When Amy Rogala and her husband, John, decided to build a house, they knew they wanted something contemporary.
Something light, airy, open.
“I wanted it to reflect my style and not look stuffy,” Amy Rogala said. “We have three kids, we have three cats and we had a dog. I wanted a house that wasn’t stuffy, that you can play around in.”
Mission accomplished with their two-story home in Denver’s University Park neighborhood, a four-bedroom, 3½ -bath house streaming with light, her eclectic taste shining throughout. Theirs is one of five private residences being featured on this year’s on May 3.
If they could do it again, though, there’s one thing Rogala would add: a workshop for her hand-crafted-furniture company.
“I’ve got to the point now where I’d love to have a space to work in,” said Rogala, who launched in 2009. “I daydream now that we take the side area (in the backyard) and make it into a studio.
“When I built the house, I didn’t know I would be doing this.”
A scientist by training, Rogala didn’t get into the furniture business until construction was underway on their new home.
During the kitchen installation, a large slab was cut away from the Calcutta marble island to make way for a cooktop.
Her husband asked if he could keep the marble remnant for his wife.
It became her first table.
“My friend came over when it was done — it took like a week to get the legs and the top done — and she bought it, right then and there, off me. She was like, ‘I’m going to buy that table,’ ” Amy Rogala said. “That started the whole thing.”
Soon, she was building more tables topped with stone remnants. She and her marble guy text weekly.
She also branched out into wood-top tables, crafting them from “living edge” cross-sections of old trees. The bases are salvaged from the Dumpster or fabricated to Rogala’s specifications.
“What really bothered me was all this stuff was just sitting, rotting or getting thrown out,” Rogala said. “I thought, there’s got to be something we can do with this. There is so much waste when you build a home.”
Today, her home is a living showroom for her handiwork, some tables rotating in and out as they’re purchased, others there to stay.
On a recent afternoon, a Russian olive wood slice table sat by the back door, drying between coats of polyurethane.
In the open, airy living room, the multiple wood and marble tables fit right in with the contemporary, eclectic décor.
Beneath an antler chandelier is an attention-grabbing wood coffee table, Rogala’s largest piece to date, sliced from a tree that was, according to family estimates, 180 years old.
“We tried to count the rings one day — it was a 180-year-old tree that was rotting in a firewood lot,” she said. “I had him slice it for me. It took him four hours to slice it, and then I had the legs made and stained it and resined it. It took me about eight months to make.”
One of her favorite pieces, a white marble side table on a whimsical blue iron base, sits between armless chairs covered in a funky geometric print.
“I’m so attached to it. It’s so funny — I could just make it again, but I don’t,” Rogala said. “I went out on a limb. I remember when I told my powder coater that I wanted it blue. He was like, ‘Blue?’ They’re used to doing iron railings.”
On the other side of the room, a stump, hollowed out by a colony of bees and rescued from a firewood lot, sits on its side next to a low black chair — an experiment, she said, in low-seated tables.
“This was a compliment that someone gave me and it was hard for me to swallow — she came over and said, ‘You know, your furniture is art. It’s not really just furniture.’ I was like, ‘Wow. I never ever thought of it that way,’ ” Rogala said.
“I love that it can be eclectic. It can go into a contemporary room or you could stick that in Aspen into a log home,” she said. “I love that it can be colorful. I love color.”
Wood can be contemporary, too, she said, pointing to the coffee table in her front office. The thick slice of pine tops a clear Lucite base she found on eBay. Behind it sits a mustard yellow, quilted vintage couch they inherited from family. (Nearly all the furniture in the house was inherited, found in a Dumpster or made by Rogala.)
“One of the misconceptions when you work with wood and with my home is that wood is rustic and Colorado-y,” Rogala said. “I like finding ways to contemporize it. You can’t get more contemporary than Lucite and blonde wood.”
Her work spills outside the house, as well.
In the garage, stump cross-sections pile up, all at different points in the aging process. (The slices must sit for at least a year before becoming tables, giving the wood time to dry out and open up, she said.)
On the back patio, barkless stumps intermingle with the outdoor furniture.
The backyard is full of stumps, some of which will be stained in colors, others left more natural, for use as seating, side tables or flower stands.
“People will call me and say, ‘There’s a stump on the side of the road!’ ” Rogala said. “My new question is, are they at least 12 inches in diameter and are they cut level? It’s so hard to get those things level.”
Emilie Rusch: 303-954-2457, erusch@denverpost.com or twitter.com/emilierusch
University park home tour
When: 11 a.m.-5 p.m. May 3
Where: Five private residences, plus the Fitzroy Mansion, in Denver’s University Park neighborhood
Cost: $20 advance, $25 day of; tickets can be purchased at or at University Park Elementary School, 2300 S. St. Paul St.
