Tour a Deer Valley Home Where Skiing Happens Right Outside the Front Door

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When Margaret Coblentz and Geoff Miller first met, they were on coinciding ski trips in California. The two shared a love of skiing, and, as it would turn out, a love of so much else. The two kept in touch after the ski trip, and, before too long, they were married and starting a family.

Though they lived in San Francisco, where they still keep a primary residence, the couple wanted to create another home that would allow them to keep skiing a part of their lives. The California mountains were an option, but with roots in the Midwest and Kentucky, they saw in Utah a place to build a ski retreat, but also a destination more readily accessible to their extended families. As Miller explains, “skiing is an important activity to us as a couple, but we also just love getting people together.”

The couple bought a fully furnished home in Deer Valley, but while they loved the area, the house’s traditional aesthetics didn’t feel quite right. So when a ski-in/ski-out lot came up for sale, the couple lunged at the opportunity. Though the parcel was empty, it wasn’t quite a blank slate. The property was part of a subdivision that came with a set of architectural plans that had already been approved and permitted. Still, they knew that together with their friend and owner of SVK Interior Design, Senalee Kapelevich, who had designed several interiors for them, including their San Francisco home, they could tailor it to make it just what they wanted.

“We came in with a clear sense of what we wanted the house to be and how we wanted it to feel,” says Miller. “We looked at a lot of mountain homes,” he says, “and there seemed to be two prevailing aesthetics: traditional Western on one hand, and extremely angular and cold on the other.” The homeowners wanted something in between—a home that made sense in its setting, but that was suited to their tastes. “California, but in the mountains,” as their designer Kapelevich puts it.

They also wanted a sense of refinement, but not one that would come at the expense of comfort. “We were interested in how the house lives; not just how it looks,” says Coblentz. Take the floors, for example. “We don’t wear shoes in the house, so how the floor feels in socks and bare feet was important,” explains Miller. For the material and installation, they used First, Last & Always, a San Francisco–based custom flooring company. “It’s so soft, and it doesn’t feel waxy,” says Miller. “It feels like a piece of sanded wood right out of the mill.”

Though wood predominates, Kapelevich integrated custom aged brass elements at the fireplace and for the kitchen hood. Crafted by Mitchel & Mitchel, a Chicago artisan, these elements create a contrast with the wood and provide a contemporary interpretation of a material not uncommon in mountain homes.

“We thought about furniture early,” says Kapelevich, explaining those decisions helped guide the overall design. In the living room, a pair of Pierre Yavonovitch chairs and coffee tables sit in front of soaring windows that frame views of the ski hill. In the dining room, a custom Green River Project table anchors the space, surrounded by Stahl & Band chairs and crowned by a Michael Anastassiades chandelier from the Future Perfect. While in the kitchen a dark soapstone countertop provides a neutral setting to prepare food, and BDDW counter stools make it a place to gather. For the cabinetry, Kapelevich turned to Henrybuilt. “Their finishes are insanely gorgeous and really consistent,” she says.

Though the overall effect is a contemporary residence, there are, as Coblentz points out, “nods to the region, but not in a kitschy way,” pointing to the stitching on the leather handles in the bunkroom or the elements from Rocky Mountain Hardware found throughout the home. As an affirmation of their build-it-and-they-will-come plans, the first time Coblentz and Miller spent a night in their new six-bedroom, nine-bathroom house, it was to celebrate Christmas, and on that first night, with paint just barely dry, they were joined by about 20 family members.

Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest

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