This Contemporary Vail Home Prioritizes The Great Outdoors

The vibe shift between living on a tropical island and living in the Rockies is, to say the least, pretty major. But Jen White, her husband, Clayton, and their 9-year-old son were up for a change. “We’re loving the four seasons, the hiking, the fishing, the skiing; we’re trying to take full advantage of this area—that’s essentially why we made such a huge transition,” explains Jen of their relocation from the island of Kauai to the Vail Valley. While the Whites were realistic about the changes their new Colorado setting would bring, what they weren’t willing to give up was the outdoor-focused lifestyle they’d enjoyed for nearly a decade in Hawaii. “It was so easy to live outside year-round in Kauai; our doors were always open,” Jen recalls. Creating spaces with defined connections to the surroundings became crucial at their new locale. That’s where architect Brent Alm stepped in to help.

The Whites had built their former Hawaiian home (as well as others via their development business), so embarking on ground-up construction was familiar territory. “They bought a beautiful 7-acre piece of property with views of Mount Thomas and a meadow out to Brush Creek, with a natural water feature in their backyard that really roars during runoff season,” notes Alm. The contemporary home he composed, anchored around a great room, features ample windows to frame the scenery and doors that pocket away to seamlessly connect to the exterior. The Whites’ program included an unexpected ask, too: seasonal outdoor showers. “I’ve been designing homes in this area for 34 years, but I’d never yet done an outdoor shower, simply because this is snow country,” explains the architect. The two he placed outside the main bedroom suites (which extend from each bathroom’s indoor shower) face nature; similarly, the home’s integrated sauna features a huge glass wall to take in the views. 

Interior designer Betsy Berry, a childhood friend of Jen’s, joined the team as Alm and the Whites were developing the floor plans. She tweaked the roofline, added mullions to the windows and refined the finishes from the outside in, looking to a Colorado-inspired color and material palette. Under Berry’s watch, stone used on the façade was repeated inside for continuity, warm wood finishes were carefully balanced from light to dark, and key moments, like the entryway’s 10-foot-tall and 6 ^1/2-foot-wide burnished-steel pivot door, brought in an elevated tone. “The goal for this young family was to bring this house into today’s world without having a time stamp on it, and to also have it speak to Colorado,” says Berry. 

Since she’d known the homeowners since college (and Jen since kindergarten), the designer was already dialed in to their preferences, though she’d never worked with them on an interiors project. “I knew that Jen wanted a serene, calming space,” says Berry. “My job was to build that for her in layers.” The homeowner gravitated toward stark whites and cool grays, notes Berry, but she urged her client to embrace natural elements like wood and stone to bring a warmer, cozier feel to the home’s vast spaces. The coordinated juxtaposition between different areas like the moody paneled bar versus the lighter white oak elements used in the kitchen; the seamless blending of cool and warm tones in the bedrooms; even the not-too-dark, not-too-rustic wood flooring all demonstrate how the designer reconciled these preferences. “That’s our personalities combined,” Berry says with a laugh. “Me pushing her warmer, but it’s still gray.”

Showstopping elements include a striking board-formed concrete fireplace that warms the primary bedroom and bath as well as an eye-catching floor-to-ceiling wall of stone surrounding the great room’s fireplace. Meanwhile, two hand-blown glass pendants floating above the kitchen island offer delicate counterpoints to the room’s material palette. A heated sheltered deck complete with an outdoor dining area and built-in barbecue grill allows the family to enjoy the open air for most of the year, and there’s an outdoor hot tub and cold plunge in addition to their in-home sauna. “They’re not missing anything,” says general contractor Todd Morrison, noting the group effort required to coordinate the property’s complex systems and satisfy stringent area code requirements. “These houses have to be buttoned up tight, but this was such a great collaboration, with a lot of support from Brent and Betsy.” 

Today, the family doesn’t quite live outdoors as often as their years in Kauai allowed, but the house itself makes up for that. “The amazing views make us feel like we’re outside—even when we can’t be,” Jen says with satisfaction.