Architecture & Interior Design
Classic Influence
Stunning architectural details, a new open floor plan and exquisite furniture give a Denver ranch house a bold, modern edge.

DENVER INTERIOR DESIGNER JEFF ELLIOTT expected to discuss a minor project when he went to meet with homeowners Sally and Gary Miles a few years ago. Instead, his clients surprised him with the news that they wanted to update the entire main level of their home. Elliott was thrilled at the prospect of giving the dated mid-century Denver ranch house a fresh, new look.

“The homeowners showed me photos of something very traditional,” Elliott says of the Connecticut beach house that first inspired his clients. “My thought was to strip away the details and make everything square and exaggerated—a modern interpretation of a traditional look, just younger and with more of an edge.” He began by gutting most of the main level, taking down walls between long, narrow rooms and creating an open floor plan that flows between the living room, kitchen and combination dining/piano room.

The next step was to add new bones—bold details inspired by classic architecture. Three massive columns replaced a confining wall, visually expanding the living room. “The columns have a neoclassical influence, but doing them square without much detail gives them a contemporary look,” Elliott says. The dining room features wainscoting with big, clean lines, while the living room is wrapped in authentic tongue-and-groove beadboard paneling. “I think this house really changed my whole design career,” Elliott says. “I learned more about luxury and adding architectural detail. It’s amazing what a difference it makes to add trim and wainscoting.”

One of the designer’s more daring moves was to install coffered ceilings in a house with modest eight-foot ceilings. “I was petrified,” he says. “When the wood first went up, the ceiling looked too low, but once painted, it went right back to where it should be. The homeowners loved it.”

 

With the architectural changes in place, Elliott turned his attention to the furnishings. “Furniture is my big thing as an interior designer. This is what makes my heart beat,” says Elliott, who set a clean, sophisticated tone with original 1940s furniture designed by T. H. Robsjohn-Gibbings. The dining room table has a striking X-shaped base that illustrates Robsjohn-Gibbings’ predilection for classic Greek and Roman lines. Elliott went to several different auctions to find a set of the mid-century designer’s ladder-back chairs and a sideboard. He unified the grouping with black ebonite stain.

“Then we ran with the concept,” Elliott says. He purchased additional Robsjohn-Gibbing pieces—X-base benches in the living room, rare slipper chairs in the piano room. Elliott custom-designed a chaise, benches and an ottoman to fit with the aesthetic. “One simple element pulls it all together—a round dowel framework,” says Elliott. In fact, he points out, everything about the furnishings is round or tubular, whether the finish is bronze, polished nickel (in the lamps and hardware) or wood.

Then came time for the beach house-inspired details. Elliott completed the design with fresh, casual references to the shore, such as woven rattan chairs, striped cotton canvas upholstery, lightweight linen draperies, bamboo shades and a sea-and-sand palette in the kitchen. He juxtaposed those with sophisticated, eclectic influences such as Asian hammered brass lamps and a hand-blown Czech glass chandelier in the dining room.

The grand finale of the whole design, according to the designer, is the piano room, with its standout vintage chairs and white patent-leather ottoman designed by Elliott: “It’s my favorite space—the humdinger of this design and the first thing you see when you walk in the door,” he says.

His only regret, he says, is that the project was limited to the first floor. “We haven’t gotten to the bedrooms yet,” he says. “I have big plans ahead.”

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