What makes something—a house, a piece of furniture, an objet—exude a sense of soul? For lifelong antiques collector and designer Holly Kuhn, this quality comes through in any well-crafted item touched by the passage of time and marked by the people who made or used it. So when she and her husband, Brian, purchased a Georgian-style home in Greenwood Village, she knew it was in need of some functional updates, but also quickly realized that it lacked such emotional depth. Though perfectly proportioned for their day-to-day routine (plus lively visits from their children and five grandchildren), the ornate architectural details and disjointed layout felt fussy and formal. The finishes also seemed flat and impersonal, lacking in patina. “When we started the renovation, I knew that I didn’t want a home that felt brand new or too precious,” Holly explains. “I just wanted the house to have substance and soul, and to feel like it had always been there.”
On the same day that Holly and Brian closed on the property, they met to discuss a remodel with builder Scott Kirkegaard. “We were eager to get started,” Holly says with a laugh. Kirkegaard then connected them to interior designer Emily Lindemann and architect Justin Bell of Ruggles Mabe Studio. Holly’s initial plan, as Lindemann recalls, was to do a minor facelift. “Then we all walked the house together and ideas just started flowing,” Lindemann shares.
Joined by project manager Dave Denton, the design team first undressed the home’s weighted formality by removing the front exterior’s heavy roofline pediments and limestone window casings. In their stead, they opted to “emphasize simple materials that age beautifully in order to give the house patina and character,” Bell explains. The roof’s basic asphalt was replaced with natural slate and the bright red bricks of the façade were swapped for 70-year-old reclaimed bricks laid with a thick, textured mortar that resembles old masonry. “We played with a half dozen different mortar colors and applications to make it feel authentically historic,” the architect adds. New bronzed windows with wider panes usher additional light inside, while an arched porch provides a more gracious entrance.
And for the reimagined interiors, they looked at the project as “a renovation by subtraction versus addition,” Bell says. Removing an unnecessary second staircase, for example, unblocked movement and created a visual connection between core gathering areas. Its absence made room for an expanded kitchen and butler’s pantry, while also “allowing for a larger common space upstairs dedicated to the grandchildren,” Denton comments. The new plan also peeled open the couple’s primary suite, adding a bay window alcove in the bedroom and rearranging a formerly clunky bathroom layout to maximize natural light.
Stripped of the superfluous, the home’s subtler details shine. The team further played them up by choosing a natural, neutral interior material palette. Cue the foyer’s black-and-white marble checkered flooring that recalls the romance of older English-style homes. The floors transition to wide-plank oak, flooding spaces with a warm whiskey hue. Deeper tones continue through the kitchen’s new chocolate-colored cabinetry and soapstone countertops. And other tactile touches—from the primary bath’s handmade terra-cotta tile to the dining room’s golden grass-cloth wallcovering—further deepen the home’s warm milieu. Each choice ties back to Holly’s personal collection of antiques. “Because her furniture is so rich and textural, the materials we chose are intended as an understated backdrop that allows her pieces to pop,” Lindemann explains.
Situating Holly’s beloved vintage treasures, some of which had long languished in storage, proved a delightful puzzle. “We sketched out a furniture plan early on, so we could really think about where some of the large furnishings should be,” Lindemann says. “Holly had such a deep inventory and great taste, which allowed us to have fun and try things on for size.”
Lindemann filled any gaps with her own timeworn finds, like weathered vintage rugs, aged gilded picture frames and even more antiques—the sitting room’s twin Swedish demilune tables from the 1800s, for instance. And when selecting modern pieces, “patina was one of our key words,” Lindemann notes. She and Holly favored soft bronze and iron for hardware and lighting, which helped more contemporary accents, such as the dining room’s cascading bronze chandelier, blend seamlessly with the older finishes. Now, enveloped in material harmony and a sense of history, the house “feels very collected and warm,” Holly observes with satisfaction. “It feels like us. It feels like home.”
