Name: Johnny & Stacie Slocum
Location: St. Paul, Minnesota
Size: 1300 square feet
Years lived in: 2.5
You may remember Johnny and Stacie's loft from a house call that we published in January. We were thrilled when they agreed to share some more photos of their converted warehouse space with us. It simply is a home that makes us happy - cheerful, sunny and special - we're glad to take a longer look.
From the spots of pink dotted throughout to the globe collection on the kitchen cabinets, you can tell that these are two people who think about the big picture visually (and yes, they are both artists - Johnny is a graphic designer and Stacie is an art teacher). The colors, patterns, furniture styles and shapes are arranged in a way that feels balanced, yet put together with enough quirkiness to keep things interesting.
Their artists eye also helps out when scouting deals - they love craigslist and have managed to furnish this inviting home with a mix of classics and contemporary pieces on a very thrifty budget while decorating it with artwork made by themselves and their friends and fellow artists in the twin cities art scene. A perfect collaboration!
Apartment Therapy Survey:
Our style: Modern and mid century fusion with a pinch of eclectic vintage
Inspiration: We are very inspired by mid century design and really appreciate the simplicity, materials, and functional beauty of that era. We love and are heavily influenced by color; and, as you can see from our apartment, are not afraid to use bold, bright colors in our space. We live in an artist cooperative, and believe that artists and all forms of art are a huge source of inspiration. We like collecting, creating, and living with handmade art and craft and having some sort of connection with the artist is even better.
Favorite Element: The architecture of the building is awesome. The tall ceilings, pine floors, and large wooden beams are beautiful and make a great canvas for interior design.
Biggest Challenge: The kitchen and bathroom counter tops as well as the fixtures and cabinets do not appeal to our design aesthetic. However, being renters has limited our choices due to the permanence and high cost of most options for improvement.
What Friends Say: Our friends love our space! They seem to appreciate our furniture and art collection the most, but they also enjoy the layout and look of the original space. They can't believe how clean we keep our space and they also love the swing and vintage pieces.
Biggest Embarrassment: The kitchen and bathroom cabinets and countertops. They are hideous and look cheap because they are.
Proudest DIY: Johnny built and designed the partner desks/screen-printing unit, shelf, and countertop in our art studio. It was incredibly cheap too because it's made from chip board!
Biggest Indulgence: Our Room and Board sofa, and that wasn't even that much of an indulgence. We're super thrifty, so we don't have to indulge much.
Best advice: Craigslist, Craigslist, Craigslist! We have found so many great deals on that website. Also, don't be afraid to do it yourself. That way you know the quality of the product and you can create or design it to your exact specifications.
Dream source: Thrift stores and Vintage Shops, Room and Board, Design within Reach, Blu Dot, and Etsy.
Resources:
Entrance: Flocked deer:Johnny, Vintage kids desk: art co-op "free pile"
Living area: Eames rocker: retro pete's vintage, Sofa: room & board outlet, tv stand: ikea, Strut square coffee table & Strut console table: Blu Dot, Rug: ikea, Knock-off Eames recliner and wassily chair: Craigs list, swing: ikea kids dept., Vintage Map: thrift store, arched Lamp: thrift store, blue mid century chair: Swank Retro vintage store, book shelf: ikea, Paintings: Stacie
Dining area: Stut X-Large Table: Blu Bot, Eames Shell Chairs: University of Minnesota Reuse Center, Deer Art: Johnny, Ceramics & Flower Painting: Stacie, Zenith console record player and radio: Craiglist, red rotary phone: art co-op "free pile"
Studio: Desks, shelf, and counter top: Johnny, baby blue real good chair: Blu Dot, Green office chair: Swank Retro, flat files: Craig's List
Kitchen: Island and Stools: ikea, Vintage Pyrex, Globes, cups: Thrift stores, Posters: Johnny
Bedroom: Midcentury Dresser: our parents, hot-pink deer lamp:Urban Outfitters, baby blue knock-off Eames shell chair:Animal Arc thrift store, blue trunk:artist co-op "free pile", night stands:ikea light-up shelves, dinosaur painting:Stacie original, octopus painting:wedding gift from artist Scott Bergmann, turtle woodblock print: Tugboat printshop
(Thanks, Johnny & Stacie!)
Images: Johnny & Stacie Slocum
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That little dog.
I love the dinosaur painting, and your little dog, too. There's a nice sense of light heartedness that is very appealing. Thanks for sharing.
How do you keep those globes in the kitchen from being covered with grease over time? I'd love to utilize the space on top my of kitchen cabinets but without fail it always gets sticky with combination of dust and grease from cooking.
"How do you keep those globes in the kitchen from being covered with grease over time? I'd love to utilize the space on top my of kitchen cabinets but without fail it always gets sticky with combination of dust and grease from cooking."
Not everyone cooks with grease.
I am curious as to how the bikes go and and down love to see that detail.
Otherwise, what a great space with nice pops of pink. Cute pupster too.
They have a swing! I want to live in an apartment with a swing. That'll never happen as long as I live in New York, but a girl can dream.
where is this! I am drooling over these Twin Cities loft spaces. I must have one.
Absolutely love the flocked deer in the entryway. I pup is sweet too.
Maybe we should degrease the globes!? No, we just dusted them not too long ago and they were fine.
The bikes come down with a ladder and pretty much stay down in the riding months.
Our dog Ruby is by far the best thing in our apartment!
J & S since the first time I entered your apartment I knew it belonged on AT with its very own tour. Congrats! Great to see it from a photographer's eye-view.
I love the fact that the kitchen cabinets WORK!!! I had ones like those in other apartments, and hated how dated they looked. THIS actually looks good! :D
Fun space! I love it when the art is light hearted and can just speak for itself. When I had those cabinets, I covered them with fabric wrapped around foam core i affixed the wrapped panels to the cupboard doors with self stick Velcro, and it held up fine and the adhesive came right off when i moved. That said, there is so much else going on it the loft that I think it works for the kitchen cabinets to just fade into the background.
Awesome pics! My favorite thing about your apartment... it is artistic, yet cozy and functional! Love your swing, little plants, new rug, fuzzy deer heads, and dinosaurs in the bedroom.
I saw your loft during the St. Paul Art Crawl and loved it! The deer-with-balloon-on-antler was the best, though you can't see it in these pictures - only in the painting next to it. Anyhow, well done!
PS- I have one of your prints hanging in my own home :)
cool tour. obviously creative people live there.
but I have to agree w/Mr. Cranky, what's with the fisheye shots? Annoying.
yay st. paul!!
Your orange armchair: I've got the same one, in turquoise velvet! What fabric is yours? And has it been re-upholstered? Thanks for those precious infos.
By the way, I'm in Montreal... this must be a "Northern" sofa"! :-)
Oops: I meant "Northern" armchair, of course.
I love the Eames shell chairs and rockers. I have been wanting several for years; however have never had the opportunity to sit in them for a dinner etc.
Are they comfy?
Thanks!
I really have something with this lofs... the height and the space are just gorgeus and who doesn't want a swing in their house!
I have made so many posts about my dream to live in a loft..
Man, there is some awesome light in that place. I live in a cave. And now I'm jealous.
Also, Im no photographer, but would it have been possible to see the space in that kind of round without the fisheye? It seems to have served the purpose of getting us closer to a 360 view in tight quarters.
Keep up the sweet vibe.
The Duke.
how fun with the bikes hanging there and the swing! so cute
I love Stacie's paintings, and also that Scott Bergmann piece! Don't suppose we can see more of both on line??
I absolutely adore the use of salvaged windows as art/barrier to the upper loft hallway! And, the stored bicycles actually serve as kinetic art, lifting your ch'i and improving your feng shui at the same time. Kudos!
LOVE the place, but really am in love with that orange chair. It isn't listing in your sources-am I to assume it's a craigslist find?
And also-how would the globes get greasy all the way up there? Can't see that.
love love LOVE your space!
What a fun, airy space to live!! Loved the tour, but the fisheye shots took away from the aesthetic. I was trying to focus in on the cool shelving you have, but the camera angle hurt my eyes. Beautiful Room and Board sofa! I live in Connecticut and once called the Room and Board 800 # to try to get info on the R & B outlet. I was looking to see if they had a credenza that I was in LOVE with but could not spend the $3,800 on (for the right savings I would have made the trip out there....or hired a trucking co to get it to me). Wish I lived near the R & B outlet! Looks like you have some great resources and local artists in your area! Thanks for sharing!!
They have a swing in the living room and a big pink painting of dinosaurs on their bedroom wall. What's not to love?
This home tour gives me the hope that when I get my loft in St. Paul, I, too, will have a swing in my living room.
A swing... or a hammock.
Thanks for the inspiration!
Love the living room and the playfulness of the kitchen. No me gusta the fish eye lens. It's like a Hype Williams video from 1997--no thanks.
Fun, fun, fun. I truly admire your home.
I'm also liking how the kitchen cabinets actually work. I can see living there how you might hate them, but with the light blue backdrop and globes it works well.
I am with LoriSF - I'd love to get a better sense of how the bike hanging system works - we've got ours stacked on a wall tower, but am always curious how other people solve the bike parking dilemma.
Ahh, never mind - saw that you wrote that the bikes are hung on hooks, not a pulley system. Thanks.
beautiful home. the whimsy of the swing, old stereophonic unit and multiple Eames blend beautifully. also the big floral wall art with the shelf is fantastic- got to 'emulate' that design trick at some point..
Love the place, gives a very arty feeling but still functional. Thanks for sharing it!
It sort of looks like a school. Metal-legged chairs and globes in every direction!
I love the octopus art.
chicagosue, thank you for pointing out how morally superior you are. I'm sure that Johnny and Stacie will read your comment and then stab themselves with the deer's antlers in remorse. Unfortunately, that will leave Ruby homeless.
Oh well, nothing's too harsh for people who don't adhere to your standards. By the way, do you realize that millions of insects die every day because of your selfish vegetable consumption? Caterpillars are people too, you know.
I'd rather see people use animal parts that aren't eaten for some other purpose than to have them wasted. I didn't see anywhere that it said that they actually killed that deer themselves.. if it's actually a real deer head. I wouldn't be surprised it it was a vintage/Craigslist find. Better to put something like that to use than have it end up in a landfill.
Such a great space, I adore the collection of tiny flocked deer, the lovely pops of color and the comfortable, warm and artistic space. Also, that is the sweetest little dog ever...:) Thank you so much for sharing your lovely home.
xo
Melissa
No, we did not kill the deer head. It was found in the first art room that I ever taught in, and then Johnny repurposed it into one of my all-time favorite works of art. You can't actually see it, but the deer head has a hot air balloon floating from one of the antlers, and the tag on the back said the deer is from the 1940's! Anyway, it's crazy to me that people will so cruelly jump to conclusions. We have much love for animals.
see more photos about Johnny and Stacie's
http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnnyandstacie/sets/72157623051101281/
http://www.decomyplace.com/user_album_view.php?id=2358
Love the dinosaur painting!
no to the deer head...just because I find that stuff gross and creepy.
love the rest of it though.
Juliescript, thanks for pointing out what few people think about. Billions of insects are killed in the production of rice alone...far more than the number of cattle killed. Death is a byproduct of almost all human endeavors; in the production of homes, furnishings, agriculture, road construction, transportion, clothing, on and on. It's cool if someone chooses to be vegetarian, but no one should feel superior for not consuming meat when they more than make up for it in the death of other sentient beings. I think awareness of and appreciation to all the life forms that sustain us is the most beneficial approach to a peaceful planet.
Killing for sport is a different sort of discussion. Something I would never do but it's not my call if others disagree.
There are lots of nice things to be said for the apartment. The airy lightfilled space, the touches of brick, the floors, the beams. I guess what I most like are "the bones". But the furniture feels a little too casual - it looks placed willy nilly and found willy nilly as well rather than brought together to mix well with what came before. Also, all those hard-seat, often plastic chairs don't come across to me as "cozy". The dog is a cutie but even he looks for the softest spots in the place! I found the kitchen the most coherent space in the loft.
@ centrd: I totally agree with your point on killing for sport, I think that a lot of people seem to forget that when people shoot deer or elk.. or even moose and stuff those heads, they *eat* the rest of them. Waste not, want not.
love the space, guys! really well done.
in response to UrbanSherp's question about bike storage, i've got a pulley system and it works really well. i bought it through amazon and it was $40. definitely worth it in my opinion.
here's a visual if you're interested: http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/chicago/house-tours/kevin-dops-house-tour-092391
These are people with a sense of humor. Love the art in the bedroom. The octopus is especially fun.
That color in the kitchen is awesome. I am going to ask for a new teakettle for my birthday. Also, our cat sleeps in that same exact spot on our sofa, that this dog does on their sofa. But sometimes she falls down between the cushions.
i love the african animal toys on the back of the stove! :) whimsical!
the only thing i don't get...why so many random chairs? it just seems a little excessive to have chairs pointed every which way. do you really use the blue chair perched between two doorways? or is it just an accessory. a table might be better. anyway, just struck me as visually odd to have obviously unused chairs all over.
otherwise, fun and bright and cheerful! :)
love,
www.thevintagescene.com
Like your space - btw fisheye made my head spin - deer head icky but I guess it appeals to you - overall would be a nice place to call home
Just thought I'd jump back in with a quick "I love the deer head."
As a fellow St. Paulite, it's nice to see one artfully decorating a home, and not on the side of Highway 5 by the airport, fleeing the floodwaters.
It goes surprisingly well with the pine floors. Just glad you didn't go all "I use antlers in all of my decorating" with it. That would have been waaaay too much!
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The photos of that warehouse feel warm and sunny , they made really good job converting it.
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