Middle Fork—a house that had been foreclosed and abandoned, but still had promise with great bones. It would need a lot of love before it could love you back.

Interior designers Stephen Lappen and Hunter Margolf of Boulder, Colorado took on the challenge, not for others but for themselves. They had spent years flipping houses before they fell in love with resurrecting this ranch built of stone and stucco in the 1970s. Ten years later, they have worked their way to the main house after completing its guest house and landscaping this copious property. Boulder’s famous Left Hand Creek, named for the Indian Chief Niwot whose tribe had summered in Boulder’s various canyons, runs through its backyard and created a 100-year flood after torrential rains in 2015.

The flood waters never breached Middle Fork’s pool on higher ground, luckily. But the pool was not visible from the house and the front was hidden from the street by large juniper bushes. It was a very rectilinear and ordinary layout from the outside in.

With their dictum of “good design changes your perception of size and scale, and textures elevate the senses,” Hunter and Stefan reimagined the dated look and materials into an organic, contemporary configuration. They used indigenous sandstone for low rock walls front and back, and softened the landscape of Blue Spruce and Pine around the pool with delicate Aspens, curvilinear spaces, flowing water features, and flowering plants in colorful urns and platforms.

The 1,200 sq. ft. guest house was transformed into an integrated space on two levels. The upstairs Master suite has a Spa-like atmosphere, offering a serene bath with soaking tub and steam shower adjacent to the large bedroom with its comfortable seating and views of the Boulder Foothills.

Downstairs, a living room offers access to a courtyard facing the street, a small office alcove, and unique stone-wall veneer supporting the high ceilings and etched wood beams.

The great room across the hall opens to a side patio and the outdoor dining and pool area. Its special features are a Pewter-sheathed coffee table matching the gray leather sectional, a dining table with comfortable seating for six, and access to the galley kitchen and second bathroom.

A unifying wall is a “bookcase” with LED lighting, allowing light to cascade from floor to ceiling without interruption through the glass shelving and fascia. As you can see, the designers’ collection of ceramic and glass objects provides a colorful focal point. Inserted into this wall of light is a gas fireplace with a surround of hand-hewn limestone. Here again, the unifying water element throughout the property is evident in the design.

Pocket privacy doors separate this room from the adjoining bedroom with its walk-in closet, the bath, and the hallway leading to the staircase.

Work on the main house of 3,500 sq. ft. is now in progress.

Floor plans

Our clients—newly empty nesters had moved to Boulder, Colorado from a traditional east coast and corporate lifestyle and wanted to update their dining room. Yes, we found a table and that they fell in love with, but knew, that alone would not create significant change in the feel of their home.

Modernization isn’t just a matter of furnishings: it’s about opening space. Unburdened by “stuff” you no longer use, need, or love. Then color, texture, and lighting become drama in the home because you can actually see the space.

The principal transformation came by rejecting the efforts to present a “traditional home” with divisions of space and emphasize the homes innate, yet hidden open plan.

Modernization isn’t just a matter of furnishings: it’s about opening space. Unburdened by ‘stuff’ you no longer use, need, or love. Then color, texture, and lighting become drama in the home because you can actually see the space.

The original kitchen cabinets were Cherry, with no hiding the dated look they created. The Cherry was also carried into the woodwork throughout the house. Fortunately, the house had good bones, with architectural features: high beams and clerestory windows, in the living room and stairwell. We knew simplifying the “riche wood” distractions and dramatizing the architecture with light and shadow would successfully achieve a clean look. The woodwork became white, the kitchen cabinets were refaced with roughhewn white oak doors and a graphite stain. The refrigerator, a key distraction in any small kitchen, was replaced with a Subzero integrated counter depth model, paneled to match the cabinets giving the kitchen a warmth and connection to the adjacent family room living area.

The center island of the kitchen needed some drama. Which we created with a floating 10 foot elliptical pewter patina island by Francois & Co. The subtle gold undertones of the pewter, create glamour contrasting the Laguna Blue Caesar Stone of the kitchen counters.

We highlighted the soffits on the ceiling with led up-lights: Sometimes, the biggest expenses in renovations can come from technology updates, but we have learned that is money well spent since it sets the tonality of the space.

The original flooring in the house was maple. To increase the drama once the woodwork was white, we gave the floors a basalt stain. We also painted all of the doors and the beams in the house black. Radical? Yes, but you can see for yourself the effect.

Notice, too, that the draperies in the breakfast room and living room are wool, by Pollack. Their simplicity and softness create a feminine counterpoint to some of the more masculine lines and textures in this home. We are about to suggest new furnishings for the living room, but one can appreciate the difference made by painting woodwork white, and walls in subtle tones of white and gray.

We can hardly wait to continue the renovations upstairs. The stairs themselves have now become not just a substantial conduit between floors but a theatrical feature in the entryway.