When tasked with creating a custom kitchen in a Keystone home for a young couple, Julie Riggin, principal interior designer with Julie Kay Design Studio in Colorado Springs, used the snowy slopes as inspiration.
“We went with a theme of fall and winter in the mountains, with heavier textures and richer, warmer colors,” she says.
But for the couple’s primary home—a semi-custom build in Castle Rock— they wanted less mountain drama and more prairie whimsy. So Riggin gave them a kitchen, dining area, and great room that feels as light as a summer day.
“We took a builder basic to the next level,” she says.
She began with color. The quartzite countertops, cabinets, and tile backsplash are all a clean white, while the island is painted putty green—subtly bringing the outdoors in. The gold-colored fixtures and brass cabinet pulls add warmth and a splash of indoor sunshine.
Riggin echoed the kitchen colors in the dining room wallpaper. The custom botanical mural from Schumacher Wallpaper took more than four months to create and serves as a focal point for the entire great room.
The wallpaper also adds a unique touch to a space in which many of the design features were already chosen by the builder. Pairing it with a hexagonal-veneered buffet, rattan-wrapped light fixture, and cane dining chairs creates different levels of texture.
“All that texture adds interest and makes your eye bounce around the room,” Riggin says.
In the kitchen, Riggin added more texture with Shaker-faced cabinets and a ceramic tile backsplash.
“Each tile has a different shade from the next,” she says. “It gives it more of a handmade feel.”
The white and brass lantern lights over the island also add textural interest, airiness, and the third element of Riggin’s design: playfulness.
“We used a lot of whimsical patterns: birds, monkeys, and botanicals,” she says. The client collects monkeys, and her rattan mama monkey perched on the buffet adds to the home’s light and fanciful feeling.
“She fit right into the whole design concept,” Riggin says.
RESOURCES
KITCHEN CABINETS: Toll Brothers
KITCHEN ISLAND: Toll Brothers
ISLAND PENDANTS: Visual Comfort
DINING TABLE AND BUFFET: Lexington Home Brands
DINING ROOM CHANDELIER: Currey & Company
DINING CHAIRS: Made Goods
WALLPAPER: F. Schumacher & Co.
For print-exclusive stories, download the digital magazine or pick up a copy from select local King Soopers, Safeway, Tattered Cover, or Barnes & Noble locations.
