Lake Life

The directive for this bustling vacation home in Lake Tahoe: Create an inviting, modern, and chic environment for the owner's family and friends to share and make lasting memories on the lake or the nearby slopes. San Francisco Wiseman Group designers Brenda Mickel and Megan Munoz accepted the challenge. They looked to the area's stunning landscape to inspire a design that melded livability with a quiet but striking design punch.  

The turnkey contemporary condo, situated in The Beach Club on the south shore of Lake Tahoe, has access to the property clubhouse, complete with restaurants, a full spa, wine storage, valet boat service, and beach activities. The amenities allowed the designers to focus on an architectural and design overhaul of the five-bedroom, five-bath space without worrying about where the typical overflow of vacation home stuff. The space is a significant style step up from the usual rustic cabin in the area and contains sophisticated finishes, materials, and furnishing typically not found in developer properties.

Free to focus on the interior architecture, cabinetry, bathroom, and kitchen design, Mickel and Munoz grounded the home with a serene palette of grays, blues, browns, and tans to reflect the lake, mountains, and meadows just outside and used the spectacular views to blur the lines between inside and out.  “Because the square footage is less than what the clients are used to, the light, neutral color palette with color pops helps the spaces feel larger and less cluttered,” says Mickel. 

The landscape inspired the material selections as well. Using glass, wood, bronze, and parchment finishes and soft furnishings infuses the interior with the perfect balance of comfort and coolness. “[The client’s] taste quite contemporary, so finding the rustic contemporary aesthetic was a balancing act which was achieved through color palettes, some unique objects,” says Paul Vincent Wiseman, the project lead and founder of The Wiseman Group.  One such moment is a two-story high mural inspired by an Aspen grove just outside and includes a special member of their family, their King Charles Spaniel. 

The neutral backdrop allows the clean-lined architecture, art, and watery glass lighting to shine like the boxy Holly Hunt fixtures over the dining area and the tear-drop-like Ochre pendants in the main staircase and upstairs bar.  The art took on an anthropological bent, including a 51-million-year-old fossil from the Eocene Era featured in the niche from the Tucson Mineral Show, which Wiseman has been attending for 30 years. “The fossil can on the qualities of an abstract piece of modern art. The piece also reminded the designers “how long ago the Lake and surrounding land formed.” Other pieces were transplanted from their previous lake house, including a bronzed tortoiseshell, a fossil fish mural from Geodecor, and ink drawings with Chinese rope by John Mayberry.

But the actual works of art lie just outside. With picturesque, expansive views of mountains and lake on either side, especially from the condo’s balconies, the designers created comfortable window seating to capture the views and allow natural light to stream into the space.  To maximize space and convey a relaxed feeling of a vacation home, Mickel and Munoz chose streamlined, low-profile furnishings with casual elegance to create comfortable spaces for reading, talking, gathering, lounging, working, and TV and gaming once the sun sets. “The owners appreciate liveable, practical fabrics and a textural mix in the wood finishes, glass, fabrics, and carpets,” says Mickel.  The dining table from Hudson, NYC, has a solid bronze base and wood top inspired by the wood and bone pieces collected in the woods. 

While accessories are minimal, texture looms large throughout the condo. Custom Rift-cut resawn oakwood cabinets throughout the living space add quiet, luxe character without overtaking the space. (They neatly tuck away the things they don’t want to see daily.) Silk and wood carpets are layered on neutral wide plank wood and tile floors for a soft underfoot year-round. “All materials have to be vetted against other materials for their relationship,” explains Wiseman. “A harmonious palette often looks simple when, in reality, it’s far more complex.

The result is a modern, sophisticated, and comfortable home so everyone can immediately embrace and enjoy the spectacular nature outside the doors.