RADAR / SCENE
#INSTACRUSH @sacredthistle
WHO: Sydney Peterson and Cornelia Peterson, the mother-daughter co-owners of Sacred Thistle, a floral design studio and retail boutique near Denver’s Capitol Hill district, manage this dreamy feed that captures their dark, wabi-sabi style. WHAT: Expect to see flowers—in sculptural arrangements and close-up shots—alongside new home accessories and even occasional hip-hop lyrics. As the duo describe, “We want it to feel dark, sexy and weird, like an art gallery of beautiful things.”
IN THEIR WORDS: “In person, flowers steal the show, but on camera it’s a whole new way of viewing them. If we’re skeptical of a design or have been looking at it for too long, we photograph it—and it’s as if we’re viewing it with a new set of eyes.”
BLUEPRINT DAIRY BLOCK
A new micro-neighborhood is coming to Denver’s Lower Downtown Historic District this spring with the opening of Dairy Block, a full city block on the former site of the Windsor Farm Dairy company. The reimagined block combines historic and new buildings— including a six-story office tower (below) and a 172-room hotel, The Maven—connected by an outdoor alley lined with retail shops, restaurants and installations by emerging Denver artists. Sage Hospitality’s fourth boutique hotel in the city, The Maven will feature creative direction from Brooklyn-based Crème/Jun Aizaki Architecture & Design and Denver-based Johnson Nathan Strohe. Loft-like guest rooms will be accented with raw rolled steel, beetle-kill wood and concrete, honoring LoDo’s ongoing transformation of industrial spaces into meaningful places for residents and visitors to enjoy. dairyblock.com
THE INSIDER LAURA MEDICUS
“Design doesn’t occur in a vacuum. It starts with a conversation,” says Laura Medicus, owner of Denver-based Laura Medicus Interiors. “More and more of my clients are new to Colorado, and they’re bringing with them style—and ideas about style— from other parts of the country.” The designer uses her blog, coloradonest.com, to continue those conversations, adding helpful how-tos and fascinating bits of industry history. “My aim is to inspire and educate but also to be entertaining,” she says. That sensibility extends to her residential designs— livable, interesting spaces in tune with the personalities of the people who inhabit them. “I like clients with a good sense of humor about life and design, and I like the stories they bring to a project,” Medicus says. “Design should be fun.” Here, she shares a few favorite sources for finding talking pieces. gildedinterior.com Local treasure trove: It’s important for a room to include a few things that are old or unusual. For those pieces, I adore checking out the Colorado Antique Gallery in Littleton. It’s in a strip mall sandwiched between car dealerships, and it’s crammed with delightful, confusing, tacky, stylish and wonderfully odd and beautiful things. For the art enthusiast: There are so many talented, hardworking, creative people in Colorado, and a walk through the Art District on Santa Fe on the first Friday of each month—when galleries are open later—is a great way to start discovering them. I also love the work my interiors photographer, Sara Yoder, is doing with her photos of Denver. Her work is at the Denver Art Society Cooperative right now, and I have a few of her photos in my home. And I’m a fan of the little pieces of art Heidi Annalise is painting right now—they are gorgeous landscape scenes on the inside covers of mint tins. Spring refresh: I’d like to find a striking antique doorknocker for my front door. I plan to scour the inventory at Eron Johnson Antiques and Grandpa Snazzy’s Hardware, both in Denver.
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WRITTEN AND PRODUCED BY CHRISTINE DEORIO
instacrush photos: courtesy sacred thistle. the insider photo: sara yoder. blueprint rendering: courtesy dairy block.
WHY: Initially a place to promote the floral-design business, the feed has become a space that offers inspiring ideas while inviting collaborations with other artists and creatives. “There is something so exciting about stumbling upon an account that just feeds your soul’s inspiration, and we strive to provide that,” say the pair.