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By Jennifer Walton
What makes a home memorable? What transforms wood, steel, glass, and stone into something inviting and nurturing that provides a sense of belonging, and speaks to the lives lived within it? For the client, architect, and interior designer, the answer involved a shared vision, trust, and collaboration that resulted in a spectacular home just north of Ketchum in a neighborhood where older homes are complemented by newly built architectural gems.
“This wasn’t just a vacation home. It needed to work for a family…and for that we needed to consider how the great room would feel when there might be just the couple, while considering how it would flow with a large group.”
–Jeff Williams, Architect, Williams Partners Architects
WILLIAMS PARTNERS ARCHITECTS & SUEDE STUDIO BRING A FAMILY’S VISION TO LIFE
The home is a masterclass in evolution. Over the course of the project, what began as a loosely traditional concept transformed into a singular expression of family, gathering, and high-altitude fun.
The clients, an energetic, ski-loving family from the Bay Area, came to the project with mood boards full of ideas and a desire for a home that would accommodate more than just themselves. It had to have room for extended family and the many friends who visit to experience Sun Valley’s iconic winter and summer seasons. As such, the program called for generous gathering spaces, layered living areas, and a kind of informality that never sacrificed sophistication. “This wasn’t just a vacation home,” says architect Jeff Williams of Williams Partners Architects. “It needed to work for a family that wants to gather 14 to 16 people at their dining room table, and for that we needed to consider how the great room would feel when there might be just the couple, while considering how it would flow with a large group.” With three-plus decades of experience designing exceptional homes in the Sun Valley area, Williams got to work ensuring that the client’s intended use would act as an expression of their lifestyle.
From the beginning, the home was shaped by its site. The views to the north and west were integral to the design; however, the view to the east that encompasses the ridge-line and outcroppings above Lake Creek and the peaks beyond was of particular importance. Williams approached the design with a quiet clarity that focuses on the home’s clean lines, deliberate material palette, and harmonious connection to its surroundings.
The clients suggested placing the living room on the second floor to capture more elevation and those views. The decision led to a two-story volume with ten-foot ceilings on both levels, so the views could be equally breathtaking from any room. With an innate understanding of proportion and a mastery of spatial flow, Williams created a structure that is expansive and timeless. The outcome is a home that lives large without feeling imposing. And while it is open and inviting, it radiates intimacy and coziness.
“The client expressed her reservation about the exterior stonework entering the great room’s space. But through collaboration, we refined the scale, incorporated the fluted design to add texture, integrated a hewn mantel and blackened steel, and created something sculptural and personal.”
–Jennifer Hoey, Founder, Suede Studio
The material choices reflect that same ethos. Williams and his team sought to move away from the more stereotypical heavy-handed rusticity. Instead, the home uses a mixture of light and dark wood siding, steel, and reclaimed wood in a cleaner, more edited way. The genius of Suede Studio and Williams’ vision in the living area resulted in a fluted concrete fireplace, which evolved through many iterations and some healthy design debate. It is the soul of that space. “It was at moments a delicate matter,” recalls Jennifer Hoey, the well known interior designer and founder of Suede Studio. “The client expressed her reservation about the exterior stonework entering the great room’s space. But through collaboration, we refined the scale, incorporated the fluted design to add texture, integrated a hewn mantel and blackened steel, and created something sculptural and personal.”
Hoey describes the design process as “driven by the client—eclectic, fun, and always evolving.” That spirit of personalization runs throughout the interiors, influenced by the homeowner’s travel and love of textiles, fashion, and art installations. In fact, her tastes expanded and refined as the home took shape. Color became a key tool: a rich turquoise and deep blue palette set the tone, supported by rustic metals, natural textures, and highlighted with saddle leather and brass flourishes. Each room gave Hoey and her team an opportunity to focus on details that transform a house into that intangible feeling of home and the personalities who inhabit it.
In the kitchen, Hoey was challenged with uniting architectural and design elements. The soaring gabled ceiling is off-center, the ridge beam not aligned with the cabinetry or island. But instead of masking this, Hoey embraced it and solved the equation intuitively. “We designed the kitchen around that asymmetry,” she says. “We extended the island, sourced specific pendants, and visually snapped everything to the centerline of the range hood and faucet. It was about creating a sense of order within a very dynamic space.”
That range hood, custom fabricated by a local steelworker, was mocked up in cardboard before being built in blackened steel with brass strapping. “We worked with different vendors to get the right finish and thickness,” says Suede Studio’s Project Designer Madison King, whose insight and collaborative effort were instrumental in achieving the final result. “It was one of those elements that stuck from the early concepts.”
Other moments in the home reveal the same careful balance between precision and warmth. A cozy bench nook in the primary suite is framed in black wire-brushed siding that continues from the exterior, blurring and blending the indoors and out—quite literally and naturally framing Bald Mountain. The powder room is spare, luxurious, and luminous. And perhaps most memorably, the rec room located just off the main entry features a hand-painted mural of Bald Mountain by local artist Christa Briana. The homeowners were thrilled when they saw that the artist had included Seattle Ridge, the elk, the trees, and even the lodge. It’s one of their favorite elements in the home because it’s personal.
“Our client was incredibly energetic and placed a lot of trust in us, which gave us room to explore,” shares Hoey. “It was the perfect way to showcase the rustic character of the home while introducing more refined elements, like pairing aged materials with warm brass, to push those boundaries a little further.”
For Williams and Hoey, longtime collaborators, the project was an exercise in adaptability and shared trust. “Jennifer and I have worked together for more than 20 years,” Williams says. “With such an engaged client, it’s crucial to have someone who not only understands the client’s needs but also knows how to navigate the process alongside me.” Hoey adds, “As architects and designers, we each bring our own style and sensibility, but when a client comes to us with inspiration and a sense of play, that drives the work somewhere new. That’s the whole point. It’s about pushing design to meet the client where they are, and then taking them a little further.”
“It’s about pushing design to meet the client where they are, and then taking them a little further.”
–Jennifer Hoey, Founder, Suede Studio
In that way, this Ketchum home is both an ending and a beginning. It’s the culmination of countless choices, site visits, sketches, shared ambitions, and a deep investment by all parties, while evoking something harder to articulate: a sense of joy. But it’s also the start of something else entirely: a place for this family to gather, to grow, and to take in all those views together.
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