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When designer Emily Tucker’s friends first reached out to her after buying their Boulder, Colorado, fixer-upper, they asked only for local architect recommendations. But two days later, they called her back: Could she work on the house, too?
Tucker had an advantage no one else did: Not only had their kids attended the same preschool, the parents were also frequent concert companions—she was already up to speed on the family’s backstory and hopes for their new home. The husband, originally from the D.C. area, came to Colorado for college and never left; the wife grew up in Taos, New Mexico, and has a strong affinity for bold textiles. “We all really wanted the house to reflect that rich history of color, art, and music that is so special to both New Mexico and Colorado,” says the designer.
While the architect, Lisa Laursen, worked on spotlighting the home’s unobstructed views of the Continental Divide, Tucker weaved in nods to the New Mexico landscape with subtle hits of pinks, reds, blues, and greens. Ahead, we asked the designer all of our pressing questions about how the vibrant renovation came together.
What were the biggest changes you made to the floor plan?
The second floor layout stayed the same, except we reorganized the primary bedroom, bath, and closet. On the first floor, we moved the stairs and added a little bit of a bump-out onto the kitchen and the back patio, so the main living space was significantly redesigned. Lisa and I have a really good rapport, so I was able to weigh in with my thoughts from the beginning.
What were the game-changing elements in the kitchen? There’s so much storage!
The island was made and designed by a local woodworker, Hone Studio. It’s about 14 feet long and is really the focal point. The same goes for the light. It’s definitely the riskiest fixture I’ve ever used. But because the views are so good outside, I really wanted something that was going to give off a twinkly glow.
How did you land on this shade of green?
We picked Homestead by Benjamin Moore in our very first meeting. We were going over concept imagery and they pulled an image from a project I had done a couple years before that had a green playroom; they loved that color. I also personally have a green kitchen in a very similar shade.
What’s the story behind the kitchen seating nook?
As we were going through the initial architectural design, there was a sliding glass door here leading out to the patio. We had already planned on having big multi-slides out to the back, so that additional set of doors felt like a waste. I was really focused on giving the family a cozy place to hang out in the kitchen because I know how they live with their kids. It’s a lot like my family: they’re always sitting there while I’m cooking. We bought the pillows in New Mexico and the back bolster is upholstered in a vintage textile I found at auction.
The shades on the dining room fixture are another great dose of pattern.
The husband really wanted a more traditional light over the dining table. The shades that came on it were really simple paper, though, so we got these Gucci wallpaper shades instead to have something a little fun.
There is so much fun tile in this house—how did you budget for that?
The overall budget was pretty tight, and there are a lot of bathrooms, so we wanted to be thoughtful about not choosing the most expensive tiles but still making unique patterns with them. All of the tile in the kids’ bathrooms and the laundry-mudroom was $5 or $6 per square foot and in stock.
What did you spend the most money on?
We got all Waterworks plumbing!
What was the inspiration behind the tile in their son’s bathroom?
His parents really wanted a space for him that felt like a big boy room but was still special. He is an amazing kid; he had pediatric cancer when he was one. He’s such a fighter and has been cancer-free for two years. We added some seafoam green tiles with the navy to resemble the Taos night skies.
What was the coolest source you discovered along the way?
I always love browsing hardware and supply shops for unexpected finds, and for this project, I came across horse saddle blankets at Murdoch’s that were hand-sewn together to create a one-of-a-kind stair runner.
Where did you even begin with the plaid-patterned floor in the primary ensuite?
Anna, my architectural project manager, was about to murder me for all the tile layouts that I was having her put together in AutoCAD and Photoshop, but we got some fun options out of it. This was the clear winner. We wanted the colors to feel kind of rock ‘n’ roll, but also something that they would still like day to day. There are through lines of medium-blue, which runs up the shower walls and ceiling, and chestnut brown and light blue, which go up the opposing walls. It gives this effect of the space being blanketed in one pattern. The tile-setters did the primary bathroom last, so they had some practice.
The laundry room floor at least looked like an easier installation.
This one is like a gingham/checker. The room is right off the garage, so it needed to be a space where the kids could come in with snowy shoes and their ski stuff without fear of dinging it up. And the family has a very lively Labradoodle. There’s laundry on the far end; a full-height cleaning storage cabinet with a plug-in Dyson; and lockers for hats, gloves, dog leashes, soccer balls, etcetera.
Was there a design detail you had to sell your client on?
The interior doors, which are all a deep green-gray called Sharkskin. I also had to convince them on using darker taupe-gray trim in all the main rooms with white walls.
What other paint colors were you excited to use?
The office bookshelves are actually this deep, chocolatey red—Wenge by Benjamin Moore—that I have since used two more times because it is such a beautiful color and it looks great with the blue.