951 S Clarkson St, Denver: A Full Renovation for Abell To Build
951 S Clarkson St is a full renovation by Abell To Build, and we photographed it the way Julius Shulman photographed the houses he loved: slowly, from a tripod, with tilt-shift glass holding every vertical true. Each frame was built in layers. We exposed for the ambient light first, then walked strobes through the rooms, and later painted those flashes into the ambient frames by hand, one surface at a time. The light stays natural, the detail stays crisp, and the house reads the way it feels to stand in it.
A hangar door for a garage
The alley side holds the most unusual piece of the build. The garage door is a Schweiss door, a design made for airplane hangars, and the owner wanted one built to the exact size of his garage. As far as we know it is the first of its kind on a home like this. Only five installers in the country are trained to set one, and one of them happens to live in Colorado, so he came out to help Abell To Build hang it. When it lifts, the whole wall swings up into a canopy over the drive, and the cedar soffit above reads like a second ceiling.
Cedar against charcoal
Outside, the palette is simple: charcoal horizontal siding, clear cedar on the soffit and the gate, and black window frames. The dark cladding steps back and lets the wood carry the warmth, so the house already feels warm before you open a door.
A patio for ordinary days
Around the back, the cedar continues across the ceiling of a covered patio, with two fans overhead and a cedar slat wall closing one side. A window lifts up over a ledge and opens straight onto the pavers, and a wide sliding door joins the patio to the living room, where the fireplace glows through the glass. We waited for the sun to soften before making this frame, so the cedar would hold its color without going orange.
Oak slats and moving light
Inside, the stair is wrapped in a screen of vertical oak slats that runs from floor to ceiling. It separates the stair from the living room without closing anything off. Daylight passes between the slats and settles on the wide plank floor, and a stacked stone fireplace with a floating wood mantel anchors the far end. With the tilt-shift keeping those slats perfectly parallel, the frame takes on a rhythm, a sense of time moving as the light travels along them.
A kitchen that stays calm
The kitchen keeps a quiet palette: gray shaker cabinets, a marble look island, a herringbone backsplash rising behind a stainless hood, and open floating shelves. Three clear glass globe pendants with brass fittings hang over the island. Strobe painted into the cabinet faces and the herringbone gives them their depth, while the window light stays exactly as it was that afternoon.
Texture is how a room remembers the light that passed through it.
Downstairs, texture takes the lead
On the lower level the palette darkens. A tall fireplace tower is clad in black carved panels with a repeating diamond motif that catches light differently from every angle, and the firebox opens on two sides. Oak treads climb past it over white risers with a slim wood rail.
Across the room, a bar island is wrapped in vertical fluted wood with a deep russet tone, set against a stacked vertical tile backsplash and dark cabinetry. Two surfaces do most of the work, and the space becomes a place you want to sit after dark.
Baths with a sense of touch
The primary bath centers on a freestanding tub under a black framed window, with a brass tub filler standing beside it. A long double vanity carries brass faucets, faceted mirrors and a pair of brass vanity lights.
In a second bath, the wall behind the vanity is a fine fluted tile in charcoal, set off by mirrors with notched corners, a brass sconce and a cream patterned floor tile.
A house that holds together
What stays with me from this house is its consistency. Cedar outside, oak inside, texture in the places where your hands and eyes land. None of it asks for attention. All of it holds up to a second look, and a house like that rewards patience behind the camera.
Photographed for Tom Abell and Abell To Build in Denver.
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