This Colorado Home Showcases the Vibrant Colors and Textures of the American Southwest

In Chromo, Colorado, just over the New Mexico border, Bill and Deb Joost felt the pull of a scenic 3-acre parcel of land nearly 1,200 miles from their own home in Northern California. They purchased the property in 2020, partially as a pandemic project—ambitiously planning to manage the design and construction remotely from their Nicasio, California, homebase.

The parcel’s spectacular natural scenery was an immediate draw for Bill and Deb. "We wanted to take advantage of the beautiful views of the southern rocky mountains and the southwestern mesas," says Bill. Furthermore, the site was surrounded on all sides by undevelopable common lands, ensuring their future view would be protected.

Beginning to envision a new home on the sprawling parcel, the couple enlisted Michael Echavarria, designer and founder of Sonoma, California-based AVA DUNE Studio, who shared their enthusiasm for the site’s visual richness. "It offers a remarkable convergence of landscapes—sweeping views of the San Juan Mountains alongside the red mesas more commonly associated with northern New Mexico," says Echavarria.

At the start of the process, Bill drafted his own preliminary floor plan, which he then shared with Echavarria. "It quickly became clear that they were seeking a home that felt open, expansive, and grounded in the site," says Echavarria of his clients’ initial concepts. "We approached the design by working with these initial programmatic elements—essentially reconfiguring them in response to the land itself." Nestled into a natural bench in the hillside and surrounded by sagebrush and ponderosa pine, the home reveals itself gradually along the southern approach. "The siting process required a careful balance: preserving privacy, maximizing views, optimizing solar orientation, and minimizing disruption to the existing landscape," says Echavarria.

The home’s form was a conscious departure from prevalent typologies. "We wanted…something different than typical mountain architecture," says Bill. The residence, organized in two intersecting wings, is firmly anchored in the site while opening progressively to mountain and mesa views. The home reinterprets the vernacular of traditional cabins or mountain chalets through a decidedly modern orchestration of exterior materials. "We were intentional about selecting materials that would resonate with the landscape without resorting to literal interpretations more commonly seen in rustic mountain design," says Echavarria.

The exterior is clad in Western red cedar shou sugi ban, with a striking texture and grain pattern. "[It] offers both durability and a rich, tactile quality that softens the overall massing," says Echavarria of the charred wood exterior. Blackened sheet metal wraps the lower volume of the home—with the same metal siding winding continuously around the residence as it transforms into landscape edging, then a small retaining wall. "This element helps reinforce the horizontality of the design and visually anchors the structure to the site," Echavarria shares.

Meeting the charred Western red cedar facade is a standing seam metal roof—an element Echavarria always envisioned being part of the design. "The standing seam metal roof was selected for its performance characteristics—particularly snow shedding—and its tonal relationship to the shadows of the surrounding mesas and mountainsides," he shares. The product Echavarria ultimately selected was Snaplock 14" Wide Panel in matte musket gray from Phoenix-based Western States Metal Roofing.

The roof, according to Echavarria, had to solve for many things at once. Functionally, sun exposure and snow control were top of mind. Due to the elevation—approximately 7,500 feet above sea level—the home would be more susceptible to UV exposure. The roof reflects solar heat during summer months, while shedding snow and protecting from ice damming in the winter—with the shallow eaves helping with additional thermal gain in colder months. When selecting a roofing product to meet the home’s unique technical needs, Echavarria leaned on Metal Roofing Alliance. "I used the Metal Roofing Alliance website as a valuable resource to help understand metal roofing performance," he says, an outcome which led to ease and comfort for his clients. "[Echavarria] did wonderful work siting the home to stay comfortably warm using winter sun and also cool during warm summer days," says Bill.

Aesthetically, the roof’s unique gray hue takes on different visual qualities in different light. Echavarria designed the roof to read as relatively light during the day, avoiding visual heaviness, while more noticeably and prominently framing the wood siding in lower light conditions. The profile of the standing seam roof also creates dynamic variations in light and shadow throughout the day. "In that sense, the roof becomes an active surface—its appearance shifting in response to changing light conditions," shares Echavarria. "The roof truly ended up serving multiple roles—functional, aesthetic, and compositional." 

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Project Credits:

Architectural Design: AVA DUNE Studio / @avadunestudio

Roofing: Western States Metal Roofing / @westernstatesmetalroofing

Roofing Installation: 4 Corners Roofing