JLF HOMES FOR THE HOLIDAYS
Entertaining family and friends is often at the heart of the holidays – especially for mountain homes that are literally built for gathering. For JLF Architects, that typically means designing houses that can comfortably accommodate groups while not feeling overwhelming and barn-like when a couple or small family is home alone. An open plan for shared, “public” spaces, combining living room, kitchen and dining area, has become a preferred layout for flexibility and ease. For the Shoot for the Stars Jackson Hole home above, a large, casual kitchen, dining and fireplace seating area gains a sense of intimacy, despite its spaciousness, through a lowered ceiling supported with reclaimed hand-hewn beams. A wide opening in the stacked-stone wall, topped with an impressive beam, marks the transition to the more formal dining area and great room beyond with its soaring 20-foot ceilings.
JLF continues the use of fieldstone and character-rich timber in the Shoot for the Stars home’s more formal great room, above left, grounding the space with a sense of regional rusticity while an interplay of steel trusses above lends sculptural drama and modernity. The rustic-and-modern mix is underscored by décor from North Carolina interiors maven and The Welcoming House author Jane Schwab, who combines clean-lined contemporary pieces and a serene palette inspired by surrounding nature’s blue skies and creamy clouds with traditional pieces like an antique console and such organic elements as the “tree-trunk” table supports. For overnight visitors, curtains afford privacy to roomy, stacked berth-like bunks, and a separate guest seating area, above right, offers comfortable space for lounging, reading, games and more.
In the Forest Edge house in Jackson Hole, above, attention to technical details like triple glazing of steel windows keeps interior spaces warm even while the snow swirls outside. For this home’s open-plan design, ready to welcome guests, the JLF and Big-D Signature team “used stone to compress the spaces and keep them intimate,” says JLF principal Paul Bertelli. “Then we used as much glass as possible to pull them apart and bring light into the building.” Sturdy stone suggests security, and partial walls define living and dining spaces without impeding flow, while expansive glass, including the great room’s stunning two-story glass wall, dissolves the barrier to the outdoors, allowing holidaymakers stunning floor-to-ceiling views of surrounding peaks and the opportunity to feel at one with the outdoors even in winter.
An expansive great room in the Park City Modern house in Utah, above, similarly uses stone and glass to create balance between solidity and expansion – and between rustic and contemporary detailing. A deconstructed stone wall, one of several in the project, ties to regional history and the now crumbling structures of early homesteaders, again emphasizing sense of place in a house with overall modern lines. The homeowners’ art collection served as inspiration for the interior color palette, and interior designer Natasha Wallis creates a comfortable-yet-sophisticated seating and conversation area, flanked by an in-home bar and a small-scale table and chairs, perfect for snacks and drinks or a board game.
This main great room space serves as a central glass pavilion within the house, bookended with impressive stone walls and connected to other areas through glass-walled corridors on either side – one serving as a separate, more intimate seating area, and the other as the formal “bridge” dining space over running water. The opening in the stone great room wall gives way to the dining room, with a steel-beam header setting the new ceiling level for a space ideal for hosting holiday meals and parties – at once securely surrounded by rustic stone and wood yet open to the wonders of the homesite’s natural beauty.
