09 Apr A Melting Pot Chalet

Architecture | Reid Smith Architects
Construction | Blue Ribbon Builders
Interior Design | Envi Interior Design Studio

When the design team responsible for a new home in Big Sky describes the finished retreat, they reference several regional aesthetics: Nordic, Scandinavian, Northern European, and Northern Californian. “The family prefers that European aesthetic and vibe, so it’s almost a bit more like a chalet. Scandinavian with a little whiff of Montana … and with those roof peaks, it even reminds me of the Sea Ranch in California,” muses Susie Hoffmann, principal and creative director with Envi Interior Design Studio in Bozeman.

Alternating canted roofs in this home in Big Sky allow light to permeate from all angles, and the Chief Cliff stone fireplace provides a simple yet elegant focal point for the great room.

By drawing on the best of each of these styles, the home accomplishes profound balance among all of them: It’s restrained without being austere, cozy while still providing plenty of space. Clean lines, a consistent color palette throughout, attentiveness to the surroundings, and a clear vision of how the family would use the space result in a home that is both practical and beautiful.

“The location was the big driver,” says Reid Smith of the eponymous architecture firm in Bozeman. “It’s a pretty tight lot, but it worked well for them because they didn’t want something overly expansive.” Working with the family’s goals — to create a space that felt intimate and comfortable yet big enough to host gatherings and accommodate a variety of activities — Smith let the constraints of the lot and the tenets of Scandinavian aesthetics guide his design.

Elevated shed-style roofs and floor-to-ceiling windows allow for ample lighting and spectacular views of the surrounding mountains.

“Some of that Nordic design is so simple, and I think often geared toward immediate family rather than large gatherings,” Smith says. “We broke the space into three relatively simplistic forms, compacted and nested together. By breaking down the scale of the structure, it worked really well to create different zones and a sense of separation.”

By dividing the great room, the fireplace creates two cozy spaces while maintaining a bright, open feel.

Brandon Wier, with Blue Ribbon Builders in Big Sky, reflects on how effectively the design and construction accomplished this goal. “When they had their housewarming, there were a ton of people there in the kitchen, great room, and dining area. And then I went downstairs, and it was so quiet you couldn’t tell there was a huge party upstairs. That’s because we did the floors out of CLT, but we also did a lot of sound attenuation and vibration attenuation.”

Throughout the home, Scandinavian-inspired furnishings offer elegant simplicity.

CLT — or cross-laminated timber — is among the home’s unique features. CLTs are large, prefabricated, engineered wood panels that are lightweight, strong, structurally rigid, and fire-resistant. They also make for relatively quick construction. While CLT panels have been popular in Europe for some time, they are just beginning to gain traction in the United States.

“We had researched and seen them,” says Wier, “but this was the first time we had a chance to actually build with them. They were neat to work with, and we learned a lot through the process.”

Wildlife-themed wallpaper livens up the bunk room.

Smith also found the process of designing around CLTs to be a fun challenge and a unique way to capture a European element in the materials. “There’s sort of an honesty and rawness to those. They’re typically fabricated out of smaller-type trees that are found over on that side of the North Atlantic, so they often have more knots and that kind of thing. It definitely includes that Nordic aesthetic and the sort of building they do.”

Wood-panel ceilings mirror the white oak floors throughout, creating a feeling of continuity and spaciousness. The kitchen is designed to accommodate the immediate family while also providing space to entertain.

The use of CLTs and other prefabricated components also earned the house acclaim from a sustainability perspective. “The big story from the construction standpoint is that it took a lot of approaches and techniques of passive house design, and was recognized by the industry as a groundbreaking approach,” says Peter Bing, also with Blue Ribbon Builders. The result of much collaboration between builders, engineers, panel fabricators, and other team members, the home was recognized by the Passive House Accelerator as a model for future construction.

The use of CLT panels guided the design by providing a new approach to accomplishing certain goals.

Oxygen ports built into the headboard in the primary bedroom provide health benefits without visible hardware.

“We do lots of homes, even modern mountain homes, that have lots of light,” says Smith. “But the opportunity on this one was to sort of fold up the roofs of these simplistic forms — they’re teased up and they create these nice shed roofs, but they also create beautiful scoops of light.”

These high windows, coupled with extensive glazing throughout, also allow for the surrounding landscape to shine. “Lone Peak is just to the south; it’s probably a couple miles away,” says Smith. “It’s so close that, in certain spaces of the home, you actually look up to see it. So the windows that are located along those canted roof forms are kind of dual purpose. They cast that light along the different ceiling planes, which is beautiful, but they also allow that view.”

The powder room holds a custom sink by Elements Concrete in Bozeman, plus a wall of dark green tile for some fun contrast to the subdued tones elsewhere in the house.

In a guest bedroom, wallpaper by Phillip Jeffries references the surrounding mountains.

Throughout the house, the mountains surrounding Moonlight Basin are framed in every direction, and the colors of the landscape are echoed in the interior palette. Soft blues, grays, and various shades of white provide continuity in the space, as do white oak floors and cabinetry. The floating staircase and vaulted ceilings create a lightness that’s balanced by the stone fireplace dividing the great room.

The mudroom includes ample built-in storage. The wallpaper features illustrations of dogs for a touch of whimsy.

Throughout the house, simple, clean lines are juxtaposed with art.

While the grandeur of the view and the soothing atmosphere of the interiors are certainly front and center, the home’s small, meticulously imagined details are every bit as compelling: Speakers hidden behind the drywall provide excellent (and somewhat mysterious) sound quality throughout the dwelling; the ski-in area includes a hot tub, heated patio, TV, and adjacent gear room and sauna; oxygen ports are integrated into the headboards in the primary and guest bedrooms to help with altitude adjustment and better sleep. For the four-legged family members, the house features a dog-wash station and built-in food bowls that tuck away when not in use. Dog-themed wallpaper adds a playful touch.

Furnishings invite relaxation and ease: A lounge chair by Umage and a merino wool rug balance luxury and comfort.

“There are some definite moments of play in this house: It’s very family focused,” says Hoffmann. And even though the design elements are restrained, “I don’t think it feels austere at all,” she adds. “It maintains a very approachable vibe.”

Melissa Mylchreest is a freelance writer and artist based in western Montana. When she’s not at her desk or in the studio, she can be found enjoying the state’s public lands and rivers with her two- and four-legged friends and family. 

Whitney Kamman is an architectural photographer based out of Bozeman. Her love for architecture came naturally growing up with an architect father and interior designer mother. Kamman’s work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Architectural Digest, Robb Report, and Mountain Living, among others.