Inside This Modern Take On A Rustic Idaho Mountain Residence

For years, Dale and Dennis Weiss have made their home in a sleek, glass-lined dwelling in Los Angeles. Drenched in (nearly) year-round sunshine, they consider themselves Angelenos to the core. So, it was surprising when the couple purchased a rustic getaway in Ketchum, Idaho. But as they explored famed ski and hiking trails, the pair discovered a kinship with the area, and it became a true home away from home. “The serenity of being in the mountains resonated with us,” Dale says. “You get used to one season in Los Angeles, and you forget what it’s like in a place like this.”

That’s how they found themselves the new owners of this condo, a retreat that is “the antithesis of our house in California,” Dale describes. The cabin-inspired interiors feature knotty log ceiling beams, a vast stone fireplace and breathtaking alpine views. “It represents the mountains to us,” she adds. “We wanted to maintain that integrity, while making it more comfortable for our family.”

The property equally awed their architect (and daughter) Lindsay Weiss and her firm partner, designer Noah Turkus, both part of Weiss Turkus Projects, whom the couple recruited with an unexpected early-morning phone call announcing their purchase. This was not an unpleasant surprise. The mountain-centric residence “had great character to work with,” Weiss notes. And the duo agreed that their approach would be to create “a different way of living for them,” Turkus adds. 

Along with general contractor Adam Elias, the design partners focused on judicious edits accentuating the home’s mountain milieu. The log beams and stone fireplace remained untouched, but the original floors were refinished to revive their luster. The team then uninstalled cumbersome window shutters, which allows light and mountain vistas into the home. They also removed excessive millwork, especially the wall-to-wall built-ins lining the den and the L-shaped bar crowding the kitchen. These changes made room for a better furniture plan. “Noah and I always start by laying out the furnishings and how we want the space to flow,” Weiss explains.

The new entrance leads visitors through a vestibule, “where we reconfigured and resized the approach in order to create a symmetrical layout,” Elias notes. The space now greets guests with playful objets d’art and a prismatic triptych by Dale, an accomplished artist. Cocktails await at a new bar, bringing purpose to a previously empty niche. From there, festivities intuitively flow into the combined living and dining room. The team retained the dining space’s built-in banquette but reupholstered it with “an ikat print that plays well with the surrounding wood tones,” the designer says. 

Flanked by the fireplace and windows overlooking the snow-capped peaks, a curved sofa forms part of a circular arrangement in the living area, “so you’re able to look out and appreciate the view,” Weiss says. Furnishings favor clean, midcentury modern lines, but some individual pieces “have a certain heft that feels appropriate for the architecture,” Turkus adds. Everything is proportional in terms of scale from the oversize armchairs to the thick-legged coffee table. Such thoughtful use of dimension continues in the reimagined den, which demanded “big, comfy seating for movie watching,” the architect adds, so they expanded a wall and flipped the orientation to accommodate a plush three-sided sectional.

The color palette remains subdued and naturalistic in the main social areas, harmonizing with the rugged woods. But motifs became daring in the private areas that, prior to the remodel, lacked the same architectural detailing. “A lot of the art Dale makes has really bold color stories, so it was nice to add in those elements,” Turkus explains. Different prints and textures give each bedroom suite a distinct character—from the geometric wallcovering of the retro-glam guest space (where Weiss loves to stay), to the storybook forest wallpaper in the grandchildren’s bunk room. “It’s fun when you get to reside in a bedroom that has such a personality,” Weiss adds.

The team further fleshed out rooms with local finds, most memorably the fireplace’s display of deer antlers. Though they had to purchase them in the end, they spent many happy afternoons together searching the woods for seasonal sheds. For the couple, it’s these delightful moments that underscore the second life they’re building in Ketchum. “We feel very fortunate,” Dale confesses. “There’s something special about being away on vacation, but also having the luxury of calling it home.”