A mid-century modern home in Denver will soon be getting national and international attention, when features the renovated Hilltop house in its November issue. They selected it as their 2015 Idea House, the annual series that displays innovations in Western home design, and Sunset’s readers span the globe.
In the recent past, many of the Idea Houses were located on the West Coast, but this year editors wanted to venture farther east, exploring another aspect of western lifestyle.
“We chose Denver because the housing market is booming, the design scene is booming, and that’s all you hear about in the news,” said home editor Joanna Linberg during a preview tour. “And a lot of Colorado’s population growth is coming from California, and many of our readers are in California, so it made sense to come here because so many of them are.”
The 2015 Denver Idea House opened Friday and tours will continue for six consecutive weekends.
Interest is already high.
“I’ve gotten e-mails from readers starting months ago,” said Linberg. “They live in the area, and they’re wanting to get into it and see it, and potentially buy it.”
The 1954 ranch-style home, which sold for $670,000 in April 2014, was a rare find.
“It was a typical, single-story ranch home,” said Jonas DiCaprio of Design Platform in Denver, the architectural firm that worked on the project. “Unfortunately, there are very few left in the neighborhood.”
Completely renovated, the home went up for sale Friday with a price tag of $1,995,000 — without the furniture.
The new home boasts but features the latest energy-efficient technologies. They stripped the place down to its bones, then insulated it with “which makes the entire home a very tight envelope,” said DiCaprio. “And we put in all new systems, including a 98 percent efficient furnace.”
They also added a second story that includes a rooftop deck, plus three bedrooms and a master suite with private sitting area that overlooks a newly landscaped yard. The sleek space has five bedrooms and six bathrooms, a total of 5,100 square feet, along with an outdoor kitchen and dining space.
On the ground floor, design architects removed some walls to create an open floor plan with lots of light — but kept the original 1950s natural stone fireplace.
They used lots of wood, especially hickory, for its warmth and unique grain patterns.
Because it’s not a — with the post-and-beam architectural design common to that postwar style — interior designer Megan Hudacky of added mid-century style with furniture, light fixtures and ceramics.
For the kitchen and living space, she located tables, chairs, and barstools at the Denver-based modern furniture company, DoubleButter.
While most of the colors throughout the home are monotone, Hudacky used punches of bold color, like in the kitchen, where tiles in ocean tones of teal and blue create a soothing yet beautiful space.
The bathrooms are decorated with signature tiles from Heath ceramics, a California company created in 1948 that’s now iconic for mid-century modern design. The bathroom tiles are crafted in an elongated hexagon shape — mostly in monotones of sand and charcoal, with an occasional punch of bright yellow.
“Mid-century design used a lot of bold, saturated colors,” said Linberg. “These are updated colors, bold and bright.”
There are Sputnik-style chandeliers in some rooms, and vintage pieces — like a magazine rack — from local furniture stores.
The mid-century theme is everywhere, including the large playroom for kids. Those walls are festooned with large, cheerful images based on the work of Charley Harper, known for his modernist book illustrations and covers for magazines like “Ford Times.”
A row of Harper’s original 1950s “Ford Times” magazine lines the wall facing ladybug images.
Modernist style extends into outdoor spaces, particularly the roof deck. Shaded by a retractable awning and a crabapple tree, it features bright orange and yellow furniture, armless and overstuffed, with accents of teal.
The outdoor kitchen downstairs has a fire pit surrounded by benches built into a seating wall, and the outdoor space wraps around the large yard that features a space with a lawn for kids to play on, and a vegetable garden planted with tomatoes, squash, basil and peppers.
There are high-tech sprinklers that use less water, and lots of plants that need little water — like sedum, butterfly bushes and Turkish veronica, which blossoms with brilliant blue flowers that look like water.
“We tried to combine that Colorado feeling with a modern contemporary style home,” said Jessica Lummus of Environmental Designs, based in Brighton. “That’s not always easy to do. You tend to get that rustic, mountain barrage of plant material where they’ll just dump perennials out there.”
Mid-century modern landscaping requires something a little different.
“It’s big swaths of color, whether in hard lines or groups,” she said. “We wanted to keep some kind of form and structure.”
A row of Tiger Eyes sumac is planted along a fence in the back, which in fall will turn into the fiery burnt-orange that fits into the mid-century modern color palette.
“They’re typically looked at as a weed,” said Lummus. “They’re not. They’re a great plant, and they create a hedge really quickly. Toward fall, you get this amazing fall color.”
Colleen O’Connor: 303-954-1083, coconnor@denverpost.com or twitter.com/coconnordp
THE SUNSET IDEA HOUSE, located at 5131 E. First Ave., will be open to tour from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Fridays through Sundays, through Sept. 13. Tickets are $20 each and are available onsite or at sunset.com/ideahouse.
This event is held in conjunction with the 2015 Denver Modern Home Tour, an inside look at some of the most distinctive properties in the Mile High City. Held on Saturday, Aug. 22 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., the self-guided tour ends at the Sunset Idea House at 5 p.m. with Sunset hosting a wine and cheese reception, plus a tour of the home with its design team.
Advance tickets are on sale through Friday, Aug. 21 at 8 p.m. for $60 each. For more information and to purchase tickets go to modernhometours.com/event/2015-denver-modern-home-tour.
Tickets bought after that time must be purchased at any of the tour homes beginning at 11 a.m. on Aug. 22 for $60 each. Children 12 and under are free.
