Photography by Carmen Troesser
St. Louis native Frankie Muriel performs close to 200 shows a year. As the lead singer of Dr. Zhivegas, he’s constantly on the road, playing sold-out concerts in venues across the country. When he’s back in town, he needs his home to be a place where he can rest and recharge.
“There’s always a half-packed suitcase in the bedroom,” says Muriel. “I spent a lot of the early part of my career living in hotels, going to resorts, and you start thinking, When I come home, I’d love this…”
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Photography by Carmen Troesser
Frankie Muriel
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Photography by Carmen Troesser
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Photography by Carmen Troesser
This is Muriel’s second house on The Hill, the historic Italian neighborhood known for its narrow single lots. In 2018, he was in the market to build on a double lot but when that didn’t work out, he settled for one. After the necessary easements were taken into account, the house would measure about 20 feet wide.
In 2018, on a trip to California, Muriel noticed that a house he was visiting was about the same width as his on The Hill would have to be—and yet its floor plan and ocean views made it feel spacious. Back in St. Louis, designer and client took inspiration from that Malibu home and settled on a plan that included an open-concept kitchen (Muriel loves to cook.) and a living room with glass-panel doors that lead into a courtyard.
“The size of the lot was the biggest challenge,” says the interior designer Diane Mantovani, principal at Savvy Design Group. Since 2015, she and Muriel have worked together on several projects, including a lake house and beach house. The two have built an easy rapport based on trust. “Frankie prefers large-scale pieces, and he likes big sofas and big chairs,” says Mantovani. “To get the right pieces to fit into a smaller space took planning… and he had a lot of things from his travels that he wanted to incorporate.”
The color black is a design element seen throughout the house, beginning with the front door, which is lacquered black; the designer hired an automotive paint specialist to achieve the desired high-shine aesthetic. “A dark color will weather in rain and snow and humidity,” says Mantovani, “but Frankie wanted the house to be as low-maintenance as possible.” By choosing car paint, which is formulated to hold up to the elements, Mantovani ensured minimal upkeep for Muriel and a gleaming front door for years to come.
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Photography by Carmen Troesser
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All three floors of the interior are painted in Sherwin-Williams’ Tricorn Black or Web Gray. The entryway is decorated with black-and-gold Art Deco tile and the main-floor powder room is papered in embossed faux black crocodile wallpaper by Graham & Brown. The monochrome aesthetic extends to what Muriel wears: Upstairs, a glimpse inside the main closet reveals a wardrobe of everything from black Tom Ford dress shirts to black H&M separates.
The home’s central courtyard, with its heated pool that can be enjoyed year-round, is an oasis of sparkling blue water with custom light features.
A mural on its west wall incorporates a swirling pattern—the home’s most visible use of color—inspired by the drumhead used by the late Frank Muriel, Muriel’s father, throughout his own musical career. Mantovani hired artist Susan Greene of Paint Imagery to replicate it as a surprise housewarming gift. (The original drumhead is framed on a wall in the living room, near a painting by Muriel’s mother, Sarah Muriel.)
Past the courtyard, in a separate building, is a sound studio. Early in the pandemic, he quickly had the space soundproofed and moved his studio from another nearby location.
“I’m used to working at all hours of the night and being as loud as I want to be, and so it’s all designed so that there’s no sound transmission,” he says.
Another item on Muriel’s wish list: a theater room, which Mantovani decided to put in the basement. The singer’s prized collection of Clase Azul tequila lines the shelves of a bar—an idea he picked up at a bar in Newport Beach, California.
The room features images from Muriel’s decades-long career. Muriel rounded up nearly 1,000 photographs from his years as a musician, then winnowed them down to the 32 that were most meaningful to him. The narrative arc begins with his early days as a singer with the St. Louis–based band King of the Hill and ends with a cartoon of Muriel from a recent collaboration with the German band Shameless.
“There were images that I thought would be great on the wall, but he was, like, No, it’s always the story behind the picture. It’s the gig or the city or the people who were there or something that happened that make all of those special to him,” says Mantovani.
“With Dr. Zhivegas, it’s been 27 years, and it’s still going strong,” says Muriel. “It’s a lot of shows, a lot of memories, thousands and thousands of faces.”
Muriel had just returned from a month on the road, including a stint in North Carolina, and was headed to the Ozarks for more shows in just a few hours. “They still come,” he says, speaking of his fans. “I’m very grateful for that.”
