Pianist Peter Nero once dropped by 160 High St. after a New Year’s Eve gala with the Denver Symphony. Fashion designer Carolina Herrera graced the house during a party there in her honor. And comedian Phyllis Diller was a guest while making a philanthropic visit to the Mile High City.
So it follows that “High Society” is the theme of the 31st annual Junior Symphony Guild Showhouse, which this year overtook the flat-roofed, 5,000-square-foot, multilevel contemporary home in the Country Club Historic District.
Designers bid for space in the show house, which is the largest annual fundraiser for the Junior Symphony Guild, a nonprofit organization that has funded kids’ music programs since 1958. This year, about two dozen designers gleaned inspiration from the history of the house, which was custom-built in 1979 for a pair of socialites whose schedule led some to dub their neck of the neighborhood “The Party Street.”
Those who work in the home industry pass through a show house with an eye toward craftsmanship and healthy competitive interest. But the everyday voyeur is simply looking for a few new decorating ideas. Here are four of them, taken from a recent morning stroll through the freshly refurbished rooms:
Art is in the eye of the beholder: Except when if comes to masterworks. Floor-to-ceiling reproductions of famous paintings by Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse are splashed across the walls in the show-house stairwell. This playful presentation was executed by artist John Woods. He also provided the house with original works.
But several of the striking artistic elements this year were never even meant to be art, in the traditional sense. Among them is a series of oversized, white-box frames encasing a dazzling collection of vintage rhinestone brooches. This wall in the lower-level guest room sets off a worldly collection of furnishings and textiles conceived by John Mozaid and David Hintgen of Aera Interiors.
Edit personality in: Two of the more froufrou rooms in the house work well because personal touches impart the feeling that someone actually lives there. First, Ginger’s Room: a glammed-out jewel in the northeast corner of the house where diamond-encrusted glamour inspired designer Keri McGuire.
This silver-and-lilac perch was tailored to suit a fictional, over-the-hill Hollywood starlet. It includes an Italian crystal chandelier and a purple velvet fainting sofa. But the cherry on top of this opulence is next to Ginger’s bed – a jeweled and tufted doggy daybed custom made by Silk Road Home Décor in the same champagne and floral tones as the rest of the room. Here, a silk throw pillow with the name “Bogart” in crystals dots the dog bed in honor of “the love of her life, her sole companion, tried and true thru her affairs,” McGuire writes of the fictional starlet’s bichon frisé, in a synopsis posted in the room.
Similarly endearing is “Abby’s Room,” a bedroom defined by regal color that was inspired a real-life teen. The iPod shape informed geometric choices for this room, from the polka-dot sheets to the modular, retro shelving. Metal frames on the walls include the type of collage any teenage girl might have in her room. It’s a down-to-earth touch in an otherwise elegant house.
An idea that’s more than just talk: Time and again, professional decorators advise do-it-yourselfers to create functional corners and conversation nooks. In the show-house dining room, Nancy Sanford Designs brought this concept to life by selecting two tables. One is a smaller, space-age piece by Dulles International Airport architect Eero Saarinen. It’s ideal for a craft project or neighborly cup of coffee. But the larger dining table, which seats as many as 12, remains a focal point in the room thanks to an artful pair of bentwood chairs by Frank Gehry.
Here we are now, entertain us: The property’s first owners commissioned Denver architect Jim Sudler to create the house. Its open floor plan features a spacious living room and great room connected by a double-sided, see-through fireplace, and a dining room and kitchen that spill into the airy 20-foot atrium at the heart of the house. Show-house designers often underscored the home’s sophisticated party-pad character.
Cora Martinek, for instance, filled the formal living room with collectibles surrounded by azure, taupe and cocoa fabrics. And in the adjoining great room, where a small, sleek dining area offers a charming option away from the formal dining room, designer Rob Osgard placed muted wood and metal accents in the room to match an art deco wet bar.
