We’d meet for hours and hours going over things, and making sure there was a reason for everything,” says Colorado designer Nadia Watts of her working relationship with her client.
Vital to the process was considering the traditional, English manor exterior by architect Steven Cole — steep-pitched roofs, indigenous stone and stucco walls — while satisfying her client’s more contemporary tastes.
Working her way up from hard surfaces, like travertine floors, to more soothing fabrics for furnishing and flowing draperies in the 26-foot-high great room, Watts created living spaces highly suitable for entertaining numerous guests or simply lounging with the family.
To incorporate her client’s love of art, Watts installed a colorful painting by Denver artist Dennis Wright in the great room, while another adorns a wall behind the buffet in a casual breakfast area off the kitchen. A print by Sam Francis offsets the dining room’s dark wood table and celadon Lee Jofa chairs, while an intriguing photograph by Elena Dorfman adds a sense of color and dimension to a demure study.
Three years in, a large percentage of the 7,700-square-foot home gets used all the time, a fact that is fully appreciated by Watts. “It’s so interesting to see how well it’s used now,” she says. “It makes me excited that they love it.”
