A Denver couple with four children hired interior designer Donna Grace McAlear before they began construction on this ski house. “This was a big job — while the architect designed the house and engineering, I chose each of the interior and exterior finishes and fixtures, designed the lighting schemes, laid out the kitchen and baths as well as the decor and furnishings,” says McAlear. She had these priorities:
The mountain views were paramount, so the decoration needed to enhance them, not compete with or distract from them.The house had to be functional for a family with young children who loved to collect with and entertain extended relatives members and friends from far-flung places.The home’s insides necessary to have continuity and associate with the natural environment outside.McAlear, of New Mood Design, began by deciding upon the rock for indoor and outdoor accents, creating a warm, modern sanctuary inspired by its color palette. The rock, known as Mountain Ash, contains the colors of the surrounding landscape, by the glean of silver into sky gray, from heavy bronze into the hot ocher of earth. She utilized the numerous colors to create distinct spaces inside the wide-open third floor strategy and continued their use throughout the rest of the house. The result: Beautiful interiors that complement the mountain views, no matter the season.
at a Glance
Location: Breckenridge, Colorado
Who lives here: This really is another house to get a Denver couple and their children (3 sons, 1 girl )
Size: 5 bedrooms, 7 bathrooms
That is interesting: The house is arranged upside down, with the common areas at the top (so everybody can enjoy the best perspectives ), the bedrooms on the middle floor, and the guest suites and wine cave onto the first.
New Mood Design LLC
We’ll begin our tour at the front door, run up to the third floor and work our way down.
The entryway foreshadows a lot of what awaits inside. “The colours [of the stone] reminded me of the Colorado landscape — mining cities, earth, rock, mountains and sky,” McAlear says. “Also it was the most clean-cut, rectangular and flat rock they had.” Every one of these attributes made it the ideal selection for the hot, modern mood she had been creating.
McAlear also chose the stainless steel door, which divides on the silvery grays in the rock and lets people know they are not planning to enter a rustic mountain house full of antlers and mooseheads.
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The elevator shaft is shrouded in Mountain Ash stone in the first floor up into the third. On the very first level, the entry foyer and wine cave floors are an Idaho silver quartzite flagstone, which can be utilized as an 18-inch border around the hardwood floors on the third degree.
New Mood Design LLC
McAlear used the exact same rock on the fireplace along with elevator shaft surround. This connects the inside and outside and provided a hot, rich palette to use throughout the house.
New Mood Design LLC
When selecting the furniture, flexibility, flexibility and relaxation were key. “As my clients like to entertain, we made certain things were flexible and easily moved about,” she says. “They love to sponsor friends and family from far and wide, and wanted this distance to work for 20 to 25 people.”
New Mood Design LLC
These dining room chairs are comfortable and light, for instance, and the clients move them over to the living room area whenever they have a party.
The Pascal Mourgue Calin dining seats have slipcovers made of Alcantara cloth, which is similar to microsuede. “This cloth is very easy to clean, and the buttons in back allow them easy to eliminate — a must for a household with children,” McAlear says.
Dining table: Homme into koa timber with bronzed aluminum thighs, Berman Rosetti
New Mood Design LLC
McAlear also gave the dining area a distinct presence by pulling the warmer earth tones in the stone’s color palette. “I chose some of the warmer ocher tones since I needed the dining area to stand out as its own space inside the open plan.”
She tradition designed the onyx light fixture to pick up on these colours without blocking the views.
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The bar stools, coated in hot bronze , can be pulled into the living space and used as additional seating; they can adjust from down bar height to seat height. “These are the most comfy bar stools I have ever sat in,” claims McAlear.
Kitchen cabinets: Pedini Cucine Integra foundation and tall closets in grey stained European walnut; counters: Quartz Reflections, Caesarstone; bar stools: designed by Karim Rashid for Bonaldo
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“In this kind of open program, I needed to ground the kitchen,” says McAlear. “This backsplash anchored the kitchen to the area. It is also reflective and changes color based on the time of day.” The glass upper cabinets also reflect light.
Upper closets: taupe reflective glass, Pedini Cucine
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The living area is comfortable, flexible and versatile, and also gets its color palette from the rock, now in a range of warm grays.
“The Puzzle coffee table is another versatile bit; it’s composed of 2 coffee tables that could be combined as a single, used individually or reconfigured,” McAlear says.
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Because clear views of character through the windows proved to be a priority, there is not any artwork on the walls, also because this is another home, the clients didn’t need a bunch of accessories around. Therefore, McAlear chose artful, sculptural lighting fixtures to function as dramatic features throughout the house.
Light: Oh Mei Ma Kabir suspension lighting, Ingo Maurer; Deadly ireplace: LED gasoline, Heat & Glo LUX60; swivel seats: Portofino, Minotti
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A versatile sectional couch from Ligne Roset could be divided in 2, arranged in an L shape or pushed into a long couch. “Pushing it into a long couch can clean up space to make a dancing floor,” McAlear says. “It is also very hardy; you are able to perch atop the trunk comfortably.”
New Mood Design LLC
A pair of comfy Pierre Paulin Pumpkin seats can swivel around to take in the view at sunset.
New Mood Design LLC
McAlear custom designed this chandelier with C Lighting to work with the exterior and interior architecture. “It needed to fit in a rather horizontal space and extend down the stairs,” McAlear says. “Each of both tiers drops between the stairs and large windows on the second and third levels. It is minimalist but very dramatic at precisely the exact same moment.”
New Mood Design LLC
Moving down to the family’s private areas on the second degree is the children’ lounge, which connects physically and visually into the landscape.
The area also picks up on the warmer colours of the stone’s palette and tweaks them up a few shades. Ligne Roset’s Togo series couch is great for flopping on following a long day of of skiing. The 2 doors on the left lead into a toilet and a ski area for keeping clothing and dressing to the slopes, and another door leads to a deck. As you can see through the window, this house is ski in, ski out.
New Mood Design LLC
This bath attaches to the family space and the ski space, so one could enter the house après ski, strip off snowy outerwear, then enter this toilet and hop to a nice, hot shower.
New Mood Design LLC
The color palette continues to the master bedroom, where McAlear plucked a hot terra-cotta colour in the earthier colors in the rock. The cherry ceiling adds heat.
The fireplace in the master bedroom is an abstraction of the huge rock fireplace on the third floor; the exact same palette is used but rendered in glass tile . Again, McAlear set up a stunning, artistic light fixture — this one, the Aloe Bud Multi from Jeremy Cole, is made from porcelain.
Bed: Bloom by Bonaldo, table lamps: Coral, Swank
New Mood Design LLC
New Mood Design LLC
In the master bath, a curved, high-gloss lacquer cherry vanity from Pedini Cucine echoes the master bedroom ceiling.
New Mood Design LLC
Before you go believing these clients are aprés-ski exhibitionists, look very closely at the windows. There are up/down shades by Hunter Douglas Silhouette that mix right into the window casing.
New Mood Design LLC
The boys’ bunk area has six beds complete, so that the couple’s three sons could bring friends on weekend ski trips. There’s also a girls’ bunk area for the daughter and her friends on this floor.
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Down on the first degree, the wine cave joins an old-world feeling with modern design. The wine and ceiling rack are both white oak.
The primary level also includes a mudroom, garage access and two guest suites.
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The two guest suites provide instantly visitors their own domainname, each with its own private bath suite and closet.