Architectural photographer David Lauer's handsome midcentury home in the Lynwood neighborhood is photo-ready after a stick-to-the-footprint restoration.
Original mahogany and redbrick accent walls create the perfect backdrop for homeowner David Lauer’s collection of vintage and period-inspired furniture and accessories, including a John Keal for Brown-Saltman laminate checkerboard coffee table, white Modernica Split Rail chair, and George Nelson Sunflower clock. The warm-toned Cosmos silk rug is from Artisan Rug Gallery. Photo by David Lauer, styling by Julia Völkel Emerson
The Local newsletter is your free, daily guide to life in Colorado. For locals, by locals. Sign up today!
Full disclosure: The editors at 5280 Home know David Lauer—the owner of this 2,000-square-foot midcentury A-frame in Denver’s Lynwood neighborhood—really well. One of the magazine’s go-to photographers, he began shooting homes for the publication not long after it launched in 2012—when he’d just moved to Denver to pursue architectural photography full-time after a successful career in visual and special effects in the Hollywood film industry. (Among the highlights on Lauer’s impressive CV is his role as the co-visual effects supervisor on the Academy Award–winning Life of Pi. That lifelike tiger on the boat? Yeah, that was Lauer’s doing.)
While living in Los Angeles, Lauer became a midcentury design enthusiast long before it was fashionable. He’d spend his free weekends touring homes by modernists such as Joseph Eichler, Josef Van der Kar, and Richard Neutra, and while the rest of us were stocking up on shabby-chic sofas in the 1990s, he was quietly collecting vintage Danish-modern case pieces and Saarinen and Eames armchairs. “I caught on to it early,” he says. “I’m an artist. I embraced the art and design culture of the city.” So much so that, on two separate occasions, he almost pulled the trigger on one of those million-dollar midcentury ranches in the Hollywood Hills and Silver Lake neighborhoods. But when he found an almost-untouched A-frame in Lynwood—a then-undiscovered pocket of midcentury homes in Denver, built in the late 1950s by developer H.B. Wolff—for a third of the price of one of those California ranches, all signs pointed to Colorado.
The move was encouraged by the fact that Lauer had just found his calling in photography. It had always been a hobby of his, but after a visit to the Palm Springs Photo Festival—where he took a workshop from celebrated modern-architecture photographer Tim Griffith, and found in him a proper mentor—Lauer made the leap. “I didn’t know squat about the business of architectural photography,” he says. “[Tim] gave me encouragement, saw my potential and that I had a good eye. I even assisted him on a shoot and he taught me the ins and outs of how to run the business.”
A custom-built steel planter and blue-painted door greet visitors to the striking midcentury home. With the exception of fresh paint on the walls and fascia, most of the home’s exterior remains true to its original construction. Photo by David Lauer, styling by Julia Völkel Emerson
The home’s striking A-frame construction is on full display in the dining room. Lauer stands at the kitchen sink behind a counter-height bar accented by vintage Norman Cherner barstools. In the adjacent dining area, a collection of Eames fiberglass shell chairs surrounds a West Elm dining table. The graphic Arguto rug is by Hanne Kortegaard for Linie Design from Design Within Reach, and the Saucer Crisscross Bubble pendant is by George Nelson. Photo by David Lauer, styling by Julia Völkel Emerson
The patio overhang’s original beamwork hints at a bygone era, while mature locust, pine, and crabapple trees help give landscape designer Troy Shimp’s reimagining of the backyard a been-this-way-forever
vibe. Lauer’s dogs, Tashi and Baxter, get ready to frolic on the fresh sod. Photo by David Lauer, styling by Julia Völkel Emerson
The updated galley-style kitchen features IKEA cabinets in a high-gloss gray finish with white pulls, and Samsung appliances in black stainless steel. An accent wall behind the range is painted a vibrant blue (Behr’s Summer Regatta), and lime-green upholstered vintage Saarinen Executive armchairs flank a Room & Board dining table. A Case Study Lighting Pearl Ellipse pendant from Modernica illuminates the space.Photo by David Lauer, styling by Julia Völkel Emerson
An original photo print by Lauer—mounted under matte acrylic glass—inspired the soothing blue palette in the master bedroom. Blu Dot’s Nook bed (in Thurmond Charcoal) and Clad nightstand (in walnut) ground the space, while light and airy West Elm bedding adds a bit of softness. The table lamp is by Arne Jacobsen, and the indigo Amira rug is from Room & Board. Photo by David Lauer, styling by Julia Völkel Emerson
In the handsome master bathroom, a custom floating vanity and medicine cabinet, designed by architect Caroline Wilding and built by Evan Gist for Artkraft, take center stage. White porcelain mosaic penny tiles on the walls and tub and black slate squares on the floors (both from Floor & Decor)
create a classic color contrast. Photo by David Lauer, styling by Julia Völkel Emerson
A custom-built steel planter and blue-painted door greet visitors to the striking midcentury home. With the exception of fresh paint on the walls and fascia, most of the home’s exterior remains true to its original construction. Photo by David Lauer, styling by Julia Völkel Emerson
The home’s striking A-frame construction is on full display in the dining room. Lauer stands at the kitchen sink behind a counter-height bar accented by vintage Norman Cherner barstools. In the adjacent dining area, a collection of Eames fiberglass shell chairs surrounds a West Elm dining table. The graphic Arguto rug is by Hanne Kortegaard for Linie Design from Design Within Reach, and the Saucer Crisscross Bubble pendant is by George Nelson. Photo by David Lauer, styling by Julia Völkel Emerson
1 / 6
Lauer’s arrival in Denver couldn’t have come at a better time. The city was developing rapidly, and he was primed to start capturing what was happening in the moment. He began shooting for the area’s most celebrated architecture firms, including Semple Brown and Design Platform, among others. Going on those photo shoots was just what he needed, too, to help launch his own home renovation. In fact, it was on a shoot that Lauer met his future architect and creative collaborator, Caroline Wilding, another Los Angeles transplant. He photographed one of the first projects she completed after starting her own firm, Construct DA (a home that eventually ended up in the pages of both 5280 Home and Dwell magazines), and hired her to take his house across the finish line.
The bones of Lauer’s vintage A-frame were good—so good that it didn’t take much gutting to achieve his goals. “My intention was always to make it look like this was the original architecture,” Lauer says. “I photographed a bunch of Eichler homes at the outset of my career, so I know what these houses are supposed to look like. I’ve also seen some renovations that took it too far. They ended up looking like midcentury museums—gaudy and over the top.”
In the end, Lauer took out a wall between two bedrooms to make a larger master suite (a move made possible, he says, by the existence of a basement bedroom, a rarity in midcentury homes). He then blew out the entire back wall of the updated suite to make way for a tall glass door surrounded by glass panels and clerestory windows, mimicking the original look of the A-frame living room. In the kitchen, a spit-shine with updated finishes and appliances brought the house into the 21st century—but with a nod to the past. Lauer’s collection of impeccable furnishings from California (plus a few vintage gems he scored at the Denver Modernism Show) perfectly complemented the mid-mod design.
The completed project is what you get when a creative human being—who spends a lot of time in other people’s homes and has a deep affection for design—finds just the right house to bring back to life. “Our vision was for this to be clean, not overdone,” Lauer says. “Midcentury wasn’t fancy or ornamental. It’s more purposeful—with clean lines and simple beauty.”
Lauer and his girlfriend, Kerry, relax on the updated back patio, a new red balau (Indonesian hardwood) deck underfoot. “With the landscaping, I wanted to embrace the Colorado mountain feel,” Lauer says, “not try to make it look like something that belongs in Los Angeles; there is no bamboo here.” The backyard is peppered with native rocks and boulders (a couple double as water features that gurgle like mountain streams) and mature evergreen trees. The eye-catching beamwork—the diagonal posts are an extension of the A-frame construction—is one of Lauer’s favorite elements of the home. Photo by David Lauer, styling by Julia Völkel Emerson
Artist Jahe Smith’s “Why Not Some Purple” hangs above a vintage console that Lauer purchased while living in Southern California. His parents acquired the Bang & Olufsen Beogram RX2 turntable in 1987 (when Lauer was in high school), which he inherited and restored. Photo by David Lauer, styling by Julia Völkel Emerson
In the master bedroom, a simple furniture vignette creates the perfect reading nook: a vintage walnut floor lamp, a cherry-wood and black-leather Eames lounge chair and ottoman, and a Francesco Rota Jey table with black marble base. Sunshine streams through the floor-to-ceiling windows, helping Lauer’s potted plants thrive. Photo by David Lauer, styling by Julia Völkel Emerson
A vintage desk in the guest bedroom makes this space a multitasker. Lauer removed wood paneling from two walls and replaced it with drywall to brighten the space. Photo by David Lauer, styling by Julia Völkel Emerson
Lauer and his girlfriend, Kerry, relax on the updated back patio, a new red balau (Indonesian hardwood) deck underfoot. “With the landscaping, I wanted to embrace the Colorado mountain feel,” Lauer says, “not try to make it look like something that belongs in Los Angeles; there is no bamboo here.” The backyard is peppered with native rocks and boulders (a couple double as water features that gurgle like mountain streams) and mature evergreen trees. The eye-catching beamwork—the diagonal posts are an extension of the A-frame construction—is one of Lauer’s favorite elements of the home. Photo by David Lauer, styling by Julia Völkel Emerson
Artist Jahe Smith’s “Why Not Some Purple” hangs above a vintage console that Lauer purchased while living in Southern California. His parents acquired the Bang & Olufsen Beogram RX2 turntable in 1987 (when Lauer was in high school), which he inherited and restored. Photo by David Lauer, styling by Julia Völkel Emerson
