Getting Your Boulder Home Ready for Sundance: High-Impact Updates You Can Make Before January
The Sundance Film Festival is coming to Boulder for the first time January 21–31, 2027—and around town, preparations are already underway.
With visitors coming to our hometown from around the world, you may be thinking about renting out your home for the Festival, particularly as well-located homes are commanding top dollar. Or maybe you aren’t sure you want to take on renters, but Sundance—or the holiday season just before it—is giving you a reason to finally tackle a few updates you’ve been thinking about.
Either way, January isn't very far away.
If a full renovation isn't realistic—or simply isn't what you want to take on before then—there are plenty of ways to make a meaningful difference in how your home looks and feels over the next few months.
Here are some of the places we’d start.
Keep What Works. Redesign Around It.
BEFORE
AFTER
You don't necessarily need to replace everything to make a room feel completely different.
Sometimes the sofa stays. So does the dining table, a favorite chair or a piece you've owned for years. The key is identifying what's worth keeping, then making thoughtful changes around those pieces so the room works better as a whole.
In a recent project, we kept several existing furnishings but changed the elements around them. A new rug, drapery, selective new furnishings and upholstery established a clearer direction and helped the pieces that remained feel much more intentional in the space.
Use Soft Goods to Pull It All Together
Once you know what's staying, rugs, drapery, pillows, throws and selective upholstery can be some of the most effective tools for making existing and new pieces feel like they belong together.
In that same project, fabrics and textiles became the thread connecting the room. Colors introduced in the rug appeared again in the drapery and pillows. Different furniture styles began to relate to one another. Pieces that had previously felt somewhat disconnected became part of a much more cohesive whole.
It's a good reminder that a refresh doesn't always require more furniture. Sometimes the right layers are what finally make everything else make sense.
Use Paint to Pull the Palette Together
Few changes transform a room as quickly—or relatively easily—as paint.
But that doesn't mean paint should be your first decision.
In an existing home, start by looking at what's staying: flooring, cabinetry, stone, furnishings, rugs and other materials that already establish the palette. If you're furnishing a room from scratch, consider those selections first, too.
Then find the paint color that best supports everything else.
That's one of the advantages of paint: there are thousands of options. It's much easier to find the right paint color to complement a rug, fabric or finish you love than to choose the paint first and spend the rest of the project trying to find materials that work with it.
Update the Lighting—Not Just the Fixtures
Lighting can make a surprisingly big difference without a major renovation.
Older homes often accumulate a mix of incandescent, halogen, CFL and LED lighting over time, which can result in noticeably different colors of white light within the same room. Those differences in color temperature can be surprisingly jarring and have a sneaky way of making a space feel dated.
Start by creating consistency. In residential interiors, we generally prefer warm white light in the 2700K–3000K range, depending on the room and finishes. Simply getting connected spaces on a consistent color temperature can make a home feel more current.
Then look at the fixtures themselves. Large recessed cans with dark baffles can visually date a ceiling, while smaller, cleaner LED downlights can make a significant difference. Dated pendants, chandeliers, sconces and vanity lights are also relatively contained opportunities for an update.
Refresh Hardware and Fixtures
You may not need new cabinetry to make a kitchen or bathroom feel more current.
Changing cabinet hardware can have a surprising impact, particularly when the cabinetry itself is still in good condition. Depending on the existing plumbing and installation, faucets and other plumbing fixtures may also be candidates for an update.
The goal isn't to replace every finish in the room. Look for the elements that are making the space feel dated and focus your effort there.
Style Your Space—But Start by Simplifying
Styling a room doesn't necessarily mean buying more things. In fact, one of the first things we often do is take things away.
Give the things you love some breathing room. Instead of filling an entire shelf, choose a few beautiful books or objects and let them stand out. Clear countertops and tuck kitchen appliances away. Look at whether every piece of furniture really needs to be there.
If you're preparing your home for Sundance renters, edit personal items as well. Keep a few favorite family photographs in beautiful frames and temporarily put the rest away. You want guests to feel like they're staying in a beautiful home—not like they're intruding on someone else's.
Think Beyond Sundance
If Sundance is giving you a deadline, great. But we wouldn't make design decisions solely for ten days in January.
If you're going to invest in your home, make changes you'll be happy to live with long after the Festival is over.
Use the deadline as motivation to address the things you've already wanted to change: the room that has never quite come together, the lighting you've disliked for years, the paint color that no longer feels right or the furnishings that have never quite worked in the space.
