By Kate Reynolds
Photos By John Warner
There is something iconic about a house on a hill. It conjures all sorts of heroic imagery, demanding superlatives. Set like a jewel, it inspires us to lofty thoughts. It calls for grandeur — but therein lies the challenge. How do you integrate the sweeping views, soaring spaces and rugged terrain, yet instill a sense of intimacy and warmth. How do you create a home?
In the case of this extraordinary residence, it took a village — in several regards. When the homeowners first approached Asheville architect Mark Sinsky with the project, their spectacular site atop a peak overlooking the links at Walnut Cove brought to mind similar terrain he had seen in Europe, particularly in France.
"Outside Avignon, near Misson and Carpentras, there are several little hill towns that are fantastic," he says. "A field trip there really helps you see what you can do." What Sinsky envisioned for his clients was more than a house. He saw a hamlet.
"We didn’t want to do just a typical French Country home. I’d call this a French Country Gothic Village style," he explains. "It’s wrapped around the site, but it’s broken up as a village would be. There’s a stair tower and the gothic window almost looks like the back of a church. When you’re driving in Provence, you’ll see little villages and these are the things that catch your eye and attract you."
Sinsky drew up plans that would best utilize the location. "We worked with the shape of the house to take advantage of the sun and the views," he observes. "The sun rises to the east, lighting the breakfast room and the kitchen, comes across to the great room and then keeps going to the summer kitchen and sets toward the master bedroom."
The broken roofline gives the impression of a group of buildings, rather than a solitary structure, and the exterior construction materials were carefully chosen to impart a sense of ageless stability. "You really can’t tell how old it is — I think that’s key to a great house. To make it feel old, we needed to really fit it into the grade, to step it onto the property the way a village would be stepped, not to shear off the top of a knoll and plop a house on it," says Sinsky. "We used stone from several different locations to create character, rather than having a uniform look from the same quarry. The slate roof has the mottled coloration you’d see in European villages."
The homeowners have discerning taste and extensive experience in new home construction, so they quickly established themselves as contributing members of a team effort that, from the inception, integrated all the architectural, crafts and interior design professionals.
"They seemed enlightened," says Sinsky. "When I showed them a plan, they could really understand it." Pam McKay of Dianne Davant and Associates Interior Design, who worked extensively with the lady of the house, agrees. "A lot of people have a hard time making a decision. This homeowner is very decisive. She knows who she is and what she wants. She was very involved in every step of the house."
The resulting residence melds an Old World aesthetic with the owner’s modern lifestyle — grandeur fused with livability. Driving under the bridge that connects the main house to a guest apartment and serves as the gateway to a paved courtyard, one has a sense of being embraced and enclosed in a secure, self-contained environment.
That’s not to say that it’s compact. The home encompasses over 8,000 square feet and three levels. The most immediately striking feature is the lofty great room — gabled white poplar punctuated by a massive, 24-foot gothic window. "They really wanted to have the view right in front of you as soon as you entered the foyer," says Sinsky. "But the entry is intimate. I think you get your whole mindset coming in the front door, which is why the ceiling is dropped down there as you enter into the great room. It transitions you."
The dramatic proportions of the great room are also brought down to a more human scale by a three-sided stone fireplace, with hearths in the contiguous living and dining areas and in the segue to the kitchen. "The fireplace is the centering feature," says McKay. "Combined with the huge window, it gives the room the "wow factor." But with a cathedral-like, castle-like room, you’ve got to be really concerned about the scale of the furniture and the height of the window treatments. You’ve got to pull that together so you don’t feel like you’re in a cavern."
Intimacy was achieved with generously sized furniture and sumptuous fabrics (all of which are pet-friendly, at the owners insistence). "There’s the massive Tomlinson sofa and bold colors that work together to bring that room down to earth — make it livable, cozy and comfortable," McKay observes. "You have wonderful, high-end furniture, but you don’t feel as though you walk in and you can’t touch anything or you can’t sit down."
Exquisite, but understated craftsmanship is also evident in the home’s woodwork, from the sweep of the great room ceiling to the doorways and cabinetry — all meticulously rendered by Banner’s Cabinets in Newland. "The cabinetry in the kitchen is knotty poplar," says Joe Banner, Sr. "For their particular use, especially with the knots in it, it enabled us to achieve the antique appearance that they like so much. All the joints are mortise and tendon, doweled and pegged. We imagined how the doors would have been built a hundred years ago and tried to duplicate that construction."
Custom paint treatments throughout the home also contribute to its character. "It’s a little bit of a fusion," says Christopher Barron of Sundance Interiors, the decorative painters. "It’s modern craftsmanship with an Old World feel. Our goal was to take the finishes to a level that brought a certain age to the place. We wanted to take a bit of the shiny newness out of it. In the great room, we used tea stains — it’s a look that mimics a traditional finish where people used tea bags to stain plaster walls"
"In a few choice rooms, we went for finishes that would be more of a backdrop, or the focal point of the room. We used some metallics — the guest powder room was done in a gold leaf technique. We did some vertical striping in the exercise room," he adds. "Oh… and we faux finished the elevator shaft."
That elevator, which provides access to the walkway over the bridge and to the guest suite, is one of the many amenities that the homeowners required to make their home an enjoyable space for entertaining. "One great idea of theirs was their wine cellar/wet bar just off the kitchen and great room," Sinsky points out. The wine room makes a witty reference to the great room, with a double-vaulted gothic ceiling and groins on the corners, and the tongue-in-cheek implication, if not the actuality, of being a cellar. "It has two steps going down into it, so you have the sense that you’re on a lower level, but it’s right there."
Other features that make this a hospitable home include extensive guest quarters on the lower level, complete with an indoor driving range, and a breezy, octagonal screened summer kitchen on the main floor. "It has pocket doors that slide into the great room and it’s open on most sides, so it has the feeling of being in a tree house. There’s a great long view of the golf course from there," Sinksy notes. "It also acts as a hinge for the house, with the master suite off to the other side."
Despite the majesty of the great hall, the private areas of the home are well appointed but not pretentious — luxurious in their level of efficiency and attention to detail. "The rooms aren’t huge," says Sinsky, "there are just a lot of them. There’s very little wasted space in the plan. The only hallway is between the master suite and the great room, but the way the house is set up, that private space is well buffered."
"I think that architecture should be enjoyable to live in," he continues. "This house really is. I’m sure it’s true when only the owners are there, but it’s also a great house in which to entertain. By scaling down the rooms, it’s as comfortable when it’s just the family as when there are 50 to 100 people in the house."
That pleasure extends to the players involved in the project, who unanimously applaud the cooperative effort and savor the outstanding results. "When you get a client, architect, interior designer — even the faux finisher — all working in the same direction," Sinksy observes, "it makes it a fun project."
