Rustic Modern

Chase Reynolds Ewald

• Publisher: Gibbs Smith
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781423644941
• eBook ISBN: 9781423644958
• Subtopic: Interior Design

This lushly photographed home design book offers an intimate tour through rustic modern residences across California and the Mountain West.
Following their acclaimed volume American Rustic, design writer Chase Reynolds Ewald and photographer Audrey Hall have teamed up once again to explore fifteen Western homes with a fresh take on rustic style. Here you'll find contemporary approaches to traditional log cabins, sustainable projects, artist studios, and places for play. The inspired interior decor and exteriors are all beautifully photographed and discussed in elegant prose.
Rustic Modern also offers detailed perspectives from the homeowners, architects, and designers who brought these diverse spaces to life. Individual home's stories are complemented by full-page photography. The rustic textiles, warm living spaces, uniquely crafted chandeliers suspend from vaulted ceilings, and sweeping vistas out every window are sure to inspire.

Rural
Meets Urbane

It’s unusual for an architecture firm to be offered the chance to help re-envision a family’s entire life in three successive projects. But that is exactly the opportunity that was presented to Pearson Design Group by a Midwestern couple as they anticipated the empty-nest phase of their lives.

As this suburban Chicago family hit its midstream, with children having grown up and moved out of the house, the husband and wife reexamined their longtime history in the Rocky Mountains and their love of the outdoor lifestyle afforded by it. Although still working, they were no longer tethered to a particular geography or commute. Having purchased a lot in Big Sky, Montana, some years before, their first step was to conceive of a multi-phase plan for their lives going forward. They would commit incrementally, building a guesthouse first so they could experience life in Montana more fully and, while doing so, decide whether the property they’d purchased was the right one for them.

For the first phase, with the guidance of Pearson Design Group, they envisioned a structure containing guest quarters and an après-ski aerie boasting dramatic views situated atop a garage component. The resulting project offered a fresh take on traditional mountain living, with an original aesthetic finding its highest expression in the contemporary lodge-like main room of wood and glass. The couple would use the modestly scaled house as their Montana base while working through the more complicated aspects of what was really a major life change, for they intended to downsize from the family home and purchase an urban dwelling at the same time. This was complicated by the fact that they hadn’t yet decided which city would be their base. After they broke ground on their main home in Montana, and after searching various cities for a pied-à-terre, they purchased an apartment in downtown Denver, within easy reach of a major airport and conveniently located near two of their children.

The touchstone of the home is the custom rope swing (through Integrity Builders) that inspired the name Freedom Lodge. The swing and rope-detail chandelier convey a sense of whimsy in the great room while refined casual sofas from Urbaine Home anchor the volume. The buffalo mount is vintage, circa 1940s.

The master bedroom of a Pearson Design home at the Yellowstone Club in Montana is defined by texture. Rain Houser and Skye Anderson selected a fringed lounge chair, sheepskin rug, and fur blanket to complement the custom-designed bed and nightstands, which were commissioned through Tim Sanford. The chandelier is from John Brooks, Inc.

The Montana home was the initial focus. The property, gradually sloped, with a dense stand of lodgepole pines and strategic view corridors, allowed for plenty of natural daylight and far-reaching vistas but gave the sense of being nestled into the forest. Says Pearson Design Group architect Greg Matthews, “There’s a beautiful juxtaposition of intimate wooded forest and expansive views,” and the home was designed to heighten the experience. The master suite has an almost tree house–like feel, while the main living space has a large expanse of glass to take in the mountainscape. The contrast, says Matthews, “reinforces the intimacy in the private spaces and the ex...

Table of contents

• Introduction
• Intentional Minimalism
• Mountain Meets Modern
• California Conservation Narrative
• Sporty Mod Home
• Coastal Aerie
• Lakeside Rustic
• Rustic Modern Refined
• Rural Meets Urbane
• Contemporary Adobe
• GLass & Stone Homestead
• Farmhouse Reinvented
• Modern Idyll Rustic Muse
• Slopeside Wine Cellar
• Inspired By Art
• Rustic Modern Barn
• Creative Space for a Modern Lifestyle
• Art & Wellness at Lake’s Edge
• Rustic Modern Resources
• About the Author
• About the Photographer