A HOUSE OF ECCENTRICITY
by Carol Brock

Designed by Charles Haertling and packed with eclectic art, this home is a shrine to whimsy and imagination.

Dubbed the “Space Craft Home” by the Denver Post in 1958, Judi Lesta’s Boulder home is known by many names. Some call it the tepee house, others the pyramid or umbrella home. One name is even derived from an article of women’s lingerie. The home’s late architect has many titles, too, mostly visionary and genius. Charles Haertling, who designed Lesta’s home, once described his creation as “a wigwam structure.”

No matter its name, Lesta’s 2,200-square-foot home is unusual, to say the least. A polyhedron based on intersecting A-frames capped by pointed glass skylights, the wooden house lacks straight walls and instead boasts a roof composed of 16 identical triangular “leaves” that act as walls. The leaves’ exposed interior rafters simulate leaf veins, and the home’s triangle windows, angled walls and peaked eaves mimic the geography of the Flatirons.

“Everything comes to a point,” says Lesta, who became the home’s fourth owner in 1989. “All beams and windows come to a point, the fireplace is triangle shaped, the driveway is a triangle and even the stairs leading up to the house are triangular. It’s like living in a work of art.” And that suits Lesta just fine. An actress and former show-business photographer, Lesta says her unusual abode inspires self-expression. “It’s a fantasy house,” she says. “Nothing is outrageous; you can do whatever you want to here.”

Thus, no holds are barred when it comes to decorating. Lesta spray paints walls, paints loft rails purple and walls yellow, hangs a profusion of chandeliers (11 so far) that she decorates with trinkets, drapes crystals and beads in every conceivable nook, displays mannequins, masks and costumes, and covers every counter with knickknacks and curios she deems art. “I’m thinking about having a wall in one of the rooms that everyone who visits signs,” she quips.

A native of Manchester, England, Lesta says her tastes weren’t always as eclectic, although her life certainly has been. A freelance photographer who captured the images of Bob Marley, Tom Petty, Grace Jones, Blondie, Devo, the Bee Gees, President Ford, Donna Summer and others, Lesta lived life in L.A.’s fast lane, where she tooled about in a car with a personalized “Boloks” license plate—the name of her photography business. “In England, you know, that means you have balls,” she says with a laugh, “but it’s spelled with two L’s. I could only fit six letters on the plate.”

When her daughter Kate turned 5, Lesta, a single mother, switched gears and moved to Boulder, where she purchased the Noble house on first sight. (The house is named after the couple that commissioned Haertling to design it.) “I was very lucky to have found it,” Lesta says. “I didn’t know4 who Charles Haertling was, but I knew I wanted it right away. I like unusual places.”

At that time, Lesta’s design sense was a tad more conventional. “When I moved in here, the walls were white and all my furniture was antiques,” she says. But that would change after Lesta moved to Ibiza, Spain, for a year with a childhood sweetheart. “In Spain, every- one does their own painting, and the colors are so creative and alive. When I came back, my creative side found me and I painted a fresco in the entryway, put odd tiles on the floor and experimented with all kinds of colors.” For example, the Spanish batik that graces Lesta’s bed contains purple, yellow, orange, blue, peach and green—colors she blended into different palettes to paint her bedroom walls.

“If you explore your self-expression, it might change your life, like it did mine,” she says. “Anybody can do the kind of painting I did.” And you can always experiment with free paint from the Boulder County Household Hazardous Waste Facility at 5880 Butte Mill Road. The facility is open Fridays and Saturdays from 8 a.m. to noon and Wednesdays from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. “It’s a great way to recycle and experiment at the same time,” Lesta says, adding you can also buy custom-blended paints that have been returned at a huge discount.

Read the full article in the Fall 2004 issue of Boulder County Home & Garden magazine. Subscribe today, and receive the Home & Garden Card™!