Inside a Denver Landscape Architect’s Urban Oasis
Attributes
Paul Wrona’s Crestmoor Park ranch property has an enviable 4 outdoor dwelling spaces—and freshly renovated interiors that consider cues from the home’s verdant location.
When it strike the marketplace in 2011, this 1953 ranch household in Denver’s Crestmoor Park neighborhood was a time capsule. Its pine-paneled business office, metallic-wallpaper-wrapped bogs, and eco-friendly galley kitchen were 1960s originals. But to opportunity consumer Paul Wrona, an award-winning landscape architect with much more than a 10 years on the Denver structure scene, the home was the epitome of “good-bones” prospective. (Back again in its heyday, the charming ranch was featured in a journal.)
-
Paul and Susan Wrona with their children, Finn and Levi. Picture by Kylie Fitts. -
Residing Place: A deep, linen sofa and oversize leather chair (both equally from Arhaus) and side table by Gus Modern-day (by way of Mod Livin’) set the stage for lounging in the Wrona family’s neutral residing home. A Jaipur Rugs woven location rug and Crate & Barrel teak espresso table emphasize the natural and organic come to feel. But it’s the property’s mature spruce trees, seen by way of the sliding glass doors, that make the finest components. “The inside is loaded with elevated factors that all seamlessly stream to the outside the house,” suggests designer Kelly Christensen. Photo by Kylie Fitts. -
Back again Patio: The wraparound deck was additional during the renovation and is created with Thermory board (thermal-dealt with ash wooden). A pair of Entire world Industry chairs pulls up to the Notus fireplace pit by Nisho. Photograph by Kylie Fitts. -
Entrance Exterior: “We live in a terrific neighborhood with fantastic neighbors, so I wished to make guaranteed we had a area to converse out front,” Paul states. “It’s a pleasant location to sit in the evenings and watch the boys engage in basketball or skateboard in the driveway. The fireplace pit is flanked by two fashionable Acapulco chairs in Tangerine. An uplit Pom Pom pine is Paul’s favorite new addition to the landscaping since of its “sculptural and Asian feel.” Image by Kylie Fitts. -
Courtyard: “This was the initially area that I renovated,” states home-owner Paul Wrona of the rear courtyard. “I wished a place to cook, dine, and lounge outside the house.” The grill and bar are produced of a barnwood veneer and precast concrete countertop, and the patio is Belgard concrete pavers. Wrona developed the fireplace pit, which later served as inspiration for the Notus fireplace by Nisho (Wrona’s fire pit enterprise). European hornbeam trees deliver privacy. Photograph by Kylie Fitts.
Even far better for Wrona, co-operator and principal of landscape architecture firm Elevate by Structure, was the home’s spacious, flat whole lot, which boasted tremendous, experienced trees that only a decades-old property could provide. “The lot was substantial, and the dwelling was positioned properly to have equally a wonderful front yard and a spacious yard. It was the fantastic blank canvas,” Wrona claims. So, he and his spouse, Susan, and their then-3-year-old son (and a newborn boy on the way) purchased the 2,300-sq.-foot property, inheriting two spruce trees, a large Patmore environmentally friendly ash, and a substantial inside and exterior renovation job.
5280 Dwelling April/May possibly 2022
When the youthful spouse and children moved in, a spit-shine pulled the property into the 21st century. Goodbye, 1960s chintz hello, espresso-stained kitchen area island. But as the boys grew—one is now in middle school—the dwelling’s a person-and-a-fifty percent loos and cramped, dark rooms missing their charm. When spending budget and bandwidth synchronized, Wrona claims, “it was time to make the household seem and perform better for the fashionable-everyday living knowledge.”
The lengthy-awaited renovation started in 2018, and it was a community affair. The Wronas hired architect Luke Taylor-Brown of LTBA Architecture to re-visualize the layout and facade. “Luke is an extremely gifted architect—and he also takes place to be our neighbor, so he had the gain of researching our household from across the street,” Wrona suggests. Future, they employed builder Marty Harrison, owner of LifeHouse Design, who plays tennis with Wrona on community courts. And despite the fact that the Wronas’ interior designer, Kelly Christensen, principal of KC Studio, does not live in Crestmoor Park, she did go to university with Wrona’s business enterprise partner, and Christensen and Wrona have been pals for a lengthy time.
After the staff decided that a 2nd-tale addition would wreck the ranch’s appeal, and that more than-expanding the major amount would gobble up way too substantially of the garden, Taylor-Brown began the herculean undertaking of squeezing should-have amenities into just 600 supplemental sq. feet. “The major issues the house owners experienced with the property had been that it did not have huge more than enough bedrooms, sufficient place for storage, or immediate accessibility from the living home to the yard,” Taylor-Brown states. The addition presented a primary bedroom suite, generating way somewhere else for more substantial bedrooms and a total toilet for the boys, additionally a powder home, laundry place, and home office environment. La Cantina sliding doors in the living area were being a “key addition, as they visually borrow space from the property and make the area experience bigger than it is,” Taylor-Brown states. A heat, walnut-paneled wall (with built-in bar) separates the kitchen area and dwelling and dining rooms.
Wrona describes the couple’s vision for the interiors as “a present day vibe with rustic accents, with just about every room [feeling] warm and at ease.” Christensen delivered. “Kelly gave it a punch of coloration and texture that truly captured our design and style,” he states. A several perfectly-picked, character-impressed wallpapers, like the wispy, Emma Hayes Textiles’ pattern on the dining room’s accent wall, convey in an natural sense.
But it is the 4 outdoor residing parts, like three independent fireplace pits (Wrona also co-owns Denver-dependent fire pit enterprise Nisho) that really bring collectively the dwelling. “Our full landscape needed to be renovated, and because I couldn’t tackle all of it at once, I took it 1 place at a time,” Wrona suggests of the decade-extensive create-out. “I would pick out a house, analyze it for as extensive as it took to get a eyesight, and then determine out a way to carry out it.” There’s a yard courtyard, great for “outdoor eating, watching a motion picture or recreation, and cooking s’mores on the hearth pit,” he claims. The back deck, he adds, is the ideal spot for “morning coffee or an evening consume, the two superior with a fireplace, of program.” The family normally sits out entrance to chat with neighbors on summer months evenings or when ready for trick-or-treaters on Halloween. And the big back garden is where the family performs summer time rounds of cornhole and the boys follow their most loved sports activities.
“This household does not have a large footprint, so working with our outdoor place as a link to the residence was so vital,” Wrona suggests. “In the spring, summer time, and tumble, our slider doorways are almost often open to welcome in nature.” Which feels, well, completely pure.
Structure Professionals
Architecture – Luke Taylor-Brown, LTBA Architecture
Inside Design and style – Kelly Christensen, KC Studio
Development – Marty Harrison, LifeHouse Design
Landscape Architecture – Paul Wrona, Elevate by Design and style