Inside A Winter Retreat With Chic Scandinavian-Gone-Desert Vibes

A Chicago couple had every intention of selling their second home in Fountain Hills, Arizona, based on one major factor: the aesthetic. “It never really spoke to me,” recalls the wife of the winter escape home they purchased eight years ago to use with their two grown daughters and their budding families. “It looked like Game of Thrones-meets-Olive Garden with lots of heavy bronze, shiny travertine floors, and all of these upside-down hearts and ornate swirls.”

But shortly before they left to return to Chicago from their last visit (and after learning they were expecting a grandchild), they decided to reevaluate. Not only would they take the home off the market, but they also wanted to embark on a major overhaul and make it truly their own. Having never taken on a project like this before, the husband and wife knew they needed the help of an expert. After scouring the internet and arranging a consultation, the wife was confident she had found the right person—designer and builder Kaitlyn Wolfe. “I literally liked everything she did,” explains the wife. “And I wanted to leave it with someone that could just run with it.”

Wolfe was up for the task. “There were rooms the wife wouldn’t even go into. The home felt like a dungeon,” she says, pointing to the dark floors, heavy light fixtures, ornate stone- and metalwork, and brown Venetian plaster in the bedrooms. “Although these details were very labor-intensive, it felt overdone and outdated. The owners wanted the opposite of how it currently looked.”

Not wanting to alter the home’s footprint, Wolfe and her team focused on lightening and brightening the space; reinventing and moving some of the existing fireplaces (there were a total of eight, including some oddly configured ones on bathroom and bedroom walls); creating a Scandinavian-gone-desert vibe with soft, neutral tones; and preserving some of the existing stonework. “We were very intentional with the stone we decided to keep or modify to stay true to the architecture, yet update it to feel current,” says Wolfe. She also brought in new natural rock to complement the existing stonework, making the diversity of material the featured design element. “Throughout the home you can find window ledges and doorways wrapped in Cantera stone,” Wolfe says. “There are quartzite flagstone floors in the kitchen, a terrazzo fireplace surround in the living room and hood surround in the kitchen, as well as entire showers wrapped in stone slabs.”

In addition to the major stonework undertaking, lighting was essential. Wolfe smoothed out quirky recessed ceiling domes and replaced dated lighting draped with ornate ironwork and dangling crystals with modern pendant lamps and chandeliers. She purposefully mixed finishes and textures—matte black, brass and nude metal along with dark walnut, plaster and jute—and frosted the exposed bulbs to create cohesion. “The key was ensuring that the fixtures complemented each other,” Wolfe explains. “Essentially, we could’ve swapped any pendant light with another one or moved a sconce from one room to the next, and it would have been able to be completely interchangeable. This allows for an incredible experience as you walk through each space.”

While originally hired to focus on the architectural details, partway into the project Wolfe received an unexpected but welcome request from the husband. He wanted to surprise his wife for their anniversary with a finished home, with artwork, furnishings and accessories already in place. In a nod to the stonework as well as the underlying Scandinavian vibe, Wolfe chose soothing neutrals (shades of ivory, taupe and gray) and a mix of textures (nubby bouclé, supple leather and breezy linen) throughout. “We presented all of the proposed selections to the husband virtually and he approved them without his wife knowing,” recalls Wolfe. “They kept every piece.”

“We walked in and the whole thing was literally done,” says the wife of the surprise. “I was completely dumbfounded. Before, we hadn’t spent more than two weeks on any given trip at the house, and now we’ve spent months out here. It’s amazing what a renovation can do. It’s like we’re staying at this beautiful hotel.”