Name: Roman, Christine and Izzy Martinez
Location: Boulder, Colorado
Size: 2,600 square foot plus Studio
Years lived in: 15 years; Owned
Fifteen years ago, Roman and Christine Martinez had a vision: the 450 square foot turkey coop they had just purchased would one day be their multi-level, treehouse-style, dream home. The beautiful neighborhood and close proximity to shops, schools and the heart of downtown Boulder was the big draw.
After years of hard work, including 5 remodels (sleeping in a teepee in their back yard during one), Christine, Roman and daughter Izzy have crafted their ideal home. Filled with antiques and mid-century treasures, the home also showcases the residents' many talents, including beautifully written notes from Izzy, Christine's powerful and inspiring photography, and Roman's overall curated design.
Apartment Therapy Survey:
Our Style: Eclectic modern.
Inspiration: Books, music, art — wife has a little bit of hippy still going. Housekeeping inspired by JoAnn Willis.
Favorite Element: Roman: Yard and location. Christine: Wallpaper throughout the house and fresh flowers that seem to make the house come alive.
Biggest Challenge: The financial constraints. Having to create our dream over a 15 year period. 5 different major remodels, lots of structural limitations.
What Friends Say: Our sweet and wild friends Andrea and Cladius Jaeger say it looks and feels just like us. Reflects who we are: comfortable, playful, interesting.
Biggest Embarrassment: Christine dislikes the bathroom next to the kitchen.
Proudest DIY: Years of gardening, and watching the house evolve from a tiny 450 square foot [former] turkey coop into what it is now.
Biggest Indulgence: Furniture, books, art, and fresh flowers.
Best Advice: Buy the best you can afford.
Dream Sources: ABC Home NYC, Design Within Reach, Designers Guild, Independent Home Shops, Santa Fe
Resources of Note:
PAINT & COLORS
- • Benjamin Moore: Decorator White, Lemon Ice
FAMILY ROOM
- • Design Within Reach: Eileen Grey Table, Neo Sectional
• Herman Miller: Eames Storage Unit
• Knoll: Platner Table
• Scandinavian Antiques, Denver, CO: Cabinet
• Designers Guild: Wallpaper
LIVING ROOM
- • Mila, Boulder, CO: Carpet
• Rachel Ashwell Shabby Chic Studio: Sofa
• Design Within Reach: Jens Chair, Eames Rocker,
• Vintage Knoll: Platner Table, Arne Jacobsen Seven Chairs
• Dancing Grains, Austin Aaron: Custom Bookcases/Millwork
KITCHEN
- • Home Depot / Cabinetry: Kraftmaid
• Rocky Mountain Hardware: Hardware
• SubZero: Custom Refrigerator
• Fisher Paykel: Dishwasher
ART ROOM
- • Loveseat: Henredon
• Restoration Hardware: Cabinet
MASTER BEDROOM
- • Grange: Bed
• Century Furniture: Chest
• Scandinavian Antiques, Denver, CO: Antiques
• Anthropologie: Bedding
IZZY'S BEDROOM
- • Scandinavian Antiques, Denver, CO: Antiques
• Knoll: Tulip Chair
• Anthropologie: Lamp
OTHER
- • Inlightened Studio, Canopy Designs, Nelson Bubble Lamps: Lighting
• Ann Sacks: Tile & Stone
• Water Works, Kohler, Jado, Duravit: Bath & Kitchen
Thanks, Roman, Christine & Izzy!
(Images: Ashley Poskin)
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Ercol Bar Stool
Yay Boulder - Colorado Represent! Beautiful house, beautiful town, beautiful family.
I really love your home. Beautiful feeling just looking at the photos. Great job!
Your home is delighful. I thoroughly enjoyed scrolling through the photographs. Just beautiful! - a job very well done.
Love it! Personal, creative, fun, etc., etc. So eclectic, and the overall vibe is very relaxing! It looks like you're really enjoying all your hard work!
I love the Nelson lamp against the exposed joists. Very architectural - speaking of that, I'd love to see photos of the exterior.
Awesome Home. !!!
Can anyone tell me where to purchase the Pencil Supplies Wall Holder shown in one the photos?
That's one gorgeous turkey coop!
Really beautiful house - thanks to sharing!
Being where you are (i.e. in Colorado) I would expect that you have tough winters so I would probably need more rugs on the floor to visually warm up the space, but that's just me. But then again, I am not sure if a winter in Canada is not actually worse than one in Colorado? :-)
I sure love your place! Colorful, eclectic and full of love!!! And so sunny.
Now, where did you get the:
1. pillow (pink) on the couch where the pooch is sitting?
2. those wonderful white bookcases? same photo as above...
Just wonderful! A home after my own heart.
Great home. Thoughtful, comfortable, AND stylish. Your outdoor space is killing it!
A treat to see. (Wish descriptions had accompanied the thumbnails, and with so many intriguing angles and nooks, it would be helpful to see a floor plan to get a sense of how the turkey coop grew.) Certainly not a cookie-cutter home by any measure!
Yummy all around. I adore the wallpaper touches througout. Great job - looks like your home was worth the wait (and 5 renos!).
love this house - you all did a great job. was wondering where that beautiful yellow rug came from; also do you know the color of the pink walls? many thanks for sharing your warm home.
What a great home. I enjoyed this tour also. It's so bright and welcoming. It's totally not my style but I love it!
My favorite house tour yet--beautiful and personal, and with so much to love! I'd like my home to be like this one when it grows up!
Hello, This is Roman replying on our Boulder house. As a longtime Boulder designer, I've worked in every style imaginable...from mountain palaces to ultra modern penthouses to tiny historic cabins. I owned a home store and art gallery for a number of years and have traveled extensively. I've evolved over the years style wise and have been fortunate enough to be able to indulge my wife, and my, ever changing person styles. This house is far from finished it will continue changing--In fact, the interior was just finished being remodeled weeks before this latest shoot. ( The fireplace, Crystal chandeliers and floor to ceiling bookcases are gone!) The house is a living representation of our lives. I love the photography, but am amazed how different the story reads in my view
To answer questions:
The pencil holder is Utensilo by Vitra
The pink pillow on sofa custom made with Designer Guild fabrics
The wonderful white bookcases were contracted about a month ago by Aaron Austin of Boulder's Dancing Grains.
Funny how so many imagine all of us in Colorado buried in snow--too many winter days we're having margs in shorts on a patio.
The Yellow Flower rug came from a local Boulder rug shop--MILA
The Bedroom pink is Ralph Lauren Pink Quartz.
Hope the walls don't look OCHRE! they truly are the palest yellow--Our house is just so sunny that I it it reads golden
To answer questions
The love the comment "I'd like my home to be like this one when it grows up!" I feel it represents the true nature of creating home...it is so like your baby that you have to nurture and help along on it's path on becoming whatever it will become...Thanks!
Now, this house is a H-O-M-E. Everything about it just radiates joy!
Love it!! Bursting with personality and creativity.
Beautiful lovely personal home.
the chair plus the vanity; so fantastic.
Isabella and I just read all the sweet comments. Thank you soo much!
Boulder has so many wonderful creative people that have inspired us. xo to everyone! Thank you again, Christine, Isabella, and the pooch. :)
Absolutely a beautiful home! Light and airy, yet still eclectic and personal. I love every single aspect of this lovely home!
WOW. I LOVE this house so much, I don't know what to say. I need time to go back through each picture and take in all the delicious details.
A beautiful family in an incredibly stunning and creative house. More like this please, AT!!
I really gravitated towards that pink room, which is something that hasn't happened before. The color just reminds me of roses, like I could almost smell them. That is the room in the house I want to hang out in.
Okay, I have to review these pics tomorrow. I believe I have possibly just stumbled upon my favorite house EVER on apttherapy, and I just want to have a clear head about it. I can't judge tonight, it's late - and after a nice glass of red. Time to get some perspective. But let me just say this: this house FEELS. This is a psychologically accessible home, one that welcomes us on many specific, and deeply personal levels. I love this home. This I can declare most certainly, and safely, without benefit of the morning light and the un-vino'ed mind. Thank you for bringing this wonderful home, a true expression of the self - of the many selves that reside here - to light, so that we all may benefit. I sincerely LOVE this place. <3
very elegant and fun. great wall treatments, textiles, details, furnishings... very comfortable looking, and again..fun.
If this is 'quintessential Boulder', we need to see more Boulder!
You had me at Turkey Coop.
Wow. OK, one more time. Wow!
Awww, I recently moved away from Boulder and have been missing it badly. And wouldn't ya know up pops a Boulder house tour! Thanks for sharing your home!
Stunning home. It's so nice to see a home that has grown into its charm and matured over a 15 year span. So many of us are too anxious to "get there" right away.
Beautiful job. This is a home I'd want to be friends with, soft yet structured, fascinating but approachable. I especially love the wood desk and cabinets, the kitchen tiles, the ceilings, the number of books(!), the blue chair and the swing. Wow.
Love
Just Divine! What color is Izzy's room painted please?
That looks like one fun, happy home! I would have loved to have grown up in a house like that.
Izzy's room is painted Ralph Lauren Rose Quartz.
When I saw the words "chicken coop" - I knew I was going to like it! The tile up the wall in the kitchen is something I'd like to try! The wallpaper in the bathroom is gorgeous! Could you please tell me the source? Great job!
yes, the word WOW is the first one that came to mind. I can feel the warmth coming right through the photos. It looks like real people live here. Very Nice.
I want to live in a house that looks like this someday! Truly amazing, there isn't one thing I didn't absolutely love about it. Thank you for sharing!
WOwza! what a beautiful place to live. This house is really breathtaking. Everything in it is so tasteful. there is nothing i love more then a well designed and decorated house and this is one of the more beautiful i have ever seen. good work!
I just want to say it's a pleasure to see bookshelves in a home that are not staged (at least to my mind...) Not in book jackets all the same color from topped to bottom or one shelf all red books and one cube all blue books. Books should be arranged by art AND some meaningful intellectual order (like topic - alphabetical by author - subject - and/or my favorite - Library of Congress Classification...Working in libraries since high school through grad school I love my books in order. Anything else in my life, not so much...)
The wallpaper in the bathroom is Osborn and Little. Thanks for all the great comments!
What I take away from it: the bits of turquoise here and there. Turquoise makes everything look better!
Wow beautiful house! Must be mom with the eclectic taste that makes the home come together!
Lovely house! Thanks for sharing....it is a true inspiration.
I have a question about the long low credenza/cabinet ( with all the art on top) in the room with the blue chair. Source please?
We had an energy audit and it was found that our multi tiered and multi-planed roof and all of the huge trees that surround our house wouldn't cost effectively support a solar system...The cabinet is from Restoration Hardware.
I kept alternating between the words, "WOW!" and "NICE"...Without a doubt, one of the best homes I have seen on this site to date...It LOOKS like a home, lived in , well-furnished, PERSONALLY furnished, none of that"okay-let's-be--trendy-and-midcentury-to-impress-the-viewers" nonsense (don't get me wrong, I love midcentury--just gets a little boring when EVERYONE is doing it)...Well done, Martinez family, well done! Can you decorate everyone else's house, while you're at it?
Ooh. Really nice! And I have to agree with maestro58 about the bookshelves not looking "staged" & perfectly arranged. Yes! Finally people who APPRECIATE books and bookshelves! All the Kindles in the world could never look as beautiful as a book case brimming with well loved, dog eared, haphazardly arranged books! Well done Martinez family!
PS- LOVE the subliminal Mexican flag color arrangement in the claw foot tub soap tray (photo #37). Sweet!
One of my favorites!
This is so much more chic than some of those ultra contemporary new york apartments. Exceptional!
I am green with envy over the amount of space! So many rooms to play with! I don't remember seen mid-century furniture being *used* and looking so lived in/livable. I also love the antique/ethnic pieces mixed with the MCM. This home looks so true and cozy. Congrats!
What a creative and welcoming space! You've taken your time in collecting things that you love and it shows! I'd love to live here!
You're created my dream home!! Taking a tiny trailer and turning it into this treasure is a miracle of creative genius, patience and love. The enormous care you invested is evident in every nook and cranny, every piece of furniture and every piece of art. Definitely my choice for best home tour ever. Congratulations.
yummy!!!!
I needed cheering up this morning, so I came back for another look. One day, I will live in a home (sorta) like this! (*crosses fingers*)
It makes me happy that this house exists, frankly.
Thanks for showing your lovely home. Question: what is the finish on your wood floors... they look great and not over done. Thanks.
AGAIN...i ADORE this home. i agree with charlie26...it makes me happy this house exists!!
Wow. Well, I was right, definitely one of my favorite homes on AT! I love it from top to bottom. Just so lovely. Really love the detached ...studio? outside and the large table there. A job well done, and I Love Your Dog!!!! LOL What a wonderful family, and it shows.
Yeah. we have a great detached Studio...it is where I do most of my design work. The floors are finished with a great water based matte finish....
We love our great big outside space...
Roman, it has totally evolved since I've seen it last. Can't wait to come back and see the renovation. It looks great- as always and I love the new family room area!