Color + Pattern Animate A Warm Mountain Home In Lake Tahoe

When creating this Lake Tahoe-area home, the metaphorical cornerstone was family life. Interior designer Ann Lowengart was charged with making the dwelling the locus for everything from outdoor pursuits (hiking, skiing) to indoor endeavors (games, puzzles, entertaining). To do so, she infused the project with a warm modernism that references the dramatic location while leaning into joyous, vibrant colors.

The clients, a couple with children, brought Lowengart on board before general contractor Steven Bennett commenced construction on the Sugar Bowl property he developed with architect Jordan Knighton of JKAE Architecture + Interiors + Engineering. Of course, there were practical elements to consider, such as a ski room with ample storage and seating as well as private and communal areas across the structure’s three levels. But jewel tones and patterns provide visual delight throughout and underline the feeling of a family abode where happy memories are made. “This is my most colorful mountain home,” Lowengart notes. “It’s playful and sophisticated at the same time.”

Upon entering the residence, the color story begins to unfold. The ski room’s orange and blue accents “work really well with the wood,” Lowengart says of the oak that lines the walls and ceiling. “We knew this space would be home to brightly hued skis, boots and other equipment. We chose colors that would stand out even in the midst of all that.”

The interiors are enveloped in oak to impart what Lowengart describes as a “cocoon-like feeling”—quite a feat at times, given the volume of the residence. On the second floor, the double-height living room opens to the kitchen, dining room and a third-floor passage. “We felt each space should relate to the other but also be unique,” she says. To that end, the living room’s green sectional and purple lounge chairs are echoed in the kitchen with a backsplash of green-blue zellige tiles and counter stools upholstered in eggplant-hued leather. Lowengart arrived at the color pairing by “thinking about what would feel great within the context of all the green outside.” Emerald tones, which echo the color of the pine tree branches on the wooded lot, were the obvious choice. “Then we added purple for something completely different,” she notes. “The combination is warm and rich but also a little bit unexpected for this location.” To temper the palette, she kept the dining room quiet with neutrals like taupe and brown.

In the living room, Lowengart added interest by plastering the surface behind the steel fireplace surround. Meanwhile, round silhouettes—like the globe pendants at the kitchen island and cylindrical light fixture above the dining table—soften the angular architecture.

The kids’ bedrooms are especially lively. In one, orange-painted shiplap backdrops tandem beds with a sweet detail between them: an octagonal porthole. “In every house I design, I like to help create opportunities for special memories,” Lowengart says. “With the porthole, the children can talk to each other while going to sleep or pass notes or books back and forth.” In another bedroom done in shades of blue and green, a pendant light hand-wrapped in cobalt-hued yarn and a verdant botanical wallpaper installed on the ceiling draw the eye up. A Jack-and-Jill bathroom between the two sleeping quarters continues the blue-and-green theme with wave-like wall tiles and a geometric, leaf-green floor tile.

“My goal is for clients to walk in and say, ‘I absolutely love this. We never would have thought of this in a million years,’ ” Lowengart shares. In this instance, her varied design scheme also achieved the clients’ goals: “They wanted a space that was visually interesting, exciting and not too serious—one that invites you in and makes you feel like you are at home.”