Envisioning functionality, purpose and ambience.
My Approach
When imagining spaces people live in, I always start with understanding how they live. I listen to their thoughts on daily routines and favorite spaces, what they love to do and the things that brings them happiness when they are home. I have a list of questions that inspire thoughtful answers. This is a critical piece of working with clients in order to design spaces that meet their needs and exceed desired results. I ask about favorite colors, styles of furniture, textures, personal art and things they like to look at…items that are their truth. During the initial visits, I can begin to vision with them how the space will complement their lifestyles and begin to tell the story of their lives.
Homing is an art! The art of creation starts with understanding what makes them feel truly at home. The design we vision together needs to breathe and offer the freedom for them to live comfortably and with joy.
Case Study: Re-Homing a New Residence
The 2021 Marshall Fire in Superior, Colorado burned to the ground the Lee’s home. The only two personal items recovered from the ash were Paula’s wedding ring and Frank’s dad’s wedding ring.
After settling with insurance companies and haggling with the city for six months, the Lees commenced new construction on a completely redesigned floor plan. Going from a two-story home with a finished basement to a one-story home with a finished basement was meant to accommodate their new living routines, patterns and dreams. Their children were raised in the home that burned and had moved out of the house many years prior to the fire. The Lees spent many months fine-tuning their design with their architect.
E&J Designs started early on to provide input to the first few drafts of the architectural plan: Is another window needed? Does the electrical plan support how the space will be used? Where does the TV get installed? and other more basic observations. Fundamentally, the Lees had done a terrific job of designing their space for how they envisioned their lives with family, guests, and grandchildren running around!
Our year long journey included identifying colors, materials, furniture, lighting and all the ways to HOME a house! By creating the color palette early and understanding the styles of ambiance that would hug them, we set about the months-long process of being discerning about the decisions that supported their dreams and desires.
I felt privileged to be asked to work with them on creating a HOME on the site of the ashes that were hauled away by FEMA. We built a mutual trust with one another and we listened to the ideas each of us shared on a daily basis. The project needed to ebb and flow and it needed constant breathing room to adopt to changes that came along. Fidelity to the original vision was a guide but often times ideas morphed into other ways to accommodate their desires.
The Lees were on a strict budget and made no qualms about it. The insurance reimbursement was not enough to build a new HOME. Finding materials within their budget was challenging but do-able as many local suppliers were giving generous discounts to fire victims.
To HOME a house involves a broad spectrum of decisions. From placing outlets to accommodating holiday lights on the mantle for holiday displays, to selecting the right color schluter for the ends of the tile install, to working with my welder on designing the perfect handrail, to envisioning shelves to replace kitchen cabinets in order to create the feeling of a connection to the dining area, to finding the absolutely perfect cabinet pulls that brings the kitchen together, and on and on this lengthy list went.
Move in day was special for the Lees! Although somber in some respects, the day meant a new beginning in a HOME that would hug them for many years! It was special to have been involved with them on their journey.
Case Study: Vail Condo Refresh
Sometimes a client just wants to re-fresh their bathrooms, living spaces and other common areas important to daily living. Changing the floor plans through wall realignment or adding space is sometimes not part of their scope. I love these type of jobs because they are focused, short and impactful for the client to enjoy where they are living. The success of the project is always found in the early conversations to discern scope of the ideas and needs, desired outcomes, and of course budgetary parameters. Re-fresh work is usually cost effective because the scope of work is narrow and targeted.
Recently, I was retained to re-fresh 1450 sq. feet of condo space on Gore Creek in Vail, Colorado. After visiting with the client to listen to how he envisions the space to feel at the end of the project, and discern how the space is currently used and how the space will be used in the future I was able to understand which spaces were dated and needed an upgrade. From these conversations, I was able to discern priorities, needs and scope of work.
Based upon the colors the client likes, I created a pallet and products to guide the design that brought the outside colors of Gore Creek and Aspen trees into the living space. Although the condo has aged, it was re-modeled within the last decade so the space only needed a
‘re-fresh’ to bring the bathrooms, flooring and kitchen counter current with updated products and materials to accommodate a lot of use by family and friends.
What defines Re-fresh? Light, simple, clean, colors that the client loves, new flooring that can accommodate snow and ski boots, new kitchen counter that is a quartz material easy to clean and offers a simple upgrade to an aged kitchen. Toilets, sinks, tile, paint and lighting will bring alive new bathrooms. New carpet, paint, trim clean-up and removal of dated curtains are the finishing touches to a project that gave a breath of fresh air and products to bring the space alive with freshness. A few pieces of new furniture and art were purchased to add to the re-fresh approach and compliment the design of the living spaces.
Vail Condo Bath Before: dinghy and dark. After: clean and bright!
Builders Note
For this project and others I chose Thomas Romano with TR Artisans — a family-run general contracting business that I truly enjoy working with. Thomas’ quality of work and attention to detail help bring my vision to life by transforming houses into dream homes.
Case Study: Re-purposing the McCullough Basement
By understanding the client, I can work towards making suggested ideas relevant to their desired outcome. I love to create uniqueness in all my projects…where the ideas are fresh, relevant and maximize the space.
After visiting functionality, needs and desires, we settled on constructing a bedroom in the lower level, using a barn door to allow the sunlight to enter to the family space. The space could serve as an office after it is not needed for a bedroom in three years. The master bath would be gutted and the space expanded by a few feet to maximize the area to accommodate a glass shower and pedestal sink. The space in the laundry room would be tightened up and shelves built for better storage.
The McCullough Family just needed one more bedroom and a new master bath for their growing family. The boys will graduate high school in three years and sharing bedrooms just wasn’t cool anymore!
My approach is always personal and intentional. I like to get to know my clients through open and candid conversations. I want to learn and understand tastes, style, needs and purpose. I use a template of questions to understand daily lives, how they spend their time, goals for their living spaces, what makes them most happy, what music they enjoy, what colors warm their hearts and what they envision at the end of the project.
I designed a wall of shelves to be built in the garage to accommodate the boxes of treasures that had accumulated over the years and needed a new home. Since the space did not accommodate adding new storage space inside, it was imperative to find a place that decluttered the existing space.
I searched barn doors made locally and decided to design and construct one to accommodate the unique dimensions and selected the stain to coordinate with the wooden floors. I love the barn door as it will allow 54 inches of sunlight into the lower level when open…it was important to me to ensure the family space would maintain natural lighting.
Working with the client was fun. We had time to research and select products in plenty of time before construction began. My role as a designer is to work with the general contractor to be the interface between the client and the contractor, to ensure all products are purchased and delivered in the needed timeframe. Knowing my client and their tastes and design styles is important to me. Pre-selecting product should always align to their style and color palette. Working early on to understand my client helps create a palette that will be the focal point of all decisions. Creating the bones of a project is the most fun as I love to see the carpentry bring the vision alive.
Building upon the palette allows me to offer ideas about countertops, floors, space design, tile, and cabinets.
I like to create warmth and coziness in all space designs…a feeling of relaxation with a touch of simple elegance…what do you feel when you enter the space….
I am very committed to designing and selecting items that are within the client’s budget. There is always a more expensive item that has a little bit different uniqueness, but I want my clients to not regret any purchase or feel they overspent…staying within a budget is really important to me
I like to check in with my clients to ask how their lives are going, are there stresses, just how they are doing because stresses can fog creativity and energy for the project. Knowing when to give breathing room to a client is really important …my relationship with each person gives the rhythm to the timeline…letting the work evolve and being able to make design changes as the timeline allows….I work with contractors that align to my style of work and my work ethic, and my soulful approach. I only have honest, kind artisans on my projects. The team has to share the same life values, approaches to creativity, to listening together.
Case Study: Creating A Children’s Creativity Hub
Approaching a new project starts with envisioning the idea within the project space.
Written and drawn plans are imperative to precise measurements that will capture the design ideas.
Quarantine Time provided many new opportunities for re-purposing home space, including the creation of a children’s learning ‘center’. So many homes now need space to provide children with an engaged environment for extended school learning, homework, art projects, puzzles, painting, reading, and computer work.
Working with a local woodworker, we designed a 10 foot wall to accommodate multiple learners, using a repurposed door, Skadis wall units for organization of pencils, brushes, paper, cards and materials to play post office, office and paint. We custom designed an end wooden three tier unit to define the space 
proportionate to the height of the work table. The unit included a roll of paper for art and painting projects, storage for books, puzzles and learning materials.
A shelf to display pottery projects, globes and other large stimulating items was built on top of the wall unit to provide a boundary at the top.
A very simple wood framed display unit with string and twine for the children to showcase their work, papers, and art using small clothespins.
The ‘blue flame’ of the idea was the envisioned purpose of the space and how the idea would engage, motivate and stimulate creativity in children. Using natural wood and paying attention to small design details distinguishes the end product from other built-in wall units that can be bought ready-made.
Creative Door Pulls
I used my dad’s old slide rulers to create door pulls for built in book cases. A local woodworker custom made the washers, bolts and screws to accommodate the difficulty of cutting up a slide rule. A creative way to honor my dad and remember him.
Case Study: Anne’s Mantel Project
It all started with a hunk of wood — gorgeous wood
A client brought home a piece of monkey pod wood from Kauai HI to be used for a mantel in a family room with 20 foot ceilings.
Visiting with the client and a woodworker in the home, we were able to confirm the placement of the mantel. Positioned too high, the mantel would not have a grounding to the fireplace. The fireplace was drywall. Being aware of the art that would hang over the fireplace was a detail we discussed at the beginning of the project.
The Prototype
The woodworker and I decided the best approach would be to create a mantel as a sample and position it on the wall. This allowed the client to ‘feel’ the placement and gives us input to the exact dimensions of the mantel. The piece of wood was much larger than the mantel needed to be and we would need to cut the wood to size.
We brought the clients to the shop and shared the proposed cut of the wood. We discussed how to approach finishing the wood and offered ideas for how to use the remaining pieces of wood. The client gave us another piece of wood from Hawaii to be cut and used for the corbels. We created a sample corbel to show the finishing curves.
The corbel was an important piece to the project…it needed to be designed with a softness, almost an intimacy with the mantel. The position of the fireplace was perpendicular to the entry to the room, thus drawing one’s eye to the side of the corbel. Details as simple as where your eye looks first is an important element of my design approach. The fireplace is on a signature wall and is opposite the kitchen. The stove is on the opposite wall thus bookending the room.
The woodworker used his artistic approach to finishing the piece of wood to bring forth the lines and richness of the monkey pod.
Show time!
The installation was scheduled for one day, thus giving us plenty of time. I don’t like to feel rushed and we always have to have time to adjust and accommodate the unanticipated install issues. Much time had been spent thinking through the complexities of installing a very heavy piece of wood. We took off the drywall to bolt the piece to the infrastructure of the fireplace….the old saying: measure twice, cut once is another important piece of the process. Viola! Installation accomplished!
Monkey Pod Wood Table
With the gorgeous money pod wood mantel completed, Anne asked the woodworker to turn his attention to finishing two additional pieces of monkey pod wood from Hawaii for use in a table that would highlight the unique beauty of the material.
To the left, the larger raw wood round before staining and polishing. The final table is shown at right. Beautiful!
A signature wall to enhance a simple basement finish
Creating home spaces that are reflective of purpose and use calms the soul and welcomes the guests. Listening to your needs and wanting to offer ways to look at space from the heart, I provide guidance in furniture placement, re-designed structual ideas and an opening to allow for an outside-in perspective.
I offer space planning, selection of furnishings and fixtures, interior detailing and floor plan suggestions. Let me place your art and favorite things around your space.
In collaboration with a fabric and paint design consultant, we create ambiance in each room to support the purpose and use of the room.
In line with our request, Fran focused on the purchase of sustainable products. Our furniture will be made using beautiful American hardwood that is collected and manufactured with respect for sustainability."
But looks awesome!!! I was teasing the delivery guys who excused themselves for taking a few minutes to rearrange the contents of their truck to get this piece off. I said I'm very patient, I ordered it in October! Thanks for all your superb efforts to make this happen!! It's great!"
Stained barn wood from Durango, CO, to display antique Lionel trains
Construction by Eric Williams.
“I really enjoy working with Fran Ryan. As a custom woodworker, I’ve completed four projects with her as the designer, and each one has been a positive experience. Her ideas are as fresh as they are sophisticated, and I enjoy her collaborative design approach. We seem to compliment each others’ artistic strengths. Fran’s design sense allows breathing room for the inevitable mid-project tweaks and corrections, and that leads to successful outcomes. I look forward to working with her again.”
–Eric C. Williams, Thoughtful Woodworking
