The Hoehn family had always been a Winter Park family. It began when Stan, the patriarch, was growing up in Boulder. If his parents ventured farther than Eldora, it was usually to Winter Park.

Now a bariatric surgeon in Kansas City and father of four teenagers, Hoehn and his wife, Marla, broke from the family tradition four years ago and began visiting Copper Mountain with friends. They stayed in Lewis Ranch, a slopeside nook on Copper’s northwest edge with ski access a mere 50 yards away. “We loved it because our kids would just leave through the back door and we’d see ’em at the end of the day,” Marla says. “If someone got lost, they just had to make it back to the Lumberjack lift.”

 kg chateaubellarose 1062 beeler place highres 04 hi5gwz

Attention to detail: the nail-head nighstand accents

Stan was convinced, too, despite his affection for Grand County. “We fell in love with how centrally located Copper is, then we skied there a few times and fell in love with how laid-back it was, not very crowded, and easy to get around.”

When they decided to build their dream ski chalet, securing a lot on the south side of Beeler Place was the first of many steps that brought it to life. The final product, called Chateau Bella Rose after their youngest daughter, is a 6,600-square-foot masterpiece of nonconformity and expression, from its limestone walls to Hollywood bling, its glass chandeliers to petrified tables. The home, built by Pinnacle Mountain Homes and interior designed by Pinnacle Design Studio, won three awards in its category at this fall’s Parade of Homes (for interior furnishings, interior finishes, and exterior design and elevation) and also cinched the Mountain Living Peak Award, which recognizes “the highest level of excellence in high-country home design.”

 kg chateaubellarose  1062 beeler place highres 01 xmz8s8

A wall of windows adds an al fresco feel to the dining room

Aesthetics aside, for the Hoehns, the foremost goal was to accommodate a multigenerational family. When the Kansans vacation with their siblings and parents, they become a clan of 19, including 11 grandkids. The plan, which they worked on with BHH Partners architect Jarrett Buxkemper and Pinnacle owner Chris Renner, was to create a vast, open great room and fireside back deck for people to gather, but also for everyone to have a distinctive suite to retreat to away from the bustle—five for the adults across the home’s upper levels and two kids’ bunk rooms on the ground floor, one for boys and one for girls, both with four queen beds (and two extra sinks in the girls’ room).

The great room includes floor-to-ceiling south-facing windows under arched Doug fir beams on one side, with another large window above a limestone wall framing the Tenmile Range to the east. A patchwork hair-on-hide rug anchors the living area, augmented by a 700-pound Brazilian Chamcha cross-cut cocktail table; and a colorful kitchen ceiling of reclaimed barnwood panels works with the dark red oak floors to give the room just enough of a Rocky Mountain feel, without trending too close to the dreaded “lodgy” motif that represented a hard line for both owners.

Bellarose 014 ahmr64

The counter-height kitchen island was created from two slabs of saturnia gold granite.

“I’m most proud that we kind of let our minds run wild and created something different,” Stan says. “We’ve been in a lot of nice homes, and we didn’t want the usual Colorado lodge home or an ultra-modern home, we wanted something in between.”

But never at the expense of functionality, which sometimes gets lost in the sparkly drawer hardware and cross-cut aspen walls. As Pinnacle’s lead interior designer on the house, Christina Romano, says, “There will be 30 people in this house and you will have no idea, other than their jackets.”

On the ground level, grandkids or rental guests (the property, which sleeps 28, is one of the most-requested listings in Pinnacle’s vacation rental subsidiary, pinnaclelodging.com) have their choice of foosball, billiards, or soaking in the eight-person hot tub just outside, where their private spur to the West Ten Mile ski run meets their 900-square-foot heated patio. Six ski lockers share a room with the washer and dryer. A 10-seat home cinema branches off the main hangout area, which includes an onyx fireplace. “The basement’s just for the joy of the kids,” Stan says. “And the main level is for the joy of the parents.”

 kg  chateaubellarose 1062 beeler place highres 02 tp41pk

The master bath's nickel-hammered clawfoot tub

A large kitchen island created from two slabs of Saturnia Gold granite provides another place to gather, and the surrounding finishes are no less intentional or unique than in the rest of the house. Bronze porcelain backsplash tiles hang beneath distressed knotty alder cabinets, above a carved granite sink.

Still, to best appreciate the home’s individuality, one must head upstairs. Each of the five bedrooms includes a full bath (there are eight overall), with either a tub or a steamer. The goal, as the Hoehns and Romano progressed through the design, was for every room to stand alone yet contribute to a consistency-by-way-of-distinction theme. “We wanted to make it a little whimsical and fun,” Romano says. “We tried to keep it rustic, but really glammed out too.”

 kg chateaubellarose  1062 beeler place highres 08 mnozah

In addition to a Brunswick pool table, the rec room has a 10-seat theater and a foosball table

How do you do that? In the case of the first bedroom we visit, with a giant horned skull hanging on one wall and large purple crystals on the other. The master suite has a wall of Indonesian copper batik stamps and a hammered nickel and copper tub in the bath. Other rooms are painted metallic faux and accented with abstract art, with animal hides as rugs and porcelain vessel sinks resting on quartz countertops. For lighting and drama, each room features a different, intricately crafted custom chandelier. In fact, if you ask Marla or Stan, they will tell you the entire concept they achieved began with the lights. The chandelier over the stairs, for example, is six feet tall and shimmers with hundreds of handblown glass leaves. “The lighting package is what made the house sparkle and shine,” Marla says.

Bellarose 011 lnurq6

The airy great room

“It was $50,000 over budget,” Stan adds, “but often when people come up against a hard budget, they get to the end of the project and can’t afford fine finishings. I was like, I’m not coming this close to heaven and not getting there. If it’s something I’m going to touch and taste and feel for the rest of my life, it’s worth it to me.” He pauses to reflect, then adds, “It got a bit painful at the end.”

The Parade of Homes judges put it this way: while a lot of the homes they visit don’t appear to have anyone living there, Chateau Bella Rose was the opposite. “They said this definitely felt like it belonged to somebody,” Romano says.

“We took chances on a lot of things,” she adds. “I like how funky it is, in a way that still feels very refined and luxurious.”

In other words: mission accomplished. 

Resource Guide

 
 
Appliances

Ferguson Enterprises, Aurora; 303-739-8000, ferguson.com

Architect

BHH Partners, Breckenridge; 970-453-6880, bhhpartners.com

Contractor

Pinnacle Mountain Homes, Breckenridge; 970-453-0727, pinnaclemtnhomes.com

Faux Painting

Versatile Strokes, Dillon; 970-389-3482, versatilestrokes.net

Hardwood Flooring

Vantia Hardwoods, Frisco; 970-468-2684, vantiahardwoods.com

Interior Designer

Pinnacle Design Studio, Frisco; 970-485-6064, pinnacledesignstudio.com

Kitchen Designer/Cabinetry

Cutting Edge Woodworking, Leadville; 719-486-2346, cuttingedge-woodworking.com

Lighting & Tile

Inside Source, Frisco; 970-468-0573, [email protected]

Windows

Sierra Pacific Windows, Breckenridge; 970-389-2848, sierrapacificwindows.com

Filed under
Share
Show Comments