Photography by Carmen Troesser
Dan and Sarah Mirth
Buying a home sight unseen is always a gamble, but it paid off for Dan and Sarah Mirth. During the young couple’s house-hunting days seven years ago, they quickly learned how fast a home can disappear from a seller’s market. So when a fixer-upper with loads of charm was listed in The Grove, they wasted no time.
“Our realtor, who is a friend, said, ‘This house just came on the market, put an offer in and go a little over asking now and worry about seeing it later,’” says Sarah. The next morning, the couple got a text from the realtor: “Do you want to come see the house you just bought and make sure you want it?”
“The house was a good balance of needing to be renovated but not starting from scratch,” says Dan. “I think the more we got into it,” Sarah recalls, “the more [we realized the scope of renovations].”
The couple’s bold leap into homeownership was one is a series of major life decisions that coincided at roughly the same time. In 2014, the Mirths launched Artifox, a local furniture brand committed to crafting beautiful high-quality pieces merging form and function. The company was inspired by a desk Dan built for himself featuring clean lines and a sleek aesthetic, as well as such functional elements like a cable grid to hide wires and cords. Artifox has since expanded to offer a variety of desks and desk accessories, multipurpose benches, and tables, among other pieces, all made in America.
Before co-founding the company, Dan earned degrees in engineering and graphic design and worked as a freelance designer. He comes from an entrepreneurial family—his parents ran their own furniture business—so creating his own, albeit one turning out much different furniture than what his folks sold, didn’t seem like such a risk.
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Photography by Carmen Troesser
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Photography by Carmen Troesser
Sarah holds degrees in interior design and architecture. She pivoted from full-time work as an architect in a global firm to developing the new venture with Dan. Their backgrounds, coupled with the lessons they were learning as new business owners, gave them confidence to renovate their home.
Built in the late 1880s, the house was originally configured as a two-family dwelling. At some time during its history, it had been converted into a single-family home, but one of the two staircases had not been safely updated. Glass-block partitions on the main floor and drop ceilings in the kitchen and living and dining rooms—indicated that someone had likely renovated in the 1980s.
Right away the Mirths tore out the drop panels, returning the ceilings to their original height, and demolished those partitions to create an open-concept kitchen/dining/living area. They preserved the mantel in the former living room and added a half-bath and laundry room off the kitchen. The couple also decided to replace wood floors throughout the house. Sarah had a vision for how to lay out three bedrooms and two full baths in 1,800 square feet on the second floor. “Being able to fit in all those pieces was really fun and challenging,” she says. Her expert planning even eked out the space for a compact bathtub in the master bath. The master bedroom features a roomy deck overlooking the landscaped backyard and a new garage that Dan built with the help of family and friends.
The home’s aesthetic is modern and minimalist, with touches of Scandinavian inspiration, as well as such signature Artifox pieces as a media bench in the living room and a stand-up desk in the upstairs office. Light, bright, and inviting, the Mirths’ home marries the couple’s personal aesthetic with the warmth and character of their Victorian-era abode.
