by Sarah Lynch
This article appears in the Chronicle’s new home design magazine, Habitat, which premieres Sunday April 24.
Surprise is the umami of emotions — a complex sensation that can sometimes turn your stomach sour if the proportions are ever so slightly off. Think of that surprise party that went disastrously wrong, or the unexpected proposal that went heart-explodingly right.
The brand of surprise that designer Erin Martin specializes in is unequivocally the latter, and her latest project is such a skillful execution of shock and awe that it’s hard to imagine what else could possibly be around the corner. But isn’t that just what a true master of the unexpected wants you to think? Let’s start with the pleasant surprise of finding out that all your preconceptions of a custom-built ski home in a luxury planned community are off — way off.
Matt and Vy Hyman’s mini-compound at Martis Camp, outside of Truckee, is 9,000 square feet of innovative design, hand-wrought details and artistic touches at every turn. From the outside, the house is a modern combination of barn and cottage vernacular: a series of simple box-like forms clad in distressed wood with a standing-seam black metal roof. Architect Scott Gillespie of Sandbox Studio worked within the design standard set by the development, which has been lauded for helping update the worn-out Tahoe mountain style.Inside, the surprises are revealed one at a time.
You enter the house via a steel bridge and an enormous glass door. A giant drawing of an ice harvester by Ethan Murrow is on your left, and straight ahead in the vaulted living room is an assemblage of enormous cast-bronze sunflower seed pods transformed into lights, suspended above two massive, squarish stone boulders. Across the room is a view through an industrial glass garage door of towering pines, and the snowy runs of Northstar are visible in the distance.
The room itself is horizontally wrapped in pale wood paneling; the floors are poured concrete. With niches in the walls designed for display and seating, and giant lanterns overhead, this place feels more like a cathedral than an ultra-luxe cabin. The next surprise is a glimpse of tiny ski boots through the mudroom’s steel mesh lockers. It turns out this is not a sanctuary for design lovers; this is the home of a young, energetic family with four children, ranging in age from 4 months to 10 years, and their large extended family.
“We always dreamed of owning a home on Lake Tahoe,” says Matt, an entrepreneur who grew up in San Rafael and met his wife, Vy, in high school. “I’m one of five brothers, and growing up, we’d go to Clear Lake in the summers. We would wake up at 6 a.m. and go waterskiing all day.”
The couple bought a lot four years ago at Martis Camp, 30 minutes from Lake Tahoe. So did Matt’s identical twin brother and business partner, Zach. Their land may not have been lakeside, but the family-friendly luxuries of this development won over the Hyman brothers, who also love to ski and golf. “The amenities are pretty sick,” says Matt. “The family barn has a bowling alley, arts and crafts, and a movie theater for our kids. Plus it’s ski-in/ski-out from the Lookout Lodge. It was all so perfectly suited to our family.”
Right away the Hymans hired Sandbox Studio and Mark Tanner Construction, two firms well versed in building new homes at Martis Camp. Together they came up with a U-shaped layout anchored by an eight-bedroom main house that includes an entire wing dedicated to guest rooms, as well as another, more private wing where the family sleeps and the kids can hang out. A separate garage connected on one side to a mudroom, and a detached three-bedroom guesthouse would be located opposite from the garage.
“We knew we wanted a clean-lined mountain home — not as rustic as some of the more traditional Tahoe homes,” says Matt. “But we also wanted it to be timeless. This house was not just for us, but for our kids and maybe one day for their kids.”
Vy had seen a couple of press clippings about Napa Valley-based Erin Martin Design. Matt called and got an “Erin can see you in the first quarter of 2013” response that he didn’t like — but it also piqued his interest. He sent Martin an email essentially saying, “Look, we’re about to build a pretty big house in a really hot location and we love your style. This could be worth your while.”
Martin eventually took the job on one condition: This would not be the typical Tahoe cabin or Tyrolean chalet. “I wasn’t going to do something you’d find at Knott’s Berry Farm,” says Martin. “It needed to be good, and I wanted it to be real.”
For Martin, good and real often means enlisting her “tribe” of skilled California artisans with whom she’s collaborated for years on designs for lighting, hardware, furniture and art installations. Like a Pied Piper warding off phony design, Martin’s tribe follows her from project to project. Their collaborative works have become the mainstays of an Erin Martin design: The metalwork of Lake County artist Brian Kennedy shows up here on the fireplace surrounds and the rolled steel doorways; Santa Barbara-based Mick Handley fabricated all the lights, including the living room pendants featuring Napa artist Michael McDermott’s bronze sunflower pods; the master canopy bed was made by Ukiah’s Garth Miller Studio; and the hand-painted crests in the bunk wing were done by San Francisco decorative painter Michael Duté. The powder room ceiling is a spectacular collage of charred wood by Athena Patton.
“For us, pushing the envelope makes it something worth doing,” says Martin.
Her first task was to edit and scale down some of the interior volumes. Martin eliminated some of the traditional gabled rooflines and tweaked the original floor plan to make the rooms feel more scaled to the family. She boxed in the central public rooms so that the living room, kitchen/dining and media rooms became three parallel rectangular spaces, losing some square footage along the way but gaining a more manageable house.
Her first task was to edit and scale down some of the interior volumes. Martin eliminated some of the traditional gabled rooflines and tweaked the original floor plan to make the rooms feel more scaled to the family. She boxed in the central public rooms so that the living room, kitchen/dining and media rooms became three parallel rectangular spaces, losing some square footage along the way but gaining a more manageable house.
“We didn’t want a big, obnoxious mansion,” says Matt. “That’s not who we are. Erin helped make it feel more intimate.”
After simplifying some of the more rustic elements, Martin seriously complicated the building process by adding a dozen new materials and intricate custom detailing throughout the house. A steel staircase was commissioned in a honeycomb pattern from a local metalworker. The flooring changes from poured concrete to wide wood planks, with rolled steel in between to mark the shift. The bedrooms and baths have sand-colored Venetian plaster walls, while the media room’s dark leather, studded walls create a cozy nighttime vibe. The kitchen features two types of Clé tile and an enormous metal hood.
“This is, by far, the largest number of different textures and colors I have ever used in one house,” says Martin. She tamed the variety by keeping all the materials in various shades of black, brown or beige.
The house was furnished with large-scale custom pieces, like the double-back sofa in the living room and the live-edge walnut dining table. But it wasn’t a free-for-all. The Hymans are not the type of client for whom budget is no concern. There was a constant back and forth with all of the proposed items, but in the end they were happy to leave the artistry to the experts.
“These guys were into letting all of us do what we do best,” says Martin, who turned the house over to the Hymans a year ago. “They believed in us, and everyone took that to heart. Plus they were willing to be surprised, which is even better.”
“Erin is one of a kind in every aspect, and it shows in her work,” says Matt, who reports they’ve had as many as seven families stay in the house at one time. “I remember thinking during an early walk-through, ‘Man, this person is worth every penny because she’s just a bad-ass.’” No surprise there.