Until they built this dwelling in Big Sky, Montana, the owners didn’t think they could love the area more. For a decade, the Yellowstone Club had been their winter home away from home, and they had enjoyed many happy days skiing through freshly fallen snow and nights warming by the fire in their previous residence—it seemed nothing could be better. But when a property with direct ski-run access and breathtaking views of Lone Peak became available, the chance to deepen their relationship with the familiar landscape proved too tempting.
This time, however, they imagined a “more contemporary take on traditional mountain-style architecture,” observes architect Corey Kelly, who joined forces with designer John Vancheri and general contractor Chad Bottcher and team to compose the new dwelling. Stylewise, their previous retreat also had some modern elements, “but for this one, we took everything a step further, eliminating all rustic elements and replacing them with glass and metal,” Vancheri adds.
Home Details
Architecture:
Corey Kelly, Locati Architects
Interior Design:
John Vancheri, John Vancheri Interior Design
Home Builder:
Chad Bottcher, Schlauch Bottcher Construction, Inc.
The pared-down interiors are now defined by steel beams and broad expanses of glass that visually open rooms to the mountainside. “The last thing we wanted to do was cut off the top of Lone Peak from the interior viewpoint,” Kelly notes. “Every opportunity we had, we maximized the window heights, gaining an extra two feet wherever we could.” This more-is-more approach produced floor-to-ceiling vistas, with glass skimming the vaulted ceilings around the living area.
Abundant natural light in turn floods the fluid interior layout, especially the main floor’s great room that becomes “essentially one volume of space,” Kelly says. Instead of dividing walls, the architect varied ceiling levels to define specific areas, from the lower-slung kitchen to the lofty double-story heights of the living area. “These ceiling transitions allowed us to make different spaces either feel more intimate or more open,” the architect adds. Even liminal spaces like the stairwell, framed with glass partitions, feel buoyed with light. The staircase’s central steel stringer “allows the wood treads to almost float,” Kelly notes. “The simple metal mesh guardrails provide transparency so light can still seep through.”
Despite this sense of expansiveness, “the actual room sizes aren’t that large,” Vancheri explains. “So furniture had to be just the right scale.” The designer anchored spaces with a few substantial, clean-lined pieces, from the living room’s modular sofas to the dining area’s elongated banquet table. Built-in elements further fuse the furniture into the architecture, such as the living room’s floating bench. Suspended from the ceiling, it is an idyllic nap spot overlooking the mountains. Light fixtures also lean into home’s structural palette of black metal and glass, like the industrial-style pole installation spanning the entire stairwell. “My design nature feels lighting is more architectural than decorative,” Vancheri adds.
As the home would be most used during ski season, Vancheri borrowed the mountains’ more wintry moods for interior finishes, refining the icy landscape to its most essential hues. He set the scene with a blanket of whites and soft grays, from pale white oak floors to plaster walls that recall fresh-fallen snow when reflected in the sunlight. “Wherever there is color, it’s black or dark greens pulled from the evergreens outside,” he describes. “The couple prefers a cleaner space— monochromatic yet warm.”
Covered in blackened steel and ribbed wood paneling, the fireplace strikes a dramatic focal point in the living room. The rug from Woven continues the black-and-white palette.
Holly Hunt chandeliers highlight the living room’s peaked ceilings. Below, an Okha armchair and Poliform sofas join a custom floating bench and coffee tables in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows by Kolbe Windows & Doors.
Ebonized white oak frames the hallway, where a Marc Phillips rug leads to a Designtex-upholstered floating bench and a side table from the Comerford Collection. The space is illuminated by Workstead ceiling fixtures and Roll & Hill sconces.
Complementing the home’s dark metal structural accents, a row of sleek Lodes suspension lamps hang over the dining area. A custom ebony-stained white oak table and sculptural GamFratesi chairs complete the space, while RH stools line the island nearby.
The staircase introduces an industrial minimalist edge, featuring a suspended blackened-steel stringer and mesh railings alongside white oak treads. A light fixture by The Future Perfect runs the length of the stairs.
Dark finishes outline the kitchen, from the ebonized white oak Shaker-style cabinets with Top Knobs hardware to the marbled gray Caesarstone countertops and backsplash. A custom blackened-steel hood floats over the Wolf double range.
A custom Arthur Parks Upholstery-fabricated bed covered in Maharam velvet and mohair Midj benches anchor the primary bedroom. Mokum wool drapes frame armchairs from the Comerford Collection, while a Tibetano rug cushions the floor.
Despite the simple palette, “we added some dimension with texture,” Vancheri says. “If everything feels slick and clean, it becomes too stark and cold.” Greener shades seep through lush textiles, from the breakfast banquette’s mossy-hued leather to the primary bedroom’s tufted chartreuse headboard wall “that is the brightest color we used throughout the whole project,” the designer notes.
The same tactility continues through darker finishes, like the waxed metal hood in the kitchen and the slate-gray porcelain walls of the primary bath. Throughout, ebonized millwork offers dimension. The living room’s towering fireplace, for example, jigsaws intersecting fluted panels “that pick up the light beautifully, depending on the direction of the wood,” the designer muses. Thick reclaimed timber sourced from old industrial buildings was also used for ceiling beams and door frames. Even through the black stain, “you can still see the bolt holes and notches,” Kelly observes. “It feels unique because it has an existing patina and character.”
Such subtleties show modern minimalism need not abandon a sense of place. Instead, the home distills its surrounding landscape to the fundamental wonder of wide, endless skies and undulating mounds of snow. “When you’re sitting inside, it feels like you’re floating over the mountains,” Vancheri says. “It’s such a beautiful place to be.”
A custom Arthur Parks Upholstery-fabricated bed covered in Maharam velvet and mohair Midj benches anchor the primary bedroom. Mokum wool drapes frame armchairs from the Comerford Collection, while a Tibetano rug cushions the floor.