Fashion Designer Lela Rose’s North Texas Family Ranch Is a Birder’s Paradise
With viewing platforms, walking paths, and an airy modern home that feels like a tree house, the property has been an idyllic getaway for the Texas Medal of Arts honoree for decades.
Down on ReyRosa Ranch, life revolves around birds, not cattle. Fashion designer and 2023 Texas Medal of Arts honoree Lela Rose has been coming here since 1989, when her parents purchased the 8,600 lush acres of native grasses and trees less than an hour south of their Dallas home.
Her father, Rusty Rose, was a bird lover. Her mom, Deedie, has a passion for architecture. Together, they built their own oasis with floor-to-ceiling windows that turn the mid-century modern space into a tree house. The property has several lookouts built specifically for birdwatching, but you can just as easily indulge in the hobby from the living room, which is outfitted with ornithology books and hand-carved figurines.
Lela Rose now lives in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, with her husband and two kids, but the ranch served as an escape for the first four months of the COVID-19 pandemic. She loved the daily walks with her Norwich terrier, Bobbin. “I grew up in Dallas. But I think of this more as Texas—with the trees and the big blue sky and how quiet everything can be, just listening to the birds,” she says. “It’s a place to reconnect.”
Rose will join other luminaries such as Miranda Lambert, Taylor Sheridan, Luke Wilson, and Christopher Cross on Wednesday at Austin’s Long Center for the Texas Medal of Arts ceremony, held for the first time since before the pandemic in 2019. She’ll show her newest collection at the event, which is the main fundraiser for the nonprofit Texas Cultural Trust. And next month Rose will release her second guide to entertaining, Fresh Air Affairs: Entertaining With Style in the Great Outdoors, which features the ranch on the cover.
A version of this article appeared in the April 2023 issue of Texas Monthly with the headline “Bird House.” Subscribe today.
Some features of the property serve no practical purpose; they’re just fun, Lela Rose says. Case in point: a working drawbridge connects the house to a “tree walk” that doubles as the perfect spot for cocktail hour and watching the sunset. Rose’s drink of choice? A blood-orange margarita aptly called the Rosarita.
Photograph by Jeff Wilson
Rose’s bedroom blends modern accents with family heirlooms. Next to her canopy bed hang portraits of her great-grandmother and her father as a young boy. “My favorite memories out here are of the times I got up early to go out hunting with my dad,” she says. “He was a birdwatcher from the time he was twelve years old, and it was always fascinating to be with him because you’d see any bird and he could tell you all about it.”
Photograph by Jeff Wilson
Rose keeps an eye out for her favorite feathered find: the colorful painted bunting. “It’s a shockingly gorgeous bird,” she says.
Photograph by Jeff Wilson
The family likes to dine alfresco “as much as possible.” A covered patio with an outdoor fireplace, a barbecue smoker, and seating for fourteen makes it easy. When guests come in from out of state, Rose orders quail from Texas Quail Farms, in Lockhart, as a special treat.
Photograph by Jeff Wilson
Natural bark siding adorns much of the home’s exterior and serves as the perfect backdrop for a pair of custom cowboy boots. Rose’s initials appear along with a cardinal, a cedar waxwing, and the state bird of Texas: a northern mockingbird.
Photograph by Jeff Wilson
An assortment of wood models adorns the mantel in the living room. “My dad collected these for a long time,” says Rose, who prefers to collect turkey feathers found on the property.
Photograph by Jeff Wilson
A hallway of family photos is a trip down memory lane: Rose’s parents in a field of bluebonnets, a favorite dog, Rusty Rose wrestling a carp from one of the ranch’s two lakes. Look closely and you might spot John Fitzpatrick, “one of the most famous birders in the world.” For a decade, Rose’s father was the chairman of the board for the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, where Fitzpatrick works. “My parents would host a group from the university out here every year,” Rose says.
Photograph by Jeff Wilson
Rose jokes that she’s “kind of a wild driver,” but she’s actually quite adept at off-roading in “the people mover,” a cross between a pickup truck and a safari jeep. Still, she and Bobbin prefer to explore the ranch on foot. During the pandemic, “we would go out on these long, ten-mile walks every day and watch the wildflowers change,” she says. “It was amazing.”
Photograph by Jeff Wilson
Along with a more modern exterior, ReyRosa’s ranch house has a unique layout—from above, it resembles the shape of a bird in flight.
Photograph by Jeff Wilson
The living room has an eclectic mix of items curated by the whole family. “My mom started it,” Rose says, “but we’ve all kind of added to it over the years.” Treasures include a shuffleboard made by Rose’s grandfather in the thirties, sculpted vases from the Webb Gallery in nearby Waxahachie, and vintage cocktail glasses from the 6666 Ranch gift shop (Rose’s parents were friends with the original owners before Taylor Sheridan bought the place). There’s also a dining table topped with an aerial map of ReyRosa so you can plot the day’s adventure at breakfast.
Photograph by Jeff Wilson
The landscape continues to serve as inspiration for Rose’s upscale line of ranch wear. Her skirt, pictured here, features the collection’s “Reyrosa toile.”
