What made you choose this home? Were there elements that you were drawn to? Does your home help you channel creativity?
My partner and I rent this house. It's affordable, allows for both of us to have studios, and it has 1917 charm. Also, it didn't hurt that, for whatever reason, peacocks happen to roam this particular South Austin neighborhood.
Our landlord has kept his rent at a reasonable rate in hopes of fostering a little oasis for creatives. He wants tenants involved in the creative industry who love and want to take care of this house, and in some way, make it their own. A concept that has probably all but died since the 1970s.
This house is outfitted with beautiful carpentry by a former tenant who was a carpenter, a somewhat self-sustaining A-frame in the backyard built by a hippie couple that eventually moved to Mexico, and little wabi-sabi touches all over. These features give you glimpses into lives lived out in this little artists' haven.
The wood floors, the exposed brick in the kitchen where a fireplace used to be, the clawfoot tub, and all the special little quirks that surely would have been erased if a new property owner were to take over. In this way, this house does help channel creativity. It's a safe space for me and also serves as a revolving door for all of our friends who regularly bring their instruments, their cameras, or their fresh batch of tepache that they've brewed. I certainly feel like this home has felt like a second home for many of our friends to create in as well.
Home design, to me, is just an extension of how I express myself. What I do in my studio and the headspace that I go into doesn't just stop when I leave the four walls of my studio; it naturally seeps into the things around me.
Maybe our home's most intentional design aspect is using our collection of records and stereo system as the focal point of the living room area. Music is a large part of my day-to-day life as both an influence and daily necessity.