For a Chicago couple encountering the hustle and bustle of city life, a vacation home tucked away in the country was beckoning. A 3.5-hour drive from their residence in Evanston, Illinois, the rural retreat is situated on family land—205 acres of woods and farmland in the southwest corner of Wisconsin, not far from the Mississippi River.

The region’s known as the Driftless Area because glaciers didn’t cross through here. A landscape of rolling hills and deep valleys contrasts with the rest of the flat Midwest, a unique backdrop for a family getaway. The property’s rugged terrain, deep ravines, and rock outcroppings are ideal for hiking, and with the Grant River cutting right through the land, there’s plenty of fishing, tubing, and canoeing to be had as well. Chicago-based firm Searl Lamaster Howe Architects used the dynamic topography to their advantage, maximizing sweeping views.

The long, narrow 2,300-square-foot retreat sits on the bluff, strategically oriented to create a walkout basement, so the great outdoors are easily accessible, and nature can be enjoyed from vantage points throughout the home.

With the land having belonged to the family for nearly three decades, the homeowners had plenty of time to ponder their dream home. The husband and wife were interested in referencing the architectural vernacular of the area, and so Searl Lamaster Howe’s designers spent time driving around Wisconsin’s countryside studying the rural structures. “There are lots of interesting craftsmen and artisans in the area who aren’t afraid of being distinct,” Gregory Howe, co-principal of the firm, says.

At the same time, it was important to the homeowners and designers that the house be built using a minimal palette. “As Midwesterners, it’s nice to speak to the idea of the local vernacular and curate it a little, as opposed to these houses that are imported styles from other parts of the country. A lot of people may take this site and built something like a lodge in the Rocky Mountains,” says Pam Lamaster-Millett, co-principal. “It was really important to the clients to embrace local materials with the stonework and woodwork and be true to the area—but to also refine it.”

During the planning stage, the homeowners referenced the architectural style of a Maine camp house with exposed trusses and the use of humble building materials like wood paneling. Drawing inspiration from this aesthetic, the architects clad the walls and ceiling in pine, and for contrast paired the warm wood with expansive graphite slate flooring and a black metal base trim. “We wanted it to feel relaxed and casual,” the homeowner says. “It shouldn’t be anything fussy or pretentious.”

The dark stone flooring flows from the living area out into a screened porch, creating material continuity and a nearly seamless transition between indoor and outdoor living. “Everything focuses on the great room and screened porch,” the homeowner says. “We spend a ton of time on that screened porch.”

As a vacation home, it was important to balance public and private living areas. The homeowners wanted plenty of gathering space for family, but also individual rooms set apart for private moments. Using a stairwell as a divider, the bedrooms are tucked away. “They dovetail in a way that creates privacy with sound and sight, so the bedrooms are away from the great room,” project manager Lauren Dellinger Amt says. “That buffer zone was important to them." To make the compact switchback stairs feel more open, Dellinger Amt added a giant window on the landing and a screen that draws design inspiration from corn cribs in the area.

Shop the Look

Vibrant red and blue cabinetry in the kitchen and mudroom create a bold contrast to the subdued organic palette found throughout the house. “We really love color,” the homeowner says, “and we have art that we needed to be mindful of. We wanted something that would work with that, and specifically the painting over the fireplace.” Dellinger Amt went back and forth with color combinations with the homeowners until they settled on the tomato red millwork in the mudroom/entry and the bright blue kitchen cabinetry.

The multicolored tile backsplash in the kitchen was a collaboration between husband and wife. The husband’s family was in tile manufacturing, and the company would fire a run of glazed decorative items for Christmas back in the 1940s, giving them as gifts to distributors. “They made coasters with animal motifs on them in yellow, red, blue, green, all these bright colors—and we decided to incorporate them in the kitchen backsplash,” says the husband, who drilled out square tiles so they could inset the round coasters inside them.

For the tile work, the wife channeled her inspiration from the Chicago artist Edgar Miller, who was active in the city in the early part of the 20th century, transforming old Victorians into distinct experiences with design elements like salvaged tile.

The husband and wife’s art collection was one of the more distinguishing features of the home, and like the tile work, added instant impact and color. “We had the inventory of art during the design process and allowing for wall space without compromising views is what drove us to the double height in the living room,” Howe says. An organic and minimal palette used throughout the home allows the contemporary artwork to shine.

On the exterior, the home embraces its natural setting with materials like cedar shakes that weather nicely over time, and limestone quarried just 30 miles from the property. A Galvalume zinc-coated metal roof tops off the structure. With a maintenance-free finish that dulls over time, the metal roofing offers a contrast to the organic materials used elsewhere on the exterior.

To keep the rural structure powered, geothermal heating and cooling was employed. And an empty conduit was run to the parking area to set up an electric car charging station in the future. A “super beefy” foundation was laid and extra earthwork done to channel rain around the house for future storms. “We wanted the house to last a hundred years,” the homeowner says, planning ahead for the future generations who will visit the family farm.

More by Searl Lamaster Howe: A Matte Black Cabin Strikes the Perfect Balance Between Rustic and Refined

Project Credits:

Architect: Searl Lamaster Howe Architects / @searllamasterhowe

Builder/general contractor: Graney Construction

Structural engineer: Barber Engineering

Lighting design: Searl Lamaster Howe Architects

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A Rural Wisconsin Retreat Puts a Refined Spin on Country Living