No need to pinch yourself—this magnificent mountain mansion is, indeed, real.
“Does not your house dream?” asks the poet Kahlil Gibran. Homes do indeed slumber, their reveries revealed amid shadows, sunbeams and the scent of cedar.
Beneath the covers of this grand Telluride home, a wilderness spreads in all directions, the impossible beauty surely not of the waking world. At the center is a refuge built of modernist shapes: a tapered rectangle adjoined to a curve that ends in a point, and a square rounded by a wall of glass.
Beyond a pivoting glass door, soaring double-stacked windows are topped by clerestory windows. Views of Mount Wilson and other peaks surround. The great room is an art installation in itself. Starry mountain nights seemingly invade: 70 illuminated orbs descend from the room’s 25-foot ceiling.
Breaking away from the arms of Morpheus, the property’s details appear: a six-bedroom home set on 35 acres within the 885 acres of Gray Head, eight miles from Telluride. Fortenberry & Ricks built the residence along with numerous standout homes in the area, including Oprah Winfrey’s.
Completed in 2015 after new owners re-built a 2008 spec home, the 12,452-square-foot residence is listed for $22.5 million by Steve Cieciuch of Telluride Properties.
A key to the natural world: ownership unlocks access to 16 miles of private hiking and biking … [+] trails.
Ready to dream again? While the home is a formidable structure clad in zinc, cedar and quartz, it has a surprisingly liquid feel. That starts with quartzite floors, color- and texture-matched in India. From the entryway, the luminosity of this material travels through the kitchen and dining rooms, spills out into the great room and then onto the outdoor patio that fronts an infinity pool. It resembles flowing water, uniting and grounding the space.
Blocks of Carrara marble carved into fluid forms, each one an art object, are placed throughout the home. The owners visited the Carrara quarry in Italy to select their marble personally. Such minute attention to detail shows why: the primary’s marble bathtub is an undulating form, filled by water that flows from a ceiling fixture.
An enormous marble wall backing the open-air shower is similarly carved into successive waves that sweep up, as if the ocean has been turned on its side. The graceful shape is furthered in the primary bedroom’s fireplace with its rippled marble edge. Additional lyrical flow is found in a 15-foot cascade of 7,000 Swarovski crystals that hangs near the entry. Other museum-worthy light fixtures are by Foscarini, Gabriel Ross and David D’Imperio.
Made in the image of the divine: a sleek design is embellished by installations that reflect the … [+] natural world.
Into the great room and the fireplace is built of stainless steel rods, artfully placed like pick-up sticks. A curtain of water falls to one side, floating in space. Apparently anything can happen in a dream.
This pervasive feeling of liquid possibility lends the otherwise sleek property an elegant livability. The fluid look softens the wild landscape of rolling hills and red rocks. Are you still in Telluride, or dreaming of Arizona? “At times you blink because looking out, you could be in Sedona,” Steve Cieciuch says.
For warmth, walnut doors, walls and cabinetry add a toasty look. Rectangular boxes are built into the primary’s bathroom’s walls, and mitered edges pop open to reveal hidden compartments created by Italian-based Sesamo.
The German-designed Bulthaup kitchen with Miele appliances is all business with its cold rolled steel countertops and solid marble center island. There’s also a fully outfitted Bulthaup-designed walk-in coffee/tea station.
The juxtaposition of a glossy, refined interior with the rugged landscape allow both to shine.
If luxuriousness hasn’t yet been proved, the mudroom looks like Bergdorf Goodman. Shoe and boot racks hang from the ceiling like couture display cases. Lockers thoughtfully warm boots. “You can walk out the back door and after a short hike, you’re strolling through an old growth ponderosa forest, 400-500 years old,” says Cieciuch.
Edged in stone and dwarf pine, the pool could be mistaken for a pond. The look marries the home to its rustic surroundings. Steps lead down to a stainless steel Jacuzzi with an elk-proof lid. The creatures are part of the 24/7 show framed by the home’s wall-windows.
Indoor and outdoor fire elements were designed by Elena Colombo, a self-described “successful pyromaniac” known for her angular styles. Colombo’s work is found in boutique and landmark hotels around the United States. A curved garden sculpture of tall steel tubes by Aspen-based Bluegreen glows at night, adding to the property’s starry wonder.
The dawning of a new day ironically imbues the landscape with a dreamy glow.
The home includes a gym, game room, glass wine wall, two offices, a full outdoor kitchen—and a theater with a sound wall of petals fashioned from felt, handmade by London-based Anne Kyyrö Quinn.
At dusk, the famed aspenglow appears, a rose light that reflects off surrounding mountains. The property becomes illuminated, shadows form, the dream turns ethereal.
Telluride Properties is a member of Forbes Global Properties, an invitation-only network of top-tier brokerages worldwide and the exclusive real estate partner of Forbes.
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