Boulder County Whole Home Interior Design
Beautiful Habitat creates a casual, livable space out of a grand home in Boulder County. It’s now suited to the clients’ personalities and lifestyle.
By Camille Wilson
Upon moving into this Boulder County home, its traditional, formal interior design style didn’t fit the client’s casual personality. The grand scale of the home dwarfed much of their existing furniture, and the traditional window treatments and light fixtures all felt overly formal. The family wanted to personalize the spaces into a more casual feel while still honoring the style of the home itself. Having worked with Beautiful Habitat to successfully style their former Broomfield home, they chose the company again for this project. The resulting transformation was rewarding for all involved.
Cohesive Color Palette
Already familiar with the family personalities and knowing they all love blue, Beautiful Habitat Owner and Principal Designer Tennille Wood developed a relaxed blue and cream theme for the home. Different tones of these colors are found throughout each room, ranging from dark navy to turquoise, in the window coverings, furniture, walls and side chairs. This theme helps link the rooms together and has a calming effect as one moves through different parts of the home.
“When rooms in the public areas are suddenly different, it can be unconsciously disturbing,” said Wood. “Color continuity softens and relaxes us more.”
Formal Living Room
While most of the home was successfully converted to be a more transitional and casual interior design style, the formal living room intentionally remains formal. The piano is important to the family, so its unique wood set the tone for other pieces of furniture in the rest of the room. Its blocky nature also led to the selection of a beautifully curved sofa with two-tone custom upholstery to call out the shape. Nail heads also emphasize these curves.
The floral and bird draperies were existing when the family moved in, but they were hung too low and puddled at the bottom. To overcome this outdated look and draw attention up to the peak of the vaulted ceiling, the draperies were hung higher and a dark blue band of fabric was added on the leading edge and bottom.
“We all love that bird fabric, actually,” said Wood. “It led to birds appearing in other areas of the home as well.”
Personalized Master Suite
The spacious master suite includes a sitting area designed to take advantage of the majestic Flatirons view. When the family moved in, there were no window coverings in this area, so light-blocking blinds were added that hide behind the custom curved valance. The valence frames the window and draws the eye out to the view. Graphic blue and cream chairs offer an inviting place to sit and take it all in.
Creativity in the Dining Room
The dining room set is a third-generation family antique, so it was important to them to keep it and design around it. The seat cushion upholstery had been updated at the home in Broomfield and was still in great shape. The size of the room made the table impractical since it did not fit the large scale of the space.
“From a functional standpoint, the table really limited the number of people the room could seat as well,” added Wood.
For a creative solution, Wood brought in an expert furniture builder to create a new table top and attach it to the original base. The finishing work includes a clover design carved into each of the four corners, matching the existing dining set perfectly.
“The new table pulls the whole room together since it is now the appropriate scale and can seat twice as many people,” said Wood.
See more Beautiful Habitat design projects.
When rooms in the public areas are suddenly different, it can be unconsciously disturbing. Color continuity softens and relaxes us more. –Tennille Wood
Accommodating for Children
Part of the family’s casual lifestyle comes from living with two kids and two dogs in the house. While there are certain accommodations to be made when kids are involved, the ages of the kids in this family allowed for minimal changes. In this case, casual vinyl bar stools in the kitchen make for no-fuss cleanup. Lots of storage in the kids’ bedrooms allows them to tuck away the many things children tend to accumulate. Since the glass top for the coffee table in the family room is no longer at risk of being broken by a toy truck, more adult, sophisticated touches are possible throughout the home.
Overall Success
“It is rewarding to know this client loved the first project so much they trusted us with this home as well,” said Wood. These clients wanted to honor the home and the way it was built as a grand and formal home, but add a casual vibe and make it comfortable to fit their everyday lifestyle. Mission accomplished.
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