Some children explore the world through PBS or National Geographic magazine.
Andy Klein saw the world through exotic family vacations that brought him up close and personal with primitive tribal cultures.
“My mother always wanted to go to Africa,” says the Denver stockbroker, 48. “She was in love with Ernest Hemingway, and just thought it would be cool to meet the real ‘white hunter’ and actually see ‘The Snows of Kilimanjaro.’ ”
It was during a trip to Africa in the fifth grade that Klein, a New Jersey native, acquired the first piece in what is now a broad, eclectic weapons collection. Hand-hewn knives, swords and shields from around the world inhabit every room in his white-brick 1950s house in south Denver. Skirted by a tastefully tended garden, the exterior imparts the impression that the inhabitant is a slipper- clad granny pushing cookies and cocoa, not a knife-and-sword geek.
But step past the Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired stained glass in the front door and beyond the tiled rug pattern in the foyer. What unfolds is the sophisticated den of a sailing enthusiast, traveler and collector who shares his space with a long-haired shelter dog named Murphy.
“I liked the open floor plan,” says Klein, who acquired the 1,642-square- foot, two-bedroom, three-bathroom house last spring. “But the real reason I bought the house was the fireplace.”
Ever the confident, magnanimous Leo, this August-born collector found it impossible to resist the black marble mantel flanked by muscular plaster lions. With help from designer Mimi deOlloqui-Turner, he topped the mantel with an equally grand gold-gilded mirror.
An array of weapons rests on the floor nearby.
“What started my collection was the Maasai spears and shield on the wall,” Klein says. He carried the souvenirs, bought from a real Maasai warrior, through customs at New York’s Kennedy Airport when he was 11 years old. They now hang above his black leather living room sectional.
“I have a crossbow from Cambodia during the Vietnam War era. A friend of the family sent it to me. I have knives from New Guinea, including one that’s made out of a human leg bone. I have a dagger from Turkey. I have swords from Morocco. I have a Pygmy bow and arrow … I have blowguns from South America.
“What happened was people knew that I loved collecting knives,” Klein continues. “Anyone that traveled would bring me something. The more bizarre, the better.”
But why the fascination sharp objects?
“I’m a guy,” he says dryly. “They’re dangerous.”
DeOlloqui-Turner became friendly with Klein after painting a portrait of his dog. She later helped customize Klein’s house for a bachelor with offbeat taste. “We’re known for using every nook and cranny,” says the designer of her work with husband and cabinetmaker Jack Turner.
Klein’s house became an exercise in the way a place can morph to suit its inhabitants.
Previously owned by multimedia mosaic artist Lynn Smyth Burtle — whose rustic southern Colorado retreat, “Casa Loma,” was featured in The Denver Post in June — Klein’s house had walls covered with her botanical, supernatural murals. Burtle also left behind a number of intricate stained-glass windows.
Today, the place is cast in cool, neutral hues to showcase Klein’s array of obscure objects. The homeowner and his design team also revamped two awkwardly shaped bathrooms and updated the bedroom in a cocoa palette.
“It’s very sophisticated,” says deOlloqui-Turner, who made chocolate-colored silk drapes for the bedroom to suit the angular, hardware-free furniture Klein designed himself and had built from African rosewood.
Her client chose new appliances for the kitchen while deOlloqui-Turner topped off the nearby dining room with a tiered, Empire-style chandelier and the nautical paintings Klein already owned.
The collector put himself through college as a line cook and adores replicating dishes from his favorites restaurants — like the Chicken Cara Mia at Tony Rigatoni’s in Golden. But his favorite room in the house remains the one where the knives were designed for use on people, not poultry.
“The living room,” he says of the space where knives and swords dominate shelf and floor space, “is the best room of the house.”
Elana Ashanti Jefferson: 303-954-1957 or ejefferson@denverpost.com
