This $11.5 Million Colorado Ski Chalet’s Design Was Inspired by Frozen

(Bloomberg) -- At the time that Stephanie Styles bought five acres of land in Breckenridge, Colo., with her husband Niko Foster, their daughters, Styles says, were “very excited by Frozen,” the 2013 Disney movie that launched a million would-be Nordic princesses.

And so Styles, an interior decorator based in Las Vegas, set out to design a vacation home inspired by the movie. The finished product has a Frozen-inspired color scheme, Frozen-inspired chandeliers, and Frozen-inspired children’s rooms and bathrooms.

To make the house a reality, they hired Michael Upwall, an architect known for his fanciful, chalet-adjacent mega-mansions. “It was supposed to be much more simple” than what it became, says Styles. “It was going to be 9,000 square feet.”

Instead, over a four-year design and build process, the home grew to just under 12,000 square feet—“the entry alone is probably 1,200 square feet; [growth] happens very easily,” she says—and the family only began occupying the home in August 2020.

That was just in time, Styles says, for two things to happen: First, Foster, an entrepreneur, movie producer, and occasional actor, started to have more business in Texas and decided they should buy a ranch there; second, their daughters, now more than four years older, became less enchanted by Disney princesses.

As a result, Styles says, they’ve put the home on the market for $11.5 million with LIV Sotheby’s International Realty. In the meantime, they also have the house for rent on TripAdvisor. A six-night stay in March will cost, according to the site, $26,638.

Tightening the Reins

The couple bought the land in 2016 for what Realtor.com says was $549,000. Just a 10-minute drive from Breckenridge Ski Resort, the property has expansive views.

In hiring Uphall, Styles says, the couple knew what they were getting into. “This architect is known for mega-homes,” she says. “But I really tightened the reins and made it as small as it could be for our comfort level.”

While perhaps less massive than it could have been, the five-bedroom home, split over three levels, can comfortably accommodate 10 or more people.

Accessed through two 12-foot-high doors with alternative clear and frosted glass panes, visitors enter into what Styles calls “the great room,” a large entertaining area with an even larger, curved deck that overlooks the mountains. The same floor has a kitchen with four refrigerators (one for groceries, one for leftovers, one for various kinds of water, and one for alcohol, Styles explains), and a range hood whose color is reminiscent of Frozen’s electric blue palette.

That main level also has two bedrooms, a children’s play area, and a mudroom. The top floor has two master bedroom suites with a living area between them; the lower floor has yet another living area that Styles calls “the family room,” which has a full bar, a home theater, another bedroom, and an indoor pool.

Frozen Touches

Style’s Frozen-inspired touches are sprinkled throughout the house, which she’s dubbed Arendelle, after the film series’ central location.

Mostly, that’s manifested through a liberal use of the Frozen blue—on bathroom walls, the playroom wall, kitchen stools, throw pillows, chair upholstery, mosaic tiles, and in her daughters’ room, which has dual bunkbeds with a blue staircase and sheer, feather-trimmed curtains. There’s also a set of dishes for the house, which Styles had made with “black, gothic-looking snowflakes and every piece signed ‘Casa Arendelle’ on the back,” she explains. Many of the chandeliers, Styles continues, have an aesthetic similar to the movie’s.

The building process wasn’t without hiccups.

The pool leaked and had to be redone, all the materials had to be dropped onto the site by crane, and “when I got the price of the windows, I nearly fell on the floor,” she says of the $580,000 bill.

Still, Styles says, the process was worth it. “You forget about what you paid,” she says, “but you remember the look.”

©2021 Bloomberg L.P.