A Historic Meets Modern House Tour: a house log

When our good friend Noah Scalin (who happens to be a published author slash skull enthusiast) recommended that we check out his mom and dad’s remarkable house in Richmond’s hip downtown district called The Fan, we were intrigued. And when we got there we could not snap pictures fast sufficient. Chuck and Mim are both well known fine artists who used to live in NYC before relocating to their charming 100 year old Richmond home. And their enjoy of metropolitan loft-like living is obvious even in their historic casa. Let us have a virtual look around, shall we?

Here is the lovely exterior…

… and the entryway (complete with custom tile work commissioned by a fellow artist that Chuck & Mim adored).

This is their light and lovely living area complete with chairs that Chuck found on the street, thrift store items, a ton of Hands-on art, bartered accessories (trading is free, why not, right?) and even an item or two from Target. They also worked in art from various student exhibitions at VCU, which is a strong way to collect remarkable one of a kind pieces without draining the ol’ savings account. We enjoy that even though their house looks like it is full of bank-breaking antiques and reproduction pieces, it was all affordably acquired over time on the low-cost. Chuck even hired one of his handy art school students to patch missing boards in the home’s original flooring to save money (and support the arts, haha).

Here is their modest yet totally charming and functional kitchen complete with open shelving and a pleasant little peninsula with plenty of space to serve up a home cooked meal (or eat that whole mouthwatering pie like I hoped to do the whole time we were there).

We enjoy that the house itself is full of historic and stately details (like the vivid high ceilings and this remarkable staircase) while more modern furnishings and art still feel right at home. Gotta enjoy the whole mixed & matched thing when it is done right.

Chuck and Mim’s home truly is a testament that the style of your house (like their historic 1900’s home) does not have to dictate every item that you bring into it (since they have many modern, industrial, and clean-lined pieces it all feels cohesive and simply seems to “fit”). So simply because your house may be 100 years old does not mean every piece in it has to be an antique. We enjoy that Chuck and Mim can appreciate and seamlessly introduce a pleasant mix of objects both old and new.

And their artistic eye for special “moments” that they can create in a room is especially inspiring. Check out that glowing recessed rectangle in the wall below:

That is in fact a cool little niche they brought in that is backlit thanks to light streaming in from outside (it also has a light source below that illuminates the sleek rectangular pane of glass, even at night). It is such a strong place to display their fairly collection of glass bowls, plates, and vases. We simply enjoy that they took a detail-less solid wall and created a one of a kind feature.

We also enjoy the hallway that leads to their bedroom. See, the bedroom floor is dark while the area on the other side of the hallway has lighter bleached floors. So to keep things feeling cohesive instead of mismatched, Chuck and Mim opted to redo the hall flooring with both colors – so they flow right into each other. All while creating an eye catching transition. Genius.

They also lately tackled a big bathroom reno, where they not only designed a cool linear sink vanity (see those horizontal strips of wood on the front that create such a strong modern texture?) but also designed a totally vivid radiator cover with the same horizontally spaced strips to mimic the vanity. And they reused the original bathroom door. The doorknob was re-chromed and the interior panel of the door was took out, then recycled glass from a window originally above the radiator was inserted. Seriously, it was simply a vivid room (and of course we enjoy the work-with-watcha-got spirit). The thought they put into every little choice that they made was so inspiring.

It also felt truly open thanks to the large glass block panel that they brought in to let in loads of light (there used to be a door there, which led to an unused upstairs porch). And the addition of the nearly invisible floating glass shower enclosure and the rainhead fixture certainly made it an envy inducing space.

But simply in case you still doubt this duo’s Hands-on creativity, check out these remarkable metal doors that were inspired by this go-to designer of theirs. Chuck saw them in a design book and chose to recreate the cool checkerboard effect himself.

He simply taped off a bunch of squares (so that part of the door would stay smooth) and sanded the other exposed squares that were not taped off (to create that brushed look). Long modern Ikea handles polished things off nicely- without costing an arm and a leg.

And since these two are real-deal artists (they both have pieces in galleries and art shows in their honor) they in fact need and frequently use their studio space. Here is a peek into Chuck’s studio which bowled us over in the “collectable” category. Those vivid metal letters all come from store signage that used to hang right here in Richmond (he’s not afraid to drive over to shops that are undergoing a renovation and ask for their old letters). And his bevy of lively gadgets like flashlights and old school pencil sharpeners had us feeling all nostalgic. No wonder the man has no shortage of creativity when he’s surrounded by such lively things.

And we will leave you with one more Hands-on project that Chuck took on since it is too good not to share. After spotting an interesting (but über pricey) light in an upscale Paris design store, he chose to try to replicate something similar at a fraction of the cost. He saved up a ton of clear film canisters (which you can hunt down online, find at a local photography shop, or collect if you still use a camera that takes film) and poked small holes in the tops of each of them so he could thread a string of white holiday lights into them. This homemade mass o’ lights has moved around quite a bit (it is certainly a flexible “fixture”) and it now it sits in the corner of his big open living area, adding tons of glowing ambiance to the room (and making us feel even more drunk with Hands-on desire).

So there you have Chuck and Mim’s remarkable house right here in Richmond. They truly are two of the sweetest people around, so a large thank you goes out to them for opening their doors and letting us share their stunning home with all of you. We hope you’ve seen something that has you inspired. Wanna play the what is-your-go-to-part game? We are torn between those cool stainless doors, the one-of-a-kind radiator cover in the bathroom, the striped hallway, and that surprise cut out in the bedroom.

Psst- Why stop virtually barging into people’s homes now? Check out a slew of other inspiring spaces in our House Crashing gallery.