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Published on Sunday, 17 March 2013 11:32

Written by Lisa Marshall

Baking Up a Dream Home

By Lisa Marshall
Photos by Roxanne Capaul

With their fortunes made and their kids grown, many baby boomers have been known to treat themselves to a fancy convertible or a dream vacation. Boulder Bagel Bakery founder Michael Sclafani took a different approach.

“I wanted this to be a reflection of all my years of hard work,” says Sclafani, 56, of his immaculate 5,700-square-foot bachelor pad he’s sunk more than a million dollars and countless hours into over the past five years. “It was kind of like my reward. It has been an absolute labor of love.”

Seated on a bucolic 5 acres, complete with a white picket fence, a stream-fed pond, a grain silo, and a 1,300-square-foot guesthouse with river-stone walls, Sclafani’s rural estate northwest of Longmont exudes country summer-camp charm on the outside. But inside is a surprisingly modern, formal space that feels more like a gallery or, perhaps, a work of art itself.

“It has an almost museum-like feel to it,” notes interior designer and longtime friend Roxanne Capaul, who helped Sclafani transform the outdated foreclosure home into a con­­tem­­­porary showpiece.

Built in 1993 by the owner of a concrete company, the main house is framed with thick concrete walls artfully curved to create spacious rooms with dazzlingly high ceilings, stout arches, and a distinct art-deco feel. Giant stucco columns etched with copper accents grace the living room, and curvilinear architectural layers line the kitchen ceiling. There’s barely a right angle in the place.

One look at the crisp white Italian couches and curving cream walls and a visitor might be inclined to wonder—for an instant—if the owner comes from old money.

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