The Epitome of Mountain Living Charm Around the World
A new book features exceptional mountain interiors from around the world and a designer guide for creating your own mountain-inspired home.
Held back by naturally shed antlers, the thick portières that enclose the foyer add a softness and, when closed, protect the cabin’s interior from blasts of wintry air. | Photo: Lisa Flood
There is something magical, calming and joyful about being in the mountains. Nearly everyone is attracted to the snow-capped peaks, thick forests, swift streams and, of course, the intoxicating views. The allure was particularly strong for Kathryn O’Shea-Evans, who decamped to Colorado’s Front Range after a decade of living in New York City.
She has now written Alpine Style: Bringing Mountain Magic Home, a visually stunning book celebrating mountains all over the world. Not only dropdead gorgeous mountain architecture and décor—from Scottish baronial to Swiss chalet to Aspen rustic-chic— but also vintage photos by such notables as Slim Aarons and casual snapshots of celebrities like Frank Sinatra and Dionne Warwick (in Tahoe in the 1970s).
Historic Belvédère Hotel (now closed) sits on a steep switchback in the Swiss Alps. | Photo: Alberto Garcia Guillen/shutterstock.com
The idea for the book was born when O’Shea-Evans was decorating her own mountain vacation home, Skytop Mountain House, and wanted it to reflect a sense of place. “If I’ve learned one thing as a design and travel journalist—interviewing professional decorators and staying in carefully curated hotels on assignment—it’s that, like food, décor tastes best when it is local,” she says. The author’s endearingly personal stories are sprinkled throughout the book.
She recalls her first winter in Colorado, where “the snowflakes often looked like they were cut from paper: filigreed and enormous.” And venturing into the woods with the family to cut a Christmas tree—“a towering 11-footer that we cut ourselves with a twenty-dollar permit from the Forest Service.” Each of the four seasons has its own chapter—not only seasonal décor but seasonal food, including recipes for iconic dishes like the Hotel Jerome’s infamous Crud (a boozy milkshake developed during Prohibition) and classic cheese fondue from the Kulm Hotel St. Moritz circa 1856.
Saddlestand stools surround a quilt-topped table. Vintage plates are displayed in an antique Welsh dresser. | Photo: Lisa Flood
When the snow is swirling and drifting, O’Shea-Evans makes sure her home is snug and warm. She tops her beds with eiderdown comforters, trots out cashmere and wool blankets and cinnamon-colored velvet and nubby bouclé pillows, and tosses thick faux hides or Navajo rugs over chair backs. In the kids’ room, a rustic trundle bed (made by her husband) is topped with Pendleton’s National Park Collection blankets. In spring, she throws open the windows to the fresh outdoor air.
She thrills to see “the winter-weary grasses turn from a parched, rutty brown to an emerald green … seemingly overnight.” The spring chapter also treats us to a delightful (virtual) stay at the dripping-withcharm Drei Berge Hotel in Mürren, Switzerland. Summer brings breezes that are rich with the scent of Rocky Mountain fir, Engelmann spruce and ponderosa pines, whose bark smells of vanilla. In fall, a patchwork quilt of ochre and currant red covers the mountainsides, and “the hickory-hued Arctic foxes have begun to don their fluffy snow-white fur coats.”
Parallel trim on otherwise traditional armchairs gives them a modernist look. The large-format photograph (by celebrated jet-set photographer Slim Aarons) is titled “Verbier.” | Photo: Heather Nan
Fall is, of course, pumpkin spice season, and O’Shea-Evans gives us three recipes for dreamy and delicious spiced drinks—perfect for crisp autumn mornings. From residential projects in Utah to ski-in, ski-out hotels in France, the author takes us into rooms whose exposed beams, stone fireplaces, shearling rugs and layers of rich-and-varied textiles provide warmth and hygge. “If you’re going to plop a house or a hotel amid an untrammeled natural landscape, you better make it beautiful,” she says. “The architects and interior designers whose work is featured in this book have done just that.”
Handwoven textiles, including vintage Navajo blankets, add warmth; layered rugs enhance the effect. | Photo: Lisa Flood
Simple and serene, this bedroom embodies the essence of a ryokan. Twin ottomans are upholstered in Tibetan lamb fur. | Photo: Shannon Dupre
This snug nook in a Sun Valley, Idaho, home has tranquil views of snow-laden evergreens. Vintage Navajo rug fragments have been repurposed as accent pillows. | Photo: Michael P.H. Clifford
In the foyer, a playful shield-back settee and a custom picture rail. | Photo: Angela Roy
Large-scale photographs by renowned bird portrait photographer Leila Jeffreys provide a focal point. | Photo: Michael P.H. Clifford
