Knob-and-tube wiring that someone once extended with romex and electrical tape. A drain line running through the middle of what should have been a straightforward wall removal. Floor joists sistered with whatever lumber was available in 1962. Old houses aren’t hiding secrets — they’re accumulating history. Knowing that going in changes everything about how you plan, how you budget, and how you keep from having a breakdown in month three.

Historic home renovation cost in Denver varies more than most contractors will tell you upfront — and the reason it’s so difficult to predict has very little to do with your finish selections. Here’s how I actually think about it.

What Drives Historic Home Renovation Cost in Denver

Every project is different, but the same factors surface every time. Age of the house, scope of work, materials, structural condition, systems, permits, design, and contingency. Each one pulls the budget in its own direction. Understanding all of them before demolition starts is the difference between a renovation that finishes on budget and one that doesn’t.

During a recent addition to an 1886 Victorian in Curtis Park, we anticipated using an existing wall cavity as a chase for new mechanical systems. Once the wall was opened, the available space was significantly smaller than the original drawings suggested — not wrong, just different from what we’d planned around. We rethought a portion of the layout in the field and kept moving. It didn’t blow the budget. But it was a clear reminder that historic homes don’t always reveal their full story until construction begins. Sometimes the house gets a vote.

That’s the thing most cost guides won’t tell you: historic home renovation cost in Denver isn’t determined solely by what you’re planning to build. It’s also shaped by what the house decides to show you.

Age of the House

A 1960s ranch and an 1911 Victorian may look like they belong in the same renovation conversation, but they rarely do. The older the house, the more building eras are layered inside it — and the more likely you are to find incompatible systems stacked on top of each other. A home built in 1889 has had nearly 140 years of owners, each of whom made decisions that made sense to them at the time. Some of those decisions are lovely. Some of them are your contingency fund.

Pre-1940 homes in Denver routinely surface lead paint, asbestos in floor tiles or pipe insulation, and original plaster that’s been patched with drywall compound by someone who didn’t understand what they were working with. None of that is a reason not to renovate — it’s a reason to know what you’re walking into.

Scope of Renovation

A kitchen relocation is fundamentally different from a kitchen refresh. Moving a bathroom to a new footprint is an order of magnitude more complex than updating fixtures in place. The cost variable that matters most isn’t what you’re putting in — it’s what you’re moving.

I ask clients early: are we working within the existing footprint, or are we rethinking it? Staying in place means working with what the house already offers — its window positions, its structural rhythm, its original flow. Changing footprint means engaging structural engineering, permitting, and often discoveries in the process of demolition that no amount of pre-planning fully anticipates.

Neither approach is wrong. They just cost differently — and they require different kinds of patience.

Historic Materials

This is where I spend the most time, and where the work gets interesting.

Old-growth Douglas fir. Old-growth white oak. Single-pane divided-light windows with original glass that has a slight wave to it that no reproduction matches. Quarter-sawn oak flooring  that hasn’t been available at commercial widths since the 1930s. Historic homes contain materials that simply can’t be bought new — which means restoration is almost always the right call over replacement, and restoration takes time.

Matching historic trim profiles requires custom millwork or patience sourcing from architectural salvage. Denver has good salvage resources — I use them constantly — but salvage requires more lead time than a box store run, and it requires someone who knows what they’re looking at. Matching a plaster profile for repairs isn’t something a general contractor learns on your project; it’s something they either know or they don’t.

Much of my work is in Denver’s older neighborhoods — Capitol Hill, Curtis Park, Whittier, Potter-Huffman — where preserving original character is often just as important as improving how the home functions. The materials are a significant part of why those homes are worth renovating in the first place.

Material costs in historic renovation are highly variable. A straightforward restoration pass on original trim might run $3,000–$6,000 in labor and materials. Period-accurate hardware — bin pulls, cup pulls, porcelain knobs — is more available than most homeowners expect, and replica options run close to what you’d pay for high-end contemporary hardware. It’s not the budget line that should give anyone pause. Windows are their own category: a high-quality historic window restoration, weatherstripped and reglazed, runs $400–$800 per window. Replacement with period-appropriate units, when restoration isn’t viable, runs considerably more.

Structural Work

This is where budgets get rewritten. Not always, but often enough that I build contingency into every project specifically for what the framing reveals.

Denver’s older homes were built without the subfloor systems we take for granted today. Joists may be undersized by current code, or sized correctly but damaged by a century of moisture intrusion, pest activity, or the undersized additions tacked on in the 1950s. A structural engineer is not optional on a meaningful historic renovation. It’s one of the first calls I make.

Structural engineering fees vary considerably depending on the scope of the assessment and what the engineer finds. Every home is different enough that a single number isn’t useful here — what matters is building the fee into your budget from the start, before you know whether you’ll need a simple letter or a full set of engineered drawings.

Plumbing and Electrical Updates

The two systems that most reliably introduce budget variance are the two you can’t see until demolition begins.

In Denver’s historic homes, galvanized steel supply lines are common in anything built before 1960. Galvanized corrodes from the inside out — water pressure drops and water quality degrades over time, but the pipes can look intact from the outside while being severely restricted within. Opening walls for a kitchen renovation routinely reveals plumbing that needs to be replaced regardless of the original scope.

Electrical tells a similar story. Homes built before 1940 often have original knob-and-tube wiring. Homes updated in the 1950s and 60s frequently have aluminum branch circuit wiring, which requires specific handling. Neither automatically disqualifies the house — but both require a licensed electrician who understands what they’re looking at.

For a major renovation in an older Denver home, budget $8,000–$20,000 for electrical updates alone if you’re touching multiple rooms. Plumbing in a bathroom addition or kitchen relocation runs $6,000–$15,000 before you’ve chosen a single fixture.

Permit Requirements

Permit costs are usually not what surprises homeowners. Permit complexity is.

In Denver, permit fees are generally based on the scope and valuation of the project. A bathroom renovation that keeps everything in place will have very different permitting requirements than a kitchen expansion, addition, or structural modification.

Historic homes introduce another layer of review. Depending on the location of the property and the scope of work, projects may require additional review from Denver’s historic preservation staff before permits can be issued.

In my experience, the greater cost is often not the permit itself — it’s the time required to prepare drawings, coordinate consultants, respond to review comments, and move a project through the approval process. Current permit timelines in Denver run 4–16 weeks depending on scope. Delays have a cost, too.

When budgeting for a historic renovation, think about permitting as both a cost item and a schedule item.

Most kitchen and bathroom remodel permits are measured in hundreds of dollars rather than thousands. But permit fees are only one piece of the equation. Engineering, historic review, consultant coordination, and plan preparation can add substantially more to the overall project budget — and any of them can extend your timeline if they surface a condition that requires a redesign before review can proceed.

Design Fees

Every contractor website lists a cost range. Almost none of them account for what it actually costs to think through the project correctly before the first hammer swings.

A well-designed historic renovation costs less than a poorly designed one — not because design is cheap, but because decisions made on paper don’t cost $400 an hour in GC time to fix. I’ve walked into projects where the absence of design documentation meant that framing decisions made during demo couldn’t be undone without significant cost, because no one had resolved those questions before construction started.

Design fees for a historic renovation in Denver run between 10–18% of construction cost depending on scope and complexity. On a $200,000 renovation, that’s $20,000–$36,000. On a $75,000 bathroom addition, it’s closer to $8,000–$12,000. Those fees are doing real work: resolving conflicts before they hit the field, sourcing materials appropriate to the house, and keeping the project from drifting into something the house can’t absorb.

Not every older home project is considered historic preservation. Understanding the difference between historic preservation and historic renovation can help homeowners make better decisions about budget, materials, and project scope.

Contingency Planning

Hold 15–20% of your total budget in contingency and treat it as already spent. If you don’t need it, that’s a good month. If you do — and in historic renovation, you often will — you’ll have it.

The homeowners who struggle most are the ones who budgeted to the last dollar and then opened a wall. Not because they made poor decisions, but because they had no margin for what the house decided to show them. Contingency isn’t pessimism. It’s respect for what you don’t yet know.

The houses I work with were built to last 200 years. They deserve to be renovated by people who take them seriously — which means knowing what you’re walking into, and building a budget that can absorb what you find when you get there.

Typical Historic Renovation Ranges in Denver

• Historic bathroom renovation: $35,000–$120,000+
• Historic kitchen renovation: $70,000–$300,000+
• Whole-home historic renovation: $100,000–$400,000+

These numbers are planning ranges, not estimates. Two homes built in the same year can have dramatically different renovation costs depending on what is discovered during demolition.

At Studio Olio, much of our work focuses on Denver’s historic homes, where preserving character is just as important as improving function.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does historic home renovation cost in Denver? Most historic home renovation projects in Denver run between $100,000 and $400,000 depending on the age of the home, scope of work, and what surfaces during demolition. Smaller targeted renovations — a bathroom addition  or kitchen update within an existing footprint — typically fall between $60,000 and $150,000. Whole-home renovations, structural modifications, or projects within a designated historic district run higher. The most reliable budget is one that includes a 15–20% contingency from the start.

Why is historic home renovation cost in Denver so difficult to predict? Because the budget isn’t determined solely by what you’re planning to build — it’s also shaped by what the house reveals during demolition. Original systems, previous modifications, hidden structural conditions, and material matching requirements all influence cost in ways that can’t be fully known until walls are opened. That’s not a reason to avoid the project. It’s a reason to plan with appropriate contingency and work with someone who has seen it before.

Why does historic home renovation cost more than standard renovation in Denver? Old houses require specialists, not generalists. Original materials — plaster, old-growth lumber, divided-light windows — can’t be matched with stock products. Systems hidden inside walls often need full replacement once exposed. And in Denver’s historic districts, design review adds time and constrains material choices in ways that affect cost. The work takes longer, requires more decisions, and rewards experience that’s specific to pre-1960 construction.

Does Denver require special permits for historic home renovation? Yes. Homes within Denver’s designated historic districts — including Potter-Huffman, Curtis Park, and Wyman — require design review before permits are issued. That review governs exterior materials, window replacement, and additions visible from the street. Even outside historic districts, structural modifications to pre-1940 homes trigger additional plan review. Budget 4–8 weeks for permit processing on any project involving structural work or footprint changes.

How do I find a designer who specializes in historic home renovation in Denver? Look for someone with direct experience in pre-1960 homes — not just older homes in general, but the specific eras and styles common to Denver’s historic neighborhoods: Victorians, Foursquares, Craftsman bungalows, Colonials. Ask to see projects, ask about their relationship with the city’s historic preservation office, and ask what they do when demolition reveals something unexpected. The answer to that last question tells you most of what you need to know.

Studio Olio specializes in historic home renovation in Denver and remotely. If you’re planning a kitchen renovation and want to understand what’s possible — let’s talk.

The post How Much Does a Historic Home Renovation Cost in Denver? appeared first on Historic Home Renovation & Design | Denver | Studio Olio Interior Design.

The door closes behind you with a solid, familiar sound. You can feel how the house changes throughout the day without needing to see it happen. It’s easy to picture yourself here in ordinary moments. A cup set down on a counter. Shoes by the door. The rhythm of coming and going.

Choosing a historic renovation interior design firm requires more than reviewing portfolios and project photos. Older homes demand a different way of seeing — an understanding of proportion, craftsmanship, and the details that make a house feel right. The best historic renovations preserve that feeling rather than erase it.

A comfortable home is not necessarily larger, newer, or more expensive. It is a home designed with an understanding of human experience — how we move through a room, where we gather, where we retreat, and what allows us to feel at ease.

Most people assume comfort comes from soft furnishings, warm colors, or the amenities a house contains. Those things matter, but they are rarely the source of the feeling itself. More often, comfort begins with proportion, scale, light, and the relationship between one room and the next. We experience those things long before we consciously notice them.

The proportions of historic architecture — especially homes built with traditional scale and natural materials — mirror human scale in a way that registers before you’ve thought about it. Your nervous system settles before your mind catches up.

When the millwork is respected in an old house, you feel it before you can explain it. The rooms hold together. The proportions make sense. The baseboards meet the floor the way they were always supposed to, and nothing is trying to hide anything.

Hiring the right historic renovation interior design firm isn’t just about aesthetics. It’s about understanding architecture, construction, millwork, proportions, and the thousands of small decisions that determine whether a century-old house still feels authentic when the work is complete.

That feeling is the goal. Getting there is harder than it looks, and the people you hire either understand that or they don’t.

If you’re planning historic home renovation in Denver and your house was built before 1960, here’s what separates a firm that truly understands historic homes from one that only sees the project.

They Know Which Details Aren’t Negotiable

On a 1911 Folk Victorian, the general contractor’s solution for replacing damaged door casing was stock molding from Lowe’s. He presented it as a match. It wasn’t — not in profile, not in scale, not in the way it would have read against trim that had been on those walls for over a century.

I found a custom millwork shop that could replicate the profile exactly. It cost roughly three times the stock option. The GC pushed back. We did it anyway.

That conversation happens on many historic renovation projects. Someone will try to value-engineer a detail that isn’t optional — and in an old house, the details are rarely optional.

Most homeowners would never identify a casing profile as the reason a room feels right. They would simply feel that it does. Historic homes rely on thousands of small relationships between materials, proportions, and details. When enough of those relationships are lost, the comfort of the house begins to erode, even if nobody can explain exactly why.

A designer who knows this work understands which elements the house can’t afford to lose and knows how to hold the line without burning the project down.

Gentle but firm. Everyone is human. But some things aren’t up for discussion.

They Can Read What Went Wrong — And Why

There’s a warmth that isn’t about temperature. It’s the sense that life has happened here in a steady, ordinary way, and could again. Nothing about it is perfect, but it feels steady. Reliable. The house has outlasted things — absorbed a century and held.

When I walk into a house that’s been renovated before, my eyes go to the millwork first. Is it correct for the period? Does it have the right profile? The right scale? And then: what did the last person do when it didn’t fit?

The answer is usually quarter round — that 3/4″ rounded trim tucked where the baseboard meets the floor. A base shoe is normal. Most old houses need one. But quarter round is a different decision entirely. In a house built in 1905, it reads immediately as a patch. It announces that something didn’t meet, and that someone chose to cover the mistake rather than solve it.

What that detail tells me isn’t just about the floor. It tells me about every other decision that got made on that project — whether the people doing the work were paying attention, whether anyone in the room had the knowledge or the authority to say, that’s not accurate enough.

Some people can talk a good game. On one project, the copper work on a pergola had to be assessed and corrected — work that had been done by the GC’s own roofing crew. I brought in two other experienced roofers to evaluate it. Neither of them had touched the original installation. Both of them apologized when they saw it.

That’s how bad work announces itself — not always loudly, but always honestly, to anyone who knows what they’re looking at.

What a Historic Renovation Interior Design Firm Sees Before the Renovation Begins

In an 1889 Victorian I worked on, the foyer millwork set the tone for every room that followed. The staircase, the casing, and the way the landing met the hall established a rhythm that carried through the entire house. Most people wouldn’t consciously notice those details, but they would absolutely feel it if they disappeared.

Old houses have a rhythm — the way rooms relate to each other, how the millwork scales to the ceiling height, what the proportions of the windows tell you about the period, and how the house guides you from one space to the next.

Reading that before picking up a pencil is part of the job.

The question on an old house is never just, what do I want to do here?

It’s what should stay?

Renovation culture often assumes improvement means replacement. Historic houses rarely work that way. Some of the most important decisions happen when you decide not to change something — a doorway, a casing profile, a staircase detail, or the proportions of a room. The work is often less about imposing a vision and more about understanding what the house has been trying to tell you all along.

They Speak Construction, Not Just Design

Historic home renovation isn’t decorating. The decisions that shape the outcome often happen before anything is ordered or installed — in the framing stage, the rough plumbing stage, or the moment a wall comes open and reveals something you can act on.

I came to interior design through construction. That background means I can read drawings, have a real conversation with a general contractor about structural constraints, and catch problems at the stage when they’re still fixable.

It also means I know when someone is trying to talk their way out of doing something right — and I know the difference between a constraint that’s real and one that’s simply inconvenient.

In the 1911 Folk Victorian bathroom, I could see that what was drawn as a 8-by-8-foot room could be an 8-by-15-foot room. The structure was there. Knowing to look for that possibility — and knowing how to act on it — is the kind of thing that only comes from understanding both sides of the work.

The navy clawfoot tub centered beneath the window wouldn’t exist in a 8 by-8 room. The entire character of that space lives in that decision.

They Know When to Say So

The projects that go wrong almost always have one thing in common: nobody said the hard thing early enough. The budget wasn’t right for what the house needed. The timeline didn’t account for what the work would reveal. The scope was set before anyone had a real conversation about what the house was actually asking for.

A historic renovation interior design firm worth hiring delivers that conversation before the drawings are finished — not after the GC is already on site. It’s not a comfortable conversation every time. But it’s the one that determines whether the project ends with a house that’s been respected or one that’s been worked around.

And somewhere along the way, without deciding to, you stop evaluating. You’re not comparing it to another house or wondering whether a different floor plan would work better. You’re simply there, already beginning to imagine the ordinary moments of your life unfolding inside those rooms.

That’s the architecture of comfort.

It isn’t created by a single material, a particular style, or the size of the budget. It emerges from thousands of decisions about proportion, scale, craftsmanship, and restraint — decisions that most people will never consciously notice.

What they notice instead is the feeling.

The feeling that the room holds together. That the light belongs there. That the proportions make sense. That nothing is fighting for attention. That the house understands how to hold daily life.

Your nervous system settles before your mind catches up.

The best historic renovations preserve that feeling. They allow a house to remain itself while making room for the people who live there now.

The post Architecture of Comfort | Historic Renovation Interior Design Firm appeared first on Historic Home Renovation & Design | Denver | Studio Olio Interior Design.

Throughout my entire life, I have been able to feel cities, areas, places, homes, situations, energy, people’s emotions and tension. For much of my life it felt like a burden, something I couldn’t control and while I was told it was a gift it wasn’t until I was in my mid thirties, in absolute chronic pain, attempting to heal from a terrible car accident where three cars hit mine, that I started to understand that I did in fact have control on how to navigate these feelings and other sensory perceptions that I couldn’t seem to turn off.

I worked with a very good life coach who taught me to manage my energy, and how to turn off the ability to feel what others carried when I didn’t want to — and also, if I was affected, how to clear it so that I could continue to only be affected by my own. It sounds like it was a short journey, but nearly 12 years later, I am still refining my practice.

Here are three short vignettes of three properties I’ve lived in, and my first experiences of driving up to them and walking through them. I use my perceptions with all the homes I work with.

Exhale.

I had gotten the lockbox code from the owner who was selling his two story Folk Victorian. I opened the door and the smell of dust, old wood and plaster filled my nose. There were old sheets on all of the windows, a baby carriage along with old cabinets, a beat up leather sofa and a dresser that had clearly seen better days assaulted my eyes. I think for most people it would probably read as the home where everyone gets murdered, but to my body, there was a sense of groundedness and steadiness.

Once I had adjusted to the darkness, I could see the millwork around the many doorways and very tall windows. The ceiling was 10′ tall, the floors were wooden, but some covered in glue. I walked through all the rooms, looked at the tiny porch off of the primary bedroom and was overjoyed at the originality of the porch rails. There were 6 fireplaces in the home, and what looked like an original well in the basement. My body felt at home in this house and I knew after walking through it several times that I was going to buy it and make it a home. Richmond, Virginia, 1911 Folk Victorian on 1 acre. I never wanted to leave this home. But I needed to be able to breathe again.

Exhale.

I turned my blinker on and turned left down a small two lane gravel road. Dust plumed off the back of my car as I drove down the winding road surrounded by tall trees. A stream ran alongside the road. I passed a few homes, nestled into the forest, saw the mailbox marked with the numbers I was looking for and then slowly drove down the mile long driveway, winding through the trees.

I pulled up to the two story 1875 cabin on 15 acres in rural Virginia.

I got out of my car, walked to the other side of the cabin and it took my breath away. A small lake was in the background, with a canoe tucked up on the shore, and the rolling grassland surrounded the cabin while the trees surrounded the open space. I couldn’t see a single other house. It had a screened in porch to watch the wildlife. A chicken coop was already constructed.

There was a large mound to the left, filled with wildflowers and butterflies. Never had I wanted to live somewhere so much. I was only meaning to stay 4 months but a year and a half later, I was awfully sad to leave, and excited about my cross country move.

Inhale.

I pulled up to the tiny ex-miner’s cabin through an icy alley in Golden, CO. I turned the key and walked through the tiny space. The only two doors were the front and the bathroom. The window in the living room looked out onto the homes next door, but for some reason the sofa had been turned away from it, so you couldn’t look outside while sitting. The kitchen had another window that looked out onto someone’s yard. It was quite the change from my last place, which had a lot of windows, and while close to the neighbours, it hadn’t felt claustrophobic the way this one did.

I spent my month there working — not from the cabin, but anywhere with windows that didn’t feel claustrophobic. The owner offered for me to stay longer, but I absolutely couldn’t live more than a month in this tiny place. Not because it was small — because it didn’t have a right feeling, where I could breathe and exhale.

Every time I walk into someone’s home — it could be yours — I listen with my body to what the house is saying. Not the square footage. Not the condition of the mechanicals. My body either exhales, or it inhales. And what we do with that information depends on who the end user is.

Studio Olio specializes in historic home renovation in Denver and remotely. If you’re planning a kitchen renovation and want to understand what’s possible — let’s talk.

The post Exhale. How I Read a House Before I Touch It. appeared first on Historic Home Renovation & Design | Denver | Studio Olio Interior Design.

Here’s how to tell them apart.

Historic Preservation

Preservation is the most protective stance you can take with a historic property. The goal is to maintain what exists — original materials, original finishes, original form — with as little intervention as possible. Repair rather than replace. Stabilize rather than improve.

In practice, preservation is often legally defined. If your home sits within a historic district or carries a landmark designation, certain changes require approval, and some are off the table entirely. Denver has several locally designated historic districts — Potter-Lawson, Curtis Park, and Country Club among them — where exterior alterations go through a review process before a permit is issued.

Even without a legal designation, preservation is the right framework when a property has significant architectural or cultural integrity that would be diminished by change. The question isn’t can we update this — it’s should we.

Historic Restoration

Restoration takes a specific moment in time as its target. The goal is to return a property to how it looked and functioned during its most historically significant period — which often means removing things that later owners added and aren’t original to the house.

That drop ceiling in the dining room. The aluminum siding someone installed in the 1970s. The replacement windows that don’t match the profile of the originals. Restoration work pulls those layers back and works from what’s underneath.

This is exacting work. It requires research — historic photographs, Sanborn fire maps, paint analysis, original permit records — to establish what “original” actually looked like. It’s also the approach most likely to involve period-appropriate materials and craft techniques that aren’t easy to source.

Restoration makes the most sense when a home’s historic integrity is largely intact and the goal is to recover what’s there, not reimagine it.

Historic Renovation

This is where most of Studio Olio’s work lives.

Historic renovation keeps the character of an old house — its proportions, its architectural logic, its materials — while updating it to function well for the people who live in it now. New systems. Code-compliant electrical. A kitchen that works. A bathroom that doesn’t require a history degree to operate.

The discipline is in knowing what to touch and what to leave alone. Original millwork, old-growth fir floors, plaster walls with good bones, built-ins that have survived a hundred years of use — those stay. A non-original partition wall, a bathroom addition from the 1960s with no relationship to the rest of the house, a layout that makes the home genuinely hard to live in — those are candidates for change.

Studio Olio is currently working in Curtis Park — one of Denver’s oldest intact neighborhoods — where nearly every block has a home worth getting right.

Historic renovation is not about making an old house look old. It’s about making an old house work — without erasing the reason it was worth keeping.

Rehab (Without the Historic Consideration)

Rehab, in the conventional sense, means bringing a property up to livable or marketable condition. There’s nothing wrong with that goal. But when it’s applied to historic homes without any regard for what made them worth saving, the results tend to be the same everywhere: original details stripped out, surfaces covered in materials that have no relationship to the house’s era or character, front porches enclosed to add square footage.

The house still stands. But the thing that made it irreplaceable is gone.

Denver loses historic fabric this way more often than it should. It’s usually not malicious — it’s a cost calculation made without full information about what was there or what it was worth.

Which Approach Is Right for Your Home?

The answer depends on your home’s condition, its designation status, your goals for the space, and — honestly — how much of its original character is still intact. Most historic homes in Denver that haven’t been landmarked sit somewhere in the renovation category: enough original fabric to be worth protecting, enough that needs updating to require real decisions.

Understanding the difference between historic preservation and historic renovation is often the first step. The next question is usually: what is this actually going to cost?

If you’re wondering what a historic renovation actually costs in Denver — and why those costs can vary so dramatically from one home to the next — I’ve written a detailed guide that walks through the factors that influence renovation budgets, from structural discoveries and historic materials to permitting and contingency planning.

→ Read: How Much Does a Historic Home Renovation Cost in Denver?

That’s exactly the kind of project Studio Olio was built for. If your home was built before 1960 and you’re trying to figure out what to keep and what to change, that’s where we start.

→ Learn more about how Studio Olio approaches historic home renovation in Denver

Watch

Want to go deeper? Lora covered this topic on the Meaningful Design podcast — watch the episode below.

The post Preservation, Restoration, Renovation, Rehab: What’s the Difference (and Why It Matters for Your Historic Home) appeared first on Historic Home Renovation & Design | Denver | Studio Olio Interior Design.

As a designer who loves historic properties, it’s so lovely to see the beautiful and original heart pine floors, original millwork, and the care put towards keeping the historic charm of this place. It makes my heart flutter. Also, I can immediately pinpoint a few things I would do differently that would make cleaning easier and faster, as well as some details that would enhance the guest experience.

Why Work with an Interior Designer for My Vacation Rental?

If you have an STR (Short Term Rental), you likely have experienced a booking slowdown over the past six months. Partly due to inflation with fewer people traveling and partly due to market saturation in various locals.

When I travel, I look for locations that give me the most benefits for a particular area. I often travel with my dog, O-Ren, so I look for places that satisfy all my requirements while being dog friendly.

 I deeply care about the home’s character and how it will feel when staying there.

If you are a property owner who is interested in maximizing the potential of your vacation rental property, consider working with a professional designer. We provide invaluable input when creating a unique and attractive space for guests to enjoy. By partnering with us at Dahlias & Granite Interior Design, you can ensure that your property stands out and offers guests an unforgettable experience.

The Benefits of Working With An Interior Designer

The most significant benefit of working with us is our expertise in creating functional and aesthetically pleasing spaces. We consider ourselves your profit partner as we develop creative solutions to maximize your vacation rental property’s potential and ROI (Return On Investment).

We use our experience and understanding of hospitality interior design to suggest creative solutions and strategies that will allow your property to stand out from the competition.

Our designers possess knowledge of specific materials, such as fabrics and furniture that are easy to clean and will stand up to the use of an AirBnb or VRBO rental.

By partnering with us, you access our materials and resources, allowing you to make educated decisions when purchasing materials and furniture for your rental property.

We create custom design plans that suit the needs of your particular vacation rental to ensure that your property looks its best and that the design elements are complementary— with precision and attention to detail.

Great design adds value to a rental property. An attractive and well-designed property will attract more rental income and make your rental property stand out among the competition. Investing in a professional designer can result in real financial gains for you, the owner, and enhance the quality of your guests’ experience.

Dahlias & Granite Interior Design Services

Working with us at Dahlias & Granite is invaluable in creating a beautiful rental property. We bring aesthetic appeal and functionality to your rental property and create a unique and inviting space for guests to enjoy.

The financial gains from increased rental income can easily outweigh the cost of working with us. We love being your profit partner with our vacation rental design clients.

If you are interested in maximizing the potential of your vacation rental property, including AirBnB rentals and VRBO rentals and gaining increased bookings at a higher nightly rate, contact us for a complimentary discovery call.

What are the most important features to you in a vacation rental? Let us know in the comments below!

The post Why Hire an Interior Designer For Your Vacation Rental appeared first on Historic Home Renovation & Design | Denver | Studio Olio Interior Design.

** I’m a little more technical in this post, if the science is not your thing, skip on over the sections where I detail chemical names!

When I speak about a healthy house, I typically mean the indoor air quality. If you live in an old house, like I do, then you’ll have a lot more air moving through the walls, windows and doors, but there is a larger possibility of materials used in the home that wouldn’t be allowed today. Lead paint and asbestos are the largest two concerns in an old home.

If you live in a newer home and it was built to seal the air in, you hopefully also have an air exchanger installed to cycle the old air out and new air in to your home.

Either way, there are plenty of ways that you can influence and change your indoor air quality.

Why is it important?

“The air in your house can be five times more polluted than the air outside” – Consumer Reports ^[1]

And it’s not just our respiratory health we need to be concerned about.

The range of indoor air pollutants includes VOCs, phthalates, PBDEs, mold, pollen, pet dander, radon, and more. Most of these qualify as fine or ultra-fine particulate matter that are easily inhaled and can pass into the bloodstream, and even cross the blood-brain barrier. Dry eyes, headaches, nasal congestion, fatigue, and even nausea are common symptoms. Serious problems such as asthma, lung infections, or even lung cancer have been linked to exposure. Particles which enter the bloodstream have been associated with stroke and depression in adults, and children have shown increased systemic inflammation, immune dysfunction, and neural distress. ^[2]

The good news is that most of our indoor air quality can be controlled by us. Here are my top 4 recommendations for ensuring you have a healthy home.

1.  Cleaning & Laundry Products

A recent study has confirmed that using conventional cleaning products are as bad or worse than smoking a pack of cigarettes a day! The study looked at women who regularly used conventional products over the long term. ^[3] 

Scientists recommended that these products be avoided and to use a microfibre cloth and water instead!! 

I’ve found that not all microfibre cloths are equal. My favourite cloth is made by a company called Norwex and the cloth is considered an Ultra Micro Fibre (UMF) Cloth.

According to studies completed to see how effectively the UMF cloths removed bacteria in a hospital setting, they found that the “UMF cloths demonstrated ability to remove single application of bacteria without serum from surface to almost completely zero growths compared to the conventional cloths.” ^[4] In layman’s terms: they “showed that ultramicrofibre cloths consistently outperformed conventional cloths in their decontamination ability”

I wholeheartedly believe this is the best cloth out there for cleaning and I’m not making money on this recommendation. They also make a glass cloth that effortlessly shines mirrors, faucets, stainless steel. First, wipe surface with a damp microfibre cloth and then wipe it with the mirror cloth. Simply amazing, and no more glass cleaner fumes!

My friend Tuyen sells these products and you can check them out here.

I still do use cleansers for some tasks, but I always use eco-friendly cleansers without the myriad of chemicals added.

The main ingredients you want to avoid in your cleaners are: triclosan, quaternary ammonium compounds, or “quats”, phthalates, synthetic musks (scents), hydrochloric acid, phosphoric acid, potassium hydroxide, ethanolamines, ammonia and chlorine bleach! Yikes right?

If you look at the ingredients of your conventional cleaners you probably won’t see any of these listed. This is because there aren’t any regulations on the disclosure of chemicals in your cleaning products. “Even when they do list the ingredients, manufacturers often use generic terms like “surfactant,” “colorant,” “preservative” or “fragrance.” These vague terms can mask dozens of compounds, some of which have been linked to serious health impacts.” ^[5] 

The Environmental Working Group is a huge resource for healthy living. They have health guides for a ton of products (food, beauty, cleaning, home health). Here you can enter your current cleaning product and see the health grade it’s been given and why.

This tip is the easiest to incorporate into your life and will make a huge difference in your indoor air quality!

2. Paints and Floor Finishes.

Before I moved to the US, I painted every room in every home I lived in. That was a lot of painting, a ton of colours and a few poor choices! One of which was the paint I was using.

A lot of house paints still incorporate nonylphenol ethoxylates, formaldehyde-releasing preservatives, biocides, ethylene glycol, phthalates, “antifungal” or “antimicrobial” additives, crystalline silica and toxic metals, such as cadmium and chromium. Say, what? In plain language, paint has a ton of chemical additives!

Before you buy paint, look for low or no VOC paints and ideally choose a brand that has been third party certified like Sherwin Williams with their line of Greenguard Gold Certified Paints or Benjamin Moore’s line of Greenseal-11 Certified Paint.  When you work with me I’ll specify the best paint type to use in each area of your home and I always choose a low or no VOC paint! (Bonus, cause then you don’t have to learn about the kinds of paint out there!)

We were living in our home when we refinished the floors. Since I know I become nauseous and ill around intense chemicals and fumes, I chose to use a highly rated waterbased topcoat made by Bona on most of our floors. It is Greenguard Certified for indoor air quality. Because I have dogs who have injured themselves by slipping and sliding on hardwood floors, I used the non-skid formula and I’ve been pretty happy with the results. Though I still need to use rugs on their landing areas where they zoom up or down the stairs!

In some of our other rooms and on our live edge floating shelves I used a topcoat by Vermont Natural Coatings, which is also Greenguard Gold Certified. Fun Fact: it’s made with whey and smells a little like buttermilk. It also dries super tough.

If you are having your floors re-done, ask if the products they are using are Greenguard Certified. If you are doing it yourself, the Vermont Natural Coatings was easier to apply than the Bona product.

3. Furniture & Cabinetry

Being aware of where our furniture and cabinets come from is a huge step in considering your indoor air quality. These items contain VOC’s (Volatile Organic Compounds) and formaldehyde that can release into the air for up to several years. You’ll especially find higher chemical content in particleboard and in the glue in plywood. ^[6] 

With upholstered furniture, chemicals are often sprayed on to the fabrics and the polyurethane foam (found in cushions) is especially toxic.

What to look for in products you choose for your home:

Choose durable products, so you don’t have to replace them. Options include:

1. Buy good quality furniture that is made in North America
2. Find cabinets and furniture that uses waterbourne with low or no VOC finishes
3. Ensure your cabinets are made from wood and not particleboard
4. Choose good quality used furniture and have them re-upholstered using foam with no fire retardant chemicals added

Where to find healthy furniture:

If aren’t working with an interior designer who can source healthy furniture and are purchasing retail, check out the Wood Furniture Scorecard. Top scorers include Crate & Barrel, Williams Sonoma and Ikea, among others, though this doesn’t address the level of quality of these products.

Where to find healthy cabinetry:

The Kitchen Cabinet Manufacturers Association has a great search tool. They only guarantee that their products will be low formaldehyde, so another option would be finding a local cabinet maker and ask if they will use formaldehyde-free products along with non-toxic glues and finishes.

4. Plants

“One famous NASA experiment, published in 1989, found that indoor plants can scrub the air of cancer-causing volatile organic compounds like formaldehyde and benzene. (Those NASA researchers were looking for ways to effectively detoxify the air of space station environments.) Later research has found that soil microorganisms in potted plants also play a part in cleaning indoor air.” – Time ^[7] 

That said, plants are on the bottom of this list because, while plants do clean our air, there haven’t been any studies on how many plants are needed per square foot to fully clean our air.

I advocate for the inclusion of plants in our homes because studies have shown that plants are beneficial for our mental wellbeing by calming our nervous centre and improving our mood. 

I often hear from people that they have a hard time keeping plants alive, so here is a list of some of the easiest care plants.

Golden Pothos – This plant thrives in a low light environment. Meaning; there is a window in the room and it’s not totally dark!

Aloe Vera – Easy care plant, but needs a sunny windowsill!

Snake Plant – Tolerates low light, but prefers moderate light. Meaning it should do fine anywhere you put it, as long as it’s not totally dark. It will grow faster with more light.

Peace Lily – Tolerates a wide variety of light. They will not re-bloom unless it lives in a high light area (so a sunny windowsill or bright light near a window). It will live but not bloom in a low light environment.

With each of these plants you should water them till the soil is damp, not soggy and then water again when the soil feels dry, but before it gets bone dry. Generally this is once every 7-10 days.

In conclusion

If you are still reading (thank you), this was a little more science heavy than most of my posts! I’m so passionate about helping people create healthy homes and I could probably type another 10 pages on things to look for! (But I won’t, for your sanity!)

Start small and each step you take towards a healthy home will increase the quality of your indoor air.

Tell me below (or here on FB):

Did any of the above surprise you? What will you change about your home?

As a Denver interior designer I am passionate about helping you create your own healthy home. Contact me here and I can’t wait to work with you!

The post How To Create A Healthy House appeared first on Historic Home Renovation & Design | Denver | Studio Olio Interior Design.

Historic home renovation in Denver · Design process

“Having the carpenter working on our porch tell me that it wasn’t possible to do something with his new tools and technology that my great grandparents were able to do in 1893! Oh and then the same guy telling me it was normal for the pre-cut stringers (he was supposed to custom cut them) to miss meeting the sidewalk by 4 inches. Seriously! I’ve got a million of them!!” – Jeanne McNeil

“Not paying attention to the details that I asked them to pay attention to up front, when they were writing the quote. This seems to happen to me every time. Even when I don’t pick the lowest bid. –Nikki Lussier

“Contracts talking exclusively to my husband and/or being condescending because they think I don’t know what I’m talking about. Every damn time!” – Nancy Belvin – Trim Carpenter

“So many of these subcontractors don’t listen and think they always know best. They need to be held accountable and to fix what they wouldn’t have had to fix if they had paid attention to us women and did it right in the first place.” – Susan Cary

The post When a Contractor Says It Can’t Be Done: How to Hold Them Accountable on a Historic Home Renovation appeared first on Historic Home Renovation & Design | Denver | Studio Olio Interior Design.

To preface, most of my clients are Gen X (as am I), and when I asked one person who was having issues with Alexa, she stated that she would prefer not to talk to the lights.

That comment got me thinking; unless I am driving, I hate audibly speaking to Siri on my phone and in my own home I prefer timers or smart tech I can control from my phone. My assistant who is on the older side of Millennial, says she can’t wait to get an Alexa for her home because with two small kids she often has her hands full!

While I don’t know if this preference is generational or personal preference, here is a quick guide to a few of my favourite smart home items that don’t require you to speak to them!

Any product by Nest!

My favourite is the outdoor camera, because it has this fabulous app that I’ve installed on my phone that notifies me when it senses motion. I am able to check the video feed and see who is there! As a huge bonus, I can speak through the cameras and listen to a response which is really helpful if I’m home alone and not going to open the door! They also have a wireless doorbell that acts in a similar manner.

The other product that I love is their smoke and carbon monoxide detector. Have you ever been cooking and burnt something to a crisp, and then couldn’t get your smoke detector to stay off? With the nest detector, you can turn off the sound from an app on your phone, saving your ears, your dogs ears and your sanity!

I’ve always wanted their thermostat too; because you can set the temperature from your phone while you aren’t there. When we lived in Texas, we would come back from a weekend away in 105F weather and have to wait close to four hours for the AC in our rental to be close to cool! If we had a nest installed we could have set the AC to start 4 hours before we were expected to arrive.

In our Richmond, Virginia home, we put a ductless mini split system that has 8 individually controlled zones, and is truly the best heating and cooling system I’ve experienced. I wouldn’t classify ours as true smart tech as I can’t control them with my phone, but I can set timers, and each one has a remote. If we ever find ourselves in another home with only one or two heating zones, I wouldn’t hesitate to install the nest thermostats.

Sound

I have the very best speakers in the world — ok they probably aren’t but I’ve had several audiophile friends offer to buy them from me because they don’t make home speakers like they used to. They are in a wooden box surround, made in Britain and are quite heavy and large. I moved them to every home I’ve lived since I was 15! When I’m home alone I put the dogs in the other room and turn them up!! Nothing beats a dance party to alleviate stress. Through our reno, I missed the speakers more than a kitchen stove (we had a camp stove) but not more than the sink!

Right, so this post is about smart tech, not ancient technology, ha!

For the past many years I had a super long cable that would plug into my iphone audio jack and this enabled me to play music through my (also ancient) receiver. Last year my husband got me this great little device that allows me to Chrome Cast my music to my ancient technology without cords, cables or fuss! And now that phones don’t have headphone jacks this gadget is even more needed!

Check it out here, it’s super inexpensive too!

Water Leak Prevention

In our old home, we have a small 10×10, under grade (below ground) basement. At the moment our home doesn’t have any perimeter drainage, so when we get rain, the water seeps into our basement through the walls, drains into an small open concrete pit where the sump pump sends it back out and away from our house.

Even though our sump pump is fairly new, on the rare occasion it gets too much sediment in it and it shuts off, allowing water to accumulate in the basement.  As we know this is a wet area, all items in the basement are elevated to minimize any potential water damage, but if we were away and this were to happen, we could possibly have damage to our two deep freezers. I found this alarm, that will alert us via an app, so that we could call a neighbour to check on the sump in case of this issue.

Even if you don’t have a sump, I would also find this useful for under the washing machine, or hot water tank to alert me to potential issues before floors and ceilings get damaged too much!

Check it out, here. It runs on batteries, so even in a power outage, you still should be notified, and it’s extremely well priced.

Tell me below: Do you like speaking to your smart home, or do you prefer to control them from your phone?

The post Smart homes: Tech You Don’t Need To Speak To appeared first on Historic Home Renovation & Design | Denver | Studio Olio Interior Design.

Today let’s dive into colour, pattern and texture! And, I’d love it if you would do an experiment with me:

Colour

Step 1: Choose one room or a corner that you would like to change in your home. It can be indoor or outdoor.

Step 2: Decide if you would like to bring in a calming feeling if you would like to increase your energy in this particular space.

Step 3: Choose 5 images that represent this feeling to you. You could look on Pinterest, Instagram or Flickr. Just type the feeling into the search bar and see what shows up.

Now the real fun begins:

Step 4: Go to Adobe Color on your desktop, or install the app on your phone. If you use both they will sync together.

Step 5: Upload the five images you have chosen, via the camera icon and save. You’ll need to do each one individually. When you click on My Themes at the top and this will pull out various similar colours and you will see what colours you are being drawn to from the images.

I went to Flickr and typed in calm and chose five sunset images. I can’t share the images I chose due to copyright, but above are the colours it pulled out for me. Right now, it looks like I need to add a dusty rose to my home palette!

Pretty great, right? Were you surprised by any colour that this pulled out of the images for you?

We can do something similar for texture and pattern, but you will be using your kinesthetic senses instead of visual.

Let’s dive into texture.

Texture is a very personal experience. You may love the feeling of wool on your feet, or it might drive you crazy! Yes, I’m one of the ones that loves wool! As an aside, wool rugs are one of the most long lasting and healthy fibres you can bring into your home.

Walk around your home and look at the fabrics and materials you have. Are the textures fine, medium or chunky? Do you have a mix, or are they all similar?

When you are out shopping do you linger over dishes that ripple a certain way? Do you touch them as you go by to see how they feel in your hand? Do you run your hands over the fabric of clothes hanging on the racks, or touch the bedding to see how it feels?

I can’t help it, I do this all of the time. In fact I won’t buy something unless it feels good to touch.  When I travel, I have a soft grey blanket that folds up pretty small and I use it as an anchor to help me feel at home in my new surroundings. I also adore angora and cashmere, but I’m super allergic so I can’t have any of these!

This part may not be something that you feel drawn to do, but having a variety of textures in your home helps you by bringing a touch of comfort and familiarity along with visually adding “resonance”.

And on to Pattern!

As an artist I find that I paint patterns that have been holding my interest. I also notice patterns I am attracted to find many ways into my life, most often unexpected!

Take a look at this series of photos:

This painting is called “Pathways” and was created specifically for a couple. It is so similar in shape to this photo of shadows on rose petals that I took years before — this wasn’t planned, I found this photo again after painting the painting above.

I find that I am often attracted to organic whirls and movement. But these days, I am finding joy in linear shapes that are not perfectly straight, but have a little wiggle on the edges.

I’ve found that patterns are both subtle and bold in the ways they present themselves in our lives. Patterns you may not be aware of are happening all around you in your everyday life. I have a friend that photographs the heart shapes she finds all around. She finds them in puddles, rocks, as marks on pavement and many other places we wouldn’t expect.

Pattern finding: Start noticing the similarities during your regular activities. Do you stop and notice a pattern on the wall at your local library, kids school or yoga studio? Is it different or similar to patterns you already have in your home?

With all three of these items, taking the time to intentionally notice what you are drawn to and finding ways to bring these elements into your home will pay dividends into how you feel while you are in your space.

I’d love to hear from you: what part of this surprised you? Will you explore further?

I’d love to help you find the colours, patterns and textures that you love and incorporate them into your home. I work with women and their partners in the RVA (Richmond, VA) area in person and if you aren’t local I can help you put a plan together that you can implement. Contact me here!

The post How to Feel At Home In Your Home – Part 2 appeared first on Historic Home Renovation & Design | Denver | Studio Olio Interior Design.

I won’t go into the details but our renovation has stretched on far longer than originally anticipated. Let me tell you, living in a perpetual state of disarray and flux takes its toll!

During the renovation and over the previous four years that included 6 moves across the country I’ve discovered that I need to have a sacred sanctuary to feel grounded and do my best work.

Have you noticed that when you go through seasons of change you also crave a feeling being at peace?

Whether you are surrounded by some uncertainty or if you would love to be able to add some more “you” into your home, here is part 1 of how to feel at home in your home.

1. Decide how you want to feel in each area of your home.

So much of our time is spent around “doing” and this proliferates into our homes as well.

For example say you want a desk and work area in your home. So you buy a new desk and set it up in an out-of-the-way corner or room so you aren’t distracted by work on your off hours or leisure time.

A few weeks go by and you are finding that you aren’t as productive as you would like. You tweak a few productivity systems, but there is something that isn’t quite right.

I’m here to let you know that when you start with how you want to feel while you work, this will impact not only your desk placement, but your productivity too.

When you purposefully create areas in your home and work spaces, you enhance your health, mental acuity and emotional states of being.

In our homes we typically need areas that are calming, as well as areas that are energizing. I want my kitchen to be filled with joy, beauty and passion for eating and connecting, but my office needs to be filled with light, so that I feel energized and I have a connection to the outside world.

I encourage you to choose one room or area of your home and ask yourself, “What do I need most, right now?  Am I craving a space to create calm or raise my energy?”

All over the web you’ll find articles telling us that in order to refresh a room all we need to do is pick a few plants, grab some new decorative cushions and throw a new piece of art on the wall — ta da, a refreshed space.

We humans are way more complex than that. Our memories and experiences drive our feelings long after the events have taken place.

2.  Memory, the forgotten sense.

There have been many scientific studies on how color effects us psychologically.

Let’s consider the popular restaurant chain, McDonald’s.

“Looking at the positive psychology qualities of red & yellow in relation to the fast food industry, red triggers stimulation, appetite, hunger, it attracts attention.  Yellow triggers the feelings of happiness and friendliness.

When you combine red and yellow it’s about speed, quickness.  In, eat and out again.” – Karen Haller

Regardless of the studies, color remains subjective. Meaning if you’ve had a negative or traumatic experience with the color yellow, no matter what, yellow will not feel happy and friendly.

After many years of teaching women how to create art to facilitate healing, I can tell you without a doubt the colors we are personally drawn to or dislike are no accident.

Color, like memories are so individual. Listen to your gut response when choosing color for your space. (Along with these tips here.)

3. Lighting, Light Quality and Light Color Temperature.

Imagine these two scenarios.

Surrounded by a cozy blanket you pick up your book, feeling comforted by the soft warm glow from the lamp beside you.

Refreshed, you open your eyes, happy to see the cool morning light streaming through your bedroom window.

Two very different scenarios, that likely happened in the same room, separated by 7-9 hours.

The lighting and light quality in your room directly affects how you feel.

Think about the last time you were in a big box store with tons of florescent lights overhead. These stores are not designed to make you feel at home and the lights are often on the cool spectrum.

In contrast, do you remember the last time you were in a favorite independent bookstore? Yes, the space is smaller, but often the color temperature of these lights are warmer, mimicking the color of candles or fire.

If you’ve ever found yourself staring at the huge rows of light bulb choices in Home Depot, wondering what the heck the difference is, I’ve been there too!

Succinctly the color of the lights are measured by the Kelvin scale. You’ll find this information on the box.

Warm Lighting (2700k – 3000K) = warm, inviting and cozy. This lighting is most similar to incandescent lights that we had before CFL’s and LED lights.

Neutral Lighting (3500K) = neutral, efficient, balanced. Lots of brands still call this soft white.

Daylight Lighting (4100K – 6500K) = cool, white, can be overly intense. Florescent lights fall under this category.

My personal preference is 3500K or below, as I find the light spectrum of daylight lighting to be too greenish and intense.

If you want to learn more,  check out this helpful video.

Decide what color temperature relates to how you want to feel in your space. If you are not sure, buy a couple different color temperature bulbs and see if it changes how you feel.

If you would like to have the option of changing the colour temparature without changing the bulb, consider these smart bulbs by Philips.

If you want to be able to have a range of lighting options without getting a ton of lights, consider putting them on a dimmer switch so you can easily increase or decrease the light intensity.

There are more ways to consider how many lights you’ll need, but this is a good overview on getting starting choosing lights that help you create your desired feeling or mood.

This concludes part 1 of 2. I’d love to hear from you: Do you feel at home in your home?

I help homeowners choose colours and lighting for the inside and outside of their homes, along with developing colour palettes and finish packages for commercial clients, realtors and builders.

I offer e-design services for those of you not local and in-person consultations and design if you are in the RVA (Richmond, Virginia) area.

Would you like some assistance honing in or refining how to create a space that helps you feel your best?

Email me,  I’d love to work with you.

The post How to Feel at Home in Your Home – Part 1 appeared first on Historic Home Renovation & Design | Denver | Studio Olio Interior Design.