With a history primarily defined by the transition from a Wild West mining town to a hub for scientific research and the tech industry, Boulder, Colorado, is at once rugged and refined. So, too, is the 2,200-square-foot residential loft, Seven Hundred Pearl.
At first glance, the downtown Boulder home may look like your average big-city artist loft. But look closer, and you’ll find something distinctly Coloradan.
Homage to the bygone era of the loft’s origins can be found in the details throughout, including a cluster of Edison light bulb fixtures, walls adorned with buffalo nickels and bullet shells and weathered wood accents.
Celebrity interior designer, Kari Whitman, whose residential clients include Jessica Alba, Kristen Bell and Antonio Banderas, redesigned the loft in 2017. Whitman’s experience in both residential and commercial design is on full display with an artful execution of creating a space at once industrial yet homey.
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Previously the Racket Grocery store, which served the Boulder mining community at the turn of the 19th century, the home’s design capitalizes on this unique history as commercial space and maintains such features as high, exposed-beam ceilings, brick walls and storefront-facing windows looking out at Pearl Street, repurposed for a sleek, luxury industrial residence.
A bedside fireplace makes for a cozy bedroom despite the grand scale. Massive, sliding steel-framed glass doors allow for more private spaces when closed or an airy, open-concept feel when retracted.
Also in line with Whitman’s trademark sense of styling, the two-bedroom, two-bathroom residence was recreated with eco-conscious sourcing, using 80% repurposed or recycled materials—9-foot glass panels from a New York City prewar high-rise, street lamps from France and, perhaps most unique, a wall of recycled leather belts.
Other distinctive design installations include a metal-framed bed hanging from thickly braided rope, recycled teak floors and a living wall of moss and sage.
Located on Pearl Street, the $4.2 million loft is in the heart of downtown Boulder, ripe with shops, restaurants and cultural spaces. Out the door, a five-minute walk west puts you at the Trailhead, with access to Boulder’s world-renowned hiking trails.
Francis Hagan of Slifer Smith & Frampton Real Estate holds the listing for 700 Pearl Street.