A Modernized Avon Ski Mountain Retreat

Details

Brown Mountain Front Elevation Landscape

The home’s traditional parkitecture façade features chinked logs, local stone and peaked roofs, all typical of its Bachelor Gulch neighborhood.

Brown Mountain Front Elevation Landscape

The home’s traditional parkitecture façade features chinked logs, local stone and peaked roofs, all typical of its Bachelor Gulch neighborhood.

White Mountain Living Room

Low-slung furniture in the living room—such as the barrel chair quartet sporting Glant fabric, Christophe Delcourt’s Ian sofa from Avenue Road in New York and a custom daybed—doesn’t encroach on the views. The Egyptian blown-glass light fixture is from Liza Sherman Antiques, also in New York.

White Mountain Living Room Daybed

The living room’s custom daybed by Tori Golub Interior Design, fabricated by Jimmy’s Upholstery in New York, wears Donghia leather and Nobilis fabric; views of the majestic Gore Range are visible from the comfortable perch. The floor lamp is reproduction Serge Mouille.

White Mountain Living Room Sofa

Designer Tori Golub selected a Ralph Pucci sofa wearing bright coral Colefax and Fowler fabric from Cowtan & Tout in New York to add color to the neutral living room. The sofa is paired with a stainless-steel table from Mecox Gardens, also in New York; the credenza is by Calvin Furniture from Archive in Laguna Beach, California.

White Oak Mountain Staircase

Designed by architects Brent Alm and Jon F. Edelbaum, the staircase creates movement and brings light into the home’s interior. Made from clear white oak with painted poplar trim by Sawhorse Woodworking and Design, the stairway features a curved-glass rail by Pinnacle Glass.

White Mountain Dining Room

The Christophe Delcourt dining table was chosen for its organic tree trunk base and utilitarian top. A custom Lindsey Adelman chandelier dances light around the room, while the floating stone-topped cabinet supplies storage space. The Tibetan rug is from ABC Carpet & Home in New York.

White Mountain Kitchen with Applewood Cabinetry

Finished with natural applewood, the island cabinets and stainless-steel counters, both by Bulthaup, are the focal points of the kitchen. The floating concrete counter is by Concrete Revolution, the Matteograssi leather counter stools are from DDC in New York, and the copper droplights are by Bec Brittain.

Brown Mountain Rear Elevation Landscape

The property offers an enviable ski-in/ski-out locale.

White Mountain Media Room

Movie screenings in the media room are a comfy affair thanks to a Ray sofa by Antonio Citterio from B&B Italia in New York. The ottoman wears fabric from The Habitus Collection in New York, and the pouf by Fernando & Juan Diego Gerscovich is from YLiving in Walnut Creek, California.

White Mountain Master Bedroom

In the master bedroom, a bed with a fir headboard and integrated night tables was designed by Tori Golub Interior Design and built by Woden Woods. The Mantoan chandelier is from Wired Custom Lighting in New York, and the Saladino Furniture sofa is upholstered in Colefax and Fowler fabric.

Tori Golub can recall the first time she set her New York City designer’s eyes on the traditional Bachelor Gulch home her clients were intent on modernizing into the ultimate ski mountain getaway. “The house was filled with layers of dark furniture, there were heavy drapes at the windows, and every room was painted a different color,” says Golub, acknowledging the aesthetic disparity between the original owners and her clients. “It was definitely a start-to-finish project.”

Nevertheless, there was potential. “We liked the location, and we liked the bones of the house,” says the wife, who, with her husband and two teenage sons—all skiers—also had previously purchased a unit at The Ritz-Carlton Club in the same area. “So we pulled in Tori and architect Jon Edelbaum, who worked with us on our apartment in New York and our house in Bridgehampton.” They also tapped the home’s original architect, Brent Alm, to provide construction drawings, aid in the review process and assist with design changes.

In keeping with the restrictive architectural guidelines enforced by the Bachelor Gulch Design Review Board, little was done to the home’s parkitecture-style exterior—characterized by chinked logs and a prescribed mid-brown-to-black color scheme—beyond eliminating mullions in several of the view windows, revamping light fixtures and revising the decking. “All changes were done under intense scrutiny,” notes Edelbaum. The interior, however, was a different story. “The inside was fairly dark with reddish beams, and the traffic flow had a couple of oddities,” he adds. “We lightened things up, reoriented a confusing garage entry, created new spaces that we opened to existing rooms, and completely rebuilt the master suite.”

In turn, Golub explored creating interiors that addressed the clients’ tastes and lifestyle, and, along with Edelbaum, reinterpreted the existing architectural language. “We recolored the beams to make them lighter, removed all the door and window framing, and refinished the walls with Venetian plaster,” says the designer, who worked out details for everything from finishes to faucets. “We kept the original stone flooring but redid the window sills in a lighter color stone.”

A main stairway linking the home’s three levels was completely restyled in what builder David Hyde feels was one of the most challenging and rewarding aspects of the job. “The stair was realigned and now features a compound curved-glass rail,” he says. “The end result is beautiful.”

Traveling back and forth between Colorado and New York, sourcing and stockpiling furnishings from both places as well as ferreting out items from across the country, Golub created spaces intended to live well in every season. Key pieces such as the bright coral sofa in the living room add vibrancy to the mostly neutral backdrop, while silky, sumptuous and sometimes even furry fabrics create texture and warmth.

Lighting was selected for both form and function. In the kitchen, copper pendants contrast nicely with glossy white countertops and complement the rich wood Edelbaum specified for the cabinet doors. Throughout the house, picture-perfect pieces, such as the sleek bleached-fir master bed, were fabricated by local artisans.

In the end, the project resonated with everyone involved. According to Alm, the house he designed 15 years ago really suited the original owners’ traditional taste, but he likes the transition. “The current version better reflects the modern taste of the new owners,” he says. And Edelbaum really appreciates how the house lives and feels now. “We dramatically changed the public spaces, and my architectural soul is in all of it,” he says.

For her part, Golub claims it was a fun project because “we weren’t building a hyper-modern house and had to solve things differently to retain a sense of place.” Best of all is the owner’s take: “We’re all just so happy when we’re here.”