Name: Sasha Barr & Meagan Claire Hall
Location: Seattle, Washington
Size: 1,250 square feet
Years lived in: Just one!
In all of our house tour history on Apartment Therapy, I don't think we've ever had the honor of featuring a home that has so much creative energy under one roof. Not because the home is full of crazy, cool items (which it is) or because there's things up that you don't see anywhere else (which there are), but because tenants Sasha Barr and Meagan Hall hold the ability to make just about anything between the two of them. They're the first renters after the original tenants in their 1950's home and there's all sorts of found items that came with the place that are displayed right along side their own goods!
Sasha and Meagan together make up Wonder Thunder (which you've seen featured on ReNest in the past) and create all sorts of handmade housewares. Everything from pillows to reusable veggie sacks and more! Meagan also works for a local jewelry designer and studies herbal science.
Separately, Sasha Barr leads his own life in the art world creating gig posters and doing freelance illustration and design work, as well as finding time to work with record label, Sub Pop. You can check out his work on his website, This is the New Year. Their home is functional for their intense art needs and although the top floor of their home is quite vintage and homey, the basement is their art lair and studio. The separation between the two sections of their home is something many artists don't get the chance to have and usually end up living amidst the screen printing gear and projects that cover their kitchen table for months at a time.
The previous home owners left behind an antique store worth of treasures and vintage finds, many of which they've incorporated into their space, paying tribute to what was and using the feel to influence the work that they produce. Look for personal touches throughout the space (like family photos in the cat's corner) and a beautiful mix of eclectic items that make this space feel lived in, used, loved and best of all — fun!
Apartment Therapy Survey:
Our style: Goodwill retro with a country flair. Our tastes are a weird mix of handmade objects, Goodwill bargains, free stuff on the side of the road, and the occasional contemporary piece of furniture to remind us that it's 2010.
Inspiration: Old cookbooks, natural history museums, vintage fabric, and our Tennessee roots.
Favorite Element: It's a toss up between the Frigidaire Flair stove, the vaulted ceilings, the corner fireplace, and the leftover possessions of the elderly woman who used to own the house. Basically, all of the vintage finds that were already in the house when we moved in.
Biggest Challenge: Trying to decorate around those aforementioned built in vintage aspects of the house. We want to feel at home, not like we're in a Mary Tyler Moore time capsule.
What Friends Say: "What's with these creepy old boxes of antique underwear and matching pajamas in the basement?" or "You should buy this place."
Biggest Embarrassment: The mysterious hornet infestation of last summer. We can't get rid of them in these summer months. Hard to entertain with stinging insects flying around...
Proudest DIY: When we moved in the entire basement was just a neglected mess. There was a strange little bar room/speak easy and a cluttered workshop filled with every handyman object you can imagine. We threw out what needed to go, repainted it green from the dingy brown, hung some pictures, and made it into our Wonder Thunder workspace. Even though it's a basement, it's comfortable and cozy, so we don't mind the hours we have to spend down there.
Biggest Indulgence: We probably spent too much money on the couch. Coincidentally, we're looking to find it a new home. If anyone in Seattle would like it, make us an offer!
Best advice: We're big proponents of buying second hand. New furniture costs too much, and there's plenty of old and interesting furniture and objects that will make your place one of a kind. Plants are nice, too.
Dream source: "The House Book" by Terrence Conran or oddity museum collections.
Resources:
Seattle Goodwills, Space Oddity,The House, The Re-Store, Earthwise Salvage, Second Use, The Palm Room, Craigslist, Etsy, free stuff on the side of the road, and all of our friends and family that make art.
(Thanks, Sasha & Meagan!)
Images: Sasha Barr
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Homemade Home: Great DIY Projects for Bedrooms from Our Tours
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Dippy Pink Rug
Wordy Thirty: A Literary Food-Themed Dinner Party
Summer Recipe: No-Bake Strawberry Icebox Cake
Comments (38)
I have that same sewing machine cabinet - the one with the vintage telephone on it, next to the gold chair. Love your home...some of the stuff looks much like that which is in MY home!
i was thinking the same thing about the sewing machine.
i just took the machine out of the table yesterday because it wasn't working.
also, i have a similar chair and identical suitcase....i might steal the arrangement =)
that's a lot of stuff. sorry to see there's no bedroom or bathroom. But, um, yay for stuff?
Love the kitty, and the tantrum toast cushion. Wish there were more photos of rooms rather than so many vignettes, but oh well....
First of all, YAY FOR SEATTLE!
Second of all, cool house. People, once again, click on "view thumbnails" and there are more pictures. Most of them are workspace/office, though, not bedroom and bath.
Lastly, who can resist the slide-out cooktop?
It is always nice to see another Seattle person. Love the hand book ends and doll head planter. It would be so much fun if we could have a monthy get-gether here in Seattle and have a potluck to enjoy each other's finds and inspire one another. Anybody interested? olameow@gmail.com
This place is really fantastic. All of it is reused and done so beautifully. You don't need to buy a heap of new stuff when there is perfectly cool, solid "retro" stuff all around us. Brava!
The doll head planter scares me. Other than that, I love this place!
what price range are you looking to sell the couch? I love it!
That is crazy-awesome. I especially love the cat bed. I'm afraid the doll's head planter is going to give me nightmares, though.
The Frigidaire Flair! I bought a house with one and first thought - gotta redo this kitchen and get rid of that thing! Now, I think - gotta redo this kitchen AROUND that thing! LOVE IT! I watch craigs list to buy one for parts.
Love your place!
Can you give us some info on your hardwood floors?
groovey stuff. where's the apartment?
Yay, a Seattle tour!
It is very tidy ... which is just as well. Thanks for the tour.
When I saw the first picture with the bookshelves I couldn't help thinking, "If this is AT's idea of "crazy", what do they think 'restrained' looks like?"
But then, I entered the tour... Crazy? No. Creative? In the details. Inspiring? oh yes! I love the way in which they arrange seemingly random objects so that you feel like you are peering in on some kind of imaginary world and something is about to happen! I'm thinking of the image that I've already 'named' "Toby Jug-ular" and I don't usually put names to pictures like that (love the snail btw!), but also miniature scenarios seem to pop up here and there throughout the place and it gives it a sense of there being more than one 'world' existing within the same space (excuse my babbling - strong coffee and enthusiasm!).
The cat bed is really wonderful, so snug and I'm not usually big fan of doll's heads but I certainly like the way in which they have 'repurposed' theirs! Are those globe light shades next to it, btw?
I have to ask something though. The plant hanging from the ceiling, over the coffee table, WHAT IS IT??? It looks exactly like one that I saw twenty years ago, which I was told at the time was called "Mother of Thousands" but I haven't been able to track it down since... :( If anyone could tell me what it is, I would really, REALLY appreciate it!!!
More of a "stuff tour" than a house tour. Nice basement, where's the house?
Im with eiw....this is not a house tour....this is a "stuff tour". I know what their vignettes look like....no clue/sense of what the home actually looks like. Less up close shots please, more cohesive room shots.
Ditto on the comments about too many vignette photos - It looks like an amazing home, and I'm envious of what I can see. But I can't see the HOUSE... just hteir cool collections.
love that baby doll head planter... you've inspired me to make my own
Looks like a beautiful home, I just wish I could see more of the home, and less of the stuff.
Too bad the pics concentrate on your basement craft area and junk collection.
Hurrah for Seattle! - And I love the dolls head planter, even if it is a little bit Sid-from-Toy-Story creepy
I too echo that while the photos are nice and this looks like a great start to introducing interesting people, I really wanted to see the house rather than the things. Your things tell a great deal though, and thanks for sharing none-the-less!
Thanks for all the positive comments. We tried to take the best shots we could of our space. We really spend the majority of our time in the studio, kitchen, and living room, so I just concentrated on that. These are the biggest and most spacious rooms in the house, the bedrooms and bathrooms are incredibly difficult to photograph well because of their size and layout. We unfortunately don't know the make of the hardwood floors, sorry! The globes next to the baby doll planter are handblown glass terrarium orbs our friend made for us. We also can't remember what the hanging plant is called, we've had it for a while! We live in the Ballard neighborhood, btw.
The range is similar to a Tappen Fabulous 400 electric counter top stove/oven with fold out cutting board (since scrapped) that was part of a kitchen remodel the original owners of my 1951 house did in 1964.
I would not feel comfortably in this house at all.. especially with this doll staring at me.. ugghh..
Really not intersted in all that "stuff" more pictures of the rooms would be nice - I think.
Ah, wonderthunder! Unfortunately I live in the London neighbourhood, otherwise I'd be on your doorstep, begging a cutting from you! :)
that cat house made me laugh! pictures on the wall, really? sweet...
I'd really like to see some full shots of the kitchen. The little details are intriguing but give no idea of the space and how it hangs together.
My Grandmother had that same exact stove! I haven't seen another like that until today. She also had a fridge that hung on the wall like cabinets. Thanks for the memory trip.
Cute place. I can see that you two are passionate about your digs! This type of tour keeps things from getting too predictable on AT. Score one for the kitsch folks. (P.S. I'm a decor guy)
so, what's the house look like?
The house my parents had while I was a kid had a Frigidaire Flair stove.
There were several items I recognized in the photos that an aunt or uncle or my grandparents had while I was growing up in rural Iowa.
Thank you for sharing your lovely home and bringing back some childhood memories for me!
Great house, great energy!
I just moved to Seattle-- and I need a couch! I love yours... are you still considering selling it?
Love that Bookcase... mind sharing where you got it?
"I have that same sewing machine cabinet - the one with the vintage telephone on it, next to the gold chair."
Me too. It houses my mom's old sewing machine that I learned to sew on.
I have to agree with previous commenters...this is more a vignette tour than a home tour. It looks like a fun place. Would have been nice to see more of the actual rooms.