The vibe at Boulder’s newest music venue falls somewhere between a Wes Anderson set and your coolest friend’s living room.

The ceilings are low, the candles flicker, the guitars are vintage and the speakers probably cost more than your car. Welcome to Stone Cottage Studios, now open at 1928 Pearl Street in Boulder, a new venue launching a summer concert series built around small crowds and big sound.

“We host what are probably the most intimate concerts in Boulder,” said co-founder Davis Maynard. “We only sell 25 tickets in the live room, and the feedback has been amazing. People say they rarely get to experience music this way.”

Set inside a lovingly restored 1900s brick house, the new space kicks off its summer programming with a mix of indoor and outdoor shows, spotlighting folk, Americana and singer-songwriters from Boulder to Nashville.

Tucked behind Maynard’s childhood home in North Boulder, Stone Cottage Studios found its footing during the early days of the pandemic. With live venues shuttered, Maynard and his dad, Jamie Maynard, converted their backyard cottage into a livestream studio where musicians could perform ticketed, high-quality sets with professional audio and video production for virtual audiences.

“I was in film school in Los Angeles when everything shut down,” Maynard said. “I came home and thought, we should really use this space to set up a video and audio production studio, really in line with music.”

They launched the project alongside musician Avery Johnson, who helped get it off the ground before moving out of state. Since then, Davis and Jamie Maynard have grown it into a grassroots platform for recording, video production and live performances.

“I grew up going to bluegrass festivals with my dad,” Davis Maynard said. “During COVID, when everything shut down, we found ourselves returning to that love of live music. Building this, a place that brings people together the way those festivals did for us, was a dream come true.”

Over time, the cottage experiment evolved into a hub for both local and touring artists. In August, they moved the operation off their property and on to Pearl Street with the goal of deepening community ties.

The new home of Stone Cottage Studios sits at 1928 Pearl Street, a historic brick house with just the right amount of creak in the floorboards. Built in the early 1900s by Swedish immigrants, the space has been carefully restored into what now feels like part hi-fi showroom, part secret concert spot and part musician’s dream set.

Upstairs, a boutique shop curated by Crescendo Fine Audio offers turntables, consignment guitars, vintage vinyl and stereo gear for serious listeners. Maynard has worked with Crescendo for years, and its presence adds another layer to the space. During the day, it functions as an audio store. At night, it becomes a studio and a cozy live venue.

“We’ve always been more of a live-inspired recording space,” Maynard said. “We’re not a traditional studio with sound booths, but we have amazing gear, great outboard preamps and everything you’d need for high-quality recording.”

Maynard added: “The space is alive. People come to record songs or albums here because they feel connected to the environment.”

The move to Pearl Street also expanded Stone Cottage’s capacity. While the original cottage could only accommodate a few people, the new studio seats 35 and includes two simulcast rooms, wired with monitors and live-feed cameras, ideal for livestreams, full-band sessions and podcast recordings.

“We recently hosted the series finale of ‘The Imaginals’ podcast,” Maynard said, of the Boulder-based podcast. “Ashley Wick invited guests to hang out in the live room and the simulcast rooms while we taped. It was a live-recorded podcast, which was really cool.”

Between upgraded tech and a malleable space, Stone Cottage’s new home has become as much a listening destination as it is a creative retreat.

This summer, Stone Cottage is offering concerts in both locations: indoors at the Pearl Street studio and outdoors in the garden behind the original North Boulder cottage at 3091 7th St. Both formats remain intentionally small, with indoor shows capped at 25 guests and outdoor gatherings welcoming up to 90.

Live at Stone Cottage Studios, the indoor series on Pearl offers seated, close-up, intimate concerts. Guests can expect appetizers, complimentary nonalcoholic drinks and a post-show meet-and-greet with the performers. The room is designed for warmth and clarity, with high-end gear and an emphasis on connection.

“Over the last few years, we’ve really carved out a niche in the singer-songwriter, folk, Americana scene along the Front Range,” said Maynard. “We’ve connected with a lot of Nashville artists, too. Liz Longley just came through, which was wonderful. And with Echoes from the Stone, I’ve made an effort to showcase a diverse mix of styles and voices, like Natasha Riley with more of an R&B sound.”

The Summer Outdoor Series, held behind the Maynard family’s original stone cottage in North Boulder, embraces a backyard-show aesthetic. Guests are encouraged to bring low-back chairs, food and drinks.

“My crazy family, we’ve been throwing shows there,” Maynard said. “It’s an 80 to 90 person cap, kind of a bring-your-own-low-chair, picnic blanket, hang-in-the-yard kind of thing.”

The season in North Boulder opens on June 6 with Nashville’s The Young Fables, a country-pop duo with an easy charm and a knack for emotional clarity. Austin’s genre-blurring Big Love Car Wash follows on June 14, joined by local openers William Thomas and guests from his Boulder folk-rock band River Mann.

July 11 brings a double bill with Nashville songwriter Maya de Vitry and Colorado’s Alexa Wildish, whose run on “The Voice” introduced her to a national audience. The final show on July 19 — at a Stone Cottage host location (one that backs up to the Mount Sanitas open space in North Boulder) at 3373 4th St., Boulder — will feature renowned Colorado songstress Megan Burtt’s new band Road Pony (which describes itself as “the country band with more twang than a banjo at a family reunion”) and California folk artist Dave Tate.

Tickets range from $32 to $38.

For those avoiding bugs, grass, or nature in general, Stone Cottage will also host one indoor performance at the Pearl Street studio, featuring Trouble’s Braids and The Ghost of Caroline. The latter, a Boulder-based duo made up of Anna Cutler and William Thomas, will open with harmony-rich folk and emotionally resonant storytelling. Boulder duo Oliver Franklin and Emily Pennington of Trouble’s Braids will bring a potent blend of lyric-driven folk. Tickets for that show are $28.20 in person or $10 for the livestream.

Beyond the summer, Maynard said they hope to expand Stone Cottage’s digital reach, continue curating standout talent-filled shows and one day host artists like Gregory Alan Isakov (“the absolute dream,” said Maynard) in a living room-sized setting.

But the core mission remains simple: elevate voices that deserve to be heard and nurture a space that feels grounded, intentional and human.

“It’s really just about supporting the local music scene, elevating it, and helping people tell their stories,” he said.