Tour a Contemporary Telluride House With Glorious Panoramic Views

“We wanted to connect the house to the land,” says designer Kimille Taylor, who is married to architect Morton. “If you’re in the house, you see the colors of the outside come inside. It’s very integrated.” The fireplace painting is by Ed Moses, the chairs and sofa from Christian Liaigre, and the coffee table (with movable cedar boulders underneath) from De Padova, designed by Nendo. | Photography by Emily Minton Redfield

Like a bald eagle perched magnificently on a hillside, broad wings spread to either side, this contemporary Telluride, Colorado, home looks ready to take flight over the valley below. The 4,400-square-foot house—quiet but bold, modern but timeless—is the brainchild of architect Steve Morton and designer Kimille Taylor, who also happen to be married, and divide their time between New York and Telluride.

The T shape of the house, finished in cedar siding and bluff sandstone, “was largely driven by the desire to maximize the incredible views from all the living spaces and bedrooms,” says architect Steve Morton. “It’s stretched out horizontally to create a long, linear form—the wingspan of the house.”

Sited at the end of a cul-de-sac at an elevation of 9,740 feet, the house has primarily southern vistas that are extraordinary even by Telluride standards. Its low-slung horizontal shape, in fact, “was driven largely by the desire to maximize the incredible views from all of the living spaces and bedrooms,” Morton says. Every room in the house—aside from the garage and mudroom—frames the amazing panorama, with operable glass walls running the length of the living and dining areas and opening to the patio.

“Throughout the house, we used the finest materials and had outstanding craftsmanship and attention to detail,” says Taylor. In the kitchen, Taylor and Morton worked with Henrybuilt “to get the functionality of the kitchen just right,” she adds. With muted walnut cabinetry, sandstone walls, and a pewter-topped island, “the kitchen had to be beautiful because it’s open to the whole house.”

“The main living spaces are stretched out horizontally on the site, which creates a long, linear form or, if you would, the wingspan of the house,” says Morton, who tucked the home’s secondary, more utilitarian functions (like the garage) into a perpendicular section that runs uphill off the main building form toward the street. It was only as his design for the house evolved functionally into a T, he says, that “it started to feel like it wanted to fly—it had that aeronautical feel.”

Taylor custom-designed the floating vanity—with bronze metal cabinets topped with brown suede marble countertops— to be “warm and handsome, simple and strong.” The lighting is by Trueing Studio.

That notion was reinforced on a visit to the clients’ home in Tempe, Arizona. “They had this beautiful painting of a soaring eagle, and I made the connection,” says Morton. “It was like, ‘Oh, my God, this is just like the house. We should call the house ‘Soaring Eagle.’” (Of course, that painting now hangs in the Telluride home.)

Because the four-bedroom, four-bath house (with two additional powder rooms) sits on a slope that drops off to the south, Morton was able to create a lower level—also with southern views—that includes a vast media room and guest rooms. The resulting design is both low-slung and private and looks deceptively simple from the street.

The guest suite was designed for the owners’ daughter. The light fixture is by Workstead, the chair is from CB2 and the prints came from Sage House Designs. The Restoration Hardware bed is backed by a custom Henrybuilt closet.

The sense of solidity extends to the handsome, timeless interior. “When you step into the house, there’s this amazing quiet,” says Taylor. “It’s so incredibly solid, and it’s really pared down—there is no unnecessary ornamentation like fussy door frames. Everything closes perfectly; everything’s aligned.” The home is luxurious but also respectful of its stunning natural surroundings.

“I wanted the interiors to feel handsome and timeless,” says Taylor. The lower-level den includes a projection screen, Roche Bobois chairs, a Restoration Hardware sofa and a Design Within Reach table atop a rug from Telluride’s Azadi Fine Rugs. The Rebecca Kinkead painting was the inspiration for the home’s name, “Soaring Eagle.”