Whenever Holly Snow Hollenbeck, principal designer of HSH Interiors, set off to the rim of Donner Lake in Northern California with her family, she would seek out a classic A-frame to house the bunch. “I rented them whenever we traveled to the Lake Tahoe area on the weekends,” she says. “My real estate agent called me when this one came on the market, as it was a vintage property built in 1962.”

Besides having the distinctive roofline she long admired, this two-bedroom property also appealed to Holly for its location and community. “It’s a quiet neighborhood of small, dead-end streets that has hiking, skiing, and boating right out the door,” she says. “The backyards tend to be small, so in the summer all of the action is out front with kids and dogs playing and families barbecuing.”

Nevertheless, it needed a lot of work—and so Holly steeled herself for the challenge. She just didn’t think other people would line up to purchase the property.

“It turns out we weren’t the only ones who were interested, and we had to outbid 24 other people to buy it,” she says. “Who knew that many people would want an A-frame that needed absolutely everything done to fix it!”

The home felt even smaller than its 1,200 square feet, because four feet on either side of the roof’s namesake pitch comprised unusable space. Windows set on the structure’s front and back sides did little to illuminate the interior, and orange-toned Douglas fir walls only added to the shadowy effect. There was plenty of linoleum and shag carpeting to contend with, too. But as soon as Holly got the keys, she knew how to salvage and modernize the space.

“I immediately told my real estate agent that my vision was a ‘Nordic Bento Box,’” she says. “Nordic for bleached wood, clean lines, and simplicity. And bento box because smartly designed and highly-efficient storage would be key to making the footprint functional.”

Holly clad everything in Baltic birch plywood, and introduced terrazzo as a recurring material that adds dimension to mostly black accents. “There is no sheetrock, and I didn’t use any recessed lighting,” she notes. “I wanted to create warmth, so I eliminated the cans in favor of surface and mounted lighting. I also wanted as much of the furnishings to be built-in as possible, as a nod to classic Sea Ranch homes.”

She did so in the living area with an L-shaped custom sofa with storage behind and beside it to tuck things away. Across the room, the kitchen countertops and dining table square up against the roof’s slant, while the newly up-to-code spiral staircase leads to an open loft. “I adore the Concrete Collaborative terrazzo slab countertops, and I’m glad we decided to cover the peninsula with them on the top, side, and back, so it appears like a monolithic cube within the space,” Holly says. It’s a game changer.”

Beyond the central common area, Holly installed custom wood pieces in the bedrooms, bathrooms, and laundry room to stay on theme and maximize every last inch. The primary bedroom has storage beneath its mattress alongside a bespoke desk and closet, while the bunk room features a wide ladder and pillow-side nooks. A clever vanity has room for seven compartments, and it faces a wide bath that sits below a shower.

“The terrazzo has embedded marble chips of white, black, honey, and blush,” Holly notes. “That provided direction for the palette used throughout.”

It took about a year for Holly to complete the full interior renovation in October 2021, and she is currently working on the new decks in time for her family’s summer vacation. “I certainly got the challenge I wanted in gut remodeling an A-frame,” she says. “It require creative thinking and intelligent planning, and I think we accomplished that.”

Related Reading:

20 A-Frame Homes We Love

11 Alluring A-Frame Homes You Can Rent Right Now

Project Details:

Interior Design: Holly Snow Hollenbeck, HSH Interiors / @hshinteriors

Cabinetmaker: Chris Nelson, Natural Edge Saw Works

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A Designer Peels Back Layers of Linoleum and Shag Carpet to Rescue a ’60s A-Frame