When Alina Wolhardt’s friends purchased a 65-acre property in the Berkshires, they tapped her to create a warm and welcoming home. The property, which had a small cabin already, as well as a barn, is a true mountain escape. Wolhardt describes, “It’s in the middle of nowhere, so we really made it a place where they want to hang out and spend a lot of time with friends and family who own property nearby.”
The couple, who also worked with Wolhardt on their Venice, California home, favor Scandinavian and Japanese styles, and Wolhardt’s background is Danish and
Japanese, so she was the perfect person to create this home. Their friendship goes back to their college days in Boston.
A local architect, Joe the Architect, was brought in to add on to the existing cabin, and Wolhardt came on board once the construction had started. “The original house was a tiny, two-bedroom cabin, which they lived in for a while after buying the property.” Wolhardt goes on to explain that the project, which started as an addition, slowly expanded and evolved, and the original two-story home became three, with a lower level built into the hillside where the home is perched.
The entryway includes a showstopping tree sculpture commissioned from artist Jason Middlebrook and made of the slate roof tiles from the original cabin.
One of the biggest changes was the addition of expansive windows that benefit the views of the surrounding deeply wooded property, which the couple enjoys in both summer and winter. “They spend the summers here, but they also come over Christmas break, when the snow is falling. It’s magical.” Wolhardt also shares that they have since added an apple orchard, and the property has a lake, making it the perfect getaway.
Photography by Read McKendree.
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