30 Jan Western Design: Montana Duet

ARCHITECTURE | DARKHORSE DESIGN GROUP
CONSTRUCTION | CEDAR RIDGE BUILDERS
STONEWORK | GREENWOOD MASONRY CONSTRUCTION

For more than two decades, Darci and Tim Greenwood have spent their working lives fulfilling other people’s dreams. 
Darci’s nationally acclaimed company, Greenwood Events, is based in Whitefish, Montana, where she plans, produces, and designs weddings and other milestone life moments. And through his company, Greenwood Masonry Construction, Tim has crafted an impeccable reputation as a stonemason for 
high-end custom homes. Ironically, however, the couple had never created a home of their own from the ground up. 

A pyrite bronze Nottaway chandelier from Currey and Company lights the entry foyer. Wyoming artist Matt Flynt created the mixed-media painting.

All that changed when, in September 2020, they found a 10-acre piece of land near Whitefish. Secluded by trees, the setting offered the perfect place where “we could build our dream home — one that fits our lifestyle, the things we love to do, and the way we love to live — every step of the way,” says Darci. Explaining the setting’s manifold charms from the perspective of someone who literally builds structures from the ground up, Tim adds, “The road was already in, and there was a flat building site. Then, a little further were gentle rolling hills, one forested area that we called a fairyland, and a little ridge that made the site private. We just fell in love with it.” Better still, they already had two key members of the project team in place: Tim, not only as the stonemason but also the general contractor; and Darci as the interior designer who already had defined desires for the home’s finishes, fittings, and furnishings.

Eagle Dog, an oil-on-canvas portrait of the Yankton Lakota Chief by Mesa, Arizona artist Harper Henry, guards the entrance to the primary suite.

After purchasing the property, they scouted it with Tim’s friend, Kurt Vomfell, a licensed landscape architect and the founder of Terra Designworks in Kalispell, discussing how the home they built should be positioned on the site. “Then, we got chatting about architects,” Darci recalls, “and he said, ‘You really should connect with Seth Capon at Darkhorse Design Group.”

Specializing in custom homes, the locally based Capon describes his role in such projects as “a facilitator, way more collaborative, somebody who could bring the client’s vision to life rather than getting hung up on his own preconceived style.” The fact that he had also been a high-end finish carpenter and held a master’s degree in architecture from Montana State University appealed to Tim, craftsman to craftsman, and to Darci as someone whose work relies on collaboration. “Seth had this easygoing demeanor and,” she adds with a laugh, “I could tell that he was going to be able to handle my strong personality and ideas.”

Approached via a drive flanked by expanses of native grasses, the L-shaped house subtly echoes the contours of the site and the trees beyond.

Capon did, indeed, pay close attention to the couple’s stated goals for the project, and for good reason. “She wasn’t one of those clients who shows you a bunch of pictures, tells you some floor plan ideas, and then says, ‘Here, make it work,’” he explains. “She already knew how she wanted every single thing in the house designed, and she brought a wide knowledge base of materials and brands.” 

She also brought one more essential guiding principle. “I’m a fifth-generation Montanan, born and raised here,” Darci says. Her husband, originally from Vermont, has lived in the state going on 35 years. “So, we wanted a home that felt timeless but that really honored this place.”

Featuring a dining table with camel, velvet-covered chairs from RH, the dining area is tucked in an alcove off the great room and close to the wet bar.

They achieved that goal through a combination of local materials, including an abundance of Montana moss rock and rustic reclaimed lumber; the couple’s understated art collection that celebrates Big Sky Country and the greater West, much of it by Montana artists; and floor plans and windows that make almost every living area simultaneously a comfortable haven and a generous viewing platform for the unspoiled landscape all around. The result would be a home that was not so much an overt tribute to Montana, but more a deeply steeped yet subtle expression of the state, and of two people who love it. “We came up with the phrase ‘rustic elegance,’” adds Capon, “a perfect blend of her feminine approach with the robust masculine energy of her husband.”

Crystal cabinets in white oak with a custom denim blue stain from Western Building Center provide ample, efficient kitchen storage while echoing the blue Montana skies. Leather stools from Rejuvenation line up along the ebony-stained knotty-alder island.

That’s not to mention still another aspect of the home’s interior that’s readily apparent to anyone within moments of stepping across the threshold: azure surfaces that bring the colors of Montana skies and tranquilly glistening waters into every room. “Blue just rocks my world,” says Darci. “It makes me peaceful and, yes, happy.” That passion is evident in details large and small throughout the house, from kitchen cabinetry and appliances to carpets and draperies, great room upholstery to bathroom tiles and bedding to throw pillows that add extra layers of comfort to already generously welcoming furniture.

Realizing such a clearly conceived, well-coordinated vision began early on with the actual framing of the house, a task performed by the crew from Cedar Ridge Builders in Kalispell, led by Wade Staaland, who also served as project manager. “The stick frame of two-by-sixes, which eventually got covered up by sheetrock, was like a work of art in itself,” says Capon. “I remember Tim telling me he’d never seen a house framed this tight. And then that [attention to detail] got carried over right down to the interior trim work. The construction was literally perfect.”

Outdoor furniture from RH provides sturdy comfort in the firelit al fresco living area.

That word applies as well to the stonework by Tim and his team. Rustically elegant stone walls flank the oversized glass entry door, which opens to smooth floors of natural-cleft frontier sandstone quarried in eastern Montana, flowing northward toward a cozy television room and the home’s two-story bedroom wing. This two-story structure features a stair foyer with a rough-hewn moss rock wall set in a precisely fit-together random ashlar pattern, a particular style of masonry often found in country homes that is characterized by rectangular blocks of varying dimensions. Beyond, Tim and Darci’s primary suite occupies the ground floor, and a pair of guest suites are upstairs. 

To the right of the home’s entry, toward the east, public living areas center on a great room featuring a fireplace that was hand built “brick by brick,” says Tim, to surround a massive moss rock hearth piece that weighs almost 8,000 pounds and had to be hydraulically lifted into place before the room’s windows were installed.

In the primary bedroom, both the Persian carpet and the Ralph Lauren bedding express homeowner Darci Greenwood’s passion for the color blue. The leather bed frame is by Maiden Home.

Off that central gathering area are other spaces adaptable to any occasion, whether it’s just the two of them, an additional visiting daughter, or small to large get-togethers. The dining room and an adjacent wet bar occupy a spacious alcove to one side of the main seating area, with a window gazing westward toward the home’s driveway. The nearby island kitchen, which includes a chef-quality Wolf range and Sub-Zero refrigerator, is tailored to the needs of “a family that really centers around 
preparing our meals,” says Darci. “Ever since our girls were young, they would jump in to help, too. Cooking for us is family time, a chance to reconnect, and a form of creative expression.”

An adjoining butler’s pantry with a separate dishwasher was designed to function as an extra prep space, a morning coffee station, and somewhere they could clear away dishes after a big meal. 
In a similarly tidy spirit, a nearby mudroom facilitates easy and 
mess-free entry from the garage. An adjacent staircase rises to Darci and Tim’s separate home offices and shared conference room on a floor above the garage.

In the powder room off the main living areas, a polished Taj Mahal quartzite counter with a Zia Moroccan tile backsplash, hammered brass sink and fixture, and floral wallpaper from Graham and Brown combine to create a romantic respite.

The Greenwoods paid just as much attention to detail in creating the home’s outdoor living areas. Off the corner where the kitchen and great room meet, and accessed by doors from both spaces, is a covered patio with comfortable seating and another stone fireplace that showcases Tim’s craftsmanship; the massive stone mantel provides ample display space for Darci’s talent in arranging blossoms and greenery. “Many years ago I owned a flower shop, and that’s something I still like to do,” she says. “I just pull it out of the forest and lay it up there.” Equally striking is the way that one of the reclaimed timbers supporting the patio’s roof stands atop a rough-hewn moss rock boulder weighing roughly 3,000 pounds — a gracefully weighty note they also repeated in a smaller patio off the primary suite at the structure’s northeastern corner. “It’s a detail I loved from other jobs I’ve done; one that we felt would work well with our vision for this house,” says Tim.

The primary bedroom economizes on space, with pendant lights above the two nightstands suspended from thin cords that all but disappear in front of the windows behind.

Their fully realized vision also extends well beyond the home’s built perimeter. “We took our time deciding what we wanted to make lawn and what we wanted to let go natural,” Darci explains. 
In the end, they found the perfect medium: a reasonable stretch of well-trimmed sward gives way to natural grasses “that grow without maintenance, and the deer come by to eat,” interspersed with young native aspens they planted. 

An expanse of glass offers wide-open views in all of the home’s main areas, from the kitchen and great room at the left and center to the ground-floor primary and upstairs guest bedrooms on the right.

Through such details great and small, indoors and outside alike, the Greenwoods — assisted by Seth Capon and the Cedar Ridge construction team — have fully realized the Montana dwelling of their shared dreams. “This was about us,” Darci sums up. “And the moment we walked in for the first time, we felt at home.”

From his base in Marin County, California, Norman Kolpas writes about art, architecture, travel, dining, and other lifestyle topics for magazines including Western Art & Architecture and Southwest Art. He’s a graduate of Yale University and the author of more than 40 books, the latest of which being Foie Gras: A Global History. Kolpas teaches in The Writers’ Program at UCLA Extension, which named him Outstanding Instructor in Creative Writing.

Heidi A. Long has been a lifelong artist, photographer, writer, tinkerer, hiker, and explorer of the outdoors. Believing there’s always a shot to be taken, Long documents architecture and life inside and out. Her work appears in local, regional, and national publications, and — to this day — on her mother’s refrigerator.