March 15, 2026The house in Park City was meant to be a getaway — an outdoorsy escape from Chicago for interior designer Wendy Labrum and her family. But then, her husband, Brandon, an avid skier, began to hint at something more. “Maybe we should add a homework area for the kids,” he said after they broke ground on the project, in 2019. “You know, in case we decide to move there.”
The idea of living in Utah full-time had never occurred to Labrum. She launched Wendy Labrum Interiors in Chicago in 2007, and the firm quickly blossomed. It earned a reputation for creating spaces that were refined yet livable, a style she had honed in London and Madrid, where she lived for a couple of years in the mid-2000s, studying design, architecture and the decorative arts.
Then, in 2021, just a week after her 40th birthday, Labrum discovered she was pregnant with her fourth child. “A switch flipped,” she recalls. “I told my husband, ‘We’re moving to the mountains.’ He said, ‘Great. I’m glad you’re finally on board.’ ”
The family moved into a rental home in Park City in 2022 while Labrum expanded the original plans, which had been for a small vacation home, into a blueprint for a 9,500-square-foot primary residence. Collaborating with Andrew Daigle, of local firm InterFUSE Architects, Labrum had the exterior clad in local stone and wood shingles, topped with a cedar shake roof.
“I wanted it to blend into the landscape,” she says of the house, which is set within the Talisker Club, a private community in the Wasatch Mountains. “But at the same time, I didn’t want to live in a log cabin. It had to be casual but still polished.”
While the facade is in sync with the surroundings, the interiors depart from the usual mountain house design tropes. The entry — with its vertiginous wood-clad peaked ceiling and hand-laid parquet de Versailles floor — sets the tone. Labrum designed the space around a travertine center table she sourced on 1stDibs. “I had always wanted an entry table where I could put a big vase of flowers,” she says. “I love arranging the bouquet and changing it weekly. It’s my zen.”
The warm palette established here — clay-hued walls, sand-colored upholstery, caramel linen drapery — continues throughout the home’s public rooms. Even the art, including a collage of old, faded sackcloths and canvas by British artist Lawrence Calver, continues the neutral color scheme “I joke that my life is loud,” she says. “I need my interiors to be quiet.”
A custom carved-stone fireplace anchors the great room, where the seating includes blue-chip pieces like a Charlotte Perriand daybed, a Lovö cabinet by Axel Einar Hjorth and a Clam chair by Arnold Masden.
Such refined choices may be unexpected in a home designed for a lively young family, but Labrum never shies away from sophistication. Her strategy is to opt for kid-friendly rounded edges and upholstery in hard-wearing textiles like mohair and shearling. “I’ve become adept at designing spaces that are more durable than they look,” she says.
A trio of Pierre Yovanovitch pendants hang over the kitchen island, at which Labrum placed Rose Uniacke stools. The Murano-glass bowl on the counter is from Jean-Marc Fray.
After much debate, she decided to forgo a television in the space — nothing can compete with the view through the windows, which offer a panorama of Deer Valley and Mount Timpanogos. Well, one element might: the dining area’s sparkling crystal chandelier, a 19th-century antique she found in London. It hangs above a custom table surrounded by 1940s chairs by the Swedish furniture maker Göran Malmvall.
“I love the juxtaposition of the glamorous chandelier and the nearby bar clad in reclaimed wood,” she says.
Although many Mountain West homes favor open plans, Labrum created a separate wing for the kitchen, with an adjacent family room and butler’s pantry for her teen daughter’s baking projects. She spent nearly two years sourcing the home’s marble, taking repeated trips to New York in search of the perfect slabs — including the Calacatta Vagli Rosato used here for the counter and backsplash. “I design entire rooms around stone,” she says.
Her husband, who runs a private equity fund, often works from the library, where white-oak paneling — inspired by a room at Hôtel de la Marine, in Paris — creates a sumptuous Zoom backdrop. Glass-and-steel doors allow him to keep an eye on the children while maintaining privacy. “He can see them,” Labrum says of the children, “but he can’t hear them.”
Rose Uniacke nightstands flank the custom bed, whose headboard is upholstered in a Nobilis bouclé. The bedside sconces are from Lumfardo Luminaires, and the pendant above is by Paul Ferrante.
In the primary bedroom, a custom bed with a headboard upholstered in a Nobilis bouclé faces an antique mirror and a marble mantel, both found on 1stDibs. An antique marble tub in the adjoining bathroom continues Labrum’s emphasis on materiality. “My toddler uses it the most,” she says. “And there’s a beautiful view outside that window, so she sits in the tub and talks to the deer outside.”
Take a Tour of the Bedrooms
On the lower level, the children’s rooms diverge from the home’s subdued scheme. Each space reflects the personality of its occupant: a daughter’s space is wrapped in a scenic wallpaper inspired by another Paris hotel, the St. James, where the family once stayed, while a teen son’s room features a Tyrrell Winston artwork composed of discarded, weathered basketballs.
As elevated as it is, the house is designed to be lived in — bustling, convivial and, best of all, a gateway to the outdoors. In winter, the family spends weekends hitting the ski trails, and in the summer, a day camp and golf course lie just beyond the front door. “For our family,” Labrum says, “it was absolutely the right move.”
