Enlisting a team of talented Utah pros, Floridians Andy and Sherry Sturner build a spectacular Park City home boasting equal parts mountain and modern styles.
By Brad Mee, Photos by Scot Zimmerman
Even as autumn leaves fall and snow begins to fly, there’s a hint of Miami heat warming the interior of this Park City home. As snowbirds splitting their time between Florida and Utah, homeowners Andy and Sherry Sturner desired exactly that as they worked with a talented team to create their modern mountain getaway in the resort town’s Colony community.
The Sturners visited Park City for nearly 20 years before deciding to build a home in Park City. “We’ve skied all over the world, and this is our favorite ski town,” Andy says. So the couple assembled a team of professionals to help them design a home that strikes a perfect balance between modern aesthetics and the mountain setting.
“We knew we wanted a contemporary feel, but wanted to make sure that it was still warm and cozy,” Sherry explains. “Thanks to our world-class team including architects at Otto Walker, designers from LMK Interior Design and the builder at Craig Construction, we were able to incorporate both the clean lines and the coziness we were looking for.” Hits of high glam were also melded into the mix.
To incorporate chic and sleek into the rugged environment, LMK designers Rion Locke, Richard Miller and Mark Kizerian blended finishes and textures featuring a soothing color palette and then sprinkled in a little bling to add luster to the clean lined, contemporary interior.
“Sherry loves rich, warm, earthy tones,” explains Miller. “So we added a few elements to the master bedroom, such as a gilded lamp, and then contrasted the metal with a roughly textured dresser to dress it down.” The designers’ creative choreography of similar contrasting pairings plays throughout.
In the master bathroom, for example, the designers offset white lacquered cabinets—polished to a high sheen—with a wide plank walnut floor, dulled to a matte finish. And in the high-style kitchen, honed Calcutta marble and sophisticated cabinetry contrast with stacked Idaho ledgestone that recurs on the main fireplace, stunning staircase wall and even the exterior entry columns.
“The polished Calcutta is classic, but a slight matte finish makes it more harmonious in the mountainous geography,” Locke explains. Repeating elements like the ledgestone creates a unified bridge from the great room to kitchen as well as from the inside to the outside. “We wanted a cohesive design,” Kizerian says. “Using the same mix of wood, rock and metal helps the eye to float seamlessly from the interior to exterior.
Maximizing views while staying within The Colony’s building requirements called for creativity and collaboration, and resulted in a breathtaking porte-cochere that frames the home’s entry, capacious great room and vistas beyond.
“One of the biggest challenges we faced occurred right before we broke ground,” says Andy. “The home was designed to fit perfectly within the allowed building envelope, but the placement of the front door and the view through the great room didn’t capture the most stunning feature of our property, namely the view of the valley and the Uinta mountain range, including Porcupine Peak and Lewis Peak.”
So the team rolled up their sleeves and got creative. “In order to nail that view, we set the house on an angle,” explains architect Mark Walker. “That angle created a bend in the house and made the space much more interesting.”
But bridging modern architecture and clean aesthetics was only the beginning; functionality was also key. “Our priority in designing our house was livability,” says Sherry, stating that every room needed to be both stunning and livable. “Finding that perfect balance wasn’t easy, but it was so gratifying to see our home come together in such an elegant, yet comfortable, way. From the minute you walk through the front door, you get the warmest feeling, and you know you’re home.”
LMK Interior Design’s Rion Locke, Richard Miller and Mark Kizerian
