Behind the Design: Ponderosa
We’re so excited to show you the behind the scenes of our newest project: Ponderosa!
When this couple purchased this new build in Incline Village, they dreamed of a home perfect for hosting both large multigenerational gatherings and quiet weekends away. Custom furnishings were tailored to the proportions of the grand space, from coffee tables made of local repurposed dock beams to bespoke L-shaped sofas. Personal touches throughout like local artwork and a whiskey room celebrating their Irish heritage bring warmth and meaning throughout the home.
The Great Room
The clients have a large family and love to host! It was important to them that friends and family could enjoy the space together, but also have separate zones to break out into. For example if a few people wanted to play a board game and a few others wanted to watch a movie. We kept this in mind when designing the space. The grand scale of the great room room called for three zones to give them the functionality they wanted: a lounge area with twin sectionals facing the fireplace, a grouping of lounge chairs centered around a low table, and a dining area on the opposite side of the fireplace.
Because of the large scale of this room, most of the items had to be custom made to fit the space. We partnered with our network of artisans and craftspeople to design and develop furniture pieces that were bespoke for the room.
The Living Room
The lounge chair grouping was envisioned as a spot to play a board game or enjoy a cocktail and appetizers with the sliders open to the patio in the summer. We wanted to give the clients a large coffee table that would fit their favorite games…or an oversized cheese board!
When shopping in Los Angeles, we came across a faux bois dining table that was made from hand cast stone. It was perfect for the home…but we envisioned it as a coffee table so asked the artisan if they could modify both the top and the base for our needs. They re-envisioned the design for us as a one-of-a-kind piece!
Here is the dining table in the showroom…
And here is their design for the custom coffee table made to precise dimensions:
The finish is a gorgeous cast stone in a faux bois pattern:
Meanwhile we were looking for the perfect swivel chair to surround the coffee table, after sit testing over 20+ options, we fell in love with these ones from Lee Industries at Witford showroom in SF. They were cozy enough to curl up in, but firm enough that you could sit and enjoy a cocktail without sinking into it (in fears of not getting back up). They were benchmade in North Carolina and upholstered in an incredible mohair blend from Pollack.
We love the tweed-inspired look of this textile with a brushed finish - very Tahoe chic!
Here is the before…
And here is the final design…
Trying to figure out how to layout the main tv zone was a challenge because the clients wanted to be able to sit up to 8-10 people in this zone at a time. They have three children, all of whom have partners and love coming up to Tahoe to visit! When flipping through a design magazine, Bridget had seen the concept of two mirrored image sectionals and the light bulb went off that this could be a perfect fit for this room. We used painters tape to map it out at the home to confirm proof of concept. This allowed us to provide the workroom with specific dimensions for these pieces to be custom made. We also placed the dimensions of the coffee tables, as well as the ottomans (in front of the fireplace) and walked through the space, envisioning it completed to make sure everything was functional and to scale with this large room!
When pulling together a color palette for this space, the sofa vignette became the driving force that informed all the other elements. It was a fun challenge to pull together this scheme as the wife prefers more traditional design, while the husband more modern. For the wife, the house actually felt too modern as it stood and wanted us to soften it with furnishings, and the husband loved its bones as is. They both agreed they wanted the house to feel relaxed, yet elegant. This is truly our strength, weaving together conflicting design elements into a cohesive look. We found this gorgeous traditional rug from Stark, but custom sized the motif to be oversized (a more modern take on a traditional design) and had it handmade in a custom size (19ft long!) in Nepal. After we decided on the rug we built the textiles in layers. We tied in a windowpane plaid (a nod to tradition), while focused on textures and nuanced colors (a nod to the modern bones of the house).
We landed on a mix of textiles from Pollack and Holly Hunt for the sofa and pillows and woven embossed leather ottomans made in Los Angeles.
We needed the coffee tables to ground the space, due to its scale and the flanking sectionals. We knew we would want two twin coffee tables, a design that sat firmly on the ground. The coffee tables were a labor of love and luck! Our frequent collaborator Steve of Stumpf Woodworks found a source of local dock beams from the West Shore of Lake Tahoe. These beams could not have been more perfect since the family grew up vacationing there, so they imbued a sense of place and nostalgia.
In this specific case, the wood came before the coffee table design. We worked with Steve to find a way to fill the need for a chunky, look that emphasized the character in these dock beams - which had been in Lake Tahoe for almost 100 years. We loved the idea of them being wrapped together, held tightly by steel, showcasing the ends of 45 beams in each coffee table.
When the tables were being constructed, they were quite the feat. They were made completely solid so weighed almost 300 lbs upon completion! If we were to make these again, we would have Steve fabricate them with a hollow center as the installation was quite complex.
The dock beam tables in progress…
For the finish, we really wanted to bring through the natural beauty of the weathered wood, but also needed an extra layer of protection so the clients didn’t feel concerned when setting a drink or food down on them. Steve opted for a simple finish that simply enhanced the wood and provides water proof protection for the clients.
Here are the tables after staining…
Finally, here is the living room before…
And the after!
The Whiskey Nook
When the clients first toured the home, they were a little perplexed with a small room that was at the top of the stairs, but with a pass through window to the bar. The stagers had it set up as a reading nook with an oversized lounge chair, but the clients didn’t think that felt very impactful. Once of their main design challenges was - what do they do with this space? When we noticed a large whiskey collection in the kitchen, we asked the husband about it and he proceeded to chat about his passion for Irish whiskey. That is when the idea for the landing to become a whiskey room was born. Since the front door is downstairs, you come up the stairs if you are a guest in the home so this is the first room you see upon entering the main living space. They wanted it to have an impact and set a playful, yet elegant tone for anyone arriving.
Complete with a sofa, swivel chair, ottoman, and bespoke coffee table, it’s the perfect spot for sipping a cocktail or glass of wine.
The coffee table was the starting element for this room, we found it on a sourcing trip in San Francisco and fell in love with it. We loved how light poured through the glass and semi-transparent agate stones as this whiskey room gets incredible daytime natural light.
The table typically includes a mix of purple, black, and gold stones…
But purple didn’t go with our color scheme, so we hand-picked a more neutral mix of creams, oranges, browns, and taupe stones…
This room was also an exercise in balancing modern and more traditional elements. The sofa from O Henry House is a traditional settee style sofa, but juxtaposed with the Holly Hunt Vrille ottoman (a sculptural take on a pouf), it captures the essence of the family. We wanted the mix of elements and silhouettes to also capture a relaxed, yet elegant feeling so we opted for artisanal textures.
The sofa and pillows were upholstered in made-to-order Lauren Hwang New York fabrics, the ottoman is Holly Hunt, the swivel chair is upholstered in Jerry Pair leather, and the rug is an archive design and custom color made by Stark in Nepal.
An incredibly important design decision that was made was to add horse-hair wall covering from Phillip Jeffries in this room. Since the room is open to the stairwell and the great room, we wanted to create a clear division of space and another layer of intimacy when enjoying a cocktail in this room. The horsehair has a multi-tonal effect because it’s a natural product. This softness really brings a cozy element to the space and makes a statement when you arrive at the top of the stairs.
The horsehair wallcovering…
Here is the room after the wallpaper went on and before the outlets were covered in the material…
No Whiskey Room would be complete without a cabinet to store bottles! Here is a rendering of the cabinet along with its inspiration…
And here are the finish and metal screen style we landed on:
The client was so excited to upgrade his favorite bottles from the kitchen storage to the newly appointed Whiskey Room cabinet!
Here is the space before we transformed it…
And after the transformation!
The Whiskey Room is through the passthrough from this counter in the kitchen, to which we added these three elegant barstools:
The Dining Room
When we met with the clients, they had a small dining table in this room which didn’t function well for them, as they needed to be able to seat 8-10 people for a sit down dinner. We knew the table would be the start of the show and we could build something that was artful, yet functional for them.
Steve was brought in again to help envision a dining table that captured the relaxed atmosphere of being up at the lake, but was dressy enough for special dinners at Christmas and Easter. One of the arborists he works with had come across these book matched pieces of walnut that were truly spectacular. We had also recently seen a table with brass inlay which inspired the stripe running down the center, bringing attention to the gorgeous look of the wood.
The wood slabs before they became a table…
It’s starting to look like a table! Look at that gorgeous bookmatch grain in the walnut…
Steve decided to use Japanese Shiro joinery for this table. They are incredibly strong and no nails are needed! This table is truly an heirloom piece made to last generations.
The Shiro joinery in progress…
We didn’t want the brass to be too glam or shiny to we had Steve hand rub the metal for a soft patina effect. We kept the live edge on the long sides of the table for an organic yet elegant look, which, when paired with the tapered legs and the inlay, this table captures the exact vibe we wanted in the home.
Here is the completed dining table…
When we pulled together the textile story for this room, it was inspired and informed by the adjacent living room which also shares access to the pass through fire place. The rug is a complementary design to the custom living room one that we had woven in the same colors.
We opted to do a dining bench on the side of the table facing the fireplace, as we envisioned guests pulling it closer to the fireplace while enjoying a glass of wine after dinner. This also opts for a more casual seating arrangement when children are seated as well!
A nod to the beautiful blue colors of the lake, we layered this color through the velvet, leather and hand dip dyed linen draperies to bring the essence of the outdoors inside. We upholstered the dining chairs in an easily-cleanable Perennials velvet and the bench is in a durable and waterproof leather by Garrett. We like to specify Performance materials for dining rooms to take away any spill anxiety!
Here is the space before…
And the final design…
Installation BTS!
As with any large job, the installation is always quite a feat. So grateful to our partners for a seamless delivery of these special items, despite challenges on-site. This installation was epic with a lot of hands on deck!
The dining table was driven up to Incline from Reno and required a team of six to transport it…
The Whiskey Nook table was so heavy.. and PERFECT.
We shopped for art and accessories for these clients for months in order to prepare for the final installation. These objects were sourced from over a dozen shops from San Francisco to Los Angeles.
Putting the finishing touches in place…
