In the mountainous lands of Bozeman, Montana, designers at Locati Architects recently completed a clearly rustically influenced but overall wonderfully contemporary vacation home called the Rocky Mountain Retreat.
This particular design studio specializes in luxury custom home architecture and sophisticated interiors and that’s precisely what they gave the owners of the Rocky Mountain Retreat, but with a unique twist inspired by the home’s surroundings! The home stands two storeys tall, nearly engulfed by lush greenery and forest. Thanks to where it stands atop a small crag, it is afforded a view of the mountains in the distance that is nothing short of breathtaking.
On the outside, the house is truly a rustic mountain home through and through according to materiality. The facade is clad entirely in stacked stoning while the siding and frame details are made from a perfectly finished and locally sourced wood. This makes the getaway look warm and inviting but also somehow as thought it really belongs there with the trees and mountains.
Because it’s a space meant to be enjoyed mostly in the winter, large windows were prioritized. This was intended to let in as much natural sunlight as possible during the day, maximizing what daylight the short winter hours give. This also helps keep things a little warmer during the day, reducing the need for power and making the home a little more energy efficient.
That’s not to say that the getaway can’t be enjoyed in the summer too! Those daylight-flooding windows just help the interiors feel even more cheerful when the days are longer. There are also just as many outdoor activities for families to do in warm weather around the vacation home as there are in the winter, making time spent there irresistible all year round.
The nearly-rustic but fully equipped style of living that the house offers is apparent guests approach the large wooden doors and covered entryway. From there, one can see the great room; a sprawling living space with a deep sofa and a cozy gas-powered, stone clad fireplace that’s perfect for gathering family and friends around.
Throughout the social spaces on the bottom floor, the house has impressively high ceilings, especially in rooms that aren’t actually double height all the way past the top floor. These ceilings give the room a feeling of being airy, spacious, and bright. That feeling of spaciousness is helped along by more than one glass wall, double paned to provide stunning views of the seasons outside without either losing heat in the winter or letting too much in when the days warm up.
The best part of these glass walls, besides the sunlight they provide in the winter, is that they slide back to offer a nearly seamless indoor-outdoor experience when the days get warm enough! Under an impressive pair of rustic wooden ceiling trusses, one can pass through onto a patio space with enough comfortable outdoor seating for everyone.
The kitchen is perhaps the place where the contemporary and rustic elements of the house are the most pronounced amidst each other, in direct contrast. It is spacious with large stainless steel appliances, which play off things like the stone backsplash that extends to the ceiling. The huge accompanying dining area features a huge fur rug sprawled across rustic wooden floors, on top of which a more contemporary looking dining table seats ten.
Getting rustic once more, a wooden staircase that is new but looks wonderfully weather leads to the second floor of the house, where the private areas lie. A very modern looking glass guardrail accompanies you up the stairs, ending where several bedrooms sprawling behind grand wooden doors lie.
The upper storey also features the master bathroom, where grey stone tiled floors and walls appear rustic while a stunning vanity contrasts more contemporarily. To the side, a freestanding tub sits in front of a large window, faced so that no one in the world could see you bathe, but so you can relax while you soak up both the water’s warmth and the stunning mountain view.
The master bathroom is also a place where modern and rustic elements confront each other much more explicitly elsewhere, just like in the kitchen. The way worn looking wooden beams support the ceiling and door frame plays against the very contemporary looking sculptural hands on the wall.
Photos by Gibeon Photography
