Slopeside Style
Three Montana mountain retreats demonstrate how the utilitarian ski room can be customized to match the mood of your home
Ski rooms are strange beasts. In a ski-in/ski-out home, these rooms are inherently functional spaces tasked with storing a clattering bulk of ski gear, offering a place to sit while you don your boots, and providing a door through which to access the slopes. But really well-designed ski rooms are much more than mere closets or hallways. A ski room sets the tone for the day’s adventures. It greets skiers and offers them both a staging area and one last taste of luxurious comfort before their passage into the frosty landscape. Likewise, a cozy ski room is furnished and equipped to welcome tired winter warriors at the finish of their mountain escapades.
SLEEK & CHIC When an eager homeowner asks for a “kick-ass ski room,” what’s a designer to do? If you’re architect Reid Smith, you simply rise to the occasion and create a gold-medal-worthy space that’s functional and fantastic. Sure, it has a tuning area, a boot dryer and a bathroom, but it also has a place to snack, hydrate, and even watch an awesome ski video. With broad expanses of glass, rift-oak cabinetry, reclaimed barnwood benches and travertine tile floors, the room has a luxe edge in keeping with the rest of the sleek, contemporary home.
WARM & RUSTIC Architect Reid Smith also authored our 2013 Home of the Year’s warm and family-friendly ski room fit for a rustic cabin. The home’s unconventional design allows the ski room to be accessed by a bridge that leads to an elevator, so the space serves as an outpost of sorts. It offers both extra-practical amenities and charming homey touches, including a reclaimed-wood ceiling and plank walls complete with chinking.
HANDSOME & HARDWORKING For a modern ski getaway, architect Barry Gehl was charged with providing a beautifully functional locker room and extensive workshop for homeowners who are serious about snow. These passionate skiers even imported specialized Austrian edge-grinding and waxing machines for custom tune-ups, so Gehl created a double-duty ski space with two rooms linked by stairs.
