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TRENDSETTING PRODUCTS AND MATERIALS FOR DISTINCTIVE RENOVATIONS
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RENOVATIONS
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ColoradoHomesMag.com
JANUARY. FEBRUARY 2015
after
A
Renovated
Retreat
Rustic barn wood and luxe furnishings bring this
dated mountain escape into the here and now
By Elisabeth A. Sullivan Photography by David Patterson
W
e’ve all seen them. Across the country, homes
constructed circa 1995 share a few telltale
characteristics: beige walls with honeystained molding, blond floors or wall-to-wall
carpeting, white tile, touches of travertine and brushed-nickel
fixtures. The look is all too easy to date, but it doesn’t readily
suggest any particular location or personality.
These days, however, many homeowners and designers want
to banish the generic in favor of a look that’s more personalized and geographically specific—and interior designer Melissa
Greenauer and her adventurous Beaver Creek clients are definitely in that camp. The well-traveled interior designer works
with clients from Colorado to points far beyond, operating out
of her offices in Vail, London and Dubai to design homes and
commercial spaces that reflect their surroundings.
before
before
(opposite) The addition of wood paneling to the sloped ceiling draws more
attention to the living room’s beautiful wooden beams and trusses, visually
warming up the room and bringing the ceiling down to human scale. A Paul
Ferrante chandelier adds a graceful note, and a collection of art from Santa
Fe adorns the room. Comfy custom sofas and sectionals from Greenauer
Design are streamlined and neutral so as not to compete with the room’s
imposing architecture. (this page) A tall and bulky cabinet once partitioned
the main living space, but interior designer Melissa Greenauer removed
the awkward piece and replaced it with a clever, sleek console that
conceals a pop-up TV, allowing a brighter and more unified living area.
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before
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(above) Walls clad in barn wood serve as a rustic, tonal backdrop for the kitchen’s custom metal
hood and dramatic backsplash. Greenauer refinished the oak floors to create a darker, neutral base
for the home’s design. (opposite) Contemporary sconces and a chandelier from Hammerton
modernize the cozy breakfast nook. Their sleek forms stand in contrast to the room’s forested views.
before
“I started as a landscape architect,
so I always design from the outside in,
thinking about how a home should connect with the property,” Greenauer says.
“This was an existing home, though, so I
was working from the inside out.”
As many renovations do, this project
grew exponentially as work got under
way, spiraling outward from kitchen
and bathroom remodels to include
topical renovations in nearly every
room and outdoor space.
Work began in the kitchen, and
once the demolition was complete, the
homeowners decided that cosmetic
updates and minor tweaks to the floor
plan just wouldn’t do. Greenauer seized
the opportunity to reorient the kitchen
toward the stunning mountain views,
and then she selected tone-on-tone
materials to highlight the room’s new
feature element: a statement-making
metal hood and backsplash. Those tired
beige walls and brushed-nickel fixtures
were replaced with reclaimed barn
wood and oil-rubbed bronze.
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before
In fact, barn wood became a major design
feature throughout the house. “We used a ton of it,”
Greenauer says. “Sometimes, when we would have a
blank wall, that just became the solution. You know
that urban, recycled look that you’re seeing in some
homes these days? This is kind of Colorado’s alternative to that.” The barn wood turned bland guest rooms
into rustic retreats, offering an earthy counterpoint to
elegant bed frames and metallic accents, lush carpets
and faux-fur bedcovers. The master suite, now clad
almost entirely in reclaimed wood, transformed into
a cozy aerie featuring floor-to-vaulted-ceiling views
of a stand of birch trees and a refined canopy bed
dressed simply but luxuriously, and paired with contemporary nightstands. In the master bath, Greenauer
(opposite) The master bedroom is a tall, compact space, and after the client settled on a canopy bed from
Ferrell + Mittman, Greenauer made it the focal point for the space and then filled in everything else around
it. She kept the colors and furnishings to a minimum so as not to visually clutter the room, directing the
attention toward the views. (above) Contemporary side tables from Bernhardt are a refined counterpoint
to the rustic barn wood backdrop, and the plush bedding and sumptuous rug provide soft texture notes.
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“
As with most renovations,
the scope of this project is
much bigger than originally
planned. The homeowners
loved the home just as it was
when they bought it, but
once they started working
on some updates...we all
decided to make the house
feel more authentic.
”
—Melissa Greenauer
pushed the design to cool contemporary, adding sleek
vanities and a streamlined, glass-walled shower, but
barn wood and oil-rubbed bronze fixtures once again
make an appearance to unite the room with the rest
of the home’s mountain-inspired design.
In the main living space, Greenauer adorned
the vaulted ceiling with wood paneling to highlight
the heavy beams and ceiling trusses, and to offset the stone on the fireplace surround, creating a
room befitting a mountain lodge. She also layered in
ample seating for entertaining, with custom sofas and
sectionals designed to be weighty enough to balance
out the room’s strong architecture, yet streamlined
enough that they don’t compete for attention.
before
before
Greenauer gave the 90s-era, honey-blond master
bath a radical update, in keeping with the home’s new
rustic-luxe mood. “The master bath used to be that classic ‘open the door and look at the tub’ kind of thing, and
the clients didn’t even want a tub,” Greenauer remembers. So she updated the color palette, materials and
layout, creating a crisply tailored space perfect for the
homeowners’ needs. “We used clean, modern tiles and
sleek lines, and then combined that with reclaimed barn
wood and oil-rubbed bronze fixtures.” The space is now
clad in Athens Silver Cream marble, with an accent wall
of Idyllwild tiles from Ann Sacks in the spacious shower.
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“As with most renovations, the scope of this project became much bigger than originally planned,”
Greenauer admits. “The homeowners loved the
home just as it was when they bought it, but once
they started working on some updates, I think we all
decided to make the house feel more authentic. We
took it from ’90s contemporary to something more
rustic and modern at the same time,” she explains.
“And the work isn’t done. Now I have to get going on
the yard.” Because this beautifully updated Colorado
home definitely knows—and shows—its place.
(this page, top left) “We wanted to have more of an earthy
feel to things, so we chose traditional, Western-designed
patterns and mixed them with modern case goods,” the
designer says. The drapery and pillow fabrics are from
Beacon Hill; the area rug is from Ralph Lauren. (left) To
complement this guest bedroom’s rough barn wood walls,
Greenauer incorporated tactile elements such as luxurious
bed coverings on curvy Bernhardt beds and a polished fourdrawer dresser from Ambella Home. “In the guest rooms,
all four walls were barn wood, so we wanted to make sure
that we had some bigger-impact draperies to downplay the
walls, and we layered in carpets on top of carpets to add
more softness to those spaces,” Greenauer says.
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(opposite, top right, and this page) The home’s second
master suite originally had a wall divider that blocked
the views and natural light offered by the room’s many
windows. Greenauer removed the unnecessary barrier
in order to unite the room’s cozy sleeping and sitting
spaces. The dramatic four-poster bed from Bernhardt
features an upholstered headboard with nailhead trim.
It’s matched with a bedside table that echoes its shape.
Rich, warm shades of rust and mahogany are repeated in
the drapes, armchairs, benches and sumptuous bedding,
joining the glow of the mellow fireplace to give the room
a welcoming comfort at the end of a mountain day.
before
Design Details
Interior Designer
Melissa Greenauer
Greenauer Design Group
greenauer.com
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coloradohomesmag.com/RetreatReno
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