This Home Pays Tribute to Aspen's '70s Heyday

“When you walk into a home, you want to be transported somewhere, and you want to be in an environment that is a fantasy for you. It’s important to create a unique experience. It’s almost like creating a brand identity for each client,” Clive Lonstein says. The designer recently completed a year-long project in Aspen, Colorado, the resort town as well known for its skiing as for its blue-chip art scene, intellectual community, and private night clubs. The home, originally designed by Richard Gluckman in the 1990s, has been completely transformed into a haven of ‘70s sophistication and—if the forest green hue that echoes throughout is any indication—warmth. Lonstein’s discerning clients wanted a strong cozy factor for the family home that never traded on elegance. 

Like the house itself, Lonstein’s career was born in the ‘90s, when his star rose while creating retail spaces at Studio Sofield for luxury clients, including Tom Ford, Bottega Veneta, Gucci, and YSL. “There was a time in retail when brands were looking to make their stores feel more residential,” he says. “That’s become more prevalent now that you have these very luxurious materials in a retail environment, but when I started working back in the day, it wasn’t so common—having that level of finish or richness of materials in stores. So [my retail and residential projects] have fed each other, in a sense.”

Lonstein wanted to transport the ‘90s home back in time to Aspen’s glamorous heyday of the ‘70s, when the tiny ski town first found its footing as a jet-set destination, and long before Prada and Chanel stores lined its streets. When he embarked on the project, the home “felt very institutional and quite industrial,” he says. “Aspen is the type of place where you want an environment that’s warm and inviting. Having an interior that’s very, very cold and contemporary, even though it may look cool, it doesn’t feel comfortable and it doesn’t feel contextual. I think those interiors are great in LA or Miami.”

This meant integrating warm woods—and walnut in particular—throughout, and updating a large, solid fireplace in the main living area with hand-chiseled limestone to help ground the expansive, five-bedroom home. “I was able to change the space through materials,” he explains. But, as they say, the house did have good bones: “The layout worked to my benefit, because you had this really cool open plan, and really interesting angles,” the designer explains. 

Lonstein leaned into multiple seating groups throughout the main floor for a sense of communal living, with all of the furniture at a similar low height to visually streamline the space. Two custom club chairs done up in horsehair, saddle-color leather, and hand-woven fabric sit in the main living room atop an ombre mohair rug that goes from dark on the exterior to light as you move closer to the middle, to mimic the motion of the sun through the home throughout the day. The drapery is olive green and made from Loro Piana fabric that mirrors the aspens and evergreens outside the window. It’s all very textural and neutral, but in a way that allows deep shades to live as they would in nature: unassuming and entirely organic. For the kitchen, which flows into the living and dining areas, Lonstein chose gray countertops and white cabinets to offset the warm tones found in the brown heritage tile backsplash and tan Mario Bellini leather cab chairs set around a custom plastic laminate dining room table. A sculptural Serge Mouille Ceiling Lamp overhead is just one of many vintage items in the home. 

While the layout of the downstairs remained largely unchanged in the redesign, the primary bedroom, bathroom, and dressing suite were all completely reconfigured and restructured in the three-story home. A ski house wouldn’t be complete without a great bunk-bed room, and this one is a very elegant take that sleeps five, complete with gun-metal accents and walnut wood. “I love a cool, moody bunk room, even though it’s for kids. It’s an elevated bunk room,” Lonstein says. The powder room has the most saturated color story of any space in the house, and continues that moody element, with hand-rubbed plaster on the walls using Farrow & Ball’s Forest Green. “The room also had these really interesting skylights that let the light streak in. There’s this great piece of photography, “Sunburn Series” by Chris McCaw from the Yossi Milo Gallery, and I just love the minimalistic quality of the green soapstone sink, the light coming in from the skylight, and that piece of art.” That unspoken synergy is echoed in the primary bedroom, which features a sleek eelskin wall, as well as deep walnut elements, a custom bed with inset fabric panels, and a textural shearling chair. “Not every project has a sexiness to it,” Lonstein says. “But this house really does.”