Texas Tiki Meets Wes Anderson in Mid-century Millennial's Austin Home

Welcome to my home in Austin, Texas! I am designing our home with the goal of reuniting it with its 1970s vibes that were renovated away by generations of previous homeowners. A lifelong lover of vintage finds on a tight budget, I live for the thrill of the hunt — filling my home with thrifted and estate sale treasures. I’m inspired by the playful aesthetic of Wes Anderson films, midcentury kitsch and bold color palettes.

Step into my first renovated space: my office and Mid-century Millennial headquarters. This is the only space in the house that I don’t share with my husband, so I leaned into personal details and feminine touches. I painted half-pink walls and added unexpected pops of color to take this room from a boring box to a creative haven.

When I am not working from home as a marketing professional, I moonlight as the Mid-century Millennial on social media — sharing my vintage-obsessed lifestyle and DIY projects. This dedicated craft space serves as a content studio and space to create details for my home.

Elvis has blessed my home decor dating back to elementary school. I shared a room with my teenage sister, so our mom crafted a hanging divider with frames to add our own personal touches and keep the fighting to a minimum. My side was filled with Elvis Presley headshots I printed at the library. Now, this vintage bust holds court in my craft corner.

My signature style features a growing selection of vintage flower power jackets and a bright collection of accessories. And that’s Priscilla Presley, the cat, acquired to troll my two dogs.

Slim Aarons photography is a symbol of midcentury aesthetic. His classic photo, Poolside Gossip, is the background for my virtual Zoom world.

Modern suitcase record players add an affordable, retro touch to a room. I wanted to have the choice to listen to vinyl or connect to Bluetooth while crafting and working.

Our guest bedroom is an immersive retreat for our friends and family. The design started with my first piece of commissioned art by local Austin mixed media artist, Whitney Avra. As my anchoring piece, her art helped me create a memorable color palette and inspire the Texas tiki aesthetic.

Turning to Pinterest when I needed a last-minute solution to an empty green wall, I created this frame wall with leftover Clare "Matcha Latte" paint and $60 worth of thrifted frames. This wall is one of my favorite design elements in the house, adding depth and drama.

Embracing Wes Anderson style can include finding vintage items to create unexpected vignettes. I thrifted for unique ornamental items like this vintage typewriter and afghan that features the room’s color palette.

In lieu of deciding between two of my favorite peel-and-stick wallpapers, I pulled the trigger on both. With the sunny palm print accenting the back wall, I knew I needed to make the closet space more prominent to showcase the classic Scalamandré Zebra Safari wallpaper.

With Scalamandré’s Zebra wallpaper recalling Margot Tenenbaum’s bedroom, the closet was transformed into a private guest study. Secretive phone calls can be made from the Facebook Marketplace-sourced gossip bench, upcycled with glossy black paint, rattan details and chartreuse reupholstery.

Continuing with the private study vibe of the closet, I thrifted a library of vintage paperback books to keep guests entertained the old fashioned way.

A custom-designed guestbook, starring my dogs in the style of Moonrise Kingdom, greets visitors bedside. The cards contain important information from the Wi-Fi password to where to find the best tacos in Austin — inarguably Veracruz All Natural in our house.

Beamed vaulted ceilings are one of the classic 1970s features we love about our main living space. With a lot of space to fill around the TV, I blended it into the challenging angled wall with funky midcentury pieces and plants for a sexy jungle vibe.

My house is filled with unconventional art choices, like a growing collection of thrifted vintage kitsch prints of seductive sirens, complemented by a swagged collection of paper garlands by local artist The Paper Committee.

Authentic midcentury Malm cone fireplaces can typically cost at least a couple of thousand dollars. While I wait to find one in my budget, I created my own retro dupe by spray painting an outdoor steel chiminea that had a similar shape and style for a little over $100.

Vintage afghans add a pop of the room’s color palette to the TV wall. I made the blanket ladder out of $30 in materials, creating an affordable display to change up the color or style for different seasons.

The dining room shares a space with the living room, extending the warm yellow and orange color palette into a more formal area.

A large rattan display shelf creates the platform for one of my favorite items to pick up at estate sales and thrift stores: vintage glassware.

My favorite piece of art in the house features a seductive woman casually draped on a cheetah. I bought her at Austin Antique Mall when we first moved in.

Our main living space was extended with this addition in the ‘90s. In contrast to the TV-focused living room, this space is designed for simple pleasures like reading and listening to vinyl, giving it a midcentury, sunken living room ambiance.

Our addition features brick walls that used to be the exterior of the house. For our listening lounge, I found a record storage unit on Facebook Marketplace that was originally from a 1950s mom-and-pop record shop and used it to create the record player wall.

Beyond our addition, you’ll find one of my favorite spaces. Even before I started unpacking boxes, I painted this mural and began scavenging for rattan furniture for my very own Texas tiki bar.

The tiki bar is the perfect container for everything kitsch — drink menus, Trader Vic’s playing cards, glassware and swizzle sticks.

A less conventional choice for a tiki bar, this camel bar found on Craigslist was too fun to pass up.

When I started Mid-century Millennial on Instagram, I started filming tiki drink tutorial videos in the bar to keep things interesting during our first phase of pandemic quarantine.

Acapulco chairs bring a midcentury resort style to our backyard. Instead of a classic fire pit, I upcycled a terra-cotta chiminea with a sunny spray paint job.

The crown jewel of our backyard is our pool, an 8-foot cattle stock tank outfitted with a pool pump, tucked behind a 12-foot avocado slice pool bar. The fiberglass avocado takes the cake as my weirdest Facebook Marketplace find, costing me $50.