Modern Love

Concrete floors, steel accents and near-spartan furnishings—not quite what you’d expect to find within a neo-Craftsman home nestled near the foothills in North Boulder. “You expect one thing on the outside, but as soon as you see that entry door, you realize that you’re not in Kansas anymore,” says architect E.J. Meade, co-founder of Arch11 in Boulder. 
 Known for his modern sensibility, Meade and project manager Claire Jordan were tasked with turning a half-built spec home with rugged board-and-batten siding into an ultra-modern, minimalist showpiece for a young couple and their two children. Via a sleek front door, the mountain-contemporary exterior now gives way to an open, airy, mostly monochromatic interior featuring polished concrete floors, bamboo finishes, exposed steel and aluminum-framed windows and pocket doors. 
The home expresses the wife’s vision of modern, uncluttered, efficient living with clean spaces that are perfect for displaying art. “As I studied design magazines and tried to figure out what gets me going, I quickly realized that I don’t like anything curved. I wanted straight edges everywhere,” she says. “I wanted angles, I wanted to see metal in the house. I wanted it to be almost industrial.” 
 Her penchant for angles and simple surfaces is evident throughout the space. Meade opened up the floor plan, removing the majority of the ground floor’s partitions and lining much of the back wall with sliding glass doors. In the living room, a wide, rectangular fireplace floats in an accent wall coated with cement-based plaster above a streamlined white oak bench. There’s no mantel or hearth, preserving the wall’s lean lines and allowing the fireplace to serve as a functional art installation.
 In the kitchen, Meade designed custom cabinetry that flows almost seamlessly into the walls and conceals most of the appliances. Lacquered finishes mimic the reflective quality of the nearby wall of windows. He installed stainless-steel countertops to integrate the space into the home’s white-and-gray palette and to provide a highly efficient, low-maintenance surface.
 Offsetting the space’s refined industrial vibe, Meade centered the room around a hefty, warmer-toned kitchen table. “The homeowners wanted the room to be spare and minimal, but the kitchen really is the center of their lives, so we created a modern farm table. It’s a four-by-nine-foot bamboo slab and it serves as their gathering place,” Meade says.  
 The true focal point of the home, though, is the staircase, a modern architectural sculpture with floating wood treads anchored on steel risers, all encased in laminated red glass—a significant dose of color in the home’s otherwise austere palette. Inspired by a photo in a European design magazine, the wife wanted the staircase to serve as the home’s primary source of visual interest. “Each time that I look at the staircase, it looks like a different color,” she says. “Sometimes it’s a deep red, while other times it’s almost fuchsia. And the way that the sunlight hits the glass, we frequently get these little prism effects with rainbows scattered across the floor. It warms up the whole room.

“Given my desire for a simple white and gray palette everywhere else, my husband was worried that I’d get sick of all of that red, but I love it more every day.”    “Given my desire for a simple white and gray palette everywhere else, my husband was worried that I’d get sick of all of that red, but I love it more every day.”floors, steel accents and near-spartan furnishings—not quite what you’d expect to find within a neo-Craftsman home nestled near the foothills in North Boulder. “You expect one thing on the outside, but as soon as you see that entry door, you realize that you’re not in Kansas anymore,” says architect E.J. Meade, co-founder of Arch11 in Boulder. Known for his modern sensibility, Meade and project manager Claire Jordan were tasked with turning a half-built spec home with rugged board-and-batten siding into an ultra-modern, minimalist showpiece for a young couple and their two children. Via a sleek front door, the mountain-contemporary exterior now gives way to an open, airy, mostly monochromatic interior featuring polished concrete floors, bamboo finishes, exposed steel and aluminum-framed windows and pocket doors. The home expresses the wife’s vision of modern, uncluttered, efficient living with clean spaces that are perfect for displaying art. “As I studied design magazines and tried to figure out what gets me going, I quickly realized that I don’t like anything curved. I wanted straight edges everywhere,” she says. “I wanted angles, I wanted to see metal in the house. I wanted it to be almost industrial.” Her penchant for angles and simple surfaces is evident throughout the space. Meade opened up the floor plan, removing the majority of the ground floor’s partitions and lining much of the back wall with sliding glass doors. In the living room, a wide, rectangular fireplace floats in an accent wall coated with cement-based plaster above a streamlined white oak bench. There’s no mantel or hearth, preserving the wall’s lean lines and allowing the fireplace to serve as a functional art installation.In the kitchen, Meade designed custom cabinetry that flows almost seamlessly into the walls and conceals most of the appliances. Lacquered finishes mimic the reflective quality of the nearby wall of windows. He installed stainless-steel countertops to integrate the space into the home’s white-and-gray palette and to provide a highly efficient, low-maintenance surface.Offsetting the space’s refined industrial vibe, Meade centered the room around a hefty, warmer-toned kitchen table. “The homeowners wanted the room to be spare and minimal, but the kitchen really is the center of their lives, so we created a modern farm table. It’s a four-by-nine-foot bamboo slab and it serves as their gathering place,” Meade says.  The true focal point of the home, though, is the staircase, a modern architectural sculpture with floating wood treads anchored on steel risers, all encased in laminated red glass—a significant dose of color in the home’s otherwise austere palette.Inspired by a photo in a European design magazine, the wife wanted the staircase to serve as the home’s primary source of visual interest. “Each time that I look at the staircase, it looks like a different color,” she says. “Sometimes it’s a deep red, while other times it’s almost fuchsia. And the way that the sunlight hits the glass, we frequently get these little prism effects with rainbows scattered across the floor. It warms up the whole room.“Given my desire for a simple white and gray palette everywhere else, my husband was worried that I’d get sick of all of that red, but I love it more every day.”