See Inside This Sculptor’s Incredibly Colorful Art-Filled Mid-Century Modern Home
Name: Tony Natsoulas and wife
Location: Sacramento, California
Type of home: House
Size: 1500 square feet
Years lived in: 18 years, owned
Describe your home’s style in 5 words or less: Mid-Century Modern with contemporary art
Tell us a little (or a lot) about your home and the people who live there: In 2002, sculptor Tony Natsoulas exhibited at Crocker Art Museum and sold six pieces. He and his wife, Donna, put the proceeds toward a down payment on their Streng home by American River College. Ever since, the open wall and surface space has been dwindling at an exponential rate, as the avid collectors have curated—and continue to enrich—nearly every square inch with artwork and tchotchkes they love.
“We surround ourselves with what we love—and who we love,” says Tony, who counts many of the artists displayed in their home as friends and mentors, including Roy De Forest, Wayne Thiebaud, Fred Babb, David Gilhooly, Clayton Bailey and Paul DiPasqua. Robert Arneson, one of Tony’s professors, actually willed a ceramic vase to him, and a self-portrait of the artist also anchors the living room.
“Our style is figurative, humorous, and colorful,” says Tony. This kind of art is perfectly at home in the mid-century modern house, along with its more “functional” fixtures, like the bubble-gum-pink washer and dryer, kaleidoscopic bathrooms, and era-appropriate furniture inherited from Donna’s grandmother and the former owner of the house. “The artwork doesn’t move; we live around it,” says Donna, relaxing in her Eames-style lounge chair as the nearby “burping bowl” water feature billows an intermittent air bubble.
What is your favorite room and why? Our living room/dining room because it houses most of our art collection.
Any advice for creating a home you love? Surround yourself with things you love.
See more of Tony’s house on his website.
This submission’s responses have been edited for length and clarity.