New owners of a 1970s ski chalet asked their realtor for interior designer suggestions. She suggested me. And told them I have "Remarkable Home" furnishings and art in Stowe Village. After visiting the gallery they asked to meet with me.
At their new home I saw this was a classic old ski chalet. What people coming to Stowe in the 70s were building. It features a big open living room and dining area. The views look out over the ski slopes. It even has a jaccuzzi just off the living dining room. There are enough for family and guests. And they all are quite large.
Over the years,the interior had become a bit drab and worn out. So my new clients and I developed a plan to bring back some color and coziness and replace some things that require lots of maintennace,
This renovation touched on many areas but did not change the the basic structure.
The living & dining rooms
We installed new hickory flooring with a low maintenance tung oil
finish. Tung oil is a great solution for heavy traffic areas. If you see a
scratch, rub some oil on it. The floor will slowly develop it's own,
antique look and feel, The living room got an upgrade with a few hand
knotted Tibetan rugs. These are not just beautiful. They are so well made,
the wool is so special, they hold up to almost any abuse.
The living room also benefitted from some new sleek and cojfortable Italian style furniture, And just for fun we added a dinosaur egg size coffee table. These egg shaped pieces are very rugged ,and somehow ancient and contemporary at the same time. The final touch for the living room was "light". We added two custom handcrafted lamps full of texture,color and of course, light.
The fireplace is certainly a focal point. I designed a fireplace glass doors with a birch tree theme. They brought texture, metal curves and lots of detail to the fireplace whether it is in use or not. The result was lots of interest as well as safety to the fireplace. The mantel was sanded smooth and stained a color complementing the new flooring.
From the living room you can walk upstairs to a loft. I replaced the wooden railings and boards with a cable system. They are almost invisible which makes the stair treads much easier to see. The verticle posts for the railings were quite a find: wormy chestnut! There are also a few industrial touches added. The railing posts for example have large reclaimed bolts as attachments.
If you'd like to see the loft - game room - reading lounge the stairs climb to, follow the link