At The Helm

Winter 2024/2025

December 17, 2024

Words by Susan Cannon | Photos by Matthew Anderson

A luxury “spec” home spared no expense for bespoke details, materials and craftsmanship—and set a build time record of only 13 months.

hen David Helm of Helm Custom Homes discovered a generous lot in Lenexa’s Timber Rock community in early 2023, he knew it was the moment to create a remarkable showcase of his skills on the 2024 Artisan Home Tour. It would only be Helm’s second design-build project since starting his own company, and he wasted no time giving it his all.

“A variety of factors played into my objectives for building the highest-caliber spec home,” Helm says. “I wanted to have greater detail and the very best craftsmanship, along with increased features.”

He brought on Regan Romero Design to collaborate on the interior design details, including the well-thought-out custom woodwork and cabinetry, high-end surface materials, lighting choices and more. Amethyst Home appointed the furniture and art on a temporary basis for the tour.

“While designing this home’s interior, it was important to have the overall feel reflect luxury and sophistication without coming across too sterile,” Romero explains. “We landed on this elevated, organic modern theme, which felt really comfortable and cozy. I wanted to incorporate earthy tones paired with modern lines, repetitive soft curves and rustic elements.”

Nothing says chic alfresco living better than an 800-square-foot outdoor kitchen, dining and lounging space, including a fireplace for cool evenings. The counters, backsplash and hood are Symphony Vita from Asmi Surfaces. For durability and uniqueness, the kitchen counter sides are wrapped in 24-inch by 48-inch ribbed porcelain tiles from Bedrosians.

A unique weeping wall tiled with 3D natural stone breaks up water as it falls over the pool edge.

Farrow & Ball’s Studio Green No. 93 pops on the dining room cabinets, accompanied by a tall wine refrigerator and surrounding a large plate-glass window that features delicate hanging custom brass-and-glass shelves. Brass hardware contrasts with the wide black soapstone window trim and the black linear chandelier and sconces.

Well-thought-out design details inhabit the useful scullery, where the Calacatta Belgia marble continues on one side and black soapstone on the other. Carrying in the exterior’s stone veneer that tonally complements the marble adds a nice textural mix above the windows. The cabinets are painted Farrow & Ball Studio Green No. 93; the sconces are by Cedar & Moss.

The surface materials, bespoke details and lighting are quite extra in the chef’s kitchen, which leads into a scullery through deep, arched doorways. The varying sizes of plaster white pendants by Suzanne Kasler for Visual Comfort are standouts in the space. Calacatta Belgia honed marble from Triton is used throughout the kitchen, and the beautifully designed cabinetry is smooth and reeded rift-sawn white oak. The appliances are all Fisher & Paykel.

From conception to completion, the home was built in just 13 months—a feat, considering the highly detailed nature of this 8,200-square-foot home’s architecture and interior. It also involved creating something very special for the backyard.

“I started the overall design concept with the back living spaces as the primary focus,” Helm says, explaining his intent for creating exterior luxury with artisan-worthy workmanship and good taste. An 800-square-foot covered kitchen, dining and living area opens to a backyard paved in Turkish marble slabs. Protected by the pool house, a sunken lounge area with a modern limestone fire pit and chic swing seating overlooks the glass panel wall of the 39-foot saltwater pool and elevated hot tub wrapped in single panels of porcelain. A staircase leads down and past a striking weeping wall, which can be seen outside the windows of the lower level’s entertaining area.

At the Helm

The great room, with its 15-foot-tall ceilings, opens up to the kitchen and dining room on one side, with private access to the home office enclosed in stone and a back hallway to the luxurious primary suite and staircase to the lower level on the other.

The office has a modern vibe and moody dark palette. A ring and globe chandelier measuring 42 inches in diameter anchors the space, as does the minimal custom fireplace faced in Amadora limestone from Dimensional Stoneworks.

An airy yet cozy primary bedroom with a vaulted ceiling communes with nature through a welcome wall of windows. A Triton honed soapstone fireplace is a luxury for cold or snowy days. When warm out, the bedroom’s direct access to the saltwater pool and hot tub sounds equally sublime. The Drew & Jonathan chandelier and the AERIN bedside sconces are all from Visual Comfort.

Instead of attaching the primary bathroom to the bedroom, Helm created a moment of privacy by placing the entrance a few steps down the hall. He devoted significant space to the bathroom and dressing areas. A glassed-in shower is the central feature.

The space boasts two water closets and two long vanities. The shower and countertops feature a smooth recycled crystalline silica surface. The Sean Lavin pendant lights are from Visual Comfort.

The boutique-style closet’s ceiling features a paper-backed hand-painted silk Flora design from Poppy Print Studio, and the pristine white custom shelving and closets are illuminated and feature mirror-front drawers. The AERIN light fixture adds a jewel-box vibe.

The interiors exceeded the artisanal challenge, as well. Intentional refinement of unique details increased the home’s quality exponentially. For example, the lighting choices made a strong impact throughout, particularly in the entryway and kitchen.

“The 15-foot-tall kitchen ceiling and its oversized island begged for something dramatic,” Romero says. “Using different sizes of the Limoges pendant from Visual Comfort, we spent an entire day curating placement and height for each fixture with the electrician.”

Another theme Romero felt strongly about was the use of arches.

“Adding arched openings and reeded details helped create softness and lean into the organic theme,” she explains.

Special areas to point out include a passageway from the kitchen into the scullery and also in the primary bathroom. “Being the two most important places of the home, I wanted to frame specific views,” Romero adds.

For Helm, finding perfection in every detail was imperative—and if any piece didn’t feel right, he had it taken out and redone.

The open living space downstairs has many rooms for every obsession. The great room features a 120-inch UST projector home theater with comfy velvet lounges and counter-height bar seating. A glassed-in exercise room and sauna are on the other side of the staircase.

A golf simulator with bar seating for hecklers or golf clappers gets a dedicated alcove in the sports-friendly lower level.

At the Helm

The lounging area plays any and all broadcasted games on nine TVs.

Crescendo Blue porcelain backs the custom wine wall that was crafted with an intricate waterjet cutout system for the iron pegs to hold the wine bottles. This feature greets you when descending the stairs to the home’s entertainment haven.

At the Helm

The custom-built Alder-wood Swedish sauna is backlit by a Himalayan salt wall that gives off negative ions to help relieve anxiety, reduce stress, improve sleep and reduce indoor air pollution and allergens.

Romero played with different tile patterns, leaning on muted colors for the ensuite bathroom downstairs.

A downstairs kitchenette is filled with character and convenience. Textured tiles play nicely with the Visual Comfort sculptural wall sconce.

“The design of the great room’s fireplace was the biggest challenge; we redesigned it three times,” Helm notes. The final design incorporated texture that mimicked the reed detail of the custom cabinets in the adjacent kitchen.

The team paid great attention to cohesive style in other areas, too. For instance, the exterior stone veneer—used prominently in the entry—was also used in a more subtle way in the scullery. And the scullery’s black soapstone countertops were carried into the dining room as a chic window trim detail.

The larger elements that give this home its wow factor can be found in the lower level—an entertaining and sports mecca—comprising a golf simulator, wet bar, wine cellar, TV niche, exercise room and sauna with a Himalayan salt wall. The lower level also has three bedrooms with unique full baths. Not bad for the owners who ended up buying the spec home on the last day of the Artisan Tour. With two teenage sons, the whole family will enjoy the house top to bottom, inside and out.

“No hyperbole, but so many people who came through the tour, including other builders and real estate agents, generously said they haven’t seen a spec home like this in over 30 years,” Helm says genuinely. “They expressed astonishment by the high level of this home.”

Our bet is that Helm will be at the helm of artisan home building for a long time to come.

Builder and Architectural Designer: Helm Custom Homes, @helmconstructionkc

Interior Designer: Regan Romero Design, @reganromerodesign