EVERGREEN — Among the antidotes to these cold and gloomy post-holiday months: a shot of decorating adrenaline.
To mine for ideas that make rooms more cozy, inviting and even restorative, especially when the lull of late winter settles on our collective psyche like a contagious case of seasonal affective disorder, a visit was in order to the Highland Haven Creekside Inn and its recently completed luxury “treehouse.”
This is a place that not only comes alive in winter, it thrives.
“Perhaps the most romantic season of the four, winter brings a blanket of white beauty,” longtime Highland Haven innkeeper Gail Riley writes in her 2010 book “Colorado Romance.” “… As our trees and flowers go into dormancy and await the birth of spring, we can snuggle by the fire, make a snow angel or hike through the woods and parks.”
“Feels like a step back”
The décor at Highland Haven reflects a love of the Arts and Crafts era that Riley shares with her husband and business partner, Tom Statzell. “We like to blend it with what I call Colorado chic,” she says while seated in the inn’s main dining room, which was carved out of the property’s historic 1863 homestead cabin.
“I just love this room,” Riley says. “It feels like a step back. You can’t come in here without feeling better.”
She’s perched at one of several oak tables around the room, where collectible pottery and antique books populate shelves tucked into restored logs. A huge Persian rug is underfoot. All of it, Riley says, is a stylistic step up from the extensive stenciling she and Statzell undertook back when they first took over Highland Haven more than three decades ago.
These innkeepers have broken away from some other stereotypical trappings of bed and breakfasts.
“We really don’t like doilies and teddy bears,” Riley says. She adds that experience taught her that good interior design should be as welcoming to men as it is to women.
Some of her go-to decorating tricks:
• Whether it’s a throw, bedding or window treatments, Riley looks for the finest and most tactile fabrics her budget will allow.
•She draws on the history of the site and the distinction of the setting in the décor. For instance, old newspaper clippings and a child’s shoe, which were uncovered during the cabin’s restoration, are now artfully displayed in the dining room.
• Color, whether vivid or understated, blankets every wall.
Romantic feel
Romance is a central theme at this quiet, wooded place, where sometimes the only sound is Bear Creek’s subtle trickle. When, about three years ago, the innkeepers wanted to up the property’s romantic ante to “fairy tale” status, and at the same time make good use of the generations-old blue spruce trees that populate the grounds, Highland Haven’s treehouse idea was born.
There are famous treehouse hotels and resorts worldwide where above-ground accommodations are nestled into nature. The allure of these locales is that guests literally go out on a limb in the name of adventure travel. But the accommodations can be rustic.
Highland Haven’s “Colorado chic” treehouse, on the other hand, is built between two trees as opposed to inside of one. That makes plumbing and electrical work more feasible and efficient.
The initial treehouse building plans seemed surreal to Highland Haven manager Blake Alexander. But after helping with some of the construction and watching the house come together, “it started to seem like it should have been here all long.”
Guests enter the 850-square-foot building through a ground-floor door painted “a magical” hue of emerald green. They climb to the second-story bedroom suite through a warmly lit stairwell dressed up with etchings, paintings and illustrations of treehouses.
The bedroom is outfitted with a white wood-frame bed topped with a billowy duvet decorated with bird images. Green-leather club chairs are situated at the center of the room, near a mounted flat-screen TV and Blu-ray player where guests can choose from such heartstring-tugging movies as “The Notebook,” “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” and “Ghost.”
Above, the ceiling features thin-cut cedar planks stained in reds, greens and golds. It is punctuated by a crystal chandelier that’s further bejeweled with antiqe beads and stones.
The top floor of the treehouse is more spa than bathroom with a Jacuzzi tub that produces “champagne micro bubbles,” Le Corbusier-style chaise-lounge chairs, and some 50 yards of sheer amber fabric draped over the windows.
“We tried to think of everything a person could possibly want in a treehouse,” Riley says. “We anguished over every detail, but it was fun.”
The result is a $485-$555-a-night suite room that, despite the glitzy price, has been booked as many as 25 days a month since opening last April.
“It was scary doing this during the recession,” Riley says of the roughly $300,000 construction project. “But we knew the treehouse would have appeal.”
Elana Ashanti Jefferson: 303-954-1957 or ejefferson@denverpost.com
More tips on living a life of leisure (at home)
Tim Castor speaks the language of leisure through design. Since 1989, his Colorado-based company, Castor Design Associates, has built its reputation on being one of a handful of interior design firms nationwide that specializes in golf clubs, country clubs and residential club houses. “I see design as a layering effect,” Castor says. “It’s almost like baking a cake; you have basic ingredients like eggs and flour, but it all comes together thanks to the icing.” Here are some of Castor’s tricks of the trade.
Color. Despite the fact that clubhouses tend to have an Old World, even masculine look that’s largely informed by golf traditions, this designer warns against picking any wall color from paint chips. Individual colors always look different depending on the lighting and furnishings with which they are paired. In addition to using paint samples to help finalize color selections, look at those samples at different times of day and in different light as they will always appear different based on those factors.
Fabrics and furniture. Castor relies on large-scale furniture to make a decorating statement, and he pays close attention to the way fabric patterns and colors support an overall mood or feel. As for texture, fabrics that are soft, warm and cozy rule the country-club scene.
Bring in the outdoors. Setting is everything. Look for ways to bring the outdoors in, either with colors and accessories or by literally displaying elements of nature as art.
Lighting.When done carefully and well, this is really the element that takes a room from pedestrian to sexy. Castor especially likes working with halogen options because he says they produce the most flattering light.
Details make the difference. Putting the finishing touches, i.e. carefully selected accessories, into a lush, inviting space, Castor says, is like capping a great outfit with the right jewelry. “A space that’s accessorized properly supports the elements you’ve invested in,” he says. But artful accessories need not break the bank. For instance, Castor suggests stowing away visible paperback books and replacing them with leather-bound varieties. And even a vase from a discount store looks better when it’s illuminated under task or spot lighting. Elana Ashanti Jefferson
