Step Inside a Stunning Home Outside Yellowstone National Park

By Leilani Marie Labong Photography by Stephen Kent Johnson Styled by Michael Reynolds Refinement and nuance may not be two words typically associated with wilderness dwellings. And yet, from European

By Leilani Marie Labong

Photography by Stephen Kent Johnson

Styled by Michael Reynolds

Refinement and nuance may not be two words typically associated with wilderness dwellings. And yet, from European alpine chalets to the iconic US National Park lodges, many examples of such homes possess those two qualities in spades. One quintessential example in a remote forest of lodgepole pine in Big Sky, Montana, was designed by Bozeman architect Greg Matthews and Los Angeles interior designer Olivia Williams. The duo distilled a high-altitude aesthetic down to its core values for one family’s mountain getaway. The results? Natural materials, check. Cozy atmosphere, check. Frontier vistas, check.

Where this backcountry manor diverges from its woodsy forebears is in its gentleness, energetically attuned to the breathless snowfall and pristine powder runs that originally drew the skiing brood to a plot of land about an hour’s drive from the west entrance of Yellowstone National Park. The pursuit of a slow, intentional existence is especially meaningful to homeowner Chantal Spanicciati, a former interior designer who recently pivoted to a career in the wellness industry.

“The connection between our living space and our mental well-being is very important to me,” says Spanicciati, who shares the six-bedroom, six-bath custom home with her husband Mario, their four children, and a circle of visiting friends and family who have have predictably become regular fixtures at the property since it was completed late last year.

Turns out that simplicity is as much a touchstone for health and wellness as it is for architecture and design. The home’s agrarian DNA is revealed in the single-gable, barn-like forms that allow ceilings to soar, and also in the natural building palette, featuring Montana moss rock and reclaimed barn wood. The hard-earned gray patina of the latter echoes the bark of the surrounding lodgepole pines.

“Not every client is into lichen-covered stone and reclaimed wood like Chantal and Mario,” says Matthews, the architect. “But since they were, the connection to the site is something very special and integral to the building’s sense of belonging.”

With nary a faux-distressed leather sofa in sight nor a fang-flashing bear rug sprawled underfoot, Williams, who also designed the family’s Notting Hill residence, created a warm and welcoming tableau with gently curved forms that also show reverence for the surrounding views. The living room’s main conversation pit is appointed with plush contemporary furniture—the sinuous Pouf sectional by Jeffrey Molter of Stahl + Band and deeply embracing Asymmetry armchairs from Pierre Yovanovitch are remarkably close to the ground for such a stunningly voluminous space. But then again, such low-slung seating offers a sense of steadfastness to counter the room’s dizzying 30-foot heights, altitude required for the cathedral-like 21-foot-tall window that captures the south horizon, where a jagged, snow-capped Pioneer Mountain rises under a magnanimous Montana sky. “One of my favorite things about this house is all the quiet moments it inspires. When you’ve got great views of nature, the interiors don’t need to be complicated.” Nevertheless, the rooms carry the weight of provenance.

Williams’s modus operandi has always been to create spaces of aesthetic rigor with designer pieces that exude gravitas and grace. “I love to honor my contemporaries in my work,” she says. The stoic and peaceful presence of the art (sourced by art consultant Sharón Zoldan of SZ Advisory) and furniture belies the volumes they communicate. In the office, for instance, the natural striation of a desk carved from travertine (a stone reprised throughout the home) echoes the rocky environment, while a monochrome art on paper (515,886 Pinpricks by Fu Xiaotong) seems to offer a peaceful portrayal of Yellowstone’s fiery thermal pools.

An electrifying thread of blue also runs through the home, interjecting otherworldly moments into the soothing decor, mainly characterized by materials and colors that are undeniably of the mountains, like velvety rust benches and wooly fawn-hued Little Petra seating by Viggo Boesen. An azure work on felt by Naama Tsabar emits musical notes from the top floor when its guitar strings are plucked. And in the ski room, located in the daylight basement, a Lita Albuquerque sculpture of a walnut tree stump frosted in Prussian-blue pigment appears supernatural, perhaps even radioactive, within its clear acrylic enclosure.

Similarly, when Williams was selecting a wall covering for the kids’ bedroom—the only space in the house emblazoned with such a pretty paste-up—she honed in on a pattern by Fromental called Roxy Mountain, which depicts a chinoiserie-style landscape of geologically articulated hills, feathery trees, and pale water.

“I’ve always thought that when you’re a kid and your bedroom has a strong pattern on the walls, it can really juice up the imagination,” says Williams, who concedes that she is actually in the business of something other than decoration. “We’re here to help create memories.”

“Yellowstone is a magical place, however I must admit that I gravitate to architecture that appears simple in form but sophisticated in nature,” architect Greg Matthews says of the home he designed for the Spanicciati family, 50 miles from the west entrance of Yellowstone National Park. His material palette of Montana moss rock and reclaimed timber reflects the Rocky Mountain region.

The entry was inspired by agrarian architecture. “A dog trot was a common agricultural feature that created a covered open-air link between two enclosed spaces,” explains Matthews. This entry view riffs off the agricultural reference: Flos Noctambule High Cylinder ceiling pendants and a floating steel staircase connect the various levels.

This view of the entry encapsulates the home’s material palette in a single vignette, from the Montana moss rock wall to the reclaimed timber beams to the L’écoucheur ottoman by Stahl + Band, made of woven flax. William Kentridge’s Make Me Live Again is an ink-on-paper that conveys the frontier landscape of the west.

The living room’s main conversation pit is appointed with a sinuous pouf sectional by Stahl + Band, deeply embracing asymmetry armchairs from Pierre Yovanovitch, and Vladimir Kagan chairs in a ganache hue. Such low-slung seating offers a sense of steadfastness to counter the room’s dizzying 30-foot heights, required for a cathedral-like two-story window that would properly capture Pioneer Mountain on the south horizon.

A large-format canvas, Conjunction 20-17 by Ha Chong Hyun, hangs above the living room’s stone hearth to camouflage a television and to also introduce the thread of blue that runs through many of the artworks.

The formal dining room is attached to the kitchen. A 12-foot Belgian farmhouse-style custom table is surrounded by Monk chairs by Afra and Tobia Scarpa that have been draped in smokey-taupe sheepskin rugs. The glass wall prevents the space, with its rustic materiality, from feeling too heavy or dark.

The monolithic island block that anchors the kitchen is of the region in its granite composition, but also diverges from the setting with its modernist simplicity.

By Katherine McLaughlin

The south façade of the home. A tall window on the left frames Pioneer Mountain, while the long expanse of glass on the bottom spans the entry hall and the kitchen–slash–dining room.

A look inside a serene bedroom.

To solve the space issue of this petite guest bath, Williams floated the custom marble vanity in front of the window, suspended the mirrors from the ceiling, and even turned the faucets sideways in the name of tidy elegance.

By Katherine McLaughlin

This guest suite, also on the main level, evokes the feeling of quiet monastery, with a 1940s pine bench from Galerie North reminiscent of a church pew and the beautiful simplicity of the unadorned bedding and custom upholstered bed by Marcali Designs.

Viggo Boesen’s Little Petra chair and pouf in sheepskin can be seen within a nook with a view in one of the guest suites. Judy Chicago’s Purple Atmosphere—a ChromaLuxe print on aluminum—adds an unexpected plume of violet to the otherwise earthy space.

Rather than do what most designers tend to do with a powder room (that is, emblazon the diminutive confines with loud color and patterns aplenty), Williams opted to echo the steel staircase nearby and created a dark custom plaster for the walls. A travertine sink and L3 mirror by Stahl + Band represent an organic element, in material and form, respectively.

By Katherine McLaughlin

From the sheepskin-covered Paolo Buffa armchairs on the upper landing you can see the peak of Pioneer Mountain.

In the office, the natural striation of a desk carved from travertine (a stone reprised throughout the home) echoes the rocky environment, while a monochrome art on paper (515,886 Pinpricks by Fu Xiaotong) seems to offer a calm portrayal of Yellowstone’s fiery thermal pools.

With windows squared to a view of snow-covered hills in winter, the primary bedroom, like the rest of the rooms in the house, defers to nature as the main design element. Williams took cues from the outdoors when choosing a mossy mohair for the vintage chairs and fashioning a custom coverlet from an algal-blue Neeru Kumar textile from India. Limited-edition Element chandelier from Lucca Antiques.

By Katherine McLaughlin

Appointed with designer comforts like a Pacha lounge by Mario Bellini, plus mood-setting courtesy of diaphanous wool drapery from Rose Uniacke, the closet in the primary suite is a quiet, ethereal place to steal away unnoticed.

The primary bath’s custom tub is carved from travertine, a stone that echoes the striations found in mountains. Its muscularity directly confronts the glass-enclosed shower. A hand-knotted Moroccan runner by Marc Phillips is deliberately soft under foot, a contrast to the room’s proliferation of hard surfaces.

An upper-level bunk room riffs on the romance of train travel, but with custom beds stuffed with full-size mattresses that allow multiple kids to pile into a curtained cubby.

By Katherine McLaughlin

When Williams was selecting a wall covering for the kids room—the only only space in the house emblazoned with such a pretty paste-up—she honed in on Fromental’s Roxy Mountain pattern, which depicts a chinoiserie-style landscape of geologically articulated hills, feathery trees and pale water. “I’ve always thought that when you’re a kid and your bedroom has strong patterns on the walls, it can really [fire] up the imagination,” says the designer.

A loft-like take on a custom bunk by Williams. The bean bag, covered in curly New Zealand sheepskin, is from Graham and Green.

At the basement end (read: the ski room) of a light shaft illuminated by Flos Noctambule High Cylinder ceiling pendants, a Lita Albuquerque sculpture of a walnut tree stump frosted in Prussian-blue pigment appears supernatural, perhaps even radioactive, within its clear acrylic enclosure.

By Katherine McLaughlin

In the billiards room, a mural-size watercolor on canvas called Scenery With Frontispiece by Silke Otto-Knapp nods to the mountainous landscape. A Faye Toogood Puffball pendant adds blimp-like buoyancy to counter the angular heft of the Parsons-style pool table from Blatt Billiards.

With a generously cushioned Jill sectional from Montauk sofa and Spule stools from Stahl + Band placed hearthside for après-ski cocoa and conversation, this rec room feels more like a cozy den.

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Step Inside a Stunning Home Outside Yellowstone National Park