IT'S HARD TO TELL A STORY of rebirth without dragging in the phoenix and his emergence from the ashes, but at this spectacular Aspen home, the legend truly suits. Its main attraction, natural redwood tree trunks framing the living room and entry, were salvaged from the embers of a devastating fire that tore through Yosemite National Park many years ago.
"The giant logs are the best architectural element in this house," says designer Richard Hallberg, who collaborated with Los Angeles-based homeowners Jane and Marc Nathanson on a yearlong renovation of their mountainside retreat.
But it wasn't always so. Before Hallberg got involved, the redwoods, while majestic and striking, were subsumed in an architecture of excess.
"At the time, there were endless varieties of shiny yellow wood everywhere and huge walls of river rock," Hallberg says. "It felt more like a sauna than a home!"
Custom armchair in a Romo fabric; cocktail table, Chista; table, Thomas Palmer.
Ebony furniture in organic shapes has the presence of sculpture. Table, Wendell Castle.
The couple purchased the house new 17 years ago from the developer. They dubbed it Camp JMAR - a combination of their first names - since, at the time, their three active children used it as a base for outdoor sports. The name stuck when they later became grandparents to an equally fun-loving brood. But over the years, as the couple began to assemble a world-class collection of contemporary art, they realized that the ski home's forest-green Western decor needed an overhaul.
Jane asked Hallberg, with whom she'd worked on four previous homes, to come to the Rockies to take a look. He agreed. "We needed to edit, edit, edit," says the California-based decorator. "The more we simplified, the richer the house became."
Custom sofa in a Stark fabric; custom armchairs and cocktail table; art, Ed Ruscha.
A sleekly minimalist kitchen accentuates natural light. Fittings, Dornbracht; range, Wolf.
The entire home got a streamlined revamp. Glossy polyurethaned floors were replaced with matte ones in reclaimed wood. Nondescript picture windows were swapped for tall paned ones with natural wood frames.
In the living room, speckled-beige walls were painted white, highlighting both the home's massive timbers and the exciting modern art. A rustic antler chandelier in the master bath was refreshed with an immaculate coat of white paint. And the formerly country-style kitchen (Hallberg vaguely recalls a wagon wheel) was transformed into a minimalist haven.
"Jane has an incredible eye and is a brilliant art collector," he says. "All that unnecessary stuff made everything else here feel less important. The house needed restraint." (When pressed, his client confesses she had always secretly hated those river-rock walls.)
Custom bed in a Calvin Fabrics linen; lamp, Stripe Vintage Modern; cocktail table, Elizabeth Paige Smith; curtains in a Pindler fabric; art, Andy Warhol.
Custom daybed in a Calvin Fabrics linen; side table, Stephen Antonson; art, Herb Ritts.
It takes a lot of mettle to go toe-to-toe with high-caliber art and to-die-for vistas, but the interiors here are more than up to the task. Throughout the house, elegant black furnishings play off pale upholstery and soft white rugs to provide a dramatic chiaroscuro effect. And as much as Hallberg seeks restraint, he is also not afraid to employ a little drama in the right situation.
While his clients tend to gravitate toward neutrals, he convinced them to purchase an orange pigment-filled Plexiglas cocktail table to pair with the bloodred Damien Hirst painting in the master bedroom. Meanwhile, a showstopping spider table by the designer Wendell Castle got a place of honor opposite the front door in the entry.
In the end, Hallberg's renovation put the emphasis on what truly mattered. Whether one is looking outside at the alpine surroundings or inside at the redwood interior, the view in both directions is equally awe-inspiring.
Rustic Western furnishings play against a blue-chip collection of contemporary art. Mantel and armchair, in a Pindler fabric, Formations; vintage side table; art, Damien Hirst.
This article originally appeared in the November-December 2016 issue of VERANDA.
