When the expansive stone house with its red tile roof first comes into view, the first impression is Tuscany meets West by Southwest. When Marissa and Daniel Perez purchased 48 acres from longtime ranchers in the Boerne area, they wanted to keep the area as natural as possible and build their home at the top of the hill that overlooks miles and miles of Kendall and Bexar counties.

“This was the seventh house we’ve built, so we definitely knew a lot about the process and about what we wanted,” Marissa Perez says. “I had so many things and wanted to combine them with a few more things to finish the look and create the right atmosphere.” The family loves Italy and all things Italian and also the Texas Hill Country. Marissa wanted the warm, inviting look and feel of an Italian villa, but didn’t want to create something so formal that it had the air of a museum. “This is a lived-in house,” she says, laughing. “We have three daughters, dogs, and an even larger extended family. We built this house for real living.”

Marissa shopped at several area stores, including overcrowded antique shops and small stores, to find accessories and a few more pieces of furniture. But she remembers most the day she walked into Catrina’s at the Ranch. “Catrina really helped pull it all together. I would describe what I wanted to do, or I’d show her something, and with a snap of her fingers, she’d say, ‘I have the perfect thing.’ And she did.”

Catrina Hoelke, the award-winning designer behind the genius of Catrina’s at the Ranch, said working with Marissa was a joy. “She has taste and a sense of style that makes collaborating easy. It is a pleasure to have her living in the area. She has three daughters, all of them like her—beautiful, articulate and funny—and she let them design their own rooms.”

Catrina’s, just off Interstate 10 in Boerne, is an unusual showroom. Visitors park and walk through an outdoor area dotted with yard art. A tent holds a hodgepodge of rustic, yet elegant furniture with hand-carved embellishments, leather and cowhide styling, and touches of scrolled metalwork. When visitors step inside the building, they find a rich, chic and bold arrangement of elegant ranch furnishings and accessories, as well as stylish Old World pieces and accents. “If you can’t find something, Catrina has a solution for that, too,” Marissa says. “She has a man who makes this furniture … and he will make the right piece for you.”

Catrina says that’s the fun of her business. Her slogan echoes those sentiments. “We always say, ‘If you can dream it, we can build it,’ and it’s true. We can make just about anything.”

When Marissa walked into the store and explained that she and her husband were building a home in the area and would be moving from McAllen, Catrina got right to work. “Over the course of eight months or so, we began the process of creating pieces for her home and talking about its progression.” When boxes arrived from the Rio Grande Valley, Catrina helped Marissa open them and they discussed where to go from there. “That’s when I realized she had brought many wonderful things with her,” Catrina recalls. “We put them together with things we were creating for her, and it was so much fun.”

The task was actually easier than Catrina imagined, because Marissa’s things were very much like the merchandise she carries in her showroom. ”They meshed beautifully, and it was a very natural pairing,” Catrina says. Over the next two years, “Marissa has added layers and design details that make a home such as hers a really wonderful place.” The designer adds that you don’t have to redo this process more than once. “If you do it well the first time, it will last, and you can change, layer and accent the look, without changing everything else.”

Today, the Perez home is the epitome of rustic elegance, from the inviting living areas to the comfortable bedrooms, from the showstopping beauty of the backyard living area to the well-planned gourmet kitchen.

A striking feature on the stairwell is a massive double cross that came from Catrina’s. A loft sitting room, shared by the daughters, features a special cabinet holding a television set with the telltale electronic equipment of a Wii exercise and gaming system. “I told you this is a lived-in house,” Marissa says.

In general, the color scheme throughout the house is dark and rich, with balancing touches of color and light that make it welcoming. The dark wood of the alder furniture is combined with the earth tones and colors of Tuscany and the American Southwest to create an atmosphere that is appealing and warm - one that exudes comfort and relaxation and fosters a love of family and friends. Light spills in from windows that offer breathtaking views of the Hill Country surrounding the home.

The guest house across from the main home adds another dimension to the rustic Italian compound that includes dashes of Hill Country charm. It is a useful retreat for grandparents or friends who come to visit for a few days.

Parties and family gatherings usually spill into the outdoor living space that contains many of Catrina’s creations. One of the nicest finishing touches is a dining area that holds a massive table equipped to handle the largest family gatherings. “I was walking around Catrina’s one day and saw these two old doors in the very back of the store. I immediately thought they would be great used as shutters on the window backing the outside living area,” Marissa says. After they were cleaned, they looked more reminiscent of shutters on a home in the Italian Hills than of some old doors found in the storage area of a Hill Country designer and decorator.

“Catrina has so much stuff, she probably doesn’t even know what’s there,” Marissa says, laughing again. “She listens and then helps you create the look you want.”