Scott and I have slowly fallen in love with Montana, beginning with the first home project I did there 7 years ago.  I am not a fan of cold weather, but it is hard not to find a lot to love with this:

On our latest trip, we had the opportunity to visit the exclusive “Yellowstone Club” in Big Sky.  If you have a home here, you are part of a limited set of homeowners which may include Bill Gates, Matt Damon, Justin Timberlake and so on.  Since the area is so private, it is rare to see images of the homes, unless they are on the pages of a magazine.  So, of course, I had to snap pictures here and there just to catalog all the great home features.

If you read design magazines geared toward mountain homes, you will see conversation regarding the style transition from mountain rustic (i.e. log cabins) to modern rustic (structures that lean contemporary with accents of traditional wood and iron).  You can see hints of this in some of the newer homes and you will see it in the exterior photos I’ve taken…all on my old iPhone.  The area also suffered from a lot of fires and hazy skies this fall, so my pictures are not as crisp as you might expect to see.

This first home is a very traditional mountain style home with the logs and chink mixed with heavy stone.  Lots of fireplaces and an effort to make each area feel warm and cozy.

This next home incorporates a lot of greyed/aged wood and stone with natural grass to make the home feel more integrated into the surroundings.  Several architecture firms in this area specialize in using reclaimed materials and a compound design for the buildings to make them feel like they are nestled into the environment and have been for many years.

This next home was still under construction, but you can see on the left side of the photo they were working on a bridge to connect another outbuilding.

This private home incorporates some of the more modern elements I mentioned above, including steel and glass windows and cleaner lines, as well as a larger outdoor living space.  Big Sky used to be known for winter skiing, but everyone seems to be discovering how wonderful summers in Montana can be and newer homes are being designed with larger outdoor living spaces.

This next home was under construction and you can really see that mix of older, reclaimed elements blended with the more modern details such as the metal and glass windows and metal roof.

The house was surrounded by natural rock and wood, including pallets of these reclaimed logs from Montana Reclaimed Lumber.

A number of these wood pieces had already been cut and formed to fit throughout various parts of the house, such as this corbel labeled ‘main level pantry’.

While we were on the developement’s property, we also had the opportunity to have lunch at the new golf club.  I had recently seen pictures of its interiors in the Wall Street Journal, as well as Mountain Living.  Mountain Living’s professional photos are so much better than mine, so I would encourage you to click on the link if you have an interest in this style.

Here are a couple of my pics:

Front entry with oversized heaters that look like floorlamps.  Much cooler than the typical perforated outdoor heaters you see.  This outdoor lobby space also has a huge rock fire pit to warm your hands on those chilly days!

The furniture inside all leans contemporary, but the architectural envelope is still very rustic with plenty of dry stack stone and wood planked walls.  Not to mention those gorgeous, rough wood floors.

The restaurant has a fantastic stone fireplace and while the design is ‘current’, is not coldly contemporary.

I thought the wine display was really interesting.  I have seen a lot of renditions of this style, but not one with a marble (or marble looking) slab as the backdrop.  It looked very sharp against the rough cut stone.

We really enjoyed our time touring around the property and I feel very lucky having gotten to explore the area.  Shortly after this visit, I had the chance to go to Northern California and I look forward to sharing the photos from that adventure (including a lot of great home store visits in San Francisco) in the coming weeks!