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Photo by Alise O'Brien
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Photo by Alise O'Brien
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Photo by Alise O'Brien
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Photo by Alise O'Brien
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Photo by Alise O'Brien
Artists Pat Schuchard and Carol Crouppen Schuchard pushed some boundaries when they converted a former warehouse into a home.
“We’ve both lived in big houses, small houses, and condos. We thought an industrial space would be fun,” Pat says.
Fun? Yes. Easy? Not necessarily. The building has at various times housed a concrete factory, a roofing company, and a heating and air-conditioning company.
“It was not in good shape,” says Pat, who purchased the building in 2004. “The roof leaked, the skylights needed work, and we had to remove a 30-year collection of derelict vehicles from the property.”
When the couple decided to renovate the interior, they transformed the look of the warehouse while still honoring its history. A large exhaust fan, sculptural and interesting, visually anchors the dining room wall. A galvanized funnel lampshade above the table echoes the fan.
The couple appreciates the beauty of older buildings—the exposed brick walls and trussed wooden ceilings—and didn’t want to lose sight of its rugged good looks.
“But Pat felt the living room space was a little cold, so he built a grid structure to hold our collections of American art pottery, glass, signs, and games,” says Carol. “It does warm up the space.”
The floor in the living room had been painted with gray deck enamel. To add interest, the couple applied stripper to create weathered brown circles. Using the same pattern in the kitchen, they employed a lighter and tighter design of pristine gray-blue circles over yellow. Red kilims and area rugs create yet another layer above the concrete.
Photo by Alise O'Brien
In the kitchen, new cabinets with horizontal drawers suggest tool chests. The elegant table, with a live-edge cedar top and maple base, was handmade by Pat as a gift for Carol. The kitchen space is also home to Carol’s most recent artwork, large-scale Polaroid images surrounding an antique Japanese chest. She incorporates objects and photos into collages and dioramas that form the basis of her photos. The pieces invite closer inspection and hint at stories revealed in glimpses, stratified and mysterious.
“I see the dioramas as personal architecture,” says Carol. “The camera adds a layer of mystery and obscures them.”
Pat’s artwork includes a large-scale wax encaustic of Johnny Cash, which hangs above a black Eames lounge chair. A guitar rests upon the chair in a wry juxtaposition. Pat’s early paintings, encaustics on felt and album covers, in addition to works from his current portfolio, are shown throughout the home.
In addition to the home redesign, the two have revived the former Artists’ Guild Building as The Boo Cat Club and transformed a former Lion’s Club dance hall in Maplewood into Majorette. Both function as event spaces.
“With all the work we’re doing, we both feel like we’re doing art with these properties,” says Pat.
Carol agrees. “It’s art on a large scale. At home, we have an interesting dynamic,” she says. “One of us makes a move, places an object in the house, and the other responds, visually. It’s collaborative and intuitive.”
