I'm impressed. I barely noticed the house because I was busy looking at everything inside it. Not everything is to my taste, but it seems nicely pulled-together and reflective of the owner's personality and enthusiasms. It's colorful, warm, very quirky, and unpretentious.

There have been a few similarly nondescript "builder's special" homes featured in house tours recently and they have not succeeded nearly as well as Curlin. There's really no excuse now.

Very, very inspiring. Makes me want to buy more original artwork. I wish I could afford such things.

I love it - all the artwork, the color, and esp. the clown shoes.

thanks for all your lovely comments! it's fun seeing your own home through someone else's eyes. I'm all about affordable art. My art as well as those people whose art i collect is typically anywhere from $50 on up. Especially easy to find at local independent indie craft fairs!

Love the drum shade lamp in the DR -- also the orangey-couch. Where from?

Terrific! So warm and interesting...and the bird pillows = true love for me! Some of the floors look like stained or polished concrete -- are they?

I'll be bookmarking this house tour as a favorite.

I am awed by the art. Sublime. Oh my.

wow, where do you find 2500 sq feet in austin? definitely not downtown.....lucky duck.

oh my! well isn't this just fun and imperfectly perfect. i know curlin personally and she is one of the most creative thinkers and warm people i know. she's one-of-a-kind and the cozy home she shares with her lovely family is, too. nice feature, apt therapy.

I love this house tour, living room/kitchen envy. So many interesting things to look at that make you want to smile.

Fantastic home.

well, you certainly have a lot of cool stuff. 90% of these pictures are of the cool stuff that you have. but does this - and may other posts on this site - actually constitute a "house tour"? even after 30 pictures i still don't know what the rooms as a whole look like, how they connect, what pulls them together.

i think the AT editors need to be more discerning in what sort of content they allow for house tours. it seems like 4 out of 5 of them these days are just pics of objects and not rooms. and though the objects are often great i usually feel a little confused and let down after looking through the pics.

this isn't really a criticism of your space -- which i think is super cute and very stylish. i guess it's more a critique of the trend i see in the way house tours are done on this site. perhaps this comment would be better as a letter to an AT editor rather than in your post, but oh well..

Lots of points for originality and unexpected touches. A real feast for the eyes.

@ duckumu: I definitely agree with your first two points.

As for this post... sorry, but I didn't get past the first picture with the ridiculous clown shoes.

I;m with duckumu.
The bit that I got of the sense of your house, I have to say that it really is lovely. I'm also a huge fan of art, pretty much any art, so seeing it is always a pleasure.
But it's nonetheless a disappointment when you wish to see more of a space and end up looking at one vignet after another. It was more of a showcase of your art pieces than of your home.

Wanted to respond to those of you with questions:

the organgey couch: purchased about ten years ago...i think i ordered the couch from baker and i'm not sure, but i think the fabric is pierre frey???

the floors that look like stained concrete are actually a concrete resin overlay that was installed/applied directly on top of pre-existing white tile flooring. a company here in austin called Mungle Brothers did the work. It was a very affordable option compared to pulling up all the tile and putting something else down.

thanks for asking...

I want to live in Fort Fallopian!

"Fort Fallopian", ha ha.

Things I am drooling over:
-the apple green ironware on the stove
-the giant hanging over the computer desk
-the painting over the mantel with the four blobby shapes (who's the artist?)
-the sitting area in the master bedroom
-the donkey in the loo
-the first photo of the clown shoes kills me.

I realize that my comment sounds a bit snotty, but I didn't mean it to be rude. LOL. I do like the orange chairs and the large hanging of the crowd.

i love the sense of humor in your place. I really enjoyed this house tour, thank you. I would love to know where you got the orange throws and pillows with the floral pattern, what the counter material in the studio is (thick white one) and also a brief description on the cabinets. I love them and it sounds like you designed them yourself! Are they birch? Did you construct them yourself?

more answers to your questions!!

-the painting over the mantel with the four blobby shapes (who's the artist?)--

my son, Preston. he created that when he 1st grade. He was working on it so intently...when we asked what it was, he looked at us and said..."it's four ninjas."
love that boy.

next quesiton:
would love to know where you got the orange throws and pillows with the floral pattern-

-these are my very favorite blankets in the world from a company called David Fussenegger http://www.davidfussenegger.com/ very reasonably priced, so comfy and machine washable. love 'em.

next question: counter material in the studio is (thick white one) and also a brief description on the cabinets:

counter in the studio is formica. plain old white home depot variety. i designed the cabinets to make the most use of the storage space under the eaves. i wanted lots of storage for art supplies. they were built by a cabinet maker and installed. i designed the cut outs for pulls. just about drove my contractor nuts when he realized i wanted a certain shape...and not just a perfect semi-circle.

beautiful home--you can tell its full of love and personal touches

I too, however, am growing tired of all the close-up/vignette shots. True, being able to create those small moments is important to good design--but so is cohesiveness...and you can't discern cohesiveness with a bunch of close-up shots. AT home tours should have at least 2 full-view shots of each room...then a couple close-ups to highlight the most interesting parts. We shouldn't have to guess how all the little pieces fit together in the room

I'm seconding duckumu and abc123 about the home tour photos.

I was looking through www.lonnymag.com (Domino 2.0) and noticed that in their layouts, they have a mix of whole room/large space shots with a few close-ups. This really works in print/online print, and perhaps the AT editors could look at that as a model for whole room: stuff ratio?

Where is the drum lampshade with the orange flowers from?? I NEED it!

A tip of the hat to you, your lovely home and to the many artists and their work so wonderfully displayed here.

This is a home filled with humour and wit and warmth at every turn. I adore every quirky touch in your home. It's lovely and so much to smile at!

I am so loving the wedding drawing and commissioned sculptures. What a great gift.

Wonderful house; I love it!

What is the paint color (the yellow) on the walls in the first photo, the one with the chair and clown shoes? Any info would be appreciated.

I do not like this, I hate clowns! They scare me.

This is the most original, whimsical, wonderful living space ever posted on AT. I love your sense of style and fun Curlin! Thanks for sharing.

Seems like the homes featured from Austin are fun, whimsical, and very creative...it would be great to see more! This home is very original.

Agreed that it's hard to tell the actual layout of the spaces. I think captions for the thumbnails might have helped. I would've liked to get a sense, esp. of the studio, as a whole.

Very charming, creative, individual home! Wish I could see more.

more answers to questions:

don't be skeert by the idea of clowns in my house...i use the term metaphorically and with great affection. "some clown (aka: fellow, gentleman, cur, bounder, fella) kicked off his shoes and is hanging out in my house..." I am the only gal in my house of man-cubs & hubby.

the darling bird pillows...are by
http://www.clarenicolson.com/dollybirds.html
there were actually 5 to begin with...a yellow labrador i know has "retrieved" 3! argh.

paint througout house: once upon a time there was a color by benjamin moore called: sugar cookie. another one called cashew. these were my starting points. i cannot remember the name of the color i used this time.

Thanks for sharing, this is beautiful and fun.

I do not know what some of you are talking about. There were several long shots of rooms and rooms leading into rooms. Sure, you don't have a complete layout of the home, but I love to see people's collections and artwork and how they display them. It gives me ideas! I love this house, and this is truly something since I find clowns to be quite scary. Better to see a pair of clown shoes by a formal chair than a clown painting on the wall! (And as I say this, I realize that there are plenty of people who love clown paintings!)

I see from Pic 8 that there was a fire at Disneyland. Only 4 dwarfs seem to have made it out :(

hilarious post about the dwarves!!! they are actually the only dwarves remaining from a set my mother had as a little girl. they're made of that weird rubber that is now hard and crumbly with age.

i love the quirkiness of your place! what great storage and picture/art display ideas you've demonstrated! and the art by your son for the wedding...hilarious! i love that you had that made into sculptures. very clever and unique. thanks for sharing.

I'm new to AT, and yours is the home that I always describe to get others to come to this site. I love the clown shoes, your amazing art, and your original choices. Your blobby shape Ninja art ispired me this week. My 7 year old students help me make owl art for my new kitchen. It's brilliant!

wonderful home

I love, I love, I just love your house. This is so far the my top one on the list!!!
Thanks for sharing!!