When you walk through the 4-inch-thick, custom white oak double doors, your eye is immediately drawn past the impeccable interiors and furnishings and straight to the view: a sweeping 360-degree panorama featuring direct shots of Grandfather Mountain, Mount Mitchell, Swinging High Bridge, and, on a clear day, Charlotte’s skyline.

“It’s a $1 million view,” says Rick Gentry, a superintendent with Andrew Roby General Contractor, which oversaw construction of the project. “It’s exactly why the homeowner purchased this piece of land. For that view right there.”

And contrary to what you may think, the 3,000-square-foot building, which sits high atop the peaks between Grandfather and Sugar mountains, isn’t even the main home. It’s a pavilion—affectionately named Lazy Bear’s Folly—which sits adjacent to the 8,500-square-foot home. It was made with one intention: to be the ultimate entertaining space.

The pavilion was constructed with three Nanawalls, which open to the incredible view. And while there is a full-size, custom kitchen, large dining room, living room, and extensive outdoor living space, there are purposefully no bedrooms in the building.

“This isn’t a guest house,” says interior designer Pamela McKay of Dianne Davante & Associates. McKay, along with Gentry and architect Bob Mann, had previously worked on the homeowner’s adjacent main home—a stunning, rustic, Southwestern-inspired space overlooking Linville. When the client purchased the lot below the property, he enlisted the team to design the pavilion solely for entertaining purposes.

It was constructed with Douglas Fir timber frame with tongue and groove ceilings and flagstone floors throughout. Though it’s similar in architecture to the main home and the interiors are also decidedly Southwest inspired, the Lazy Bear’s Folly aesthetic skews more dramatic in color and pattern. McKay employed a bold color palette of blues, reds, and oranges, repeating the scheme throughout to contrast the natural hues of the mountains beyond.

Accents walls of planed poplar mark were painted and enhanced with shimmer in the bark to create interest and color against the natural stone and wood of the home. “We really wanted to bring some color to this most rustic setting,” says McKay. “And we also wanted to have a little fun with it, too, because the folly was meant to be just that: fun.”

McKay layered the space with thick, red-and-orange wool rugs, orange hair-on-hide and red, textured leather upholstery, and wool, southwestern-patterned fabrics dressed with leather trim. Though the space features mainly rustic, masculine design elements, McKay also saw the need for something to soften the aesthetic a bit, to make it more glamorous and inviting. That touch was a 9-foot, custom bronze chandelier hangs

above the custom 14-foot dining room table by Bald Mountain Rustics. Nearly 400 various crystals—labradorite, fluorite, Amethyst, citrine, aquamarine, red smelt, lapis, sodite, onyx, Jasper, Calcite, Blue quartz, Amazonite— were hand-wrapped in copper wire, dipped in small pyrite crystals, and draped over the chandelier for a most dramatic effect. “It glistens at night and is so beautiful,” says McKay.

While the folly itself is remarkable, it’s the outdoor entertaining space that is breathtaking. Designed to take advantage of the
property’s extraordinary views, the exterior and interiors blend seamlessly, and can accommodate up to 150 people without feeling crowded.

A circular stone fire pit is surrounded by comfy, upholstered cushions, while a dance floor is highlighted in a bright, red color and outlined in LED tape lighting illuminating the area at night. (The owner loves to shag dance.) Walking paths branch off the outdoor space like spokes on a wheel and are dimly lit so that visitors can easily walk the perimeter of the folly at night. Along the illuminated pathways, the homeowner has six large, hidden bronze bear sculptures by artists such as Walt Horton and Kevin Clark. The bears are lit at night and even speak— with adjustable adult-friendly and kid-friendly tracks.

The impeccable details, coupled with the folly’s view and outdoor living area, are what make Lazy Bear’s Folly the ultimate gathering space. “People in Linville are always wanting to get an invite to one of the parties here,” says McKay. “It’s just such an amazing entertaining space.”