Rooms We Love: A Mountain Retreat Made for Cold Winter Nights
As the temperature turns chilly and the days become shorter, a cozy mountain hideaway is especially appealing. And I can’t think of one that combines rustic charm with cosmopolitan sophistication as handily as this keeping room in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina.
Atlanta interior designer Robert Brown conceived this space for the annual Cashiers Designer Showhouse, which took place this past August in that tony Appalachian enclave. Although the room was intended to feature a seating group in front of the fireplace and a table in the breakfast nook, Brown decided to switch things around. He knew from experience that in a vacation home, the table becomes the focal point for everyday life — a place to eat, play games and set up the laptop at — and deserved to be front and center here.
“What scared me the most about this space was the amount of wood,” says the designer. Brown tried to offset the tongue and groove pine walls and dark wood floors with ample amounts of fabric. Creamy linen covers the furniture and cascades from curtain rods set high above the windows. (“The windows felt a little short in the room, so I wanted to add some visual height to the space,” notes Brown.)
Pale linen is an unconventional choice for a mountain home, but Brown had no desire to do things conventionally. “A lot of homes in Cashiers are stereotypically mountain houses, and our work is a little more modern,” he says. He softened the floors with vintage Ushak carpets and kept the accessories sparer than what one might typically see in a mountain retreat. Brown also tossed some contemporary pieces into the mix, for a look that’s bucolic but never by the book.
Brown imagined that the clients for such a space might be a retired couple with grandchildren. Accordingly, he placed lightweight wing chairs at either end of the table, setting them atop casters so the couple could slide in and out with ease. He placed a bench along the side, figuring it would be perfect for the kids. The orange upholstery is echoed in the pillows in the adjoining sitting area. “It needed a little something,” Brown muses. “And I wouldn’t want to put a color in one space and not repeat it in another.”
He opted for a lantern instead of a conventional chandelier. “It looks like something I could have picked up in the South of France,” he says. But it came from South of Market in his hometown of Atlanta, so it was a lot less expensive.
Wing chair: Baker; table, Holland & Company; “gourds” on table: lacquer over brass, Robert Kuo; mirror: antique; Ushak carpet: Moattar; lantern: South of Market
A tiered side table floats close at hand, so tea, books or puzzle pieces are always nearby. Paintings by artist Rimi Yang flank the fireplace, offering an abstract riff on the ancestral portraits of yore.
Brown used materials and textures — instead of pattern — to give the room visual interest. The resulting space has a timeless appeal that feels a bit fresher and more modern than a conventional mountain home.
Painting: Rimi Yang; chest: Holland & Company
In a vacation home where families gather, Brown likes to use portable furnishings that can serve more than one purpose. Here, in what was originally supposed to be the breakfast nook, he used a pair of studded leather tables in lieu of a coffee table. They’re easy to move around and can double as stools when guests come to call.
Tables, sofa: Baker
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