From the outside, Allison and Tom Comer's house in Roswell fits the style of many others in their traditional neighborhood. The one-story, brick ranch has a touch of the French Provincial that was popular more than 25 years ago.

But inside, Allison Comer, a former commercial interior designer, has unleashed her passion for all things Southwestern and turned her four-bedroom home into a showplace of blankets, paintings, drums and patterns from that region.

Louie Favorite / AJC (ENLARGE)

The foyer of Allison Comer's Roswell home is the first introduction to her Southwestern decor.

Louie Favorite / AJC (ENLARGE)

The family room/den in Allison Comer's Roswell home was the first room she painted. The wall treatment is a glaze technique over yellow.

Louie Favorite / AJC (ENLARGE)

Comer made the teepee wall hanging for her son's bedroom.

At first, visitors may not notice the colorful painted horses on the mailbox. But that's the first indication that something different lies inside the front door.

"When we first moved in six years ago, everything was white," said Allison Comer. "I kept looking at it and wanted to do something different. I love the look of the Southwest because it feels comfortable to me. It's warm and inviting."

She started in the rectangular foyer where she used the double wood door as a canvas. On it, she painted a deep red background, a contrasting border and several galloping horses. She also painted horses on the foyer wall, around a wool blanket in vivid Southwestern shades that is hung in the shape of a tepee.

The living room also sports rich, red walls, detailed dentil molding and a chocolate leather sofa next to a Native American-motif rug. The faux-painted walls of the adjacent dining room are framed with Indian portraits, in frames made by Allison Comer's uncle.

Around the bay window of the kitchen are wooden sculptures of red and yellow horses. Allison Comer brought new life to an old chest by painting it eggplant and stenciling it in a Southwestern pattern. The vaulted and beamed family room is awash in reds, browns, golds and blues in the cushions of the sofas and armchair. Accents include a lamp with a buffalo as its base; Indian drums from Taos doing double duty as end tables; a backlit metal sculpture of a cactus plant; and a portrait of an elderly Indian over the brick fireplace. In the basement TV room, a sheet of plywood painted with running horses and the words "Happy Trails" becomes a piece of art.

Even the powder room got the Southwestern treatment, with towels edged in a horse motif. And Allison Comer is working on transforming the master bath with a brown and red geometrical stencil and new rustic light fixtures.

Throughout the house, Allison Comer can point to pieces with a family history. An old drop-leaf desk in the living room belonged to her husband's grandmother. Nearby is an old pie safe of her aunt's. Tall black shutters from her parents' old house anchor the sides of the bay window in the kitchen. In her son's room, an old canvas tepee he played in as a kid is hung on the wall and hand painted with horses.

Another important feature of the house is its accessibility. The couple's teenage son, Chase, needed the one-level plan to accommodate his wheelchair. "We were able to make this house work," said Allison Comer. "It's very traditional but we were able to add a sidewalk to let him get down to the basement and a small ramp so he could get in the front door," she said.

Changing the interior to her tastes was the easy part, said Allison Comer. "My family has helped me get it to where it is," she said. "Our pictures are on the walls; our favorite things are here. I saw a saying that said, 'A house is a home when it shelters the body and comforts the soul.' And that's just how I feel about this place."

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