An Oregon Wine Country Home Looks To Nature For Its Design

Deep in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, the pinot noir vines of Lone Feather Vineyard have thrived for decades, absorbing the terroir of the rich basalt earth and brisk Van Duzer winds. Cultivating them is a labor of love for the owners, a couple who imagined the landscape as the site of their new home, one infused with the same sense of place. “Our life is all about appreciating nature and the simplicity of living out here,” the husband shares. “We wanted something modern that blended with this beautiful countryside.”

They gravitated to residential designer Rick Berry, who deeply grounds his work in the Pacific Northwest’s natural environment. Together with his colleagues, architect Brian Campbell and interior designers Cameron Cruse and Kate Heerspink, he focused on distilling Oregon wine country into a serene, contemporary dwelling.

Led on-site by general contractor Eduard Valik, the house was constructed at the top of a hill, so it could “enjoy views over the coastal range and down the valley,” Campbell notes. The one-story structure’s guest studio and primary residence are separated by a courtyard, with the main living quarters enjoying vistas of the vineyard below. The courtyard garden is filled with native ferns, Pacific Coast irises and Japanese maple trees selected by landscape architects Eric Bode and Charles Brucker. This moment of greenery is “about taking your time, turning your gaze to different things as you move through the meandering path,” Brucker says.

One approaches the dwelling from the rear, walking past the guesthouse and through the courtyard oasis before entering the main residence, where the wine country surrounds are revealed. “The landscape slowly opens up as you come into the home,” Berry says. Once inside, nature never feels too far, as “every room has a view to the vineyard,” he adds. “There is a blurring of lines between the indoors and outdoors.”

From the foyer, the house branches into public and private wings. Everyday living concentrates around the great room, framed with floor-to-ceiling windows. On the other side, the bedrooms open onto an outdoor enfilade perfumed with rows of lavender. Both wings converge on the covered patio, inserting an alfresco experience into the core of the abode.

More intimate interludes with nature are also present, like the breakfast nook’s large windows framing mountain vistas. “Even the circulation spaces that are often wasted in other buildings feel connected to the views,” Campbell says. Take the bedroom hallway. Punctuated with a floor-to-ceiling window overlooking a rock garden made with stones from the site, the space feels wholly integrated with the environment.

The architecture remains modest in scale, its simple rectilinear forms blending into the tree line. “There’s a clarity to the structural system, which is exposed posts and beams,” Berry says. “Anybody who walks in can understand how it was constructed.” Reminiscent of traditional Japanese architecture, deep overhangs shelter the home from rainy winters and summer sunlight. A limited palette preserves the exterior’s elegant simplicity, featuring blackened steel beams, Douglas fir-framed windows and rich cedar siding that will slowly silver over time.

These rugged finishes seep into the interior, further blurring the home’s boundaries with the landscape. The same exterior cedar wraps around the walls, complemented by oak floors and Douglas fir ceiling beams. Echoing the structural steel supports, the designers incorporated blackened steel accents, from the kitchen cabinetry to the living room fireplace. “We wanted to keep the palette simple and restrained,” Cruse explains. “There’s a wabi-sabi quality to all the materials. Nothing too glossy, shiny or polished anywhere.”

As such, furnishings and decor favor a lack of pretension, like unvarnished wood tables and area rugs made from natural jute or lush shag piles. Plush sofas and armchairs are cushioned in oatmeal-hued textiles or worn-in tobacco leather, the latter of which features on the built-in benches tucked into the intimate breakfast nook. “Everything has a texture to it in these mineral, earthy tones,” Cruse says. Lighting also has a vintage, industrial quality, featuring patinated metals, smoked glass and translucent white shades. Though newly built, the house already feels deeply rooted in the vineyard, immersed among the newly planted chardonnay vines. Over time, both will mature and mellow alongside each other, growing rich with memories. The couple in turn savors every passing moment: the early quiet mornings shared by the fireplace, the late afternoons relaxing after long hours working in the vineyard, and the joyous family holiday gatherings sipping the fruits of their labor. “Everywhere you look is a postcard,” the wife laughs. “And when you walk inside, you take the greenery with you.”

Though newly built, the house already feels deeply rooted in the vineyard, immersed among the newly planted chardonnay vines. Over time, both will mature and mellow alongside each other, growing rich with memories. The couple in turn savors every passing moment: the early quiet mornings shared by the fireplace, the late afternoons relaxing after long hours working in the vineyard, and the joyous family holiday gatherings sipping the fruits of their labor. “Everywhere you look is a postcard,” the wife laughs. “And when you walk inside, you take the greenery with you.”