A modern mountain home features sweeping views of the Blue Ridge
Designed and built for homeowners with backgrounds in art and finance, this custom home embodies artful design, while also serving as a gathering place for family and friends.
Kevin Reed, president of Bluestone Construction, oversaw the project from the beginning and encouraged the homeowners to purchase the adjacent lot below the original one in order to preserve uninterrupted views of the ridgeline.
In addition to adhering to the area’s special zoning restrictions, the home’s style required precision craftsmanship. “Modern houses are way harder to build,” Reed says. “Getting the steel set in the right spot, getting all the windows uniform and symmetrical, that was a big deal.”
Inspiration for the home’s design, which was created by MHK Architecture, came from a foreign film the homeowners had seen, which featured a corridor with large windows framing artwork in natural light.
The modern 6,000-square-foot floorplan draws warmth from natural wood paneling and floors that blend, rather than compete, with the exposed steel beams and textured limestone veneer. Low-maintenance materials, including aluminum siding with a wood-grain finish and a standing-seam metal roof, provide longevity without sacrificing aesthetics.
One of the home’s most unique features is the cantilevered primary suite that is suspended over a custom water feature. The suite hovers between water and sky, an impressive feat of engineering and construction that required craning 50-foot steel beams through a 3-foot-thick stone wall.
The water feature is the pièce de résistance of a multiphased landscaping vision by Nathan Schaupp, lead designer for DabneyCollins. “We took it to the level of being very intentional with every little twig, every piece of stone, and the narrative that the water took,” Schaupp says. “It became more of a story of water than just a water feature.” Even in parts of the property where the water can’t be seen, its bubbling sound beckons.
In another nod to the beauty of mountain living, a screened porch over a tiled terrace provides the launch for a dip in the pool that is set half in the sun and half tucked beneath the porch roof to maximize year-round use.
The seamless integration of this modern home on the rising escarpment where the Cherokee once tread aligns with the emergence of more bold designs on mountain ranges from Asheville and Hendersonville down to Greenville County. “We’re doing way more modern homes than we did 20 years ago,” Reed says. Fittingly, he calls this property “Kanuga Overlook,” a Cherokee word for “Gathering Place.”
Modern Mountain Home photo tour
In this fully wired smart home, the primary bedroom’s ceiling-mounted television disappears with the touch of a button, preserving uninterrupted mountain views.
Natural tones and textured finishes were introduced to create a sense of livability. All of the paneling is real wood, slightly darker than the white oak hardwood floors that run throughout the main areas. Precision siting allows the home’s art-filled corridors to offer a gallery experience on one side and, on the other, expansive windows maximize light coming over the tree line.
The living room is one of the gathering places where art, architecture, and landscape converge. Drywall returns were used to keep the window casings minimal, while baseboards were designed to support a modern, clean look. Warm colors and inviting furniture ensure the home balances its more dramatic elements with a welcome feel for family and visiting friends.
The home’s modernity is expressed through exposed structural steel and expansive glass walls. The low-maintenance exterior elements, such as limestone cladding, extruded aluminum siding with a woodgrain finish, and a standing-seam metal roof, add longevity. Additional cedar trees were introduced by landscape designer DabneyCollins to further frame the home in its natural setting.
Bluestone Construction had a carpenter and steel fabricator on staff who fabricated the wood and steel drop with recessed lighting over the kitchen island; it is anchored by rods that extend into the attic. “That’s a key feature,” says Kevin Reed, president of Bluestone. “It was a way to bring the scale of the room down and was custom-fit to the space.” The surface of the kitchen island is Calacatta Manhattan marble.
The open kitchen extends into the main living area, ideally designed for entertaining. Opening the double doors extends the party outdoors via terrace access. And, on days when the weather is more suited for being indoors– warmed by the fireplace–the glass wall is positioned to provide inspiring views of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
International Cabinetry in Hendersonville, North Carolina, did all of the paneling in the library. It’s a space full of the type of bespoke flexibility only achieved by a custom home build.
Outdoor living is central to the design. The screened porch extends areas for lounging or dining into the landscape.
The paneling around the stairs is oak-veneer plywood. The chandelier over the staircase came from Israel and was selected for its look and the visual comfort it provides.
Visiting kids in the extended family get their own space too: in the form of a cozy, custom bunk room in the basement.
The primary bath with a walk-in rain shower benefits from a custom heated concrete sink by Tobin Hines of Concrete Canvas in Greenville.
