Melinda Goldrich’s West End retreat

 
  Melinda Goldrich with her Pomeranians, Zanzi (ON LAP) and Bonzai

Meet the Homeowner
No one but longtime Aspen resident Melinda Goldrich could have created the remarkable interiors of her delightful West End home. “I wanted the house to be a creative compilation of things I saw while traveling or experienced in homes in other places,” she explains. “Doing it myself gave me the freedom to make decisions as we went along, to layer things in and go full-custom.”

The architectural vision for the tri-level, just under 5,000-square-foot home was Goldrich’s as well, designed to replace an older, smaller cabin that she had lived in on the same lot for nearly a decade. “I knew the orientation,” she says. “I wanted to utilize the property, which fronts a neighborhood alley and has a common-space backyard, and maximize the space according to my lifestyle, specifically with guests and entertaining in mind.”

The Design Team
Susan Furr of Furr Foss Architecture, an Aspen firm that has since relocated to Minneapolis, drew up the plans. Red Rienks, of Rienks Custom Homes in Aspen, was charged with construction. Both had partnered with Goldrich on other projects. That the curves and angles of the home’s exterior—a combination of Brazilian teak, barnwood, dry-stacked stone and Hardie Board topped with a country cottage-style roof of recycled rubber shingles meant to look like slate—hardly hint at the interior only adds to its appeal.

Beyond a requirement that guest, entertainment and private living spaces be on separate levels linked by a central stairway and that there be an inherent indooroutdoor connection, the challenges of incorporating elements like a Chihuly-esque glass floor/ceiling and designing color schemes, if not entire rooms, around tile collections, were vast.

Decorating from Every Corner of the Globe
“It was all very experimental,” Goldrich relates. “We used a set of antique Japanese screens [for one] door; the kitchen cabinets are faced with handcarved panels I designed with Seret & Sons in Santa Fe and had fabricated in India; most of the plumbing fixtures came from Europe and the tile mosaic in the powder room was recycled from the previous house.

For the labor, we considered who would be the best fit for a particular part of the project. It was hard to make a budget or have a time frame. We just thought, We’ll do it until it works.” The home is strewn with what Goldrich calls “showpieces.” The stairway is a spiraling wonder, with patterned side panels cut from sheets of metal imported from India and handcrafted, laminated-oak steps and rails by Summers Architectural Moldings in Carbondale. It was, incredibly, one of the last features installed. “We wanted to be sure that it wouldn’t compete with or block other elements of the house,” Goldrich explains.

The stairway is lit by a two-story, tumbled-glass light fixture crafted by a glassmaker she discovered on a trip to Venice, Italy. Adjacent to the stairway, the shafts of a four-person glass elevator feature a whimsical, fairy-tale mural by local artist Rebecca Goode. In addition to the handcrafted-wood cabinets, the open kitchen has a partial dropped ceiling finished with wood tiles to resemble a thatched roof, sleek zebrawood floors, a poured-concrete sink and countertops, seed-bubble glass doors in above-counter cabinets and classic Heartland appliances.