Innholdsfortegnelse for February/March 2020 i 5280 Home

SETTLING INTO AN (ALMOST) century-old home over the past year has taught me a few things: 1. Never underestimate the power of a fresh coat of paint (or a bold wallpaper). 2. When in doubt, call a professional. 3. All things in due time—or, in other words, it’s OK to have a backlog of “someday” renovation projects. And 4. Don’t forget to take “before” photos. All of these lessons—and many more—play out in this issue devoted to home renovations, in which we invite you inside (and outside) nine recently revamped Denver and Boulder homes, and provide tips and takeaways from local design pros to help you navigate your next home-upgrade project. But let’s not sugarcoat it: Transforming any part of a home requires a lot of stamina, decisiveness, flexibility, and…

We’ve all fallen prey to the fast-moving home-decor trends that permeate Pinterest and get churned out by big-box stores (read: gray-washed everything). “I, too, love furniture from the chain stores like CB2 or West Elm,” says Hannah Becker, one of three siblings who own Kin Furniture Co., a new antiques restoration and refinishing shop in Denver’s Elyria-Swansea neighborhood. “But just think how many ‘affordable’ IKEA dressers and television consoles are piled in landfills because they’ve fallen out of style or are not valuable enough to fix.” Alongside her younger brothers, Sam and Jake, Hannah runs the company with a mission to help people find value and beauty in antique, vintage, heirloom, or secondhand pieces they already own. This respect for furniture relics was instilled in the siblings at an early…

1/ TRANSPARENT DESIGN SET ON 6.5 ACRES IN CENTRAL BOULDER, this modern residence offers access to green space galore—and this bathroom is a prime place to soak it up. Enclosed by clerestory windows, a vaulted cedar ceiling, and dramatic vertical windows along the perimeter of the tub, this 200-square-foot room is representative of the sleek, open aesthetic that defines the whole home. “With that kind of space, there’s the ability to have unrestricted visual access to the outside,” says Dale Hubbard, founder and principal of Surround Architecture. “The conversation between garden and bath can be much more intimate because the owners aren't worried about privacy. It’s a special place for them to start and end their day.” Custom walnut his-and-hers vanities (pictured: hers) fabricated by RL Woodworks & Design anchor…

Callie Hobbs PHOTOGRAPHER Though Callie Hobbs specializes in capturing life’s monumental moments—engagements, weddings, new family additions—on camera, she also enjoys the quieter aspect of photographing interiors. “It’s so fun to see all the creativity that flows through interior designers’ work,” she says. While shooting a master suite revamped by Cook Design House (page 28), she gathered inspiration for her own future master bath remodel. “I would love to give that room a clean, luxe vibe with marble, natural woods, and a mix of gold and industrial finishes,” she says. Cheryl Meyers WRITER Boulder-based freelance writer Cheryl Meyers says she could have spent the whole day talking with the siblings behind furniture-restoration shop Kin Furniture Co. (page 26).“Their enthusiasm for older pieces was a good reminder that home-decor trends come and…

Many of us have that room, the one that never quite gets finished, never gets our full attention, until we look at our home with fresh eyes. For the owners of this Greenwood Village house, that moment came as they considered selling their home. Before making a decision, though, they realized they’d need to revamp their master suite—bedroom, bathroom, and closet—to make it brighter, lighter, and more appealing, either to them or to prospective buyers. In swooped interior designer Jodi Cook, who orchestrated the remodel to achieve the couple’s aesthetic goals without overhauling the entire layout. “The spaces are generous, and they had everything they needed; we just had to free it from 1995,” she laughs. To that end, Cook approached the bedroom’s design as a balancing act: The owners’…

1. PORCELAIN Denser and harder than porous, high-maintenance marble, porcelain has a luxe, marble-like look, but is far less susceptible to stains and water damage. “I’m a huge fan of porcelain because of all the gorgeous textures and patterns—not necessarily just because it’s faux-marble,” says designer Beth Armijo, owner of Armijo Design Group. Tip: Look for large-format porcelain slabs—popular in Europe and now popping up at local distributors—that can serve as sleek shower walls without the grout and maintenance of traditional tile or the weight and expense of marble. 2. BRUSHED GOLD AND BRONZE Many homeowners are bypassing the expected brushed-nickel or chrome fixtures for gold—but not the brassy 1980s version you might be imagining. Think splashes of brushed or matte gold and bronze that create what Ascent Contracting principal…

In 1963, a mustachioed artist and teacher named Philip J. Steele opened a small art school in Denver’s City Park West neighborhood. Adjacent to a 19th-century home, the studio space was an artist’s dream, thanks to an angled wall of windows with frosted glass that diffused Colorado’s intense sunlight into a soft glow. There, eager students gathered to draw and paint, often still-life works. No one knew it then, but their small school would eventually grow up into the Rocky Mountain College of Art & Design (RMCAD). Fast-forward to the summer of 2018, when photographer Frances Marron and her now-husband, Bryce Kelley, were on the hunt for a new Denver home with a studio for Marron’s portrait and boudoir photography work. “Every space we saw was less than ideal,” she…

EDIT YOUR EXTERIOR. “We tried to use some restraint with exterior materials,” says architect Chris Gray. “We only selected a few and kept it fairly simple. On a midsize home, there’s no need to use five or six materials when one or two usually do the trick.” PRIORITIZE LAYOUT. When you’re hunting for a home, focus on finding a layout that suits you—or be prepared to pay the price. Ask yourself, “Are the bones of the house workable? Does this footprint work for me?” suggests designer Lori Nothwang. MATCHY-MATCHY WORKS. “I used the same countertop material throughout the house for consistency,” Lori says. “I like walking from one room to the other and feeling like it all jibes; it doesn’t look like a patchwork.”…

TILE THE WHOLE WALL. “In European bathrooms, tiles typically don’t just go on the floors—and when we can get away with it, we go for the floor-to-ceiling look too,” says interior designer Miranda Cullen.“Having that extra texture gives the space a more special feel.” LET THE EYE REST. To ease the transition from a low-ceilinged entryway to an open living room, Cullen created a “midlevel interaction”with a grouping of blown-glass pendant lights that gives the eye a place to rest before taking in the dramatic vaulted space. PRIORITIZE PROPORTIONS. “Put a teeny pedestal sink and mirror in a powder room with a tall ceiling and you’ve got a hot mess,” Cullen says. But “choose a tall mirror and bigger light fixtures and you’ll create that mid-level moment, so you don’t…

The Flatirons aren’t just outside this Boulder home—they’re also at the top of the stairs. Local artist Sarah Spencer hand-painted an impressionistic mural of the iconic sandstone formations on the back wall of this master bathroom for an outdoorsy couple who embrace the juxtaposition of clean, contemporary lines with vibrant bursts of color. “It’s an art piece in itself; it’s beautiful and calming and serene,” says Candace Donnell, executive design director at Design Studio Interior Solutions and lead interior designer on this project. The mural’s color palette complements a deeply hued, abstract wallpaper Donnell installed behind the bed in the master suite. As the landscape wraps around to the water closet, it provides a dramatic backdrop for a sculptural Victoria & Albert tub and zebrawood cabinets. “It’s totally original,” Donnell…

At work in her Lakewood home’s cozy studio, artist Noelle Phares is surrounded by deep canyons, snowcapped mountains, desert rock formations, and forested hills. Her paintings depict vast landscapes—some she’s visited, some she hasn’t, and some she’s made up entirely—layered with line patterns, tiny human figures, and architectural structures. Each piece is not only a vibrant tribute to the natural world, but a study of the tension between mankind and nature. “My intention is to provide commentary on how humans experience nature in the modern world, and to explore what’s being distorted about each landscape,” she says. In other words, “how does human development impact the landscape over time?” Phares has been curious about this question—and its answers—for most of her life. After a childhood spent exploring rivers and canyons…

SAVE: Choose a prefab, integrated vanity (try a piece from Kohler, like the one at left) that comes with a built-in cabinet, sink, faucet, and countertop rather than creating a custom, à-la-carte setup. SPLURGE: The accessories above the vanity—say, two high-end light fixtures or a dazzling mirror—can bring instant luxury to a small space. “You can have a simple backdrop if you have the right ‘jewelry,’ which adds personality that can make the whole wall sing,” DesJardin says. SAVE: If you can live with your bathroom’s existing layout instead of reconfiguring the location of your tub, toilet, and sink, your infrastructure and plumbing labor costs will decrease dramatically, Bride says. SPLURGE: High-end and custom fixtures and finishes—dramatic faucets, dueling shower-heads, a unique chandelier—can go a long way toward creating a…

It’s hard to quantify how many headaches—and heartaches—poor renovations have caused among homeowners, but suffice it to say, it’s a lot. One common storyline goes like this: A couple in search of a new home falls in love with a for-sale house’s architectural appeal, but finds that the current owner has diminished the home’s good looks with nondescript (and cheap) finishes and fixtures, and that the spaces just don’t function quite right. The couple forges on and buys the home because somewhere, beyond the bad laminate flooring and oddly shaped rooms, there’s an architectural masterpiece. Such is the case with this 1963 ranch-style home in South Denver, whose current owners couldn’t resist its midcentury bones and light-filled rooms. They moved in and tackled a few practical projects: laying hardwood flooring…

Husband and wife Jason Rovak and Erin Flynn-Rovak had no intention of leaving their Congress Park neighborhood when they asked their real-estate agent to help them find a larger home to accommodate their growing family. So, when she told them there was a Greenwood Village house they just had to see, their response was, “Nope! Not moving to the ’burbs,” Rovak says. But when they (hesitantly) agreed to at least see the house, it took about a minute for the couple to change their minds. “As soon as we pulled in the driveway, we said, ‘OK, we can look at this one,’ ” Rovak says. “We’ve always liked a classic French-country or industrial-meets-farmhouse kind of look, and this house, with its stone and stucco exterior, looked like an Old-World building.”…