The Dream Catcher Trail homeowners moved from the East Coast and through our team’s proprietary envisioning process, we were able to blend Western ranch motif with Old World European charm to create a sprawling, two-story home with a mountain exterior and East Coast character inside.
During our strategic planning phase we were tasked with placing the 17,000-square-foot home on a site with two ponds and a stream.
“We wanted to make sure the home fit naturally on this site with the existing ponds and creek,” said Brandt Vanderbosch, founder and principal of Vertical Arts. “We positioned the home to look over the ponds as well as span the creek, and that’s why we created the bridge to connect the outdoor spaces.”
With such a large home, we also utilized strategies to help limit its carbon footprint.
“We used the ponds alongside geothermal plates in the home. Being such a big home, we wanted to get as much as possible out of the site. Using geothermal energy reduces its footprint significantly,” Vanderbosch said.
We used multiple design strategies in order to hug the land and conform to the shape of the ponds. The timber frame nestles into the land and the home’s windows take full advantage of views and light exposure. The exterior uses reclaimed siding and park architecture stone that has a heavy base. The windows, some arched, are all copper on the exterior.
Multiple patios are thoughtfully placed around the house to create private and public areas with views of the ponds and mountains. The landscape design plays on the simple, natural look and uses grass expanses to stretch from the patios to the water’s edge. Native flowers and grasses line the creek that passes under the interior bridge of the home. Large boulders and carefully placed plantings emphasize the views and moss rock is used generously on the exterior and interior.
After stepping through the home’s impressive front doors, our design team crafted an Old World European lodge look using Douglas fir beams and truss work with metal straps, among other elements, to bring unity to the home’s design scheme. The interior moss rock adds texture, dimension and color, and restates the lodge look throughout the house. In the great room, a beamed vaulted ceiling, along with a wall of windows and doors frames the view to the mountains and meadows.
What started as a site planning challenge turned into the biggest source of achievement on the project.
“It’s probably the connection to the site, how we pulled the house down low into the land,” said Vanderbosch. “The picturesque feel of this home, as you drive up to it… I believe we mastered the site position of this home and how it sits.”
The project was originally featured on the cover of Denver Life Home+Design. For more Vertical Arts projects, visit our website, Houzz, Pinterest, Facebook or Instagram. To learn more about our services, feel free to contact us.