Shelter. Such an expressive word. Not, perhaps, the first word that comes to mind when thinking of a place in Park City, Utah, where getaway homes transcend notions of refuge and sanctuary. But standing under the soaring, pitched roof of the expansive, wood-clad living room in designer Andrea Michaelson’s house and viewing the Park City Wasatch Mountains through a massive window, it’s hard not to be appreciatively aware that you are inside, looking out.
“Most of the homes we looked at were too rustic,” describes Michaelson, who bought the property from the original owner in 2021, “with finishes that one assumes should be there or very contemporary and cold.” The interiors she has fashioned are neither. While a Flexform sofa and Poltrona Frau Boheme chairs have their place here, so, too, do the 18th-century Flemish tapestry that covers an entire stone wall in the dining room and the pair of Venetian mirrors that flank the kitchen island. “My intention,” relates Michaelson, “was to make this feel like a home – not a mountain home but a family residence for all our kids and grandkids to use freely year-round.”
The house was only 20 years old when Michaelson acquired it, but an update was in order. Except for the rough-hewn spruce floorboards, she completely gutted the kitchen and installed floor-to-ceiling cabinets in black FENIX, imported stainless-steel counters, vintage industrial pendants and no-nonsense cast-iron stools by District Eight. Powder rooms were outfitted with new cabinets, sinks, counters and faucets. The primary bedroom was refreshed, and its accompanying bathroom was utterly reimagined (with French doors, a custom floating vanity set with concrete sinks and an Ofuro soaking tub crafted from iroko wood). The living room fireplace got a facelift with lime plaster.
The abundance of wood in the house generates a warm, cocooning effect. Still, there’s nothing traditionally lodge-like about these spaces, thanks to the way Michaelson has incorporated European antiques throughout. A Fortuny lantern is suspended in the foyer. A vintage pier mirror made of brass hangs parallel to a doorway that frames a short staircase spun of slate tiles in an almost mossy hue. The Cabrera waxed-concrete dining table from RH is surrounded by gilt-kissed, 19th-century Italian chairs sourced from an antique dealer in Toulouse. The primary bedroom sports red leather Poltrona Frau Boheme chairs and a custom headboard made from an antique valance, which is newly upholstered in Annata velvet from Quintus with Samuel & Sons trim.
Michaelson’s penchant for creative combos is most evident in that great, vista-blessed living room. Large, 19th-century carved and gilded sconces flank the fireplace, and an antique Spanish altar table occupies a corner near the window. A vintage sled, repurposed as a coffee table, sits surrounded by an abundance of seating, including a very large Gregory sectional from Flexform, designed by Antonio Citterio. Thanks to the voluminous scale of the room, the sense of proportion Michaelson exercised in decorating the space, the ever-engaging view outside the window, all coheres – pleasingly, reassuringly, understatedly. By going against the grain, she has created a sense of place that her family, no doubt, will always remember.
Photography by Dan Arnold.
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