Modern architecture can be beautiful without busting the budget. Those were guiding principles for architects Scott and Julie Keyes as they designed their Paris Mountain home, which doubles as the headquarters for their firm Fortress Architecture.
The couple met at Clemson’s School of Architecture and spent the first years of their marriage living and working on traditional residences in Charleston, Scott’s hometown.
Their move to the Upstate, where Julie grew up, gave them a chance to “express our creativity,” Scott says, by building a home where they can raise their two young children while showing their love of modern design. The style strips “all the flares away and is just (about) being inspired by functionality and nature,” Julie says.
Built by Artifactor Construction over a year-plus timeline, the house’s moniker is The Tree Fortress. The name symbolizes the resilient and sustainable design that complements the nature surrounding it.
Making the home sustainable meant investing in its infrastructure, which included adding spray foam insulation behind the walls. On the exterior, rot-resistant fiber cement siding and a metal roof were selected for their durability. But the couple first considered “how we placed (the house) on the land,” Julie says. “We cleared as few of the trees as we possibly could.”
The lot, at more than four acres, provides scenic tree canopy and long-range mountain views, which inspired the ample windows and the interior’s neutral color palette of white, black, and wood tones with pops of color. The generous roof eaves reference the area’s mid-century architecture, while the central hipped roof and the clerestory windows are a nod to nearby Paris Mountain State Park’s fire lookout towers.
An angled wall at the front door speaks to Scott’s interest in futuristic design. “A lot of architecture you see in sci-fi movies and video games is futurism or brutalism. Those are styles that I’m definitely drawn to,” he says.
The four-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bathroom layout neatly divides work and family spaces. Spread over two stories, it has great flow and efficient space, both of which were key considerations “for budget and footprint on the mountain,” Scott says.
Downstairs, the basement has their children’s bedrooms and more utilitarian spaces, where the couple can stash toys when it’s time to host clients.
The top floor contains the great room–a favorite spot that contains a wood-burning fireplace on one end and the sleek, dark-toned kitchen on the other–along with the couple’s office and primary suite.
They designed the dining area as a bump-out addition, which allowed for more square footage on the steep slope. Its glass wall allows them to see sunrises from Scott’s handmade dining table, one of several furniture pieces he made for the house.
The primary bedroom and the screened porch also are projections, which add dimension to the exterior. That porch has become “an extension of our living space,” Julie says. “It’s sort of like a second playroom, especially for our 4-year-old. She can be out there playing, and I can be in the kitchen and it’s all safe.”
Simultaneously living and working in the home is “unreal. It’s a dream we never thought we’d be able to realize,” she says.
Tour of The Tree Fortress
To solve the challenges presented by the steep slope and make the facade more dimensional, the couple designed the dining room as a glass-encased bump-out addition.
The couple sited the house away from the road for privacy and toward the views of the tree canopy and the mountains in the distance. Its sustainable materials include fiber cement siding (painted with Sherwin Williams’s Iron Ore) and a recyclable metal roof.
In the soothing primary bathroom, views of the trees from the transom window above the mirror inspired the selection of the shower’s pale green subway tile. The white quartz countertop, West Elm vanity, terrazzo-style porcelain floors, and brass sconces found on Wayfair complete the space.
The couple, seen with their infant son in their kitchen, found their cabinets online. They’re from FORM, a German engineering and design firm that creates semi-custom cabinetry. FORM’s designs matched the couple’s appearance, durability, and budget goals.
Distinct exterior materials reflect the different floors: The horizontal fiber cement siding marks the main floor, while large cream-colored fiber cement panels denote the basement level. The panels “are more common as a ceiling application, but it worked well,” Julie says.
The house doubles as Fortress Architecture’s headquarters, and the couple located their office between the primary bedroom and great room to make it “an extension of our living space,” Julie says, adding that they can close the door when needed. Also, “because we spend as much time in here as the other spaces, we wanted a good view, so we had to put it on this side of the house for inspiration,” Scott adds.
The dining area’s mid-century style glass globe chandelier came from a renovation project in Charleston, while Scott designed and built the chairs and table. The Nichiha brand fiber cement siding adds a wood-grain feature and is carried from the exterior to its interior walls and ceiling.
The Keyes chose honed-quartz countertops (Caesarstone’s Black Temple) and a Tilebar backsplash tile that evokes a charred wood effect. The dark tones juxtapose the white oak wood floors and soft furnishings, while the island’s linear wood pendants, found on Etsy, bring another wood element into the space.
Scott built much of the house’s furniture by combining slabs of live-edge wood with steel. His pieces include several tables–he used a salvaged door for the sofa table–and storage pieces. The furniture colors mimic the palette of the walls, windows, and floors.
The house’s palette of white, black, and warm woods complements the exterior views. Inside, the couple added pops of color in the citrine West Elm kitchen stools, yellow side tables, and the powder room’s paint (Sherwin Williams’ Evergreen Fog).
Paris Mountain State Park’s fire watch towers inspired the clerestory windows, while the Nichiha siding-covered, angled wall took its cues from Scott’s interest in futuristic design. The deep roof eaves speak to mid-century architecture. Julie found the copper sconces on Etsy.
The couple tucked the staircase to the basement off to one side of the living room, between the front entry and a short hallway to the powder room and garage. The basement’s utilitarian and kid-friendly spaces include their two children’s bedrooms, a bathroom, and a playroom. There’s also a laundry area and a guest room that doubles as Scott’s music studio. The couple created the large-scale artwork above the cable-rail banister.
Repetitive design elements were used to create a harmonious house. The front porch’s double cedar columns and steel beams are seen again in the screen porch’s double columns, the pair of steel foundation piers for the primary bedroom overhang, and the dining table legs. In the kitchen, a linear design motif is carried through the cabinets, the island pendants, and the refrigerator.
The screen porch off the living room is a favorite spot for the couple, particularly on fall evenings when they’ve seen deer and baby bears pass by. Its framing matches the living and dining room windows, while its cable railing complements the stairway.
