Sundance welcomes luxury furniture store

From handcrafted beds of alder wood, accented with forged iron brackets and clavos, to sofas of Brazilian cowhide and American top-grain leather, Sundance's newest storefront showcases the artistry of John Powers.

John moved to this area just over a year ago along with his wife, Wendy, who is the business mind behind Mountain High Furniture.

The couple made the move from Denver just over a year ago, looking to enjoy the serenity of life in a smaller town, and was expecting to limit their furniture sales to the website for at least the time being – but it wasn't long before fate provided.

"We wanted to get out of Denver, away from the big city. We weren't even really planning on doing business up here, but then we saw this building and thought, that would be a really cool showroom," says John of the old Subway building on Cleveland St. "We loved the feel and the old building and its character, and that it goes with what we have in here."

Mountain High Furniture enjoyed considerable success across the border in Colorado, but the couple felt it was time for a change. When John was growing up, he says, Denver was a city of maybe 1.5 million, but now there are four times as many people – and the city itself has doubled or tripled in size.

Not to mention that the success of the business had its drawbacks. From a lone artist creating bespoke pieces, John reached a point where he was running what he describes as an assembly line along with several employees and all the associated stress and pressure.

"We got too big, and it was no fun anymore," he says.

It was time to get out of the crowds and back to a more peaceful way of life, where John could explore new inspirations and focus on the joy of craftsmanship.

"We wanted to move a certain area out of Denver into a smaller town," says John. "We were going to move up into the mountains of Colorado but it was getting way too crowded up there already."

One of John's hunting buddies had recently purchased a property in Sundance, says Wendy, which is how this area appeared on the couple's radar.

"We thought we'd come up and check it out too and we just fell in love with it up here," she says. "It's beautiful."

John's career began in woodworking and has remained there ever since.

"I was always creative. In high school and junior high, my main classes were art classes," he smiles. "I was not a smart English or math major, but I could draw and I could paint and I could do things like that."

After he graduated and was thinking about entering the military, John's father, himself a Navy veteran, suggested he think about a pattern-making job in the Navy.

"You had to know woodworking, so we did a lot of work on lathes and things like that. I had to go to a 16-week woodworking school through the Navy," he says.

"I spent four years on the ship doing patterns, but then the captain would come down and say, hey, my captain's boat needs some new doors, can you guys build those for us."

This side of the job appealed to John so, when he came out of the Navy, he chose to pursue it further. He worked in cabinet and furniture shops until the launch of his brand, Mountain High Furniture, in 2011.

John's work is customizable, and he also accepts commissions and enjoys exploring new looks.

"Sometimes, it's the customer," he says of the inspiration behind his designs. Often, a client will ask for a specific style or look and John will work with them to adapt their ideas and create the perfect piece.

The best part of the work, he says, is to "Step back and look at what I've created after it's done. You know where you started and where you finished and you step back and think, I can't believe I made that out of a piece of wood."

Now that he's finished building the house on the couple's new land and his workshop is up and running, John spends most of his time crafting new pieces, while Wendy takes charge of the business aspects and welcomes visitors to the showroom.

Mountain High Furniture is located at 423 E. Cleveland and is currently open Tuesday through Friday from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m., or by appointment. Contact John and Wendy at (720) 383-5083 or [email protected]