I love the Teatro Hotel in Denver, located in a beautiful old former bank building on the edge of the city’s hip LoDo area. I had flown in for the Denver Design District market, where I’d be speaking about “How the West Is Redefining Luxury,” a topic dear to my heart, and I was content to check into the Teatro on the evening of Cinco de Mayo. My room had a little balcony overlooking the city, and strains of Mexican street music floated up on the warm breezes. After dinner and a stroll through LoDo (one of the coolest urban areas I know), I retired early to prepare for a full day in Denver.

Regional Manager Annette Lentz flew up from Dallas Tuesday morning, and she picked me up at the hotel. We headed directly over to the Denver Design District to see Eddy Doumas, whose Town showroom has really bloomed in the past four years or so. Eddy is a talented interior designer who has a thriving national business, and he also somehow manages to run a large and bustling showroom. Town carries great lines such as Baker Furniture, Ralph Lauren Home and Barbara Barry Home, as well as stylish smaller companies, and it’s a great resource for designers throughout the region. Eddy and I hadn’t met in person, so it was nice to be able to hang out a bit before my talk.

I was speaking right after the great New York designer Larry Laszlo, who’s a hard act to follow. But Denver is always a wonderful audience for Western Interiors & Design, so I was lucky that the room filled up again after Larry departed, and I could see several friends in attendance, including Design Center impresario Jo Frank and her crew. Jo is a one-woman whirlwind, and she’s active in so many different markets (I’ve run into her in San Francisco, Wyoming, Phoenix-Scottsdale, Dallas, New York ….) it’s dizzying. I spoke to the group about a new kind of luxury I’m seeing in the West, a luxury that’s not so much about excess as it is about grace. I was able to show a wide range of Colorado examples drawn from our pages, breathtaking houses that use natural materials, incorporate the landscape and honor craftsmanship and quality. As opposed to bloated houses crammed with…stuff. Been there, done that, as they say.

That evening, we dined with our good friends Marvin Wilkinson and Art Ellsworth, who run the remarkable John Brooks showrooms in Denver, Aspen and Scottsdale, Arizona. We were joined by their associates Kyle Geik and Ashley Larson, as well as Todd Huckabone of Donghia, Carolyn Reed of Bergamo, and Karin Eaton of Ironware International. Art and Marvin had selected one of their favorite Denver restaurants, Potager, which was perfect. Potager is relaxed, hip and friendly, and the food is superb. Todd, Carolyn and Karin had presentations at John Brooks the next day, but having discharged my speaking duties, I felt blissfully stress-free. Karin and I had met at last year’s market, and we’d discovered that we have some close friends in common in Nashville, Tennessee, where she lives. It was a lively evening all around, and I was grateful to Art and Marvin for putting it together. Needless to say, I slept like a rock back at the Teatro.

The next morning, Annette and I went back to the Design Center to see Karin’s presentation at John Brooks. Ironware International utilizes wonderful French ironworkers to make some of the most beautiful hand-wrought chandeliers and lighting pieces on the market today. Karin showed some fascinating video of pieces being made, with glowing iron being hammered and bent into delicate curvilinear shapes. Old school indeed. Elsewhere, Todd was presenting Donghia’s new fabrics to a group of rapt designers. Last year I’d seen Carolyn’s energetic and engaging Bergamo presentation (so much to show!), but we missed her performance this year, unfortunately. The John Brooks showroom is a hive of activity and creativity at any given time, and Art and Marvin continue to expand on all fronts. They have a unique ability to represent all the top lines under one roof, and to serve each equally well. Their showrooms are really giving designers in the West the tools they need to drive their work to new levels. Their secret, I think, is their unbridled enthusiasm for quality and beauty. Plus they’re a lot of fun to be around.

We also wanted to see our friends at Decorative Materials, the first-rate tile resource that’s going gangbusters in the Rocky Mountains, and we were able to grab owner Margo Hampleman right before a presentation by the Bisazza representative. Decorative Materials is in the right place with the right products at the right time, and they’re really taking off. Then we sat down with Kirsten Zook and Tim George of the Shanahan Collection and New Classics, whose wide range of furniture and lighting is quite impressive. Kirsten’s mother, Sara Zook, was an interior designer in my hometown of Winnetka, Illinois, before starting her business in Denver, and it’s inspiring to see what she’s created. She’s built a real family business that now has a national reach.

It was time to meet Bob Cilli at the William Ohs showroom in Cherry Creek, so Annette expertly navigated our way there. William Ohs cabinetry is all made right in the Denver area, and the company is dedicated to high-quality custom work. Cilli (pronounced like “chile,” no one calls him Bob) took us to lunch at a great Italian restaurant nearby and entertained us with his natural story-telling talents. He’s a Jersey boy at heart, and he’ll make you laugh. The short walk back from lunch in the glorious Denver spring was exhilarating. I was scheduled to fly back to Los Angeles in a few hours, but I dearly wanted to drive up into the mountains (Aspen, Telluride, Durango….), which beckoned on the western horizon. That would have to wait for another trip, though, as I had to prepare for being in New York the next week for the International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF). Nothing wrong with New York, of course, but at that moment, on that fresh May afternoon, Colorado was the only place I wanted to be.