A Modern Home in The Ridges

Cohen wanted a red wall in the kitchen because it’s “shocking yet relaxing.”

	Raphael Cohen
	The home’s clean-lined living room, including a door with the stacked-square etchings from TeNo’s ring design

When conjuring up his jewel of a modern house in The Ridges in Summerlin, a private luxury housing development in Las Vegas, owner Raphael Cohen turned to a design element he sees every day: jewelry. But we’re not talking about sparkle, shine and color—this house and this jewelry are definitely not about bling.

Cohen is the US distributor of German stainless-steel- and titanium-based jewelry line TeNo, which produces rings, bracelets, earrings, necklaces and watches with a clean, architectural aesthetic. The shapes are purely geometric: rectangles and squares, lines—stark, modern, bold. “I am not educated about design,” says Cohen, who was born in Jerusalem and relocated to the US with his wife in 1975, settling first in Massachusetts. “But I know what I like. I have an eye for lines; I like Bauhaus. Clean does not have to mean simple.”

Cohen has spent a lifetime in the jewelry business. His stateside career kicked off in New York’s Soho, where he opened TeNo’s first US store in 2002. He wasn’t there long: Acting on a flash idea that the Strip would be a great spot for several new TeNo locations, he and his family packed up and headed to Vegas, buying a model home and opening TeNo’s three stores here: one in Mandalay Bay, one in The Grand Canal Shoppes at The Venetian and one in what is now Planet Hollywood.

After instantly falling in love with the Vegas life, he and his wife decided to put down roots and build a house. “It took us two and a half years with planning and construction,” Cohen says. “The designer of our TitanFactory store in Planet Hollywood (a division of TeNo), Sheldon Colon, mentioned to me on a Thursday that he was doing homes in The Ridges. By Saturday, I bought this piece of land.”

A Minimal Approach
Cohen collaborated with Colon on the design of the two-level home, particularly on the details, of which there are many, albeit subtle. First there are the geometrics—quadrilaterals carved into the white floor, inset in the African mahogany hardwood—and then there’s the glass throughout. “We hired Leslie Rankin, a glass artist,” Cohen says. “She designed the bar top, the lamps over the bar, the open glass wall in the elevator and the front door. She took her inspiration from our jewelry catalog. There are rectangles and square designs in many forms; three squares repeat on every door.”

There are four bedrooms plus an office in the 7,800-square-foot home. “I don’t work out of our office anymore,” he says. “I really don’t want to leave the house, and now I don’t have to.” Meanwhile, his wife got a piano room. “Our model home came with a piano,” Cohen says. “My wife started taking lessons, so we built one room around the piano.”

With both TeNo and their home, Cohen explains, “We like to do things in a minimal way. The only thing that is not minimal in this house is the red. We needed some fire! In one of the stores, Sheldon put a red wall in the back. Ever since he did that, I wanted to implement it in my house—in the shower, the red tile in the kitchen, in the bedroom. On one hand, it’s the strongest of all colors. But somehow it’s very relaxing in the house. It’s mystical, and it shocks people. I like that it’s questionable; I like the disparity of it. That’s what modern is about.”

One place with virtually no hint of color is the pool area. “The pool is just as clean as the house,” Cohen says. “The stone had to be specific. We settled on Italian porcelain. I wanted it with a straight wall, clean, clean, clean. It’s an enclave that’s peaceful, unchaotic.”

Cohen was on-site every day while the building was under construction. “I wanted to approve every detail,” he says. “It was like having two jobs. In 2008 there was the financial crisis, and my business began to hurt, like everyone else’s. But we finished it. And it was all worth it, of course. I built the house that’s always lived in my imagination. In the TeNo stores or at home, it all coheres; it’s a strong aesthetic. And you know why? Because to me, clean is strong.”