Rooted in the rustic aesthetic of The Cliffs at Walnut Cove, this gorgeous home takes a contemporary approach to the forest’s timeless beauty.
As more people embark on wellness journeys, the Japanese practice of shinrin-yoku—or forest bathing—has gained widespread appeal. More than simply walking in the woods, this meditative art requires you to center yourself, be in the present, and truly experience the forest.
In just a few minutes, those who engage in forest bathing can feel their blood pressure drop, their cortisol banished to the nether realms of the adrenal glands. Over time, with regular practice, they find their energy levels increasing, their sleep improving, and their mood and creativity soaring.
In terms of amenities, “in-home forest bathing” might be the ultimate wellness upgrade a home can offer, and it’s one that this magnificent home at Walnut Cove embodies. “One thing I really loved about this project, and hats off to the design team, was embracing the idea that you move through the house in the same way you take a walk in nature,” says Chad Harding of architectural firm Harding Huebner.
Of course, designing a home with that kind of seamless blur between indoors and outdoors requires a lot of windows. And when you’re trying to balance tall windows against the rustic visual language and temperature swings of the mountains, you have to get creative.
PAYING HOMAGE
The home’s approach makes no bones about its decidedly contemporary appearance. In sharp contrast to its neighbors’ towering stacked stone, rough timbers, and organic forms, the home’s gleaming angles of glass and metal mark it as a bold outlier in this forested neighborhood.
“We wanted to acknowledge the neighborhood and the community aesthetic, yet create something that we felt was a contemporary interpretation of those constraints,” explains Harding. “We wanted it to be a humble offering to the community that doesn’t try to scream out.”
And by preserving the woods around the home, the bold design feels softened and integrated.
“We honored the old trees and the ancient mountain laurels that cover the property,” says Hans Doellgast, owner of Jade Mountain Builders. “We went to incredible lengths and expense to save every tree we possibly could so when you walk through the initial gallery of the home, you feel like you’re walking through the forest.”
The builders and architects also selected materials for the home’s exterior with extreme mindfulness. On the roof, they chose a traditional steel that would serve as a living material, developing a patina over time. Framing the wide walls of glass, stacked stone on the lower floor transitions to locally sourced sassafras on the upper floor.
“We used a naturally ebonizing stain that darkens over time and lets the home age gracefully,” Harding explains. “It picks up the cues of the forest for a darker cladding on the windows, so you look past them. It’s more of a backdrop for living than something that grabs your attention.”
Interior designer Brooke Kern worked hand in hand with Harding Huebner to select finishes that would speak to the home’s mountain atmosphere and contemporary design. “My goal was to bridge that gap between the community and what we were trying to create with the interiors—modern style while feeling comfortable and livable,” says Kern.
To that end, she layered in natural textures, colors, and materials while also drawing in the ebony wood of the exterior. This reaches a particularly jaw-dropping climax in the kitchen, where cabinets stained deep ebony contrast against the warmer tones of the walls surrounding a daring slab of shimmering quartzite on the backsplash.
“We had this concept of the kitchen as a big black box, and in order to create that depth, it was important to have that contrast of dark materials,” Kern explains.
She also complemented her interior selections with works sourced from the area’s legendary artist community, like the Jeremy Russell original in the living room or the abstract works lining the gallery. While the gallery is one of the most visually stunning parts of the interior, the massive white oak planks running in ebony beams across the expanse of the vaulted ceilings may have presented the biggest challenge to the team.
“You can’t buy 28-foot-long 4×12 beams of white oak. That’s not something anybody sells. And we had a large volume of white oak to procure,” explains Julian Kern, Jade Mountain Builders’ project manager on this project. The solution was a source in Kentucky who was able to secure the wood, which was then framed on-site over the course of eight months.
KEEPING IT GREEN
Hans Doellgast explains it rather succinctly: “For us, the way to build the greenest house is to build the highest quality house humanly possible.”
That means looking at every detail of how a home functions, from the roof down to the ground. The roof incorporates structurally insulated panels. These thick panels sandwich foam between two sheets of plywood, giving continuous insulation without the thermal bridging that rafters can create. As an extra layer of protection, spray foam insulation was used throughout. The home’s venting is all handled mechanically.
“We built an extremely tight envelope,” says Doellgast. “Since we used sealed building techniques, we vent air through a high-capacity energy recovery ventilator that draws in pre-filtered fresh air while removing all the stale air throughout the house.”
Two geothermal heat pumps power this state-of-the-art system. Drawing from 350-foot-deep wells, these pumps distribute natural heat across six zones, maintaining year-round comfort while minimizing energy costs. And yet, perhaps the greatest way this home earns its green credentials is through the same construction considerations that soften its contemporary exterior.
“We kept the trees because we wanted to keep the character and ecology intact while trying to weave a home within the forest, but that canopy provides nice natural shading that reduces heat loads, and in winter, when the leaves drop, you get a lot of passive heating,” says Harding.
The trees are the true stars of the home. Their boughs keep the home cool in summer and warm in winter. Their winding organic shapes cut across the straight lines of a contemporary home, weaving it into the surrounding nature. Their beauty creates a healing environment, embodying the very essence of forest bathing throughout the home.
This story was featured in Cliffs Living magazine. To see more stories like this one and learn more about The Cliffs, subscribe here.
