In pursuit of their dream retreat, a Salem couple teamed up with JHL Design of Portland and CD Redding Construction of Salem to create a lodge-inspired mountain home amidst the natural beauty of Black Butte Ranch. They envisioned a home echoing the architectural style of lodges in Montana and Idaho where they often stayed during fly fishing expeditions.

The result is a residence that marries Western ranch traditions with elements of contemporary aesthetics. The middle section of the home boasts a striking, soaring peaked roof which commands attention, complemented by wings on either side—one that extends into a two-story structure. The use of natural wood dominates throughout the 4,600-square-foot home, unifying the design with exposed, rough-hewn beams and posts, and finely finished cabinets and flooring. The exterior siding is covered in durable, one-inch board-and-batt cedar, with a type of natural finish that creates a weathered look and requires no maintenance. The home sits on a two-acre lot with the backyard opening to the Deschutes National Forest.

The Home Details

A covered porch and vestibule serves as the front entry, a place where guests can hang coats and hats before stepping into the large-scale dining and living room with its 20-foot gabled ceiling. “It’s the heart of the home,” said Holly Freres, JHL principal and interior designer. The star feature is a Montana moss-stone fireplace that runs from floor to ridge beam. “The homeowners spend a good amount of time sitting near the fireplace in this grand room, reading and taking in the view,” she said.

The ceiling heights are reduced to a more human scale across the two wings. A short hallway off the central room leads to the homeowner’s private bedroom suite. This secluded retreat features an outdoor spa, hot tub and a covered patio facing the forest. Here, the homeowners can enjoy complete privacy, shielded from view with no neighboring properties in sight.

On the other wing, traffic flows into the open kitchen through structural timbers. A blue-painted island anchors the space with stools for seating and is lit by overhead pendants which hang from belted leather crafted by Allied Maker. The wall behind the range displays hand-painted, blue-green ceramic tile by Fireclay Tile, designed to emulate sage brush. Appliances and extra storage are hidden in a large pantry behind the kitchen. A convenient pass-through window blurs indoor and outdoor spaces, allowing for the effortless transfer of food and drinks to guests seated on exterior bar stools within the sheltered patio terrace. Complete with its own fireplace, outdoor dining area and barbeque, the terrace is a comfortable and inviting setting for year-round enjoyment.

The design team had fun with the powder room and mudroom, both tucked conveniently off the hallway behind the pantry. The powder room has vintage Zak+Fox wallpaper and an antique vanity with a vessel sink. The mudroom is a space that often gets overlooked, Freres said, but “it’s beautiful in this home.” It features cubbies for boots and hats and a pet room for the dogs. The designers added zing with a white oak bench and an animal skin pillow. “We made sure the mudroom felt clean and bright. It also has a nice view to the front of the house where there’s an outcropping of boulders,” Freres added.

Western-Inspired Bunkroom

The upstairs bunkroom stands out as a highlight for many, including JHL Principal Designer David Horning, who declared it his favorite space. Inspired by the client’s admiration for old cowboy movies, the design team devoted significant effort to crafting a rustic, masculine ambiance. A beverage cooler, comfortable furniture and other amenities make it a go-to spot for the homeowners to unwind, kick off their boots, entertain friends and watch sports. It also transitions seamlessly into a space for the grandkids. Two sets of built-in twin beds have trundles that pull out to accommodate four children. “We aimed to create an environment that feels welcoming to all ages,” he said.

The bunk room’s architecture mimics the gabled ceilings found in the central room, with fully paneled walls emphasizing wood as the predominant design element. A snug window seat at the top of the stairs serves as a charming break-out zone. Notably, the room’s repurposed carpet was salvaged from the original Black Butte Lodge before its demolition made way for the new Lodge, which opened in 2023.

The home took roughly two years to build. Cory Redding, president of CD Redding Construction, said, “The Black Butte project was presented to us with a vision from the start. We assembled a team of experts, including JHL, encompassing  architectural, engineering, interior design and furniture procurement.” Throughout construction, the clients entrusted the building and design team with the creative freedom to fulfill their dream. JHL’s Horning shared that “they were blown away when they saw the finished home, which was truly gratifying.” 

Builder: CD Redding Construction | Home Design: Holly Freres and David Horning, JHL Design

---

Click here to read more HOME + DESIGN stories with us.

Michael “Mike” and Kathryn “Kat” Burn make it a point to look at things differently. Take their home, for example. It’s constructed of prefabricated panels rarely seen in custom-home neighborhoods. Then there’s the design—eight rectangular rooms arranged around a central courtyard in the shape of a hashtag, earning it the name “Octothorpe House.” 

The design came from award-winning Mork-Ulnes Architects of San Francisco and Oslo, Norway, who previously had designed a remodel for the couple’s San Francisco home. The Burns felt the Mork-Ulnes team would embrace the challenge of designing an almost entirely wood home in Bend with many sustainability features. They wanted something different from the status quo and had three requests for the architects: it should be made of panels, it should be as small as possible given minimum square-footage requirements in their residential development, and it should have a courtyard as a refuge from Central Oregon’s wind. 

The Move to Central Oregon in 2018

The couple moved to Central Oregon in 2018 for the lifestyle and for more time in the outdoors with their son Alan, now age 9. Both worked in the Bay Area for many years, Kat in pharmaceutical development, and Mike as the owner of a consulting company focused on innovation systems. Mike grew up in Newcastle, England, and was familiar with panel-built homes. He wanted “a stronger, more robust, high-quality house with better insulation, airtightness and fire resistance,” he said. Both Burns felt they had a moral responsibility to build with sustainable materials. 

The walls and ceiling are made of cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels manufactured by SmartLam North American of Columbia Falls, Montana—one of a handful of U.S. factories producing them. Some of the CLT was made from salvaged lodgepole “blue pine” lumber killed by mountain beetles.

The product is made by compressing and gluing layers of solid wood in a cross pattern, which endows it with exceptional strength compared to traditional stud-framed walls. It is widely used throughout Europe and is gaining popularity in the United States
for mid- and high-rise commercial buildings as well as residential.

Building outside of standard practices had its challenges. For starters, the home is built from the inside out. “You assemble it like a Lego house,” said builder Trevor Downing, who found it difficult to find subcontractors willing to learn this new style of construction. He ended up doing much of the work himself, including the siding. “Trevor and his subs had to reinvent the wheel, no small feat,” said Casper Mork-Ulnes, founder of Mork-Ulnes Architects. 

The interior wall panels arrived from the factory with windows and other holes precut. Four inches thick, the room-size panels are so heavy a crane was needed to lift and place them on the foundation. Once in place, utilities such as electrical were placed on the outside of the panels and pulled through to the interior walls. A sticky, self-adhering spray insulation was added before plywood went on to make the dwelling airtight.

In a nod to the Awbrey Hall fire that burned through Bend’s westside in 1990, the homeowners chose a burned cedar wood product called Shou sugi ban for the exterior siding. Originating from Japan, the process of burning and charring the wood makes the product waterproof, and resistant to fire, decay and insects, plus it requires almost no maintenance over the years.

Thoughtful Use of Space 

“The greenest part of our home is the part we didn’t build,” Mike said. The couple met the minimum of 2,800 square feet of living space required by their residential development, even though it was larger than what they wanted for their one-story home.  “It was exciting for us to work with American clients who didn’t necessarily want a mega-mansion. In Europe we’re used to being economical with space,” Mork-Ulnes said. “There’s not a square inch of wasted space,” Kat said. “Everything is useful living space.”

The design team paid particular attention to where the house sat on the site. “It was about not filling up the entire lot,” she said. “It was about placing it in the right position for views and privacy, making the most of the space.” 

The hashtag design of rooms around the courtyard includes a large rectangular space consisting of the living and dining rooms, kitchen and a large butler’s pantry (also known in Britain as a “dairy room with storage”). Each room flows into the next, negating the need for hallways.

The four bedrooms have ensuite bathrooms, with the primary suite slightly larger than the other rooms. An office for the work-from-home-couple doubles as a guest bedroom with a hidden Murphy bed. Each room has a door to the courtyard and another door leading to a patio or the natural environment. Inhabitants can easily cross between rooms through the center courtyard or via interior spaces. This crisscross pattern of open doors also lends itself to cross ventilation of fresh air on hot days. Large eight-by-eight-foot windows in every room convey light and connect people on the inside with the outside landscape.

Because the walls and roof were prefabricated and panels had to fit perfectly with one another, architectural drawings were extensive and specified every aspect of construction. “They were some of the most detailed plans I’ve ever seen,” Downing said. “There must have been one-hundred pages which laid out everything from strict guidelines for CLT installation to tile design and bathroom fixtures. Having a plan that detailed helped a ton.” And because of the extraordinary “tightness” of construction, walls and windows required no trim to cover rough or uneven edges. 

Modern Design Meets the High Desert

The wood panels made of pine, spruce and fir imbue the home with a warm, Scandinavian chalet feel. There’s no sheetrock or painted surface anywhere in the house. The high insulation values, thick walls and windows dampen sound and give spaces a quiet coziness. “The acoustics are great,” Kat said. 

“The beautiful high desert environment and the sculptural design of the house drew us toward [the design aesthetics of] Donald Judd’s Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas,” said Lexie Mork-Ulnes, interior designer. She said the two dominant materials in Octothorpe—the CLT and the concrete floors—inspired a muted color palette for furniture, surfaces and fixtures that would merge with the natural landscape. Furnishings are made of wool, felt and leather.

A unique coffee table in the living room crafted by Oakland wood artist Yvonne Mouser was inspired by the Three Sisters peaks visible from the sofa. She used a chainsaw and blow torch on three Douglas fir blocks to create three peaks that protrude through smoked glass to mimic the view. 

The public part of the kitchen is sleek and uncluttered with a black paper-stone island. It’s the only dark feature in the great room except for a black Danish wood-burning stove in the living room. Cabinets hold a discreet induction stove and dishwasher. The tidy kitchen hides a walkaround pantry where no cook’s tool was overlooked. It has a commercial-grade stainless steel sink, two refrigerators and freezers, shelving for appliances and dry goods and extensive counters for food prep and cabinetry for storage.

“God is in the details,” said Casper Mork-Ulnes. “The initial concept is as important as the final details and execution. We had to think it through and design every little thing. We picked everything from the toilet paper holder to recessed door handles and light switches.” 

Dustin Moore of San Francisco-based Strata Landscape Architecture worked with Mork-Ulnes from the beginning to ensure consistency between the house and the landscape. The space immediately surrounding the building is populated with native plants that require little water and hardscapes such as concrete steps leading to a gas fire pit and a covered outdoor dining and barbeque area.

Mike describes himself and Kat as compulsively committed. “If you’re going to build something, build something epic,” he said. After two years of living in the house, the couple feels they accomplished their goal. “We have this house, and we can walk right into the forest. I have to pinch myself.” 

Resources:

Architect: Casper Mork-Ulnes | Interior designer: Lexie Mork-Ulnes | Builder: Trevor Downing | Landscape: Dustin Moore, Strata Landscape Architecture | Engineering: Eclipse Engineering

---

Click here to read more HOME stories with us.