Wandering through the rambling ranch house on Swalley Road feels like a tour of discovery. Each room in the 6,121-square-foot dwelling reveals something unexpected: hidden doors leading to secret spaces, a ceiling made of cloth, a spiral staircase and wall niches that serve as small shrines to mustang horses.

The home sits on 25 acres near Tumalo and was acquired by a local family to create what they call The Sanctuary at Varekai Ranch. As longtime sponsors of 3 Sisters Equine, a mustang rescue based in Central Oregon, it was important for the homeowners to live close to the horses they help rescue.

“[The client] came to me with a strong perspective,” said Kate Darden, a Bend interior designer. “She wanted it to have an Alice in Wonderland feeling, that everywhere you go, there’s a surprise.”

Darden, along with Josh Wilhite of Copperline Homes and dozens of subcontractors who worked closely with the family over the course of two years of construction, brought that vision to life. The original scope of the project expanded beyond the residence to include a new pole barn with rustic accommodations and a medical stall for horses, a remodeled carriage house and extensive landscaping around a pond and surrounding structures.

An architect designed the horseshoe-shaped, two-story ranch house, but didn’t provide the family with detailed enough drawings and specifications for construction. “[The clients] had a vision for this house that the plans did not reflect,” said Wilhite. “Only after getting into the home’s construction and working with them were we able to absorb what they wanted. Their vision was nimble and continually evolving, and they were open to advice from people with long experience. They trusted us to fulfill the mission.”

A House of Surprises

Though the owners call it a farmhouse, the home draws from a wide range of influences—Western, Pacific Northwest, Southwestern, Spanish and even modern—blending them into a cohesive living space for the couple, their three sons and five dogs.

A unifying material found throughout the home is handcrafted tile from Kibak Tile in Sisters. All bathrooms have tile accents, as do many other rooms. Darden describes working with Kibak’s Carli Strachan to select patterns, then building different color palettes to present to the client and ultimately deciding where each motif should go in the house.

Darden said the client favored turquoise and terra cotta, but didn’t want it to look overly Southwestern. “Since we live in the high desert, I brought in earthy colors familiar in this landscape to complement the turquoise and clay she loved.”

The primary bath exemplifies how tile can be effectively incorporated into a maximalist design. The roomy space with a balcony features a copper, stand-alone tub, a chandelier made of eucalyptus-hued coconut shells, an ornately tiled shower and a mirror from Santa Fe flanked by custom Apparatus Talisman wall sconces. The toilet room is adorned with Anna Hayman’s vintage-inspired wallpaper in complementary patterns and colors. As a final flourish, a Victorian-era tête-à-tête loveseat invites inhabitants to linger and marvel at the dazzling display of colors and patterns.

The powder room off the home’s entryway exhibits similar maximalist tendencies. This room is cleverly tucked beneath the stairs, incorporating a vanity from India, a black vessel sink and rowdy cowboy wallpaper that, on closer inspection, reveals images of punk rockers and surfers. The bigger surprise, though, is the hidden door in the powder room that leads to a hookah lounge. Low-profile seating upholstered in plush fabrics and rich hues, including Middle Eastern–style poufs, beckons friends into a place of relaxation centered around the exotic-looking hookah.

The entryway highlights two distinctive features of the home: custom-designed lighting and hand-forged ironwork. One of two chandeliers, imagined by Darden and lighting designer Chris Ferguson of Part & Process, welcomes visitors at the door. “It’s meant to emulate a horse bit on the sides, with a light that filters through an oculus at the bottom,” Darden said. “It looks so cool at night.” Overhead, a narrow indoor catwalk is built of see-through steel flooring, allowing light to pass down into the entry while offering curious eyes below a glimpse of what’s above.

Ponderosa Forge of Sisters handcrafted ironworks around the home, including the fireplace grates and tools, a triangular dinner bell displayed outside and hardware such as towel hooks and floor registers with an interlocking “H” pattern that stands for the couple’s last name.

In the kitchen nook dining area, the ceiling— made of multicolored striped fabric—is another marvel to behold. Darden designed it after she and her client bought yards of a Peruvian textile they saw in Santa Fe without knowing where the fabric might be used.

“I had piles of fabric at my office and wondered what I was going to do with it all. Curtains seemed predictable, so I went to the project manager, Simon Doss, and told him I had this crazy idea,” Darden recalled. Together, they designed a system of building frames that incorporated magnets for snapping fabric-covered panels into place. Colored stripes with alpacas and little bears are in perfect alignment with one another. “It was labor-intensive,” she admitted, “but it turned out really nice.”

Calming Influences

While parts of the home exude playful energy, other sections shift toward a calmer demeanor. The barn room (or family room) is such a place. It’s where the family gathers around the long wooden table for meals or together on the leather couch before the Montana moss rock fireplace on game day.

“My favorite part of the house is the barn room, with its massive, super-tall vaulted ceiling,” said Wilhite. “I worried it might feel like a cavern, but the client was confident from the start. As we moved through the design process, Kate covered every wall and ceiling in wood, and we added timber-frame trusses, large light fixtures and a ‘Juliet’ balcony with a small reading space, its own library and a hidden door. In the end, it all worked out.”

From this room, the family and its guests can flow onto the outside deck that hangs over a pond deep enough for the boys and dogs to jump in and swim around. Two wicker chairs suspended from a large beam are a favorite of the homeowners for sitting or even napping.

For nighttime magic, the family and its guests can retreat to the courtyard built between the home’s two main wings. Tiny lights strung across cables and the glow of the firepit set the mood for lingering in the soaking pool or gathering under the stars with a glass of wine.

Builder Wilhite summed it up by saying, “There’s an eclectic flair to the house, and everywhere you look there’s something fun.” It reflects the family’s playful spirit and love of surprise, their trust in the design team to fulfill their vision and a desire to make Varekai Ranch a true sanctuary.

Architectural steel: Iron Environments  |  Builder: Copperline Homes  |  Cabinetry: Bladt’s Custom Woodworking   |  Finish carpentry: Outback Finish & Trim Co.  |  Interior design: Kate Darden  |  Landscape: Outdoor Innovations  |  Reclaimed wood: Forged Elegance  |  Tile installation: Harlan Manley Tile Inc.