Showroom

BY KIMBERLY MACARTHUR GRAHAM

>>> One Home, Denver, Colorado

The showroom's contemporary exterior reflects the featured furnishings.

On this spring day, sunlight pours through the generous windows of One Home, lending warmth to wood and spark to metal. In a pretty multistory building in the chic Cherry Creek North shopping district of Denver, One Home's sophisticated showroom helps clients feather their nests with functional works of art.

Though modern is the mainstay of One Home, it is modern burnished with a contemporary feel and a timeless appeal. Owner and designer Heather Mourer, with a background in interior architecture and design, possesses both an excellent eye and a knack for customer care. Of her aesthetic approach, she says, "Just good design: clean, simple, extremely well built. It doesn't matter to me if it's from a local artisan or someone world famous."

True to her word, while One Home does feature an impressive roster of star designers working for global lines such as B&B Italia, Arclinea, Driade, Knoll and Vitra, Mourer also gives floor space to ravishing objects created by local up-and-comers. "I really enjoy supporting local talent, and," she says, hitting upon another One Home specialty, "I do a lot of custom work with them. I have lots of connections to good, reliable artisans." Working with One Home, designers can order up a completely custom table to go with those fabulous Norman Cherner chairs.

Knoll's Pensi table and Toledo stacking chairs, as well as de Sede's Skeleton desk chair, are available through One Home.

The showroom hints at endless possibilities. The richness of walnut and teak is enhanced by shining chrome and stainless, while an intriguing palette of molded resin in a range of shapes and colors (or no color) and judicious splashes of nail-polish red livens the mix. A wealth of textures, from glass-smooth to nubby to furry, plays among finishes from glistening to waxy to matte. A sure arrangement that allows each piece space reveals common shapes and motifs, excellent complements and smashing combinations.

One Home, though open to the public, recognizes members of the trade with incentives and discounts. The showroom staff defers to design professionals — meaning that, although they can offer design services, they are just as happy to take a back seat. "We really keep that separate," Mourer says. "We work — even if it's just getting furniture — to support the designer's design." Citing an important lesson she learned from working with big-name designers in New York City, Mourer continues, "The great designers can really separate themselves from the design. They take their egos out. And so we work hard to keep our egos out of it."

One Home pieces fit with more traditional design, too. "Maybe we add one or two modern pieces to create a more eclectic design," says Mourer. But, she reiterates, even when a client puts One Home in the driver's seat, "It's the client's style that really drives the design."

Sunlight illuminates a vignette of modern furniture inside One Home.

Mourer came to the showroom business by happy accident. After being laid off with seemingly the rest of the world after Sept. 11, 2001, she realized that finding that next job would be tough. "It was a terrible time. There was nothing. So I started selling vintage furniture," she says. That first One Home venture admittedly had more "funk," says Mourer, but she quickly gained a following. Business continued to grow. And change.

At the same time that Knoll and others began to court One Home, high-quality vintage pieces were becoming more difficult to find. So Mourer, who stresses that opening a retail store, even one catering to design, was "a whole 'nother ball of wax," recognizes the business sense in shifting focus from all vintage to a mix of pieces and lines that share a high-end aesthetic.

Mourer describes her clientele as "independent thinkers," a label that also applies to herself. Not only does she have a unique sense of style, but she also strives to serve the community in unique ways, too. One Home participates in numerous charity events and supports the local art and museum scene; Mourer has taught troubled youths, and she continues to support and advise a young architect she's mentored since the girl was in the sixth grade. Mourer stays so involved because she says she feels indebted. "I'm having a ball. I love everyone I work with. I'm so fortunate." As are her clients.

2445 E. Third Ave., Denver, CO 80206; (720) 946-1505 or www.onehomedesign.com.