Reath Design Took a Chilly Aspen Retreat and Gave It Much-Needed Warmth

""This house needed a heartbeat, a pulse, a jolt to bring it to life," says AD100 designer Frances Merrill of Reath Design, describing her resuscitation of a gloriously situated but otherwise undistinguished Aspen mountain retreat from the 1990s. "This wasn't a house that had a lot of history to go back to, so there were questions. How much Alpine do you bring in? How do you conjure a sense of place that feels right for Aspen-and for this family-without resorting to clichés?""

""There's plenty of white outside on the slopes. We didn't need it on the drywall and kitchen cabinetry," the designer quips. To make the great room greater, and cozier, she paneled the walls in knotty pine, expanding the wood treatment on the existing ceiling. A hand-carved wood trim by artist Nik Gelormino wraps the lofty space, reappearing in the kitchen and in one of the primary baths."

A 1990s Aspen mountain retreat was transformed by layering subtle colors, textures, and patterns to introduce warmth and personality without resorting to chalet clichés. Knotty pine paneling was extended across walls and the existing ceiling to make the great room cozier. A hand-carved wood trim by Nik Gelormino wraps the lofty space and reappears in the kitchen and a primary bath. The fireplace received a tailor-made copper sheathing after multiple design iterations. White was deliberately omitted from drywall and cabinetry to avoid echoing the snowy exterior. The result balances classic and contemporary, rustic and refined.

Read at Architectural Digest