The Landscape Leads The Way At This Montana Mountain Retreat

When residential designer Zachary Helmers and interior designer Nicole Ficano talk about the drive up to the Yellowstone Club home they created for longtime clients, their voices are filled with genuine excitement. “From Bozeman, you drive through a valley, lose cell service, and then it’s a two-lane road up the mountain—it’s an absolutely picturesque trip!” Helmers says. “Just getting there is amazing, so we wanted to embrace that feeling,” Ficano adds. “And since it’s a house designed to be enjoyed year-round, we leaned into the idea of a resort and a palette that blends with changing seasons.”

The home’s design was outlined by Yellowstone Club’s architect, Sloan Bauer of Bayliss Architects, but the owners brought on the team from Workshop/APD to tailor it to their tastes. Helmers refined the floor plan, tweaking the flow of the kitchen and pantry areas and reimagining the primary suite. “They wanted it to be a comfortable hangout and anything but standard,” he says. “We aimed for a sophisticated, not cliched, mountain style.”

To achieve that, the design team worked with general contractor Taylor Pisk and superintendent Jock Zallar to bring the outdoors inside. “We leaned into texture and tone, and we used wood and stone in warm and soft ways,” Helmers says of bespoke elements such as the cross-sawn oak paneling, limestone flooring that looks like terrazzo and monolithic basalt fireplace. The team applied the firm’s “crafted modern” ethos, putting a contemporary spin on age-old processes and bringing in craftspeople, like Shem Bishop of Bishop Woodcraft who built the wood stair that now ties the home’s three levels together. “You can see the hand of the maker, and that’s important,” Helmers adds. He also took a novel approach to the kitchen island, joining its two stone slabs with a bronze inlay, an idea borrowed from the Japanese art of kintsugi.

“We always try to take a holistic approach to our projects, and Zach’s team created an incredible architectural background for these rooms,” Ficano says. As guests walk through the entryway, an intentionally compressed space, the living room opens to reveal a snow globe-like scene. “You look straight out to the mountain, so our goal was finding pieces that would complement the view, not distract from it,” says the designer, who selected simple shapes and materials like linen, mohair, bouclé and leather. She also chose a soft tone-on-tone palette of earthy hues that work year-round. “We used plaids sparingly and opted for some lighter colors, like pale green, so there’s a little brightness when the weather is warm.”

The adjacent dining room and kitchen are defined as a separate space by their wood ceiling, but they work in tandem with the living area, creating a great room-like feel perfect for entertaining. “You can perch at the island or the table—you can sit in those dining chairs for hours, they’re so comfortable—and talk to people in the living room,” Ficano says. “It’s an environment where every piece is used, and I love that,” she adds, noting that the sheer window treatments “add interest and softness” while also working to visually connect the spaces.

The bedrooms, as well as a lower-level lounge, continue the materials palette devised by Helmers. “They repeat throughout the house creating balance,” Ficano continues, reiterating the importance of a holistic approach. In the primary suite, the entryway’s limestone flooring appears on the fireplace surround and bathroom countertops, and the designer employed nubby fabrics akin to those in the living room. “With the textural white rug, it’s almost like snow and the bed is a sleigh,” she says. Guest rooms “feel like retreats of their own,” Ficano describes, including the bunk room designed not only for kids. “We made it a bit more mature, though there are whimsical elements, like fun-shaped ottomans and patterned wallpaper. It works for people of any age,” the designer says.

But in the end, it’s the home’s landscape that sparks excitement for both the owners and the design team, and the latter was inclined to step back and let nature be the star. “They wanted it to be easy when they come in off the ski slopes or golf course,” Ficano says. “And we were so in awe of the environment that we didn’t want anything to take away from it.” Helmers agrees, adding, “The mountains really dominate your thinking when you’re here.”