Designer Showhouse Mixes Old And New Elements To Make A Contemporary Space
By Libby Smith
DENVER (CBS4) - Denver Life Magazine is showcasing a Washington Park neighborhood 1930s Tudor house that's been remodeled for modern livability. The 2016 Designer Showhouse also features the interior design ideas of 14 local designers.
(Credit CBS)
The home is located at 601 S. Race Street, Denver. It's open for tours from 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily from Sept. 10 through Sept. 18. Tickets are $20 with the proceeds going to Habitat for Humanity of Metro Denver. You can buy your tickets at the door.
LINK: Denver Life Magazine's 2016 Designer Showhouse
"I just think that there are tons of ideas to take home to your own spaces. I know I'm going to build a nook in my kitchen, somehow, I don't know how, but it's going to happen," said executive editor of Denver Life Magazine, Lesley Kennedy.
Breakfast Nook (Credit CBS)
The September issue of Denver Life Magazine features a 20-page spread on the Designer Showhouse. It includes insight from the builder and architect as well as comments from the designers. There is also a resource guide that lists vendors. The challenge the whole team faced was making an older home live like it was built brand new.
"Tudors are traditionally darker homes, and this house is really full of like, which is what people want now. You still see the beautiful shapes and entry way. There's a bedroom upstairs that's just got an amazing ceiling," Kennedy explained.
Basement Entertainment Area (Credit CBS)
Caliber Construction along with architect Carlos Alvarez, of Alvarez Morris, expanded the house in every direction, adding to the square footage. They emphasized the best lines of the old house and used them to create the new space.
"One of our challenges is we do not like the name 'pop top', so we made sure the house looked like a house … not a pop top," Alvarez told CBS4.
Another challenge in older homes is very small window openings. They designed much larger windows in the new parts of the house to allow in a lot of light and give the house that "inside blending with outside" feel.
"We're always looking to give these old urban infill houses a refreshed look into the future without losing their character. That's one of things I love about this house, it has the character of an old house, but it lives like a new house," Alvarez explained.
The house may feel new, but crews carefully preserved some of the original features of the Tudor style.
"This room here with the vaulted ceiling and the brick wall is something that existed. And so we thought that was a unique feature, not often found in new homes or in old homes, this one really stood out to us," said Brad Liber, owner of Caliber Construction.
Once the construction was done, designers took over, bringing their own specific ideas to each of the living spaces.
"Each space gives the opportunity to kind of see how you'd put it into your own home. I love the subway tile. I love the different paint colors, the textures and fabrics and different lighting. So I think it's really fun to kind of tour through and see where you might put things in your own home," said Caylin Engle, lead designer for Caliber Construction.
The challenge was to make each of the individual designs into one cohesive space that a family would want to live in. Some of the basic elements help pull the spaces together.
"This being a Tudor, but sort of a modern take on a Tudor, I wanted to choose things that were traditional with a modern twist. So the baseboards have a really simple scalloped design instead of a three-tiered base. The stair railing brought the element of iron which is great, and modern, but not so modern that it dates itself," Engle explained.
Basement Entertainment Area (Credit CBS)
Pamela Chelle of Pamela Chelle Interior Design took on the guest room at the top of the stairs. It's a small space, which would be common for a Tudor-style home, but it has a vaulted ceiling. The room includes a queen-size bed, a seating area, and a desk for computer work.
"I wanted it to be a nice guest room space that basically anyone of any age could come and use and feel comfortable. And my goal was really to make it feel like you were staying in a luxury resort," Chelle told CBS4.
Chelle said she wanted to highlight the vaulted ceiling, so she made that her accent-wall and set it off with patterned wall paper. She used a striped pattern for the window dressing.
"I decided that since I kept my color palette pretty neutral, it was very black and white, I could play around with pattern. So that's a great thing that people can do pretty easily, mixing patterns as long as they're in the same color palette," Chelle explained.
Guest Bedroom (Credit CBS)
She used a plant and other accent pieces to add color and texture to the room. She also put an area rug over the wall-to-wall carpeting.
"I think the more you layer the more interesting the room can get. And because we were given just a general broad loom carpet in the bedrooms, I really wanted to add the impact where the bed is going to be located, so I added an overlay rug," Chelle said.
Loft view of the living room (Credit CBS)
A loft space looks down into the formal living room, another small space that is made to feel big by vaulted ceilings. The room features a gas stove, exposed brick wall, and a player piano. There is millwork on two walls, which is a formal design technique, but in this case it's more contemporary with oversized squares and a taller height.
"We are seeing a lot of millwork in design. And it's just a great way to infuse more of an architectural aspect to the space. So in this home, rather than just have painted walls, you have the extra dimension of the millwork. And painting it a different color against the color of the wall just adds another dimension to the space," explained Corinne Ekie of C2Design.
Ekie said that millwork is something that homeowners can incorporate in their own homes fairly easily.
"I wanted it to be warm but comfortable. The wall color has grays which we're seeing a lot of, so the warm taupe tones and then an under tone of a gray. So by having that as a back drop and then bringing in more neutral furniture, and then popping with great pillows and artwork and accessories, that's where the color is infused and brings the fun," Ekie explained.
Master Bedroom (Credit CBS)
Older homes are often made up of a lot of smaller living spaces. In more modern homes the rooms are often opened up with more than one living space in one room. The kitchen in the 2016 Designer Showhouse is that opened multi-use space.
"The kitchen has really become like the central heart of the house, which it wasn't like that before. The kitchen was totally different before. So by that being the central space of the house, and opening it up to everything else it just becomes a different kind of social experience," Alvarez said.
The kitchen features expanded windows, and gourmet appliances, but it also has a built in breakfast nook and herringbone backsplash.
"The herringbone has been seen for centuries, you see it in design, clothing and all that. But we're kind of having a revival of it, and it's certainly a trending pattern that you see in flooring and back splashes," said Casey Kicklighter Poole of Kaleidoscope Design.
Kitchen (Credit CBS)
The kitchen is also a combination of traditional design elements and cutting edge trends. The counter top on the island is a different pattern than the counters around the perimeter, even though they're made out of the same quartz material. The same is true of the wood on the island as opposed to the wood around the perimeter.
"There might have been an old rule of matching woods. Now a-days, you'll see a lot of design embracing mixing wood tones. So in this case, we have a darker wood finish on the island, whereas, we're offsetting it with warmer wood tones on the floor and in the floating shelves," Kicklighter Poole told CBS4.
Outdoor Living Space (Credit CBS)
Denver Life Magazine's Designer Showhouse stays true to the traditions of Tudor style with the vaulted ceilings and rounded doors. But the contractor and architect added space, light, and updated features to make it feel more contemporary.
"We just wanted to bring an old traditional Tudor to a modern feel and a modern lifestyle, with the finishes and livability for a modern family that can stay in the neighborhood and not move to the suburbs," Liber said.
Libby Smith is a Special Projects Producer at CBS4. If you have a story you'd like to tell CBS4 about, call 303-863-TIPS (8477) or visit the News Tips section.
