Littleton – “People muraled on their walls in Renaissance Italy because they were art patrons. That was a very personal and permanent relationship,” says Carla Donelson.
That bond between Renaissance-era painters and their doting patrons so inspired this self-proclaimed “recovering attorney” that her favorite artist became key to major renovations done on the house near Arapahoe Community College she shares with husband Jeff and son Jack.
An old European air characterizes the Donelsons’ updated house, from the mesquite trundle staircase beneath an antiquarian village mural inspired by travels in France and Italy, to the painting of the town of Orvieto that blankets their dining room wall.
Art fuses with family life all over this 8,000-square-foot, four-bedroom, 6 1/2 bathroom property. Few opportunities are spared to showcase interior artwork, all of which was completed by glass, mural and leather craftswomen Lynn and Tiffany Smyth. A collection of fine art photography by Littleton’s Andy Marquez also takes up prominent space in this house.
The Smyths’ mixed-media murals and stained-glass windows define the Donelsons’ dining room, where an heirloom oak table is paired with highboy chairs and Tuscan inspired lighting.
Lynn Smyth says the decade-long relationship she’s enjoyed with Donelson, and the extensive work she and her daughter completed throughout the house, made for an “absolute all-time dream job.”
Smyth first met her patron after an interior designer referred the artist to Donelson to help transform an awkward peephole of a window. The women instantly connected.
“We think alike, and (Carla) has such a clear vision,” says Smyth, who counts the wisteria stained glass in one of the Donelsons’ bathrooms among the best work of her career.
The family employed an architect and a builder for their renovation, but Carla Donelson did her own decorating.
“There’s nothing more personal than your home,” she says. “We have a lot of creative friends, so they helped.”
A spacious but awkward 1970s ranch-style house stood on the property when the Donelsons purchased it in 1993.
“We had this long, narrow, dysfunctional family room,” Carla recalls. Pair that with a dank underground pool, and the couple knew that choosing to stay meant undergoing a drastic domestic face-lift.
Rebuilding was more attractive than moving because of the Donalsons’ strong ties to the community. Carla’s late mother, Faith Hamre, was an assistant superintendent for Littleton Public Schools. Her daughter picked up that civil service baton by becoming active in the school district’s philanthropic foundation, which raises money and distributes classroom grants.
“My mother was one of those people who just invited people over … for a hot dish and Jell-O salad,” Donelson says. She is sitting in a parlor at the front of her house that’s awash in royal blue and subtle metallics. The floors are rustic-looking Travertine tile with tiny slate insets. A shiny curtain crafted from glass beads and copper wire adorns a fireplace adjacent to two crescent-shaped sofas.
Lamp shades crafted from vintage beads and fabric turn up all over the house but seem especially apropos in this old-fashioned sitting room.
“I’ve always had a thing for fabrics,” Donelson says, and it shows. Her upholstered pieces spotlight offbeat, contrasting fabrics, elaborate embellishments and frilly throw pillows sewn by this homeowner.
Architect Doug Walter tackled the Donelsons’ remodel with his associate Hamid Khellaf. Walter says the biggest challenge was negotiating the Donelsons’ long, narrow lot and reorienting the house toward nearby open space. That task became easier as he observed the family’s strong stylistic vision.
“The theme is rustic elegance,” Walter says. That theme is supported by slate floors, knotty alder doors and oil-rubbed bronze hardware on those doors. And while the building team reconstructed 75 to 80 percent of the house, Walter concedes the artists were responsible for a great deal of its new character.
“I especially love the stained glass in the powder room.” The architect is referring to the master bathroom where underlit honey onyx counters are paired with soothing nautical mosaic tile work, and an overhead mural featuring shells and angels.
The remodeled kitchen, with its vaulted ceiling, mesquite cross beams and butcher block counter, became another showplace. “I love the beams, and the open feeling,” Donelson says.
Collins-Kiessig General Contractors teamed up with Walter to double the size of the Donelsons’ original house by taking off the back, building a two story addition, moving the pool outside, and replacing the indoor pool with a multifunctional home theater. Recasting the exterior in stone veneer and stucco, and adding a new roof and new chimneys helped finalize the property’s transformation.
“It’s a very dramatic residence,” says builder Kevin Collins. “That’s for sure.”
