An elegant and welcoming Martis Camp home brings a fresh twist to a classic mountain aesthetic

A view of the firepit terrace and great room from the rear of the home

For a new family house in Martis Camp, the overriding influences at play are consistency and grounding: consistency in materiality and aesthetic, from room to room and from indoor to outdoor, and grounding in place, both within the home and in its forested setting, through the home’s architecture.

Add to that foundation some unexpected touches of pattern and color in the furnishings, and it’s no wonder this family-friendly home garnered a TQ award for its fresh take on mountain living.

“There is something about the warmth of this home that really exudes family-friendly. It just feels comfortable and like the perfect place to raise a family,” says builder Matt Heslin of Heslin Construction.  

From the outset, says architect Clare Walton, the family wanted a traditional mountain aesthetic. 

“They knew they wanted something that felt timeless and quiet, and that was reflective of the mountain landscape that originally drew them to this place,” says Walton. “This meant utilizing steep-pitched roof forms, rugged materials and exposed structural elements that felt appropriate for the setting. 

The kitchen features a masonry wall, European-style range and custom range hood, and cabinetry painted a deep blue-green

“What struck me most about the setting was the feel of the dense forest,” Walton adds. “It seemed to express the essence of Tahoe, and you could just imagine the architectural forms nestled into the pine trees.”

Once the clients had articulated the feel they were seeking and described their active family’s lifestyle (they have three young children, spend a lot of time outdoors and planned to ultimately reside in the house full-time), the designers got to work translating their ideas.  

The team, including Walton’s in-house interior design group led by Heidi Barnes, was given free rein to come up with the aesthetic and layout that balanced the wishes of the family with the character of the site, such as topography and view lines.

The main objective was to fully embrace the mountain-oriented lifestyle, incorporating minimal barriers to the outdoors. They wanted the home to feel deeply connected to nature, with the mountain vernacular clearly expressed in its forms, and those forms in turn blended into the landscape. 

In terms of living, they wanted an open layout with multiple social spaces that opened out. And they had two specific requests around which the home would be designed: a monumental two-sided fireplace in the great room and a cozy screened porch that would act as a year-round outdoor living room. 

As it happens, these are the features that both anchor and define the home. 

First, the property’s rugged mountain character was reflected in the design of the structure through the use of reclaimed wood siding, traditional alpine steep-pitched roof forms, exposed structural elements, natural ledgestone and collapsible window walls that blur the distinction between indoor and outdoor living areas. 

A chic butler’s pantry complete with glass cabinets, stone and tile backsplashes, and a farmhouse sink

To further that theme, identical finish materials and detailing from the exterior were carried into the home’s interior spaces, where the open-plan great room and adjacent screened porch open out to the forested site. There, an outdoor living space that seamlessly merges with the native landscape is laid out in three distinct volumes: a covered dining room/grill off the kitchen, a seating area with a fire table off the great room (which dramatically extends the living space when the doors are open), and a large copper-clad spa tucked into the corner created by the primary bedroom wing.

Guests enter through the main entry directly into the great room, whose focal point is the two-story and double-sided masonry-clad fireplace that also opens to the kitchen. This treatment is balanced by a similarly clad wall in the kitchen, where a European-style range and custom range hood reside among cabinetry painted a deep blue-green that grounds the space. 

The designers created intimacy within the kitchen’s soaring volumes by carving out a niche for a family table with built-in seating, and tucking additional function and storage in a butler’s pantry featuring open shelves, glass-fronted cabinets and a patterned tile backsplash highlighting a farmhouse sink. 

The home’s bunk room features an entire living area with built-in bookcases, two daybed window seats, a large sectional couch and four bunk beds with brass ladder and railings

Ledgestone helps unify the project, as it is used consistently inside and out, while two types of flooring material—concrete slab on the interior, concrete pavers on the terrace surfaces—relate to each other by material type and color for a consistent aesthetic.

The interior of the home is layered with many memorable details, such as the timber-framed breakfast nook with striped upholstery, a steel- and glass-clad wine room, a contemporary corner fireplace in a bedroom and patterned flooring materials for texture and grounding. 

The screened porch is inviting and cozy, with comfortable seating, a hanging daybed-sized swing and firewood tucked underneath the clean lines of a contemporary hearth. 

The primary bathroom has a shower enclosed in steel and glass and a vessel tub set in its own window-lined niche. Rattan furniture, floral upholstery and statement lighting add character, whimsy and an inviting feel for the family. 

The timber-detailed bunk room is spectacularly fun and functional. It features an entire living space with built-in bookcases, a checkerboard-patterned floor, two daybed window seats that can be curtained off for sleeping or reading, a cheerful yellow sectional and four bunk beds with brass ladder and railings—all tucked under a steeply pitched roof hung with an antler chandelier.  

The dining room opens on two sides to the exterior

“There are so many fun aspects of this home, but my favorite area has to be the bunk room,” says Heslin. “The hand-painted diamond patterns on the hardwood flooring, the heavy timber bunk frames, the brass accents, painted millwork and the tile selections all came together perfectly and are so impactful. I can’t imagine a better hangout zone for kids.”

Barnes says the team wanted the home to feel harmonious, but also eclectic and with defined spaces.

“For instance,” she says, “the bunk room has a more playful spin, while the primary bedroom utilized a more subtle palette by bringing in neutrals and texture to create a calming sanctuary. The goal was to create the feeling that the home had been there for generations, but with a fresh take on a rustic cabin by incorporating unexpected touches.”

Barnes points to the tile in the pantry as another example. While the feature could be considered unexpected in a mountain cabin, she says it creates beautiful texture and a bespoke quality that lends itself to the project. Meanwhile, the floral sofa in the great room presented another opportunity to bring in an eclectic element. The palette of the fabric is warm and rustic, and thus appropriate for the setting. 

A vessel tub with a forest view and shower enclosed in glass and steel are among the highlights in the luxurious primary bathroom

“It’s about elevating those details typically expected in a mountain home,” says Barnes. “The floral upholstery of that sofa sets the color palette for the living room, which cascades throughout the rest of the home.”

TQ’s judging panelists agreed, with one noting that the level of detail, consistency of the vision and unexpected touches made all the difference in the project.  

“What moved this home up the list for me was the thoughtful interior design,” the panelist wrote. “Truly, every detail had been thought about—from the inlaid floors and varied textures, to the stone and tile backsplashes in the butler’s pantry, to the oversized light fixtures in numerous rooms, to the floral print sofa in the living room and diamond pattern on the kids’ suite floor. The personality of it all brought it to life.”

Award: Family-Friendly

Building Design: Walton Architecture

Builder: Heslin Construction

Interior Design: Walton Architecture

Landscape Design: NA

Square Feet: 5,335