Interior designer Betsy Brown’s cozy North Carolina home reveals her affinity with nature and the materials it evokes. Her house is located among North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains and is the embodiment of her personality and design approach. Enlisting architect and longtime friend Paul Bates to help reimagine the 1960s build, Betsy has realized a home that feels, in her own words, “humble, ageless and rooted to the drama of its setting.”  “Earthy and rustic, yet refined” is how Betsy describes the style of her home.
Natural timbers are the focal point throughout, from the steps that lead to the front door to the bedroom walls. The scope of the timber, combined with the black steel-framed doors and slanted ceilings, conveys the essence of a ranch or farmhouse. She cites the Japanese art of Wabi Sabi as her primary source of inspiration, centered around finding beauty in simplicity, imperfection, and impermanence.
For this reason, the palette was kept very minimal, with chosen materials having a direct line to nature. Sitting at a modest 139 square meters, the one-level house is oriented around a wide central corridor, which also doubles as a dining hall. The kitchen to the left and living space to the right both take in uninterrupted views of the gorge below. The main bedroom, guest bedroom, and bathrooms, situated at the front of the house, face the surrounding landscape of mature green hardwoods.