Nathaniel Rateliff is accustomed to life on the road. After rising to fame in 2015 alongside his band, The Night Sweats, the popular folk musician has built a career touring the globe, playing soulful, thumping songs like “You Worry Me” and “S.O.B.” to audiences at sold-out shows.

But in 2020, he had set out on a solo tour when it was cut short by the pandemic, which had a silver lining. At loose ends, he had the rare opportunity to invest additional time and energy into his new Colorado property outside of Denver, a five-acre lot with a lackluster home surrounded by rocky outcroppings just 10 minutes from Red Rocks Amphitheatre. Nathaniel cleared brush, picked up discarded brick from a neighbor, and sourced light fixtures, among other projects.

As for the residence itself, Nathaniel worked with Denver firm Neoera Architecture + Design to turn it into a character-filled space where he could make music, host dinner parties, and decompress with his fiancé, film director Taylor McFadden. According to Neoera founder Emily Adams, the 4,000-square-foot home was in good shape but certain elements, like painted wood siding, was “pretty awful.” Adams replaced it with yakisugi, and added several wood slatted decks, among other updates.

As for the home’s newfound soul? That’s all Nathaniel. Here, he walks Dwell through the details that went into making the property the perfect home base between tours.

What drew you to the property in the first place?

Nathaniel Rateliff: I had a friend, Spencer, who did real estate, and he was sending me properties. At the time, I was working nonstop. I happened to be living in my drummer’s basement on a little twin bed, and, at the same time, I was renting a place outside of Breckenridge, Colorado, up in the mountains, because I was debating having a mountain property. I was dipping my toes in the water to feel what it was like to live at elevation.

I was looking for a property that already functioned with multiple buildings. I wanted a body of water, like a creek or a river running through it, which, in Colorado, is a little tough because we are in the high desert.

Spencer sent me the listing for the house and I just had a really good feeling about it. There was an overview shot of the property. It was wildly overgrown, and there were some red rock outcroppings. There were a lot of different rooms with lots of windows and light, which I’ve always liked. The location was good, because I’m only about 45 minutes from the airport and 35 minutes from downtown Denver, and really close to Red Rocks.

As I pulled up to the house, a red tail hawk flew above me and screeched. And I was like, wow, this might be the place.

What was the condition of the house?

The house is on five acres. It came with a small cabin, a mother-in-law’s home that also had a stable, the main house, and a carport. It had all the things that I wanted, but they needed to be fixed up.

The previous owners had moved there in the ’90s when they retired. The property was really overgrown. There was so much dead wood. It had a really wild floor plan with walls set at 45-degree angles. The upstairs was divided up in a bizarre way. I knew I wanted to open it up.

I grew up doing carpentry, and so I was like, well, I’ll just remodel this house myself, but with my schedule, that didn’t work. I was introduced to Character Builders and Matt Pierce, who was the main contractor. He and I fell in love with the property, and became fast friends.

What did end up changing? Did you do anything that supports your music career?

We started the process with gutting the basement to build a recording studio. There were six-foot bull snakes in the walls and pack rats, and the forced air unit was full of rodents and feces. I lived upstairs in the meantime. I actually had my bed in the dining room, and I didn’t even use the third floor, except for the shower upstairs. It was like that for at least a year.

My other priority was to have a pool. I used a company that does shipping container pools. Next to that we built the deck, and then I built a little pool house on the property. Then we started to build a structure outside that’s a gym and pool table room. It’s kind of like a hang space for people who are working in the studio.

What were your other goals for the renovation?

Everywhere I’ve lived, every party I’ve ever been to—everybody hangs out in the kitchen. I grew up in the kitchen with my mom. My other passion in life is to cook and have dinner with people. We had to make sure the kitchen was big enough. We found a really great cabinetmaker, Jeff Faine of Hone Studio, and he did everything in character-grade oak.

We also replaced all the windows. In the great room there were originally nine panels, but we shrank it down to six. They kind of pitch back and look up at the rock face that’s behind the property. The house is really well lit.

What are some pieces you love within the house?

I like the mixture of antiques, but I also like midcentury-modern pieces. Trends kind of come and go, so I wanted to make the house feel like something that has been here for a long time.

I found a chandelier for the great room on Etsy. And then all of a sudden I realized it’s coming from Turkey. I’m like, Oh, cool, 1940s handblown milk glass fixture—who knows when that’ll get here in the pandemic? I found a lot of milk glass stuff, even down to hardware for the doors. I found a couple of cool old Moroccan doors. One went into the primary bedroom.

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One of my favorite rooms in the house is the great room. The ceiling height is 14 feet. We kept the classic wood stove. It works great, so there was no need to get a modern version. I grew up living in homes that only had wood heat, so I was familiar with what its output was. The siding on the house is all new yakisugi—it actually wraps through into the great room.

There are all sorts of little details in the house that we kept. There’s an original bathtub, which is a nice cast iron, and we just recoated the claw feet.

What have you learned from working on all these spaces on your property?

Every home I lived in, I rebuilt. At the prior place I was renting, the attic was completely unfinished, and I turned it into two rooms. That’s where I started The Night Sweats and recorded the band’s first album. I would always go over the top on any property I was living in, doing my own repairs. In this process, I learned that it never hurts to ask questions.

More My House stories:

She Custom Made More Than 1,000 Kitchen Tiles for Her Austin Renovation

A Creative Renovation Inspires Two Musicians to Put Down Roots on the Rhode Island Coast

Project Credits:

Architect of Record (Main House): Neoera Architecture + Design / @neoera_design

Builder: Character Built

Interior Design (Main House): Neoera Architecture + Design

Cabinetry Design: Hone Studio

Architect (Pool House): Davis Urban

Also Appears In

My House: When a Hawk Screeched, Musician Nathaniel Rateliff Knew This Was the Place