Sunday’s Mother’s Day brunch will be the last chance for visitors to take in the 33rd Junior Symphony Guild Designer Showhouse, an event that each year treats decorating devotees to a peak inside intriguing area residences. These spaces will surprise anyone who thinks of the Phipps Mansion at 3300 Belcaro Dr. in Denver as a place reserved for traditional weddings and diplomatic functions. (Special thanks to Denver Post home writer and fellow Home Girls blogger Sheba Wheeler for shooting this Showhouse photography.)
Hats off to this year’s JSG Showhouse organizers and design teams who, in the face of fundraising challenges, took what could have been a stoic and inappropriate building — the 1932 Phipps tennis pavilion — and restored its living spaces to their period elegance.
Visitors see this right away as they start the tour in the great room, the design of which was overseen by Rob Osgard of Howard Lorton Galleries. The room included several aesthetic guideposts like a grand ski mountain mural by esteemed Colorado muralist Allan True, who was in great demand in the 1920s and 30s. The Winter Park slope scene is thought to depict the family of the late Senator Lawrence Phipps, who came to Colorado after retiring as an executive from Carnegie Steel. He commissioned the construction of this property to provide jobs during the Great Depression.
Osgard took cues from the mural, along with the room’s leaded glass windows, Renaissance stained glass panels, stonework, fireplace and wood beams by restoring antique chairs that were already there, and bringing in old-world reproductions from the Althorp Living History Collection, Century Furniture and Theodore Alexander.
Decorative painter Cathy Gibbons complimented the great room with a nearby entryway stenciled with a leafy, art deco pattern.
The kitchen and soda fountain restored by interior designer Cathrin Crampton of Mosaic Interiors is another high point on the tour. These spaces were used to entertain the Phipps’ many illustrious guests, some of whom signed the soda fountain walls. Crampton uncovered the original wallpaper to reveal signatures from the likes of tennis great Bobby Riggs. Then she brought in Depression glass, 1930s tennis rackets and serving trays to keep with the room’s vintage vibe.
The gallery space done by HW Home Design Consultant Richard White showcases low-key metallics paired with soft blues for an effect that picks up on the abundant light in this transitional room just off the indoor tennis courts. White’s modern touch is especially fetching with Cathy Gibbons painted vine details overhead.
The bridal suite done by designer Su Ryong Kim of Design Studio Be and muralist Michelle Vander Houwen is especially sweet as it showcases actual wedding photos and a satin and lace wedding dress once worn by longtime JSG member Marcia Norman. It’s one of several delicate touches in this room characterized by a pink Louis XIV-style chair embellished with rosettes and gold tassel, and a wash basin with a crystal stool topped with rosy Chinoiserie fabric. The room is rounded out with subtle gold faux finished walls trimmed with a lush painted garden scene, shown at top.
The gentleman’s lounge done by Tony Torres from Djuna provides a masculine contrast with heavy leather, textile and carved wood furnishings that pick up on the room’s dark wood panels.
This year, the Junior Symphony Guild celebrates 50 years of providing children’s music education programs. The Showhouse is their largest fundraiser. Details and ticketing information are available at JRSG.org or call 303-355-7855.