--- title: "Hill Country Estate - 5,200 SF New Construction Interior Design and Space Planning, Austin, Texas | Vividly Built" description: "A 5,200 SF new construction hillside estate outside Austin: limestone, white oak and blackened steel, resolved in 3D before the build." url: https://vividlybuilt.com/projects/hill-country-estate-austin/ last_modified: 2026-10-02 --- *Source: https://vividlybuilt.com/projects/hill-country-estate-austin/* Project 09 5,200 SF Estate New Construction · Full Interior & Space Planning # Hill Country _Estate_ Austin, Texas 5,200 Square feet under roof A–Z Interior & planning in-house 100% Resolved in 3D before build 360° Virtual walkthrough sign-off ## Selected _views._ 7 renderings · new construction, one digital twin 01 — Front Elevation & Motor Court: limestone and vertical cedar massing under a blackened standing-seam metal roof, approached through a native xeriscape motor court. 02 — Pool Terrace & Covered Living: lap pool set lengthwise into the lawn, with a covered outdoor room and summer kitchen under a deep porch. 03 — Great Room: exposed white oak beams, a reclaimed stone chimney mass, and a curved bouclé sectional opening to the kitchen. 04 — Kitchen & Hearth Room: travertine waterfall island with a fluted base, white oak slab cabinetry, and a lime-plaster hearth with arched niches. 05 — Primary Bedroom: full-height limestone accent wall, exposed oak beams, sliding glass to a private terrace. 06 — Primary Bathroom: freestanding tub set to a clerestory window, fluted white oak double vanity, brushed brass fittings. 07 — Upper-Level Game Room: tucked under the roof slope with a live-edge wet bar and roman shades. ## A house that belongs to _its hillside._ This 5,200 square foot residence sits on a rise in the Texas Hill Country, looking out over water and low oak-covered ridges. The brief was deceptively simple: build something that looks like it has always been there, without building something old. Our answer was to work in the region's own materials and then hold the detailing to a modern discipline. Native limestone and vertical cedar carry the massing. A blackened standing-seam roof pitches steeply over both. Deep porches run the length of the south elevation, because in central Texas shade is architecture, not decoration. Nothing is applied; every move is doing a job. ### Shade, stone, and the long view The plan opens westward to the valley and closes down toward the motor court, so the house gives you a view only once you are inside it. Approach is limestone, gravel and native planting — agave, salvia and blackfoot daisy in decomposed granite, chosen because they survive a Hill Country August without irrigation. At the back, a covered outdoor room with a summer kitchen fronts a lap pool set lengthwise into the lawn, so the water reads as a line across the view rather than an object in front of it. ### One continuous interior, three rooms deep Inside, the great room, dining and kitchen run as one vaulted volume under exposed white oak beams, with a reclaimed stone chimney mass standing in for a wall. The kitchen is anchored by a travertine waterfall island with a fluted base and flanked by white oak slab cabinetry that reads as joinery rather than casework. A lime-plaster hearth with arched niches closes the far end — the one soft, hand-made gesture in an otherwise rectilinear plan, and the thing the whole room orients to. ### An owner's wing built around quiet The primary suite sets a bed against a full-height limestone wall and opens through sliding glass to a private terrace. The bath keeps the same restraint: a freestanding tub placed to a clerestory window rather than to a feature wall, a fluted white oak double vanity, a walk-in shower in large-format stone, and brushed brass throughout. Upstairs, a game room tucks under the roof slope with a live-edge wet bar — the one room in the house permitted to be loud. ### Interior and exterior, designed together Because we carried the exterior design and the interior in the same model, beam layout, ceiling heights, window head heights and lighting circuits were resolved against the furniture plan rather than after it. That is why the beams land where the room wants them and the clerestory sits exactly above the tub. On a 5,200 SF home, those coordination decisions are the difference between a build that holds its schedule and one that discovers its problems on site. ### Signed off in 360°, before the slab The owners walked the finished house — every room, every angle, every material — in a [360° virtual walkthrough](/answers/vr-walkthrough-luxury-interior-design) and approved it before construction began. That is the Vividly Built standard in Texas and in California alike: the home you build is the home you already approved. ### Designing in Texas and Southern California Vividly Built runs studios in Los Angeles, San Diego, Dallas and Austin, and this estate is representative of the ground-up work we take on in both markets. In Texas that means new construction across Austin, the Hill Country, Dallas and Houston. In Southern California it means the same scope across Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley — [Hidden Hills](/locations/hidden-hills), [Calabasas](/locations/calabasas), [Encino](/locations/encino) and [Westlake Village](/locations/westlake-village) — where gated-estate lots, equestrian overlays and hillside grading shape a design the same way a Hill Country ridge does here. [Estimate your project](/cost-calculator) or [talk to our team](/contact). Start a project ## Planning a ground-up home _you want to walk_ before you pour the slab? We design new construction estates like this one in Austin, the Hill Country, Dallas and Houston — and across Los Angeles, the San Fernando Valley, and the California coast. Scope, timeline, and an honest read on whether your project fits, in a single conversation. [Start a project](https://vividlybuilt.fillout.com/quickstart) [See more work](/portfolio) ## More _new construction_ projects. [New Construction · Austin Austin Single FamilyAustin, Texas](/projects/single-family-residence-austin-tx) [Interior & Exterior · California Palos Verdes EstatePalos Verdes](/projects/modern-estate-palos-verdes) ## Related _answers._ [Answer Custom Home Timeline](/answers/luxury-custom-home-timeline-los-angeles) [Answer 360° Walkthrough Process](/answers/vr-walkthrough-luxury-interior-design) [Answer Custom Home Cost](/answers/luxury-custom-home-cost-pacific-palisades-bel-air) [Answer 3D Rendering Cost](/answers/3d-architectural-rendering-cost) ## Hill Country Estate · _questions._ **What was the design scope of the Hill Country Estate project?** The Hill Country Estate is a 5,200 square foot ground-up new construction home outside Austin, Texas, where Vividly Built handled interior design and space planning end-to-end: massing and elevations, floor plan and space planning, the full material palette, custom millwork and ceilings, lighting design and circuiting, photoreal renderings of every principal room, a 360° virtual walkthrough, and construction-ready FF&E specification. **What is modern Hill Country design?** Modern Hill Country takes the working vocabulary of central Texas ranch building — native limestone, board-and-batten and vertical cedar, deep porches, steep gables and standing-seam metal roofs — and strips the ornament out of it. On this 5,200 SF estate that meant a blackened metal roof over limestone and cedar massing, broad covered outdoor rooms sized for the heat, and an interior of white oak, lime plaster and travertine. The result reads as regional rather than themed: it belongs to the site, not to a style catalog. **How much does a 5,200 square foot custom home cost to design and build?** Construction cost depends far more on site, structure and finish level than on square footage alone. What we can say precisely is where the money is decided: in the drawings. On a home this size, a design package resolved inside a photoreal digital twin — where wall positions, ceiling heights, lighting circuits, slabs, fixtures and furniture are all placed and approved before the slab is poured — is what keeps change orders from compounding during the build. You can model your own project with our [cost calculator](/cost-calculator), or [talk to us](/contact) for an honest read. **Does Vividly Built design homes in both Texas and Southern California?** Yes. Vividly Built runs studios in Los Angeles, San Diego, Dallas and Austin. In Texas we design new construction estates in Austin, the Hill Country, Dallas and Houston. In Southern California we work across Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley — Hidden Hills, Calabasas, Encino, Tarzana, Woodland Hills, Sherman Oaks and Studio City — as well as Beverly Hills, Bel Air, Holmby Hills, Pacific Palisades, Malibu, Santa Monica, Brentwood, Pasadena, Westlake Village, Palos Verdes, Newport Beach and San Diego. The workflow is identical in both markets: interior design and space planning under one roof, resolved in a photoreal digital twin and signed off in a 360° walkthrough before construction. **What does Vividly Built mean by "resolved in 3D before the build"?** Every design decision — wall positions, ceiling heights, beam layout, lighting circuits, stone slabs, fabric, fixtures and furniture — is placed and reviewed inside a photoreal digital twin of the home. The owners walk the entire residence in a 360° virtual walkthrough and sign off on every angle before any trade arrives on site. That visualization-first workflow is why our projects hold their schedule and their budget. Related: [Austin studio](https://vividlybuilt.com/locations/austin) · [Dallas studio](https://vividlybuilt.com/locations/dallas) · [Custom homes & new construction](https://vividlybuilt.com/services/custom-home-new-construction-design)