The Modern House with a Soul
So I started to tell you about the Modern Atlanta Home Tour yesterday but I didn’t get very far! I wanted to show you more from my favorite home that I saw on the tour (stairs described yesterday are pictured above). By the way, I only made it to five. I’d say five to six is the maximum you can really see when driving from place to place in a five hour time limit. It’s exhilarating but also exhausting. Also, once in Decatur my car automatically drove me to Victory Vintage, and I stopped by my house for a snack before visiting the house down the street. That’s how I roll.
O.K. So first, the architects who live in the house with a soul also designed this house around the corner (photos immediately above and below). It’s absolutely gorgeous, and the inhabitants have a smart mix of high end items and art and IKEA. I just found myself wondering if all the stuff they usually keep out was smushed in the “not part of the tour” closed door rooms, or if they are really this strictly minimal. That’s cool if they are, I just know that I could not accomplish such discipline in a million years:
I’m really glad I saw the house #1 first. It was the place where I could focus more on the views, the light, the poured concrete floors and other materials like the handrails, stairs, rubber tiles on the roofdeck, etc. I then headed over to the home designed and owned by the same architects who designed house #1 and I just about fell over in awe. Not only was the design beautiful, astute, and thoughtful, but the personality of the designers/owners shone through so clearly. As a folk art fan, I was blown away by their collection and the way it was displayed. When I told the owner how much I liked it, he said they didn’t even know all that much about it, that what they had really enjoyed was meeting the artists and getting to know them. They are very lucky, as Mose T., Howard Finster, and R.A. Miller are no longer with us.
Anyway, while I can think of so many worse and pretentious motivations for collecting art, I can’t possibly think of a better one, and it really touched me. This is exactly why I have more Missionary Mary Procter and Chris Clark paintings than I possibly have wall space for at the moment.
While you could tell this very talented couple had lots of architecture school experience of hanging work up in a perfectly arranged manner for juries, you could also tell that nothing was too precious, and that they were not afraid to experiment, say “nah, that doesn’t work,” and try again (I assume). Not to sound too New-Agey or Oprah-ish, but there was a vibe and an energy in this place that made me want to beg like The Herlihy Boy to be their house-sitter. Or to have them adopt me and put me in this great room:
Well, I suppose I could go on all day; I will continue sharing more of the tour tomorrow! If you want a preview, more of my bad-mediocre photos are finally up on flickr, right here.
May 13th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
Thanks for bringing the Modern Atlanta Home Tour to us here in Massachusetts. Fun to see the homes “through your eyes”—-can’t wait to see where you take us tomorrow. Fabulous Tour!
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:33 am
You are my favorite blogger!
Thanks for the kind words - they are very encouraging. We like to infuse livability into our projects.
Let’s talk about house sitting if you are interested. There are two red dobermans that come along with the deal.
Thank you - Jose