Personalize Your Mountain Home for a Signature Look

Photo: William Abranowicz

While creating beautiful, functional interiors is a main goal of interior design, it’s often the finishing touches – that last layer of design decisions – that bring personalized meaning to a space, infusing rooms with the sense of belonging and history that ultimately makes a house a home.

Even in a mountain house that’s mainly used for vacations, gatherings of family and friends will be richer if accessories truly reflect the homeowners’ loves and lifestyle. Here, we share five steps for personalizing a mountain home.

Photo: Eric Piasecki

Start With an Audit

Whether homeowners are working with a designer or creating interiors on their own, the first step should be careful consideration of family history, themes and dreams that offer meaning, as well as any existing collections, heirloom furnishings, or objects and artworks that hold importance and can help tell a family’s story through design.

Begin with a clean slate so those meaningful items will make a statement.

Photo: William Abranowicz

Curation, Not Clutter

Once items and ideas are gathered, the editing begins. Thoughtful choices help bring beauty and a sense of luxury to a space, with a “less is more” approach allowing details to stand out.

Grouping like items can offer the dynamic impact of a collection, for instance, but limit displayed items to only those things that reflect the best quality or hold the most meaning so individual pieces can shine – and look to the surrounding natural world for help with determining color and materials palettes.

Photo: Roger Davies

Seek Out One-of-a-Kind and Antique Items

Unusual objects (such as found items) and antiques impart authenticity and character in a way that mass-produced objects, no matter how lovely, never can. Antiques, whether heirlooms or specially purchased for a space, bring warmth and wonderful patinas as well as depth and history.

While these items come with their own histories of having been used lovingly over time, it is their selection and placement in the home that weave them into the new story that homeowners are creating.

Photo: Eric Piasecki

Think Texture

Comfort and ease come from tactile and inviting furniture pieces, beautifully layered textiles and luxurious textures like cashmere, wool, and sheepskin. Engaging the sense of touch adds a new level of meaning to a space, inviting family and guests to sit and linger a while.

For Western mountain homes, rustic, organic and indigenous materials, such as fieldstone, saddle leather and reclaimed wood, provide intriguing textures while reinforcing sense of place.

Photo: Roger Davies

Channel the Creative

Art and artisan works reflect the authenticity and creative vision of the maker through an artist’s brushstrokes, photographic eye, or meticulous handcrafting. Work by local artists and artisans can speak to the landscape, history and traditional craft methods of the region, helping to ground a home in its mountain setting.

Choose pieces that strike a strong personal chord, as these are destined to become familiar friends that continue to bring pleasure every time a room is entered, enriching a home’s story and perhaps becoming the next generation’s cherished heirlooms.

Klaus Baer is COO and co-owner with CEO and creative director Rush Jenkins of WRJ Design, headquartered in Jackson, Wyoming, an award-winning interior design firm known for a special brand of livable luxury that effortlessly marries the most sophisticated modern furnishings with historically rich, rustic and one-of-a-kind elements. Visit their website at wrjdesign.com and follow @wrjdesign on Instagram.

Content for this article provided by WRJ Design.