Open House
Cool & Collected
Stroll up the walkway toward an enthusiastically red front door and you know there’s something fun and funky going on inside. The clue is five extra-large round panels, mounted along the exterior pathway, displaying 1950s artwork from a book on how to date, each with a chuckle-worthy caption.
That’s just a teaser of what’s to come. Get ready for an explosion of color, whimsy and humor decorating almost every square inch of this artfully wacky home.
Tony and Donna Natsoulas, both avid art collectors and mid-century modern enthusiasts, had their hearts set on a retro house when they stumbled upon this 1,563-square-foot Streng Bros. home built in 1963.
Home Studios
“This is my commute,” says Sacramento artist Judith Johnson, locking the back door behind her. We walk together through a lush backyard garden, pausing briefly to study a reflecting pool busy with mosquito fish and a tall cinderblock barrier that wards away the sounds of an adjacent railroad.
“When I built the studio, I build it so that I had to leave the house and lock the door behind me,” Johnson says. “So it's like going to work every day. And that's pretty much how I treat it.”
Before moving to Sacramento in 2016, Johnson lived in Austin, Texas, where she worked as an investigator for the Texas attorney general for 30 years. Painting has always been a constant in her life. “For about 15 years, I was painting and putting them in closets and boxes,” Johnson says. “I didn't have the emotional strength to deal with the business side of art while working full time.”
On a Grand Scale
Vine-covered arches and vintage brickwork. Quaint gabled dormers. Hand-blown antique glass windows. Storybook turrets.
The English-style Tudor, built in 1938, is the creation of famed architect and builder Frank “Squeaky” Williams—and was once home to Sacramento native and renowned author Joan Didion and her family.
Natural Force
In 1933, the United States Steel Corporation developed a very special steel. Some clever marketeer dubbed it corten, referring to its corrosion resistance and tensile strength.
This steel alloy was unique in that it used oxidation to its advantage. As corten rusts, it develops a protective layer, removing the need for paint or expensive weathering treatments. Akin to terra-cotta and adobe, corten steel’s natural patina lends anything built with it an earthiness that is irresistible.
Creative Conversions
When Jim Darke first moved into his house in South Land Park in 2019, he knew immediately he would convert the garage into an art studio.
The painter and cartographer downsized from his former home in Little Pocket, but knew he still wanted a space where he could spread out his art materials. Though he has a studio at Arthouse on R, he does most of his work in his reimagined garage.
Outdoor Living
As a landscape architect, Bill Roach puts a great deal of importance in his outdoor living space. When a past-its-prime ranch house in Arden Park came up for sale, Roach and his partner looked beyond the tired structure to the spacious backyard with limitless potential.
“The lot was one of the things that made us pull the trigger on buying this house,” which sits on more than three-quarters of an acre, Roach says. But in addition to the ramshackle home, “the backyard was also very scary.”