HOMEOWNER SPOTLIGHT:

A Place to Call Our Own at Bear Lake

At 10X Builders, we take pride in crafting homes that meet our clients' design preferences and lifestyle needs and push the boundaries of architectural design. Our latest project near Bear Lake is no exception. This home exemplifies our dedication to unique, high-quality construction, showcasing a modern Scandinavian design that captivates with its simplicity and elegance and problem-solving tough questions. This homeowner’s spotlight is personal because it is a Utah custom we built for ourselves.

The Challenges

We decided to create a challenge for ourselves with this Garden City construction, which was far away from where we live and typically work. Bear Lake is a beautiful location, and our original plan was to create a rustic Scandinavian cabin that tested all design limits. Our main challenge was dealing with the HOAs CC&Rs. We originally designed the home to be Scandinavian modern with a metal roof, exterior walls, and soffits and font-facing walls in wood. However, the HOA did not allow metal roofs, required stone on the exterior, and required four different exterior colors.

THE PLAN

Requirements

With the HOA's requirements in mind and our hopes slightly dashed, we returned to the drawing board and designed a toned-down exterior that we didn’t love as much but matched the HOA’s CC&Rs.

Thankfully, the interior was ours to design, and we had fun creating a gathering space for multiple families rather than a single-family home. This home's theme was communal living and beautiful views.

A Gathering Place

This custom home was designed as a gathering place for our team and their families. It made it easier to dream big about design - even if those dreams were sometimes too big. We wanted to build a home that overlooked the rich blue of Bear Lake and was a testament to design, architecture, and 10X Builders. Our favorite elements from our custom home gallery helped inspire the design of this build.

Expressive Creativity

It took even more creativity to scale our plans down to the HOA requirements and the design limits we wanted to push, but more creativity is the name of the game. We also designed the inside minimalistically, knowing that the views and the people inside it would be more than enough.

The exception to the simple design was the bathrooms, which were each designed in their own theme.

Judging a home by its exterior

Board and Batten

Since we needed to align our Bear Lake home’s exterior with the HOA’s requirements, we went with typical black asphalt shingles and siding in black board and batten. We chose to use soffits and wood accents in Cham Clad, a PVC product that looks like natural wood because of its durability. Natural wood is beautiful, but a product with the same beauty and won't warp is a better investment.

Stone Accents Galore

We also included stone accents for the required color difference, which are always a winner with custom Utah homes. While this rustic Scandinavian cabin was not quite the striking original exterior we had planned, the clean lines, dark board and batten, and sharp peaks of the exterior still amount to a beautiful piece of Garden City construction.

A Kitchen and Living Room Fit for a Crowd

We kept the Scandinavian rustic motif in the interior with clean, simple lines, high ceilings, and cream-colored walls accented with natural lighting. Still, the high ceilings and double-stacked windows that showcase Bear Lake elevated the concept of a cottage to an entirely new level. However, the warm, rustic hardwood floors, stone fireplace, and granite/marble kitchen island elicited feelings of a northern retreat. With natural-grained wood and gold pulls, this area of the home plays on the natural light and open space.

luxe bathrooms that sparkle

To make this vacation home feel like a retreat and not just a generic rental, we threw all our creativity and favorite styles into each bathroom. The goal for these bathrooms was to create rooms that were breathtaking in their own right and that showed a new detail every time you visited. Each bathroom in this custom Utah home had its distinct theme, which we implemented with custom tile work and features that complemented the tile.

Scandinavia Meets Spain

In the first en-suite bathroom, we balanced a Scandinavian gray symmetrical vanity with a slightly Spanish theme in the floor design. The cream, beige tile in the shower and gold industrial faucets pulled these opposing designs together. The contrasting themes worked because of our intentional material selection and the complementing tones.

A vANITY aBROAD

In the en-suite bathroom, we balanced warm brown triple-layer tile with a creamy tile in alternating squares. The details on the shower floor were one of the elements that made this place a home, even if it was temporary. The wooden vanity with the stucco-themed sink basins truly made this bathroom feel like a trip abroad. We kept the faucet in gold, pulling the entire bathroom together.

Dark and Light

We left the warm theme in the third en-suite bathroom and transitioned to a cooler theme. We incorporated the same dark gray, square vanity but added dark gray subway tile in the shower for a more modern feeling. Our team then installed a white tile with a dark blue four-leaf clover design for the floor, adding a bit of whimsy to this otherwise somber bathroom. For the fourth bathroom, we took a light and dark approach. Light gray tile on the shower walls contrasted with the white tile on the shower floor. However, it was the blue and gray marble vanity that genuinely made this bathroom breathtaking.

The highlight of building the Bear Lake home was designing a custom space for our team to enjoy. While it had its moments, including driving too far in winter storms with loaded trailers, our experience with this Garden City construction was one that we’ll never forget.

Looking Forward

At 10X Builders, each project is an opportunity to refine our skills and push the boundaries of what is possible in residential construction. The Bear Lake project is a prime example of how we can transform challenges into achievements. As we move forward, we remain committed to delivering exceptional homes that are visually stunning and built to stand the test of time. Our process allows you to feel confident and heard every step of the way.

This rustic Scandinavian cabin at Bear Lake is more than just a project for us—it’s a milestone that showcases our growth as a company and our dedication to innovation and quality in construction. We look forward to continuing to serve our clients with the same passion and precision that this project exemplifies.