A Mountain Home Blending Modern Design with the Wild Stillness of Evergreen, Colorado
Photography by
Jean Gray
Perched at the edge of a forest in Colorado’s Front Range, Gateway Haus is more than just a modern mountain home. It’s a love letter to slowness, simplicity and the quiet tension between architecture and nature.
Conceived by Jean and her partner as their full-time residence, the house stands in Evergreen — just outside Denver but worlds away in mood. Dark-clad and quietly confident, Gateway Haus folds itself into the rocky landscape with reverence, offering warmth within and a sense of pause throughout.
“When we stepped onto the property, I could already see it,” Jean says. “The contrast was everything — something grounded and dark on the outside, soft and light on the inside.”
Scandinavian restraint meets Japanese tactility in every detail. The couple envisioned a home that wouldn’t compete with the landscape but respond to it — a place where clean lines, natural materials and elemental quiet would form a kind of dialogue with the surrounding pines and boulders. And from its blackened exterior to its oak-lined interior, Gateway Haus does just that.
Rooted in place
Originally, Jean and her partner toyed with the idea of a home in one of Colorado’s iconic ski towns. But after deciding to relocate permanently, they were drawn to a place that balanced access with authenticity. They discovered Evergreen unexpectedly, on their very first day of searching.
They never looked back.
Evergreen, with its year-round mountain community and proximity to both Denver and the backcountry, offered the kind of layered life they were after: close enough for work and travel, remote enough to feel held by nature.
“We hadn’t been here before,” they admit, “but we knew instantly — this was it.”
A design that embraces the wild
From the start, the home was guided by one essential idea: that architecture should respond to its environment, not impose on it. Jean, who leads the design studio Kenneth Mitchell & Co., collaborated with architect (and brother-in-law) Jeremiah Fairbank to bring this vision to life.
The build was helmed by Luke Mann of Rangeline Homes, whose knowledge of mountain construction was essential to navigating elevation, terrain and climate.
Rather than mask the home’s modernity, the team leaned into it with humility. The black-stained exterior mirrors the silhouettes of surrounding trees. Inside, wide oak floors and raw cedar ceilings echo the forest in tone, if not in form.
The entryway, a favorite space for the couple, sets the tone.
“We used the same materials from the exterior inside that room,” Jean explains. “You step through the door and immediately feel connected — to the landscape and to the home.”
Light pours in through picture windows. In summer, folding doors open the great room to a wraparound deck. Winter floods the house with alpine brightness, refracted across pale walls and metal accents. Throughout, the home balances scale with intention — never over-designed, but always thoughtful.
Living with intention
While Gateway Haus is private, it was never meant to be closed off.
“We designed it for sharing,” Jean says. Hosting supper clubs, cooking with friends and building fires after snowfall are part of the rhythm here. “It’s not a showpiece — it’s our everyday life.”
That daily life unfolds with a kind of quiet integrity: the warmth of Fireclay tile, the texture of hand-finished metalwork, the curve of a custom cabinet made locally. Each choice was rooted in place and made to last.
Even the challenges — like navigating the high cost and material delays of building in 2021–2022 — led to unexpected clarity. “It pushed us to focus on the essentials,” Jean says. “To really ask what mattered.”
A home for slower days
There’s no singular showpiece at Gateway Haus. Instead, the home is a tapestry of modest luxuries: light that moves across a wall, the quiet hush of the forest beyond the glass, the feeling of soft floors under bare feet after a long hike.
“We live slowly here,” Jean says. “We keep a fire going most of the day. We take our time cooking. It’s not about performance — it’s about presence.”
Whether it's the backdrop for community dinners, solo creative work or simply watching snow gather on the deck, Gateway Haus feels less like a destination and more like an offering — a reminder that good design doesn’t need to shout. It just needs to listen.