A Contemporary Telluride Hillside Property with Mountain Views

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Contemporary Cedar-Clad Mountain Exterior with Mountain and Forest Vistas

This Telluride property boasts unforgettable mountain and forest vistas.

Contemporary Mountain Exterior with Lush Forest Landscape

Within walking distance of downtown Telluride, the remodeled house is nestled against Bureau of Land Management forest land, allowing an unspoiled view of its spectacular natural surroundings. The property boasts privacy, a year round-running stream and several hiking trails just beyond the front door.

Contemporary Cream Living Room with Minimalistic Furnishings

Interior designer Michelle Jennings Wiebe opted for minimalistic furnishings. In the living room, here and left, Burton sofas from Hickory Chair join Lexington Home Brand’s Signal Hill chairs wearing Romo tweed to surround a Made Goods zinc coffee table. Overhead, Hubbardton Forge lights are customized with twig-like strands of metal.

Contemporary Neutral Living Room with Tweed Chairs

Interior designer Michelle Jennings Wiebe opted for minimalistic furnishings. In the living room, Burton sofas from Hickory Chair join Lexington Home Brand’s Signal Hill chairs wearing Romo tweed to surround a Made Goods zinc coffee table. Overhead, Hubbardton Forge lights are customized with twig-like strands of metal.

Contemporary Neutral Dining Area with Gray Furnishings

A table with a dark weathered-shingle finish and chairs clad in a light gray, all from Vanguard Furniture, anchor the dining area. Twin chandeliers are by Fine Art Lamps. In the adjacent kitchen, white Silestone countertops contrast with the richly stained oak cabinetry. Wiebe fashioned the backsplash from Vine Designs’ copper and glass tiles.

Contemporary White Master Bathroom with Skylight

Thanks to a generous wall of windows and a skylight that captures ridgeline views, the master bathroom is flooded with natural light. The Aquatica PureScape tub is from Ferguson Enterprises, and the honed Silverstone floor and wall tiles are by Cobsa. The built-in Fina cabinetry is from Thurston Kitchen & Bath.

Contemporary White Master Bedroom with Freestanding Bed

Interior Designer Michelle Jennings Wiebe selected a palette of pale grays and soft greens for the master bedroom, where she designed the freestanding bed fabricated by Colorado Custom Woodworks. Access Lighting’s Epiphanie Gooseneck wall lamps are from Ferguson Enterprises, and the Sferra linens are topped with a custom accent pillow covered in Mark Alexander’s Bonsai Soft Fern fabric.

Contemporary Cream Stairwell with Steel Elements

Designed by the architect Eric Cummings, the stairwell features a blend of rolled steel with ash treads and oak handrails. The black and silver color variations are a result of using different steel materials with a clear lacquer finish.

Contemporary Gray Sitting Room with Lounger

A favorite gathering space for the homeowners’ four boys is the sitting room, where a reproduction Le Corbusier lounger is upholstered in Hickory Chair fabric, and Nuevo Living’s Artemis accent chair sports a Romo covering. The wool rug is by Addison Dicus Company, and the Albert Murillo artwork was commissioned specifically for the space.

With its knotty cedar paneling, paucity of natural light and lightweight timber framing in need of reinforcement, a Telluride house stuck in the 1970s was in serious need of an update. But with its unique hillside property nestled against a forest and panoramic mountain views, homeowners Joel and Shannon Cantor were torn about what to do next. After weighing the possibilities of either replacing the ailing structure or building on a different lot, they came to the realization that the existing layout actually worked quite well and that an extensive renovation would deliver the home they wanted without sacrificing their ideal locale. “We were looking to open it up more to the wilderness and add a more modern, updated vibe,” Joel says. “We wanted something a little different than the typical log cabin look.”

To start, architect Eric Cummings and builder John Simon took the original three-story cedar home and stripped it down to its posts and beams—and then some. “A lot of the framing was compromised by previous alterations to the house,” explains Simon. “It was a balancing act to try to keep everything standing while we would demolish a section and rebuild it.”

According to Cummings, the most challenging maneuver was reconfiguring a large sloping roof that came all the way down to the ground on one side. “By adding a more horizontal roofline, we ended up with a net gain in usable square footage, especially upstairs,” he says. “As a result, we were able to enlarge the master bedroom considerably.”

Cummings’ plan also included adding several skylights and expanding the size of the existing windows. “You want to do everything you can to get balanced light, especially in the winter with the light reflecting off the snow,” he adds. “It makes the space feel so much more comfortable.” After passing through a double-height ground-floor entry, an open stairway leads to the living and dining areas on the second floor to maximize views. In crafting the combined living-dining areas, interior designer Michelle Jennings Wiebe (who worked with the Cantors on several previous projects) found inspiration in the picturesque landscape.

“They wanted a contemporary mountain look, warm but rustic,” she says. “My intent was to take the colors from the outside and bring them in, but in a soft way.”

In the living room, that idea translated into a travertine fireplace matched with a pair of chairs upholstered in dove-toned tweed. Twin sofas give off subtle blue tones reminiscent of the clear blue Colorado sky, with a touch of orange, inspired by autumn hues, picked up in the accent pillows. Wiebe and Cummings collaborated on the materials palette, rooted in wood with metal accents, starting with the home’s ash hardwood flooring, originally devised for Audi automobiles. “This is a family with four boys, so it needed to withstand high traffic and be durable,” Wiebe says.

Darker woods such as walnut and oak with an espresso stain provide accents on the kitchen cabinets and dining room table. A variety of metals, including the steel-framed stairway and copper accents in the kitchen, contribute to the home’s unusual aesthetic. “It adds warmth and a little bit of shimmer,” says Wiebe about the copper sink and backsplash tiles. “And it brings in the tones found in the mountain views.”

Thanks to a combination of soft gray, ivory and pale green, the third-floor master suite exudes a spa-like feel. The freestanding bed, with a custom headboard serving as room divider, sits in the middle of the room, where spectacular views are visible from two walls of windows. “The whole concept for the room was to just make it very light and airy,” Wiebe explains. “During the harsh cold-weather months this space is very soft and serene.”

In the end, “the team really worked their magic,” says Joel, contentedly. “We wake up in this wonderful setting and see the peaks, and it’s just ethereal.”

— Brian Libby