For a cost-conscious 2,000-square-foot renovation located 30 minutes outside of Austin, Texas, architect Nick Deaver took a look around for inspiration. He spied galvanized metal cladding on the region’s sheds and co-opted the inexpensive, resilient material for his own design. He then applied locally quarried Lueders limestone near the entrance—a warm contrast to the steely facade.

“I tend to take advantage of the look and feel of an area instead of accenting how we stand apart from it,” says Deaver.

To frame picturesque vistas of the nearly three-acre lot, Deaver included extra tall windows. “Here, it’s desirable to have your own little ranch with distant views of the hills,” he says. But the real master moves are the four semisheltered porches surrounding the structure—platforms from which the residents, owners of an online green pet store called Olive Green Dog, soak up the entire rural panorama that includes deer, coyotes, and raccoons weaving between live oak and cedar elm trees.