In the master bath, on the third floor, Greenguard-certified slate covers the walls and floor. An existing window was transitioned into a doorway. “I thought that’d be weird, a door in the shower,” David recalls. “But Alysia said it would make that particular terrace all the more private if we have to get to it through our shower!”
The design team enclosed the vestibule of the front entrance to offer an area in which everyone can remove shoes and coats. The dining area boasts a handmade pendant by The Light Factory in Baltimore, Maryland. The table is from Blu Dot; the chairs are from Ikea. The flooring is natural bamboo from Dyerich.
The organic bedding is from The Canopy.
On the second-floor landing, just outside Liv’s bedroom, is the family’s “mushroom wall,” comprised of a blend of cypress and hemlock repurposed from the bedding bins of a mushroom-growing facility. During the mushroom growth cycle, enzymes digest and erode the soft wood grain, producing an organic, sculpted effect. ECOS chalkboard paint—zero VOC and non-toxic, natch—appears under the stairs.
David Alan Basche, Alysia Reiner, and their six-year-old daughter, Liv, chat in the kitchen, which is defined by a reclaimed spalted maple countertop crafted from a felled 100-year-old specimen sourced by The Hudson Company. The barstools are from Blu Dot.
The living area features a custom Viesso sofa with an FSC-certified frame and a stuffing of all-natural latex. It was recovered in Bella-Dura, a 100 percent American-made technical fabric, woven using a proprietary polyolefin fiber. The rug is from CB2 and the window covering is from The Shade Store.
The design team used 3/4-inch PureBond Maple plywood from Columbia Forest Products, featuring formaldehyde-free, soy-based assembly.
The master suite occupies the entire third floor and encapsulates a meditation area, a minibar with a recycled-glass countertop from BioGlass, and an en suite bathroom with access to a private terrace. Organic linen draperies from The Canopy accent the room’s distinctive aperture, which frames a view of a church across the street. The walls are covered in Venetian plaster that’s 100 percent recycled, with zero VOCs, by American Clay.
Liv’s 144-square-foot room now boasts a custom play area that comprises a reading nook, a loft bed with a secret passageway that opens just to the left of a built-in desk, and myriad storage options, all designed by Gus Deardoff, a theatrical set designer, and built by Peter Sobierajski of J&P Construction Services.
"We've always been conscious of the environment, but after becoming parents, we realized even more that it's our obligation to leave the planet a better place than we found it,"—David Alan Basche, resident
An early model of Liv's room.
The family’s two cats, Baron and Jula.
Construction during Lake Tahoe’s snowy season posed the biggest building challenge. “We shrink-wrapped the building, so the contractor could continue working through the cold of winter, sparing the expense of continuous snow removal, and limiting traces of the process on the landscape. Snowmobiles and sledges were used to bring workers and construction materials to the site.” Casper says.
Miha hangs out with Kea, the dog, on the wooden deck that extends the living space outdoors.
Parents Mitra and Sasan Nakhshab join sons Nima and Soheil (with daughter, Sofia) and Soheil’s girlfriend, Susana Mora (with son, Shayan), on the main floor.
Taking inspiration from Arlberg Valley, Austria to classic Nordic materials, the Troll Hus certainly adds a European touch to the California landscape. “The inspiring concept is that of a treehouse that, as if suspended between treetops, seamlessly and ingeniously blends with its surroundings.” Casper says.
Burneo took advantage of the perpendicular orientation of the volumes to create outdoor spaces that look out to the gardens.
Roberto Burneo designed this home for his eldest niece, her husband, and their three young children in a suburb outside Quito, the capital of Ecuador. The house is set on a flat expanse of land with fruit trees, and Burneo's design "guides the social areas inward in order to link them to the gardens.”
Otto is a handsome complement to the Persian Sarouk rug and Gray’s sophisticated interior design work.