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Can a person ever tire of a 20th-floor view that stretches from Longs Peak to Pikes Peak? Not likely. But, while remodeling their penthouse pied-à-terre, homeowners Garth Tait and Lael Klitsch realized that they would like a cozy contrast to their new living, dining, and cooking space that captures the Front Range panorama via a floor-to-ceiling window wall.
“Most evenings, they retire to this den,” says interior designer Jodi Cook, who worked with KGA Studio Architects and builder Diamond Homes to transform the apartment’s former kitchen into the snug space. The jewel-box design began with a Schumacher fabric that caught Klitsch’s eye and now adorns a Lee Industries sofa. “The chenille-like weave almost looks like a patchwork, which is inherently a provincial pattern,” Cook says, “but it has a sheen that feels soft and supple and upscale. It’s approachable yet luxurious at the same time.”
The fabric’s shades of dusty silver, blue, and green inspired the moody blue-gray paint color that covers the newly paneled walls, custom built-ins, and coffered tray ceiling. A wool-and-silk rug from Shaver-Ramsey echoes the palette, its abstract pattern creating a bridge between the formality of silver-leaf sconces from Visual Comfort and the organic texture of a Mongolian fur–covered chair. “We kept joking that this was like someone’s kooky Aunt Myrtle’s Upper East Side apartment,” Cook says of the eclectic mix. “So when we pondered what art to hang on the wall, we thought, ‘A cougar is what she would have!’” Cook proposed a black-and-white photograph from Natural Curiosities—“because keeping it monochromatic makes it feel that much more sophisticated,” she says. Aunt Myrtle has great taste.
