By Nancy Milligan

	Click for more images Architect: Salt Box Design Builder: Russell Homes Landscape designer: American Design and Landscape Interior design: Q Design Click here to read more about the interior designer for this project

Custom builder Cody Powell envisioned an English country–style envisioned an English country-style home. Interior designer Laurel Quint is known for her contemporary designs. When collaborating on a house for the 2005 Denver Parade of Homes (an annual event sponsored by the Home Builders Association of Metro Denver to showcase building and design trends), the two professionals had a meeting of minds and a shared vision: to create an inviting, livable, family-oriented home. “Laurel and I focused on how the house lived, not how it worked for the Parade,” Powell says.

Powell had seen Quint’s work and had complete faith that she could deliver the “something different” he wanted for the interiors of the 6,000-square-foot house. “I had to figure out how to design a traditional home while still keeping our contemporary look,” says Quint, owner of Q Design. In her research, she discovered that elements of English primitive country style—exposed timbers, wide plank flooring, rustic finishes, simplistic furniture arrangements—lent themselves to a modern sensibility.

Approaching the project with respect for the distinctive architecture, while complementing it with her beautifully appointed interiors, Quint says, “My job was to enhance the architecture, not overwhelm it.” In the living room, that meant taking advantage of wooden ceiling trusses to frame a modern arrangement of furniture. “Rather than line up furniture along the walls in a traditional manner, I placed a double sofa in the center of the room and let everything float around it,” adds the designer, who highlighted the room’s arched windows with simple drapery panels.

A soft color palette of ivory, blue/ green, and metallic gold, with accents of tomato red, was inspired by the paisley living room draperies. “I found one fabric and decided that was the piece I would work from,” Quint says. She pulled colors from the fabric that she used for walls, choosing authentic Old English paint colors from a European manufacturer. Many of the fabrics are English and European as well.

Clean-lined traditional furnishings were selected to fit the scale and proportions of the house and play off the architectural elements. “The dining room beams give it a massive feel, so I chose a delicate framework for the furniture to bring it to a more human scale,” she says. In the master bedroom, a striking wood bed anchors the room and balances the intricate details of the coffered ceiling. Several pieces of furniture are reproductions that incorporate classic design with modern lines, a perfect fit with Quint’s contemporary take on the traditional.

While the kitchen is clearly designed for modern convenience, with state-of-the-art appliances and amenities, it also reflects old-world values with an unmatched-furniture look to the rustic cabinetry. “The subcontractors looked at me like I was crazy when I asked them to leave the pine knots open so the sap would bleed into the whitewash and turn it amber, but it was just the effect I was after,” says the interior designer. Soapstone counters and wide floor planks add to the aged ambience.

Even the far-reaching influences of the British Empire were incorporated into the designs. “The English brought back fabric and items from all over the world,” Quint says. “It’s an important part of their history.” She introduced subtle exotic touches with an African-inspired rug and draperies in the study, Asian elements in the living room, and a Moorish harlequin pattern of tiles in the kitchen. “You have to know history if you’re going to mix properly,” she says.

Perhaps the best examples of how the designer married her modern aesthetic with traditional English design are in the bathrooms. “English bathrooms are always white marble,” explains Quint, who executed the material on a gigantic scale in the master bath with 18-by-36-inch marble pieces placed both horizontally and vertically to create a graphic impact.

The combination of modern lines and rustic materials in the powder room is what she calls “the absolute stylistic essence of the house.” Quint topped a wood slab counter with a sophisticated onyx vessel sink, installed an old-style faucet through the mirror in a very contemporary fashion, and chose sconces with sleek, tapered lines. “A powder room should be a little jewel box, a clever showstopper, as long as it fits with the house,” she says.

Throughout the process, the designer held strong to the vision of a comfortable family home with a definite sense of sophisticated style: “I tried to make it look like someone lives here, and gave it the same levels of intrinsic value and comfort that I strive for in all my projects.”