News

Looking back at 2019, we are grateful for the homes and projects we've been included in. 

 

We also worked on several custom projects for restaurants, offices, retail stores, and residential homes. Big or small, each project is a way to create something magnificent, together. Some highlights include:

At Denver's unique Dairy Block, skincare company Aesop asked us to build all the custom fixtures for its first Denver retail store in a rich sienna hue that not only corresponds to the store’s site but also to the rocky formations of Colorado’s national parks – following Aesop’s philosophy to weave themselves into the fabric of their environment as they do in all of their store locations.

With our friends at Kimberly Timmons Interiors and for a client's residence in Napa, we designed a stunning and completely unique coffee table made of cottonwood.

We designed and built a record number of custom live edge tables for residential dining tables and office conference rooms.

Resolute Brewing Company approached us to help outfit the 2nd location in Arvada, CO with custom high top tables, chairs and patio furniture.

You’re a locavore, sourcing your peaches from Palisade, your elk from Antonito, and your Bibb lettuce from the GrowHaus in the Elyria-Swansea neighborhood. So why are you still buying generic furniture from China? It’s easy to outfit your home with beautiful pieces designed right here in the Mile High City—and we have just the list to get you started. These six Colorado companies dream up everything from cabinetry emblazoned with mountain peaks to powder-coated rocking chairs made from recycled steel. Meet them here—and welcome their work into your home. It’s a feel-good, look-good double win.

1. The Fearless Founder: Angela Harris

If you’ve ever heard Apple’s born-in-a-garage origin story, you know that inspiration often strikes in unlikely places. Angela Harris, principal and CEO of locally owned interior design and visual-merchandising firm Trio, certainly does. “I founded Trio out of my basement more than 20 years ago,” she says. Harris had been toiling for an engineering firm before taking the plunge and enrolling in decorating classes—and spending her last $500 on Trio business cards and other startup costs.

Her courage paid off: Trio now has more than 55 employees overseeing more than 100 projects across the country, and Harris recently designed a line of furniture for Phillips Collection, a to-the-trade furniture manufacturer that has created custom pieces for Trio clients for years. Her intent for each piece—designed at the Trio studio in LoHi and made by artisans in Indonesia—was to put a modern spin on iconic minimalist furniture. Think comfy seats carved into blocks of suar wood, and ladder-backed armchairs finished in gleaming brass. “The use of unified, linear pieces celebrates simplicity, authenticity, and negative space, while square styling, channel-tufting, and beautiful metal inlays make each piece feel special and timeless,” Harris says. “We’ve taken cues from the market to create something fresh and unexpected by balancing authenticity, artistic expression, and the beauty of natural forms. People want pieces that make them feel something.”

2. The Upstart: Format Fine Goods

It wasn’t long after Joel Edmondson accepted a job as a designer for Pottery Barn in San Francisco that his dream of West Coast living started to lose its luster. The designer, who’d worked for Lorin Marsh and Symbol Audio in New York City before moving to the so-called Best Coast, was a little shocked when the lifestyle wasn’t what he’d expected. “[My wife and I] were hoping to enjoy a better work/life balance in the Bay Area as opposed to New York, but we were disappointed by the expensive housing market and difficult commute,” he says. So in 2017, when his wife accepted a job in Denver—“a city everyone aspires to be in,” Edmondson says—he took it as a sign.

Figuring he wouldn’t be able to find a corporate furniture-design job, he used the move as an excuse to create his own line, Format Fine Goods, which he launched at New York’s International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) in May 2017. “The work is inspired by the heritage of American craftsmanship, imagined in new forms and materials,” Edmondson says. “For example, the lighting features [the slip-casting ceramic-forming] technique: It’s traditionally used to make table wares and vessels, but we’re using it in a completely new way.”

Edmondson’s unexpected collection includes a collapsible guitar stand—made of sustainably forested ash or walnut wood—that would satisfy Jimi Hendrix, and the tube-like Arches bench, which looks like something the Jetsons would recline on. Plus, it’s all crafted in the USA: Upholstered items are bench-made in the furniture-opolis of High Point, North Carolina; larger pieces, in Minnesota, and the smaller pieces and lighting are assembled and finished in Edmondson’s home studio in the Whittier neighborhood.

3. The Maker: Objeti

“I come from a family of makers and entrepreneurs,” says Joseph Ribic, founder of Objeti. He’s not kidding about his hands-on inheritance. His father founded a precision aerospace manufacturing company (in layman’s terms: he made engine parts from superalloys) after moving from Slovenia to Ohio in 1970. So when Denver-based Ribic created his first furniture collection—which he unveiled at ICFF in 2010—he took inspiration from his roots. “The name Objeti is derived from the Slovenian word for ‘embrace,’ ” he says—a nod to the brand’s signature union of form and function.

Objeti fabricates its wares in-house and partners with artisans around the globe—think Amish woodworkers in Ohio, alabaster sculptors in Volterra, Italy, and even a Turkish fez-hat-maker who crafts Objeti’s Soft Tools pendant lamps, which feature white wool interiors and fez-burgundy shades.

Ribic’s next venture, Fiction, launches in August and will bring products including modular bookshelves and powder-coated sheet-metal bookends to the masses. (Objeti will keep these products in stock for quick delivery.) “Ultimately, I want to create conversations through products,” Ribic says. “My goal is to entice people into needing to find out more about my designs. And I hope the owners of each piece are so infatuated with it that they have a sentimental story about how they found it or why they bought it.”

4. The Dream Team: DoubleButter

David Larabee and Dexter Thornton are like the PB&J of Denver’s design scene—better together. “We each had our own scuffling furniture companies in Denver when we hooked up in 2006 for a show at the now-defunct and sorely missed P Design Gallery in RiNo,” says Larabee, a self-taught artisan who entered the field after “many trials, many errors.” Thornton holds an industrial-design degree with a focus on furniture from Brooklyn’s Pratt Institute. “We both needed a change and a partner,” Larabee says. “Someone to encourage the good ideas and to kill the bad ones early; someone to help carry the really heavy things.”

So the design duo founded DoubleButter, an outfit that makes all of its midcentury-inspired furniture designs in Denver and is now so beloved, the Denver Art Museum added two of its chairs—including the Roadrunner, made of oiled medium-density fiberboard—to its permanent collection. “It’s pretty clear, or at least we think it is, that we’ve got a deep respect for the midcentury design gods—the Eameses and Prouvé and Poul Kjærholm and on and on,” Larabee says. “And, of course, contemporary artists and designers too, like Piet Hein Eek and Tom Sachs.” One of DoubleButter’s newest offerings, the Grasshopper rocker, is made from recycled steel that can be powder-coated in a rainbow of VOC-free finishes.

Both Larabee and Thornton are ardent bicyclists who, during their rides through town, soak up much of Denver’s architecture as design inspiration. “We look at the honest use of materials—steel, glass, concrete, wood—in the engineered world,” Larabee says. “That stuff makes a big impression on you when you start to notice it.”

5. The Custom Queen: New Classics

The assembly-line approach to making furniture is as different as can be from the way things happen at the New Classics workshop, where only one or two artisans touch each piece. “This means an extremely high level of craftsmanship is required, from technical knowledge of veneers and hardwoods to a strong ability to problem-solve,” says owner Kirsten Zook. She should know: She bought the company from her mother, interior designer Sara Zook, who kick-started it 30 years ago when a Boulder client sought a custom reproduction of a marquetry-inlaid dressing table—and Zook couldn’t find an expert to build it. “During the 1980s, the design industry began to understand that clients wanted the antique look but modern functionality,” Zook says. “New Classics became known throughout the industry as the ‘dining table’ company due to our specialty and old-world craftsmanship.” Point proven: The firm now works with some of the most boldfaced decorator names in the country, including McAlpine House and Suzanne Kasler.

New Classics is a fount of antique-inspired and modern looks, all of which are made to order in a 21,000-square-foot shop near Stapleton. (With your designer, you can buy the pieces locally through the Shanahan Collection at the Denver Design District.) Among its new wares: a mahogany side table with an arched detail in the base that evokes the spires of Europe’s ancient cathedrals, and the futuristic Boreas table with a steel-and-mica base. Further proof that quality trumps quantity: The majority of New Classics’ makers have worked at the firm for nearly 20 years. “It’s more like one big family than just a workplace,” Zook says.

6. The Family Startup: Denver Modern

Donnie Criswell didn’t set out to launch a furniture empire nearly 10 years ago—he just wanted to make a reclaimed-wood table for his home in Boulder. But after he met and married Lindsey Price Criswell, who had worked in consumer product consulting, the pair realized that Denverites had a yen for locally designed pieces that epitomize the city’s lifestyle—which includes “an appreciation for lasting beauty, a desire to be bold without being flashy, and a collaborative and community-driven environment,” Lindsey says. Having dipped their toes in the furniture-building biz (since 2013, they’ve been fashioning custom pieces for corporate clients including WeWork and Google—and, locally, Corvus Coffee and the Wolf’s Tailor), the duo felt they could transfer that aesthetic to a direct-to-consumer line that would appeal in Colorado and beyond.

Enter their new line of furniture and home accessories, Denver Modern, which the pair launched in 2018 and currently sells online; eventually, they’ll display and sell their wares in a Clayton neighborhood showroom as well. The collection feels just right for Colorado: “We use mixtures of blackened steel, concrete, white oak, leather, and more,” Lindsey says. Adds Donnie: “What Lindsey and I are drawn to is modern, but we don’t like ‘cold’ furniture you can’t feel comfortable in and don’t want to see in your own house.” This sensibility, plus a commitment to craftsmanship that’s difficult to find in mass-produced furnishings, makes the Criswells’ line an ideal source for your next perfect piece.

View the full story on 5280.

1. Mixed Materials

Welded steel, hardwoods, marble, leather, and fabrics that last. Combining these elements elevates your space, adding a harmonious contrast that is key to creating an interesting room.  

The Highline Bench

The Flex Dining Chair

The Canyon Lounge Chair

 

2. Earth tones

You can't go wrong with neutral earth tones in your home.  

We've purposefully selected a palette inspired by the organic hues found where we live, so our pieces are timeless: natural oak, black walnut, nero marquina marble, and white carrara marble. Each material is selected for its unique texture and character. 

We also layered in durably elegant fabrics in cream linen and grey herringbone, plus, warm, brown leather that gets better with age.

 

The Emery Rug

The Range Coffee Table

The Cooper sofa

 

3. Layering

When nesting elements together, you add a new level of depth and versatility to your space. Get the look with nesting tables, layered rugs, and accessories like pillows and poufs.

 

The Ziggy Nesting Accent Tables

 

The Peggy Side Table

 

The Allmore Rug

 

4. Statement Seating

Strappy details, leather pulls, brass accents. The right accent or lounge chair can double as a work of art in your home without compromising on comfort.

The Highline Lounge Chair

The Cascade Barstool

The Vail Lounge Chair

5. Soft Curves

Lose those boxy shapes and indulge in the shapely trend that is making a statement in 2019. Round corners, easy edges and smooth curves are what to look for this year.

The Alotti Chair

 

The Hive Sofa

 

The Benson Occasional Chair

Stay in touch – we have new inventory landing soon and we want you to be the first to know!

Interior “insta blogger”, Sarah Litvinchuk, was looking for the perfect coffee table to complete her full home renovation when she found Denver Modern.

She needed something that would mesh well with her natural color pallet and modern, minimal style.

When asked about her inspiration for the project, Sarah replied, "I’m inspired by bright, natural color palettes, and outdoor elements such a light wood, rattan, and greenery. With all the business that’s happening most of the time, it’s calming for me to use one basic color, and then mix in natural pieces and differing textures to add character and warmth." 

When she discovered the Range coffee table, it was a no brainer.

Sarah discusses her proudest DIY, greatest challenge, best advice, and when Apartment Therapy asks Sarah what her biggest indulgence was on this project, she answers, "It’s either our coffee table in the living room or the skinny bench in the entry. Definitely not the most expensive items we have, but some I love most! Both took lots of time and research to find just the perfect piece for the space, and I think that says a lot. When it’s a unique find that not everyone has, I think it’s worth the extra money one might typically spend on the item—plus it adds character, and usually has a story behind it.

"Our coffee table was made by a husband and wife team who own a furniture shop in Denver, and I love that. The bench I found on Etsy and was shipped from the Netherlands! When you can tell a story about where something came from it makes it that much better (and it doesn’t hurt when it’s plain gorgeous!)"

Read Sarah's full story about her California Mountain house makeover on Apartment Therapy.

We chatted with interior designer, Nikki Holt, of Kimberly Timmons Interiors to get a professional's opinion on the best ways to style your live edge table.

We've worked with Nikki and the KTI team on numerous live edge projects that always turn out amazing thanks to their styling expertise. 

Here are 6 things to think about when styling your space with a new live edge table. 

1. Table size:

"Due to the irregular shape of a live edge table I always like to make the width a bit bigger than when using a normal dining table. Keep in mind a live edge table will get more narrow in places so don’t be afraid to go bigger!"

2. Base design:

"The base is not the star of the show when using a live edge table, keep it simple as to not compete with the gorgeous top. Using a sleek metal base is a nice way to make the table a bit more contemporary, while using a wood base can make the table a more traditional rustic style."

3. Finish:

"Don’t think of a live edge table as just a slab of wood. Mix in concrete, metals, resin and more for a fun take on your traditional live edge table. When using a beautiful slab of wood allow the grain to shine through by doing a nice natural stain/finish."

4. Chair selection:

"A live edge table is very versatile in style. Use an upholstered chairs with tufting, nail heads or soft curves to make your table have a transitional style. Pair your table with a sleek leather chair with metal accents like brass or chrome to give off a more contemporary vibe. Or, use a chair with hand forged iron, worn leather and wood to give a rustic design style to your table."

5. Lighting:

"Lighting is the jewelry of your home so do not be afraid to go big with the lighting. It only helps draw attention to the table more! When using a long live edge table think about using a more linear chandelier or try a pair of two round chandeliers to help elongate the table."

6. Accessories: 

"When accessorizing keep in mind that the table really is a piece of art. Don’t over clutter it, keep it simple. Try using a large pretty tray, a row of plants in unique planters down the center, or find a unique sculptural bowl or accessory."

Now that you know how to style your live edge table, let's get started on building one! 

Josie Sexton  Nov 19, 2018, 2:45pm MST

Photography by Ryan Dearth

It’s the holiday season in Colorado, and Eater has scoured Denver’s bars, shops, and restaurants for the best presents to give to local food lovers. From pantry essentials to cocktail ingredients, hand-stitched aprons, and knife sharpening services, we’ve got the home cooks and bartenders covered.

Looking to get out of the house with loved ones? A Winter Passport set will provide drink specials at locales across the Front Range and throughout the mountains. Or perhaps one staycation at a food-forward boutique hotel carries the right sentiment. Guests at these lodgings can just stumble upstairs after dinner in one of a handful of award-winning restaurants.

Here, you’ll find two options for custom or curated giftboxes, filled with local coffees, cheeses, candies, and crackers. Stocking stuffers? Check. Splurge items? Check check. Statement pieces? We’ve thrown in a few of those, too. Plus, a selection of gummies and CBD/THC teas for optional unwinding. Read on for 14 gifts and giving inspiration.

Denver Modern Serving Board

Local furniture and home goods company Denver Modern has designed for restaurants like the Wolf’s Tailor, Acreage, Leña, and Corvus Coffee. Now, home cooks and party hosts can have their own statement piece in a handmade black walnut and brushed brass serving board, you know, for all those cheeses, chocolates, and meats you’ve just purchased.

Price: $125

Cured Colorado Flagship Box

Boulder’s homey local pantry store offers a variety of charcuterie-packed gift boxes perfect for kitchen stocking, picknicking or dinner partying. The Colorado Flagship comes with Elevation salami, MouCo cheese, Nita Crisp crackers, Frasca red pepper jelly, a Nathan Miller chocolate bar, Greenbelly hot sauce, and more.

Price: $150

Dram Apothecary Syrups and Bitters

Salida-based Dram Apothecary creates hand-foraged bitters, syrups, and switchels that make for great gifts for the home bartender. Bottles can be purchased individually or bought in gift sets like the Alpine Manhattan kit, the Lemon Ginger Hot Toddy kit or the pack of six cocktail bitters. A fan favorite and Good Food Award winner is the Pine Syrup.

Price: $11-$36

Carbon Knife Co Sharpening Stone or Service

RiNo-based Carbon Knife Company is worth a visit for its knowledgeable staff and jaw-dropping collection of Japanese knives and sharpening stones. Interested customers can hear the stories behind the makers and test their perfect blade and handle. For home cooks, the store’s knife repair and sharpening service is a thoughtful touch — one that Denver chefs utilize frequently.

Price: $95 (stone), $5-$30 (sharpening)

Winter Session Apron

Denver craftsmen Winter Session create bags, totes, and wallets but also supply the city’s bartenders and restaurant workers with durable aprons. The selvedge denim shop apron (pictured) is detailed with brass grommets, cotton ties, and comfy cross-back straps. It features chest and waist pockets for everything from a cell phone to plating tweezers.

Price: $98

Winter Edition Passports

Each year, the pocket-sized Passports sell like hotcakes to Denver booze enthusiasts. Their winter warmer editions feature two-for-one craft beverages (cocktails, beers or glasses of wine) at more than 60 local establishments, plus 10 coffee shop specials. The Mountain Passport is a good get for skiers, with 34 road-trip drinking spots. And the Colorado pack combines them all with deals across Denver, Boulder, Colo. Springs, and Fort Collins.

Price: $20-$50

The Block Distilling Co. Spirits

One-year-old RiNo distillery The Block just came out with its first coffee liqueur made with Novo Coffee and packaged in a sweet and stylish little bottle. But gift givers should also check out the house vodka and seasonal gin bottles, which will add some flair (and function) to anyone’s bar cart.

Price: $18 or $31 (but only available at the distillery)

Fortuna Chocolates

Boulder-based Fortuna chocolates is about to open its first tasting room and chocolate bar this season, but before then, customers should shop online and in specialty stores for these truffles, slabs, and cacao nibs. See flavors such as milk and fig, salty pistachio, and Palisade peaches.

Price: $10-$20

Food Lovers’ Hotel Staycation

From the Source Hotel to Hotel Born, the Maven, the Crawford, and the Ramble (pictured), Denver now has a bed and board option for every taste and design preference. In RiNo, guests can choose from high-end cocktail bars or Israeli food. Near LoDo, the Dairy Block and Milk Market food hall provide plenty of all-day options. Union Station offers a weekend’s worth of dining out. In fact, better to book two nights for optimized eating and drinking.

Price: Varies, check with the hotels

Björn’s Colorado Honey

This Swedish-born producer comes from a long line of beekeepers and has carried the tradition all the way to Colorado where he makes local raw, whipped, and propolis honey. Customers should seriously check out the latter, which combines tree and plant resins and is taken by the spoonful to stave off sickness.

Price: $12-$20

Manofatto Holiday Collection Giftbox

Italian slang for handmade, Manofatto packs an assortment of artisanal goodies into carefully designed gift boxes that can be customized or pre-selected. In the Holiday Collection/Made in Colorado box (pictured), there are Helliemae’s caramels, Cocktail Punk bitters, two Hygge Life Turkish cotton hand towels, a bag of hometown blend Sweet Bloom coffee, and more housewarming items.

Price: $150

Jojo’s Sriracha

Cult favorite Jojo’s Sriracha has set up shop in Pueblo and is using local Colorado chiles for its blends of green and red chili sauces. The wild fermented green sriracha is sour and funky, while the OGX packs some heat from its jalapeños. All are addictive and better than the store-bought alternative.

Price: $13-$46

Death & Co Cocktail Book

Now with a Denver outpost, this infamous New York cocktail destination is known for its original coffee table bestseller, “Modern Classic Cocktails.” But fans of the bar and brand should look for the latest release, out this month, called the “Cocktail Codex.” It gets back to the basics, so customers can learn to master any old fashioned, martini, daiquiri, sidecar, whisky highball or flip.

Price: $26

Stillwater THC/CBD Teas and Gummies

The holidays are tough, and Colorado-based Stillwater offers low-dose CBD and THC gummies, teas, and “dissolvables” to get people through them. Maybe this gift is for a stressed-out sibling or parent, or maybe it’s a present for yourself (no judgment). The teas are especially relaxing in mellow mint and gentle green varieties.

Price: $20-$24

Design of the Year

The Wolf’s Tailor, Nguyen Lawrence
Lucy Beaugard/Eater

On a quiet commercial strip in Sunnyside, the 50-seat Wolf’s Tailor this summer made a big Denver debut. With major talent across its kitchen and behind the bar, there is a lot to love here. But the bones of the restaurant, translated from owner Kelly Whitaker’s philosophy to architect Nguyen Lawrence’s vision for the space, really hooked us from the start. This is the type of community gathering place to wander, savor, then repeat. In the warmer months, the experience starts as any neighborhood get together should, with a backyard garden party. Once inside, the setting is muted and moody, the focus hanging between shadows and light. And at the center of it all is the glass-encased kitchen, with a guaranteed show every night.

View full awards list →

Husband-and-wife team launches Denver Modern, a furniture line with ‘a Denver-inspired aesthetic’

Every fall, Modern In Denver magazine hosts Denver Design Week, bringing together some of Colorado's most notable movers and shakers in the design world, from furniture to architecture, interior design and beyond.

We chatted with Modern In Denver publisher, William Logan, about this year's weeklong event, their favorite events, and what's in the works for next year. 

What is the reason behind a weeklong event like this?

WL: We believe that great design can change people’s lives and we want to foster dialogue about design and how it relates to our city and world. That’s why Denver Design Week was created three years ago - To bring the design community together.

What was new and different about this year's design week compared to other years?

WL: We definitely added more technology design sessions and held two keynotes each night to give attendees more options. And we held the majority of events at a model of urban infill development, Junction 23 at Denargo Market. It’s a great example of how older buildings can be looked at with a keen
design eye and transformed, instead of torn down.

Was there a Modern In Denver or a personal favorite, speaker, seminar or event this year?

WL: Some of our favorite events this year included:

• Zaha Hadid Architects’ Filipe Pereira who flew in from New York to speak about her last project that was just finished in Manhattan, 520 W. 28th and her Cove kitchen design.
• Designer Hlynur Atlason’s keynote at Design Within Reach about the impact that design has had in his life and his latest projects.
• Facebook’s Joyce Hsu, who heads up the social media giant’s “hardware lab” Area 404.
• The closing party at Studio Como that featured models from many of Colorado’s foremost architecture and design firms.

How do you rate the success of design week? How was this year's turnout?

WL: We had over 2,700 design professionals attend 35 keynotes, sessions and tours this year, we had over 500 party-goers attend the Launch Party and 300 guests at the Final Party at Studio Como. Every year we get bigger but try to keep the welcoming and community-feel to the events. It’s important to us that
attendees not only learn but make meaningful connections to other design professionals during the week.

What is the process like for choosing presenters and discussion topics?

WL: It’s long! We spend a great deal of time making sure we schedule a wide range of timely design topics and then we scour regionally, and nationally in some cases, to find the experts in that field who are also lively and interesting speakers.

Were there any surprises and/or highlights this year?

WL: We loved the enthusiasm and active participation in each session from attendees. From insightful questions to the exchange of business cards, it was encouraging and inspiring to see so many connections being made. That was a definite highlight!

What's the plan for next year's DDW and when do you start preparing for it? 

WL: We’ll only take a few weeks off and then we start the planning again for next year’s Design Week in mid-November. It takes months to develop the programming schedule, find just the right speakers, plan the
parties and tours, and then put sponsorship packages together for the forward-thinking companies who want to partner and be involved.

Denver Modern had a blast sponsoring this year's Denver Design Week lounge at Junction 23 (pictured above). Big thanks to Modern In Denver for putting together such a thoughtful event for the bright minds in the Denver design community! We're looking forward to next year!