not be strictly Western, but that draws on many of the same ideas, sums up the appeal of the style as “supreme comfort, casual elegance and old school charm – instantly welcoming, nostalgic and easy to live with.” Devon-based Tom Cox of HÁM Interiors, who has made a speciality out of cleverly blending Western and English country styles, remarks how extraordinarily influential this ideal has been, citing its warmth and authenticity as qualities to which he is especially drawn. “My home is filled with books on ranches, barns, and properties in epic landscapes. Ralph Lauren greatly influences me – he captures the spirit of Western style by blending rugged Americana with timeless elegance. This style resonates with me due to its practical, utilitarian nature—furnishings born out of necessity and deeply connected to the landscape.”
As Emma explains, the hallmarks of this style are “timeless decoration solutions that respond to the building and the life lived there.” It’s an idea that the decorators at Sibyl Colefax are constantly referring back to, that interiors need to be suitable for their surroundings and inhabitants – “like seasonal flowers, fruit and vegetables, the appropriate style for a place is vital,” she says. The Western style is nothing if not that. “Boarded walls are reassuring,” she explains as an example. “They keep out the cold and can withstand years of occupation, developing a delicious patina with each knock or water leak.” “It taps into something timeless,” Tom continues, “those natural materials, rich textures, and aged finishes all feel very grounded and lived-in, which can make any space feel inviting. There's also a real appreciation for craftsmanship and history, which resonates with people no matter where they are. It's not just about creating a look; it's about bringing a sense of place and comfort that anyone can connect with.”
Archetypal as it is, the Ralph Lauren/Thomas Molesworth/Yellowstone log cabin look is not the only one that represents ‘The West’. It is, after all, a vast place, and the colours and motifs that have emerged from the south-western deserts are not the same as those of the more northern regions. Utah-based designer Meta Coleman is keen to emphasise this. “The West is a mix of many different peoples and cultures, which can be very beautiful and inspiring. You have Native Americans, people of European descent who came here to homestead, and plenty of Hispanic influence too.” The south-west is a region that has been particularly influential for Meta. “When I think of Western interiors I immediately think of Georgia O’Keeffe’s home in Abiquiú. She built a simple adobe home in New Mexico called Ghost Range, where the walls are plaster adobe in soft white, terracotta and beige, with doors and casings in wood. The ceilings are held up by locally sourced trees, and the art is mainly artefacts and skulls of animals that she found during her long walks around the unique landscape of the ranch.”
O’Keeffe was one of many, many transplants from elsewhere (in this case the Midwest, via New York) who went west and made the local traditions their own. “It’s so interesting to me,” says Maida, “the way people who aren't from the West come here and recontextualise it. Someone who's not from here can fall in love with this place and use a local aesthetic or materials, or even cultural aspects of this place in their buildings and designs, and it would never look that way if someone from here had built it.” It has been an endless process, and is by no means limited to the recent past. Maida gives the example of the Martinez Hacienda, a New Mexico estate set up in the early 19th century by a Spanish colonial settler, Don Antonio Severino Martinez. Built partly as a family house, partly as the headquarters of an extensive ranch and farm, and partly as a fortress to protect the area against Indian raids, it is built from mud with colossally thick walls, in exactly the same way as the Pueblo locals built their own houses. “I think it’s really interesting to set that against Georgia O’Keeffe’s house,” says Maida, “which was reimagined by someone from the East. Both exist, both are beautiful, and I look to both for inspiration.”
Maida’s approach points the way to how we can all (wherever we live) adopt something of the Western approach. There are endless different ideas and traditions within it, but everyone agrees that the key is to look for authenticity. “I have never really seen a bad version of a home that consists of adobe, natural wood and wool rugs,” says Maida, whose own home in New Mexico is very much in this style. “I think if you have those three things, and it has the reverence of the place that it is referring to, it’s going to be good. When I've seen things that are a varnished wood or a stained wood or just cheaper materials, that’s where it starts to look off. You really can't go wrong with clay pots and vintage Navajo rugs."
Design elements taken from the natural world are of course a huge part of a Western interior. Western traditions are drawn from old ways of life that involved living off the land, in a dramatic and awe-inspiring landscape, and even in the modern world, it’s impossible to imagine living in the West without being in love with that landscape. “The West,” Meta points out, “is known for its national parks and efforts to preserve the unique beauty and diversity of the landscape.” She cites the use of “natural materials, rocks from the mountains and rivers, and local wood in the flooring, walls and ceilings,” as hallmarks of the style, wherever you look. Wood is hugely important, as one can see from the characteristic ‘swollen burl’ furniture of Thomas Molesworth and his successors, which incorporated the swollen knots that trees sometimes form, in order to suggest that the wood was completely unrefined and reflective of its original natural state. Monumental stone fireplaces are another recognisable feature of the Western interior, often with stones simply stacked on top of each other in their natural shape, again suggesting the idea that few human processes have intervened between nature and architecture. In the south-west, the use of adobe (mud-brick), and white clay for walls is similar – these are the materials that have naturally and necessarily been used for buildings for thousands of years, but they have now become part of a self-conscious decorative style.
The modern Western interior does not need to feel entirely raw and rough-hewn, however, and if you’re not going for the pure cowboy style, there are plenty of elegant ways to reference the natural world. “There’s definitely an art to creating something that feels quintessentially western without being kitsch," says Emily Janak. In a log cabin she decorated a few years ago, for example, she used Atelier Vime’s graceful rattan pendant chandeliers to provide a suggestion of the outside world (though it was a feat getting them from Provence). “The rattan is fabulous because it echoes the hay that was in the field behind the cabin in summer,” she explains. Colour can also be enormously helpful in reflecting the landscape. “Colours inspired by nature of the west are what I am drawn to,” says Meta. “Pale green sage brush, the deep terracotta of the earth, and vibrant blue of the sky.” Tom Cox agrees. “I favour earthy tones and warm colours that reflect nature and comfort. Rich browns, warm reds, soft greens, and blues are my go-to shades. These hues complement rustic materials beautifully and add depth to my spaces. It's all about achieving a harmonious balance that feels both grounded and interesting.”
As with any style that is specific to a place or time, trying to replicate it outside of its original context can easily feel like pastiche. Without a doubt there are elements of the style, particularly the ranch style, that are probably best avoided unless you are actually a cowboy. A glance through the wonderful book Cowboy High Style (published in the 1990s, when the Ralph Lauren Western look was at its peak) reveals mirrors studded with belt buckles, beds topped with antlers, and, memorably, a toilet roll holder fashioned from a horse bit. Even the marvellous, highly collectible Westward Ho china, which was a staple of dude ranches and restaurants around the west in the mid-20th century, might look a little out of place in an English country house (although we’re tempted to see how it looks in a London flat).
“It's the subtler touches, like the layering of textiles or the use of antique, distressed finishes, that really add character and a sense of history to the space,” says Tom Cox, who uses many such pieces in his projects. “These little details give the home warmth and personality, turning it into more than just a rustic look—it's about creating depth and telling a story.” The story does not have to be told in such an obvious way as a horse bit toilet roll holder. Emily Janak is well versed in the cowboy style, but has her own ways of tweaking it, bringing in pieces that have their own integrity and authenticity, even if not in a Western manner. “The casual but well-crafted sensibility of Howe and Soane for example, fits right into my interiors here. Furniture for family houses out West needs to withstand muddy boots and hopefully last for many generations.”
Many of the more rustic elements of English or European country house decorating fit in surprisingly well in a rustic Western space. Emma Burns lists “floral chintzes, voiles, toiles de Jouy, patchworks, spriggy cottons, striped poplins, nubby linens, vintage market finds and Indian block prints” as textiles that worked well in her cabin interior. The influence of European immigrants, after all, has been strong in this part of the world, and such designs can lend lightness and prettiness to the more monumental elements of log cabin walls, stone fireplaces and antlers. Emily Janak brought in textiles by Pierre Frey, Brunschwig & Fils, Antoinette Poisson, and other French fabric houses to soften the Wyoming log cabin she decorated, even recovering a pair of Molesworth armchairs in a Schumacher fabric. These can all coordinate marvellously well with the textiles that everyone agrees should be at the heart of any Western interior, traditionally made Native American rugs, especially Navajo designs. The artistry, craftsmanship, and connection to nature that these textiles carry with them is deeply appreciated by all designers who have anything to do with the West. Vintage textiles may be the most covetable (and valuable), but Maida Branch makes beautiful reproductions in an authentic, traditional style. "Even if they are reproduction, if they're made using wool and natural dyes or made from wool, they will support the space, no matter the design.”
And that authenticity is the root of what a Western interior should be aiming for (or what those of us in other landscapes should be taking from this style.) As Meta Coleman puts it, “there is an honesty and simplicity in the materials. It's an unpretentious style, rooted in the desire to highlight the beauty of nature and the landscape of the West.”
