Houstonian's new river-side cabin in Aspen is rustic and chic

In the winter, when the snow is perfect for skiing, Jacky Noons loves to visit Aspen. "But in the summer," she says - when the cool Colorado air trumps Houston's humidity - "that's when you want to buy a house."

A couple of summers ago, Noons, the owner of a Houston moving company, found a three-bedroom cabin for sale on 2 acres along the Roaring Fork River, and she and her family decided to check it out.

"We couldn't get into the house," Noons says, but they stood on its back patio and took in the view of the river. "It didn't even matter what the inside of the house looked like," she says. "This was where we wanted to be."

The 2,000 square foot cabin was a little "dumpy," but to Noons it was the perfect twice-a-year vacation home.

"Colorado is really all about the outside," she says. "Most of the time we're skiing and hiking and fly fishing. You just need a place that's comfortable and nice to sleep in, and it didn't have to be a 6,000 square foot mansion."

When Noons did get inside, she knew they'd have to do some renovation. "It was a clean, sturdy home that was maintained well, but it had a bad case of the uglies," she says.

So she called Laura Umansky, president and creative director of Houston's Laura U Interior Design. Umansky just opened a second office in Aspen to help her Texas-based clients design their Colorado vacation homes.

"Aspen is like Houston North," Noons says. "You go up there and every other person is from Houston."

Umansky and senior designer Letecia Ellis did some long-distance consulting to redesign Noons's Aspen getaway.

"I wanted it to look like an old cabin but have all the amenities of the new places," Noons says. The result is what she calls "rustic Aspen," a mix of reclaimed wood and rust-red paint, natural materials - and those spectacular views.

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Houstonian's new river-side cabin in Aspen is rustic and chic