
1/15
Inside an Interior Designer’s French Modern Hilltop Home
Julee Wray, founder and lead designer at Denver-based Truss Interiors, shares insights into the renovation and design process of her 1941 French Modern Hilltop home. Upon purchasing the house, Wray was captivated by its classic French Modern exterior, characterized by sharp symmetry, steep rooflines, and arched doorways. However, she found the interior to be a stark contrast, featuring a contemporary design with elements like frameless kitchen cabinets, steel stair railings, and all-white walls, which did not align with the elegant facade. Due to budget constraints, a full gut renovation was not feasible, prompting Wray to devise a strategy to integrate the existing contemporary elements with her preference for more traditional charm and a softer, more feminine aesthetic.
Wray discusses the challenges of designing for oneself, acknowledging the endless choices and the pressure to achieve perfection, despite facing the same budget and decision-making limitations as any other client. She recounts the complexities encountered during the renovation of the older home, particularly with electrical work. The house, built in the 1940s with glass, plaster, and brick, required significant modifications to accommodate modern electrical wiring, leading to added expenses for framing, drywall, and paint, such as thickening walls to install LED can lights. Additionally, the removal of multiple layers of old wallpaper necessitated extensive stripping, prepping, and re-papering of the walls.
To achieve her vision of a soft-maximalist space, Wray focused on blending styles by warming up the home’s contemporary finishes. In the kitchen, she replaced flat-panel frameless cabinetry with real wood tambour cabinets to introduce curves and texture. The dining room ceiling was enhanced with reclaimed beams from an old Veterans of Foreign Wars post, adding character and dimension. Wray highlights several locally made elements integrated into the design, including maple tambour cabinets crafted by Black Hound Design Company in Arvada, and cast limestone features for the basement and bedroom fireplaces by Cast Limestone Creations in Lakewood. All City Floors was responsible for transforming the wood floors from black to white, a decision that, despite initial skepticism, added to the home's unique story.
The outdoor spaces also underwent significant transformation. The front yard was redesigned with curved beds featuring more florals than grasses, a curved walkway with brick trim, and lighting, along with the addition of a porch to enhance its traditional appeal. In the backyard, Wray created a garden as a tribute to her father-in-law, a former president of the Houston Rose Society, and expanded the deck to include an outdoor kitchen and additional decking around the pool. She describes the backyard as a cherished family space where she tends to her garden, and her husband enjoys grilling. For her daughter's room, Wray aimed for a whimsical yet adaptable design, choosing a birds and flowers theme with a colorful, large-print wallpaper that is playful but not juvenile, allowing it to grow with her child.
Wray reveals that the primary bedroom is one of her favorite rooms, attributing its calming, cocoon-like effect to the textured grasscloth wall covering that accommodates the room’s unique ceiling lines. The dining room/office is another favorite, featuring a blueish sage color from Benjamin Moore, chosen to complement a family heirloom painting from France. She advises homeowners renovating older homes to hire professionals with expertise in historical properties and project management, and to embrace the home's original era and architecture rather than creating a stark contrast between the interior and exterior.
#InteriorDesign #HomeRenovation #FrenchModern #HilltopHome #TrussInteriors #JuleeWray #HomeDecor #DesignChallenges #OutdoorLiving #InteriorDesign #HomeRenovation #FrenchModern #HilltopHome #TrussInteriors #JuleeWray #HomeDecor #DesignChallenges #OutdoorLiving
0 comment in total
No comments yetYou may also like


































































