Wanderlust: I’m drawn to objects that carry stories—the history major in me—pieces that have lived before and continue their journey in a new space. My style leans bohemian and maximalist, with carefully curated vignettes throughout. Think laid-back West Coast ease and Southwest desert warmth, layered with the richness, vibrancy, and old-world charm of far-flung places like Morocco and Paris, anchored by greenery that blurs the line between indoors and out. Family and friends have described it as warm and welcoming, a compliment that means everything—knowing they feel at home here.

The Country Mouse: My house dates back to 1904 and is in Plat 1 of Roland Park. Having grown up on a farm, I was drawn to a part of the city that still feels green and semi-rural. My childhood home was a historic farmhouse, so I’ve always loved houses with history—the details, the craftsmanship, and the character. I’ve embraced the historic bones of the house—original woodwork, moldings, and built-ins—while layering in objects, textiles, and furniture collected from travels and vintage finds.

Free Range: Growing up, we spent as much time outside as possible. My father always planted a large vegetable garden, and my mother’s flower beds sparked constant wonder. It’s no surprise where my love of plants comes from—or that green is my favorite color. That early connection to nature has shaped the way I approach my home. Plants are woven into my story just as much as vintage pieces, found objects, and collected treasures.

Green Thumb: I love the juxtaposition of city living layered with lush, intentional greenery, where natural elements coexist with pieces that carry history and meaning. Every plant has its own personality, which inspires me to create spaces with distinct moods and rhythms—much like curating a room with art and textiles. When I design spaces in my home, I think about composition and storytelling—how plants interact with light, color, texture, and patina, and how they can shift the feeling of a room.

Travels by Design: Some of my favorite pieces in my home are the ones that feel deeply personal, objects collected over time that carry memory, meaning, and a sense of place. I have held onto the vintage, mismatched china, glassware, and serving pieces that once belonged to my mom. I love using them for dinner parties, mixing  and matching depending on the mood and aesthetic I want to create. One piece I always reach for is the silver Champagne bucket my parents received as a wedding gift in 1968.

Eat, Pray, Love: My home reflects my interests in art, music, fashion, architecture, history, travel, and the natural world. Those influences show up in the layers of books, plants, art, and collected objects throughout the house. I love mixing contemporary and vintage pieces, found objects, and meaningful heirlooms, allowing a space to evolve naturally rather than feel overly designed or static.

Remarkable Rugs: Textiles and rugs from my travels are layered throughout the house, especially pieces from Morocco. I traveled along the coast, through the Atlas Mountains, into the Sahara Desert. The medinas and souks of Fes and Marrakesh were unforgettable—full of color, energy, and craftsmanship. I even brought an extra suitcase just for one-of-a-kind finds.

Art is Art: I’m fortunate to have incredible paintings from local artist friends. In the dining room, I feature “The New World” by Drury Bynum from his Arcana Obscura exhibition. Also in the dining room is a salvaged screen print from Housewerks—a man in a gas mask that makes a powerful statement about freedom of expression and free speech—that I’ve had for years. In the primary bedroom, there is a painting of bees by Julia Niederman, whose work has a dreamlike, narrative quality. Also, an organic wall piece by Kat Jacobs of Feathers and Fibers called “Kota.” One of my most sentimental pieces is a Victor Vasarely print I discovered years ago in a local antique shop. He was a Hungarian French artist and pioneer of the Op Art movement.

Sacred Space: For me, a home with personality feels soulful and welcoming. It invites curiosity, sparks conversation, and reflects a life well-lived. It’s not about perfection, but about intention—creating a space that feels deeply personal, layered with memory and meaning, and connected to the wider world and the quiet moments of everyday life.

More is More: My home that I share with my husband, Brian Rohloff, is alternative and eclectic, incorporating both modern and vintage décor. We tend to favor maximalism, and love to surround ourselves with unique pieces that showcase our personality and love for punk music, antiques and oddities, street art, and tattoos.

House Rules: Our home is about 110 years old, having been built around 1915. It is a classic Canton rowhome, featuring a red brick exterior, marble front steps, and a stained-glass window. The window inspired much of our décor. The glass features rich jewel tones in emerald green, sapphire blue, and gold, which we repeated throughout the main floor of our home.

Inspired Workspace: Our favorite room in the house is probably the office. When we first moved in, this room was a plain white box, so it was also one of our biggest transformations. We knew we wanted custom floor-to-ceiling bookcases, which became the focal point. The vision for the design of the room was to lean into Regency-era décor, with lots of velvet and opulent gold accents, such as the antique chandelier.

Where We Live: The main floor of our home is our favorite place to be. Our home is open concept, with the living room, dining room, and kitchen all connecting. It’s a great place to entertain or relax, and it also houses one of our most prized possessions—our vinyl record collection. Music plays a large part in our life, and we have a collection of almost 1,000 vinyl records. Finding adequate storage for this collection in a skinny rowhome with limited space was a challenge, but we found beautiful handcrafted vinyl storage cabinets from a woodworker on Etsy that solved the problem.

Personal Style: I love to dress in bold and bright colors, much like the décor in our home. You can often find me sporting bright pink hair and vintage-inspired glasses. I’m a maximalist, both within my style of décor and dress. Brian is a local tattoo artist, and we find that there are many similarities between the desire to decorate your home and the desire to decorate your skin. Much of his work incorporates bold colors and traditional designs, which you can also find within our home.

Right at Home: We have always liked our spaces to reflect our interests and who we are as people. We are both creative people in general, and we see our home as being another blank canvas where we can showcase our range of creative personalities. Each room within our home tells its own story, with some being more edgy and dark, and others lighter and more feminine.

Home Sweet Home: Our home is a mix of traditional and more contemporary styles. We are drawn more to the design and color of pieces than to particular styles or periods. Each piece we have speaks to us in some way. Our goal is to mix a lot of interesting furniture pieces and art, so it looks like the rooms have evolved over a period of time. We’re also very practical—there’s always a light next to a chair and a small table to rest your glass.

A History Lesson: Our three-story Federal townhouse is one of six brick townhouses built in the Federal style in 1816 by Robert Carey Long Sr. He was the first native-born Baltimore architect who designed several notable buildings, including Davidge Hall at the University of Maryland Medical School and The Peale museum.

Several of the houses were expanded and changed architecturally many years ago, but ours and two others retain their initial footprint and many of the original architectural details. The molding details and stair handrail are very similar to those in The Peale.

Counter Space: It’s always the same in every house we’ve lived in: We hang out in the kitchen. It’s certainly the most transformed room in the house. What we’ve created feels appropriate and respectful of the house and works well for 21st-century living.

The Papered Wall: Powder rooms are follies, and we were searching for a Baltimore toile, something similar to the Harlem toile Sheila Bridges designed for the one off our kitchen. We wanted a very old and traditional form reinterpreted in a thoroughly modern way.

We didn’t discover a toile, but we did discover Elizabeth Graeber’s charming and whimsical wallpaper love letter to Baltimore. It’s very fun and everyone comments on it, whether they’re a local or a transplant.

Sentimental Value: We always seem to be at the head of the line when a family member asks: “Would anyone like this?” We never say no to anything. But, in all seriousness, the stories behind these pieces, and the continuity of a storyline are important to us. The connection and the backstory are often more interesting than the pieces themselves. How do we know where we’re going without knowing where we’ve been?

The Stewards: We bought our home from a man who lived there for over 40 years with his partner. It was important to him that the next owners remain sensitive to the house’s history and architectural integrity. We are trying to live up to these expectations.

Scavenger Hunt: It’s hard for me to come up with one word or phrase to describe our home’s style. Maybe Scavenger’s Delight? I asked our son —ages 9 and 12—and they said: unique, vintage, colorful, fun, quirky, and “skibidi.”

Gem of a Neighborhood: Our house is a multi-family-zoned Victorian built in 1915 and is located in the northernmost part of our beloved Lauraville neighborhood. Until we moved in, the house had been stewarded by generations of the same family. We reconfigured the layout so that it functions as a single-family home. We removed an ancient upstairs kitchen and built a staircase to connect what were originally two self-contained apartments.

Rainbow Bright: When I was in my early twenties, I visited the Museo Robert Brady in Cuernavaca in Morelos, Mexico. I was in awe of the bold, vibrant, anything-goes spirit of Brady’s home, and I remember thinking—I want my house to feel like this. So, when we began the process of making our house into a home, I decided that I would simply grab whatever I felt attracted to—regardless of style, color, or era. Somehow, it all works together.

Artist-in-Residence: Our first floor is very open (we knocked down a bunch of walls), so we all kind of float around in that space, which includes our living room, dining room, family room, and kitchen. We spend a lot of time making art and doing sewing and craft projects at the dining room table. It has a glass top, so it’s very easy to clean up, a good thing because there are always paint and permanent marker-based activities happening around here. We also love to cuddle up on our giant couch for movie nights and game nights.

To Market, To Market: I am a big scavenger. I love sourcing things from Buy Nothing groups, estate sales, eBay, Savers, and I even grab stuff from the side of the road. But out of everything, flea markets are my favorite. I’ve organized a few huge community flea markets at “The Lot,” our wonderful community gathering space.

The Kids are Alright: I want the kids to feel like they can have input about the entirety of the house, not just their rooms. So, if they want to grab a piece of furniture from a room and put it somewhere else, or if they want to move their room from one place to another—it’s a big rambling old house, so there are options—I want them to feel empowered to do that. They both have very strong personal aesthetics, and they go to a democratic school (Arts & Ideas Sudbury School), so they are very comfortable calling the shots.

STUDY HISTORY: My home is located in Butchers Hill. A structural engineer informed me that our house was likely built in the 1870s, based on the joists and beams observed in the basement. We purchased the house in 2008 directly from relatives of the original owners and learned that the house had only ever been owned by that one family.

DESIGN CLASSICS: My interior spaces are inspired by both midcentury modern and Scandinavian design styles, combined with personal, eclectic, and unique objects, art, and furniture. I try to maintain bright, open areas that invite natural light, with warm, neutral tones complemented by pops of color throughout.

A PLACE FOR EVERYTHING: I prefer clean lines, functionality, and order, but not at the expense of creating a warm and welcoming space where friends and family can gather. Since this is not a large home, it’s important to be intentional about what I include, where I place it, and how it functions. I want friends and family to feel comfortable and at home when they visit, surrounded by interesting items to explore, but not so precious that they can’t touch, pick up, or engage with them.

DRAWN TO ART: I am currently the co-executive director of the new Center for Creative Impact at the Maryland Institute College of Art and have been affiliated with MICA for over 20 years. Being part of a school of art and design, surrounded by creative makers and thinkers among the faculty and students, provides me with a constant source of inspiration. My home is filled with art from MICA, including pieces created by former students, faculty colleagues, and even some of my own work from my time as a graduate student.

A VISIONARY: I think your home can be the ultimate expression of your personality. I appreciate artifacts that are unique in their form, function, and history. Personal stories hold great value for me. While I might initially be drawn to a piece of art or an object for its aesthetic qualities and raw beauty, I truly fall in love with it when there’s a unique story or personal connection attached.

FAVORITE PERCH: I particularly enjoy sitting on the couch and looking out the large picture window that faces the street. From this spot, I can see and hear passing cars, people walking their dogs, and kids running around. Sitting here always makes me feel connected to the block, the neighborhood, and Baltimore City—inside the house while remaining connected to the vibrant life outside.

Right From the Start: My home style tends to roam all over the place. I am a fan of so many eras and styles of design. After selling my 2,000-square-foot home in Butchers Hill, I moved to an apartment in Charles Village for about six years. I seriously downsized and decided to keep only what I truly loved. Though I loved my apartment, I was limited with paint choices and lighting, so I started the search to find a home that I could afford without a partner or roommate.

A Home Run: By chance I was reading the business section in the paper and noticed all of the new homes and small shops opening in Remington. I started a search in that area and a home had come on the market that day. It wasn’t much to look at, but the bones were good. I went and looked at it and that evening I put in a contract.

Right Time, Right Place: The light in my kitchen I saw on eBay a year before I bought my home. I kept going back to look at it but couldn’t justify $125 for a light that I couldn’t hang in my apartment. The day that I put a contract on my house, I went home and purchased that 1929 Napa Valley light fixture.

Dinner at Eight: I love Art Deco; growing up in a home that only had a black-and-white television, the only movies were Hollywood classics. The style and era will always stay with me in some form. I used to buy original furniture from the era but often the upholstery pieces were too big and heavy. I think mixing Art Deco art and lighting with newer pieces of furniture can still maintain the aesthetic.

Creature of Habits: I spend my weekday evenings in the living room, often playing or hanging with my cat, Tater. I wake very early for work—I’m in equipment maintenance for Amtrak/Virginia Rail—so I try to keep a sleep ritual and spend time in my room reading. On the weekend, I spend as much time as I can on my patio. In the last few years, I’ve become a member of the Maryland Bonsai Association and spend my time learning the patience and process.

Do Your Thing: I have heard that there are rules to design, but to me, if it looks and feels right, then go for it. It can always be repainted, moved around, replaced, or sold. I will do my best to make it work but I am not always successful and admittedly have sold some things that were simply an interesting idea that wasn’t for me. Everyone has their own eye and what they want to create for their environment. I think one of the best things is when a friend dropped by and took off their shoes and put their feet on my sofa. At that point, I knew that I had created a comfortable space; the rest is icing with sprinkles.

A Creative Evolution: I think my home, like most people’s homes, evolves with our family. Navigating life with a toddler is very different from life as an empty nester. Time, patience, and budget are drastically different at those times and that has probably been the biggest life lesson for me when it comes to creating a home—your house gets to reflect you and where you are in life, and that’s a good thing.

A Room With A View: Typically, my favorite room is whichever one I have just updated. The way the house is laid out, you can stand in the kitchen and see through to the dining room and living room, and I often smile when I get that long view because while the rooms serve different purposes, they all speak to each other.

The front room many would consider small, just 11-by-12 feet, and has been a preschooler’s playroom, a homework station, a spare bedroom, and now my home office. The windows fill the space with natural light and many of my plants thrive there. Someone asked if I had too many plants, and my answer was, “Define too many.” There are currently 53, including a Schlumbergera truncata that is almost 30 years old.

Merry-land: I am a Marylander through and through. Both of my parents were born here. When my brother and I were born, my parents wanted us to grow up more rurally, and we spent most of our childhood in Carroll County. I left for college and swore I would never come back. But I moved back in my late 20s and bought a house near Patterson Park through the Patterson Park Community Development Corp. After my son was born, we moved to Idlewylde and have lived here for almost 20 years.

The Art of Upcycling: In the front room of my house is a large brown leather couch. I knew it needed a bit more structure and wanted to find a way to add elements of an heirloom Hudson Bay blanket. The blanket was gifted to me by my Aunt Eleanor in the 1980s and I used it for years, taking it from college dorms to NYC apartments and my first home in Baltimore.

I noticed it was started to show its age and put it away “for safe keeping.” But beautiful family heirlooms don’t belong tucked away in a box in the closet. The dynamic team of upholsterers at Savoir Chair helped bring my idea to life and transformed my sketches into the perfect additions to the couch.

Travel Near and Far: We are a family that loves to travel, and our home is filled with nods to our adventures, from the collection of whimsical magnets to artwork to the bowl of small rocks we’ve picked up along the way.

I was raised to be curious, to ask questions, and to explore, and I was intentional about raising my son the same way. Our home is filled with things that enable curiosity while also being a comfortable hideaway, a place to rest when the world is too much.

Family Ties: My maternal and paternal families both have ties to Riverside. My paternal family bought this house during the middle of the 20th century. I often think of it as a refuge for some of the people in my family who never married. My Aunt Mabel lived here for many years with her cousins. After they passed away, she lived a full life here, on her own, often making improvements, like installing linoleum on each level, paving the dirt floor in the basement, and planting AstroTurf in the backyard.

Living the Dream: When I was a child and my parents carted us into the city to visit relatives, I knew rowhouses were for me. I enjoyed visiting my great-grandparents in East Baltimore just off Patterson Park. I liked the density and the street life. It was so exotic compared to our suburban tract home with a lawn and a fence.

Museum of Mabel: In 2012 I returned to Baltimore City after 25 years away. The house was empty at the time—that is, no one lived there, but it was still crammed full of my Aunt Mabel’s belongings. The house could have been a set for an early John Waters film: faux wood paneling, dropped ceilings, and Pepto Bismol wall-to-wall carpeting. Virgin Mary statues perched next to Orioles bobbleheads. I was elated to make it my own.

A House Divided: Every room is my favorite. I particularly like my den, bathroom, and third floor bedroom in the early morning and late evening. They are in the rear of the house, on the alley, and face the east. The morning light is a joy. The ground floor den opens onto my patio with a rain garden jumping with exuberant pokeweed. In the late afternoon, I like my front rooms, those that face west. Golden hour is a treat, especially when the Formstone retains the warmth of the sun. I like the front of the house because it sounds like Baltimore City: crossing guards, delivery trucks, buses, dirt bikes and trikes, and too-loud neighbors on their phones stumbling home at closing time.

Prized Possessions: I like things with stories: objects that lived lives, those that were used by my family in this city. I like the tension between high and low: bespoke linen lamps and mass-produced mugs. I love posters, plants, and puppets. I like stacks of magazines and books, especially exhibition catalogs. I like to have toys and art supplies close at hand in case pals—young and old—stop through for a visit. I love tchotchkes that whisper stories: Grandmother Quinn’s Jack and Jackie Kennedy salt and pepper shakers, telescope pictures from Ocean City, and Grandmom Jones’ pressed aluminum coasters. I am an enthusiastic steward of my family’s trinkets.

Old Meets Newel: Our house is a pretty typical Baltimore rowhouse. We have a lot of traditional elements, such as the casings around the doors, the fireplace mantel, and the newel posts on the stairs, so when we moved in my goal was to take some of those colonial-style elements and give them a contemporary twist.

Your House is You: Nothing is more disorienting to me than going to the house of a person who is fun and energetic and seeing none of that personality reflected back at me in their space. I know everyone is different and everyone has different interests, so while I don’t think every house needs to be as bold as ours, I do think everyone’s house should make them happy when they look at it, be inclusive of things they love, and tell me something about them.

No Beauty Without Color: I could not do a neutral kitchen. The first thing I knew was that I was going to do a diamond black-and-white pattern on the floor; that was non-negotiable. Knowing that, the decision became what color to do the cabinets. The color is called sundried tomato, which is ironic because I don’t actually like tomatoes. From there, it was really about choosing a backsplash tile. This was where I wanted to complement some of the living and dining room colors, which I knew were going to have shades of blues and purples. Bringing in these colors also made the space feel less formal and more fun. I was really sad about the fact that we didn’t actually have that much space to tile for a backsplash, so I thought, “Well, why don’t we tile the back of the peninsula?” I went through a few iterations of patterns and my husband, Dave, ended up helping me come up with the final one and I love it. The back of the peninsula is one of my favorite parts about the kitchen.

Have a Seat: The green swivel chair in the living room is one of my favorite pieces. Dave and I were in St. Michaels for the weekend and went to this place called AH Home. We loved the chair as soon as we saw it. Honestly, we thought it would be cute for our dogs to sit in—we are ridiculous. And it was on a massive sale, so I bought it knowing that in whatever house we moved to next, we would use it. It is now Dave’s favorite place to sit in the living room.

Show Your True Colors: I love my mom, but my love of color definitely isn’t inherited. That said, her love of neutrals may be why I love color as much as I do. When I was growing up, my bedroom was always the place where I was allowed to pick whatever color I wanted, and that was always really fun for me and something that excited me and made me feel grown-up. My colors were pink, yellow, and green, in case you’re curious!

A HOUSE WITH A PAST: Our house was built to be a trading post, along Deer Creek around 1755, by Sarah and Ralph Pyle. There’s an engraving of “1771” in one of the chestnut logs in our kitchen with the initials R.P.  What a cool glimpse into the past that we get to see every day. Ralph and Sarah’s gravestone markers are on the top of the hill not far away from the house.

RUSTIC CHARM ABOUNDS: Our house, being a log cabin, has a rustic/farmhouse feel to it, and for our decor we love mixing different styles to complement it—modern with vintage, farmhouse with midcentury, new with family heirlooms. I also love adding in natural, bohemian, colorful elements. And I love decorating with plants to bring a natural vibe indoors.

THIS OLD HOUSE: I’ve always loved the idea of living in an old house but not so much the idea of doing constant home improvements, but here we are. I’ve learned to be at peace with the fact that there will always be ongoing projects for us to work on. My husband, Darrion, on the other hand, grew up in this house, so this is what he knows and loves.

BABYPROOFING: Learning I was pregnant sped up some projects that we always wanted to do. We thought once the baby was born, it wouldn’t be on the top of our list, and we would never have the time and money to do it. Our daughter Melian’s room is now the place that we now spend so much time in. It’s both peaceful and cheerful. And it’s the room with the most natural light.

CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT: Most of our favorite pieces are family heirlooms, like the big Persian rug in our living room from Darrion’s grandmother, the green dressers in our bedroom from Darrion’s mom, and the two prints of Lisbon in our bedroom that I got from a flea market in Portugal. They remind me of home—I was born in Brazil and raised in Portugal—and make me smile.

WE ARE FAMILY: We live on the same property with Darrion’s parents and sister’s family. It’s a little family community and together we own a 17-acre piece of land that sits on Deer Creek. We love kayaking and sitting in the water. We keep bees. We have a dog and a cat. We love gardening, permaculture, and sustainability. Little by little, we’re creating a food forest that hopefully will be abundant for many years to come.

PERFECTLY IMPERFECT: I think our homes should be a reflection of ourselves. A place that makes us feel happy, inspired, and relaxed. Our house is one of a kind, with so much character. Nothing is level or plumb, the floors are crooked and squeaky. The house is perfectly imperfect, a reflection of what life is really like. A work in progress, just like we are.

HOME SWEET HOMES: I grew up in Kingsville. My mom had six boys before having me. Our house was small, but we had a nice, big backyard, perfect for wiffle ball. I still remember having purple feet from the mulberry bushes. My family didn’t have a lot, but our house was happy. I lived in a rowhouse in Hampden for 20 years until I decided to downsize and moved less than a mile away to Whitehall Mill. It’s a converted 18th-century mill that sits along the Jones Falls.

BE GONE CLUTTER: My home style is warm minimalism. I like to be comfortable, and I also don’t want a lot of stuff around. Most of my belongings carry some story of meaning with them. I like that. Nothing fancy, just things I’ve collected along the way.

A COLLECTION IS BORN: When I moved into my new place, I wondered how I would ever address the huge walls in the main living area. It seemed like trying to fill them would be ridiculous, so I decided to leave it alone for a while. Eventually, I reached out to my friend Bree Rock, the former visual designer at Trohv. We chatted and texted, sharing photos and inspiration ideas. Bree suggested that we start from where the two walls meet and go out and up from there. It was the most amazing thing watching it come together. I still marvel at the process and how free it was. Every single piece means something to me—past lives, travel, family, food, and more.

GREEN THUMB: I always struggled with plants in my old house. I am pretty sure I killed them with kindness—overwatering. When I moved into Whitehall Mill, the tall windows with deep sills were just begging to be filled. I started out with about six plants and now I have somewhere around 50.

AN AFFECTION CONNECTION: My dining room table was made by two childhood friends and the wood is from old, fallen trees near where I grew up. It’s uneven and imperfect and I love that. My bedroom furniture was my grandmother’s. I feel so lucky to have it. I never met any of my grandparents, so it’s nice to have reminders of them around.

IDENTITY CRISIS: My style is modern boho meets tropical jungleliciousness. I do whatever I want—I’m not conforming to the rules in design. I’m constantly proving to myself that I’m creative enough to get the job done without an interior design degree.

THE 1970S CALLED: My favorite pieces include a cobra chair—a big ’70s wicker chair with a huge high back that looks like the head of a cobra. I scored it on Marketplace for an unbelievable price. It’s a total unicorn. But my favorite are the disco balls. Nothing uplifts the serotonin more than the sun hitting the disco balls throughout the day.

FAMILY MEETING: We spend most of our time in the living room and kitchen. My husband, Hassen, is a fantastic chef and I love being in the kitchen with him. I usually sit at our little table while he’s cooking or help prep by cutting vegetables. It has great light so we put up shelves for our plants. The living room is where the whole family likes to hang, including our cats, Coconut and Catsy Cline.

SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING OLDER: I enjoy a little bit of everything. While I love vintage rattan/wicker—give me all The Golden Girls vibes—I also really like acrylic and ’80s-inspired items. I love that a vintage item has a past, and I often wonder what its story is.

NO BUYER’S REMORSE: I’m an impulse buyer. If I like it, I like it. Plus, if you’re shopping at thrift or discount stores, you must buy it immediately because it probably won’t be there tomorrow.

INSIDE OUTSIDE: I gravitate toward certain colors—pinks, peaches, yellows, teal, and mint—inspired by summer and tropical flowers. Spring and summer are our favorite seasons, so we keep that vibe year-round with color. When it gets warm, our backyard becomes an extension of our home. We flood it with hibiscus, portulaca, geraniums, snapdragons, and every other colorful flower we can find. Our outside becomes our little tropical oasis in Parkville.

You can follow Erika Bowen’s home adventures on Instagram @papillonbohemehome.

A HYPOTHESIS
When moving in, I wanted to create a space with personality and practicality. It’s really easy to say, “I’m renting, so why should I care?” But as an only child and ambivert, my home has a huge influence on my mood. Therefore, I took the white walls as a challenge. With a small space, the sofa also needed to be practical—it actually folds down into a daybed for visitors. So the yellow sofa came first, and the rest of the design was centered around it.

DESIGN MOVEMENT
We’ve always admired the unique lines of mid-century design, and with mid-century pieces already in our furniture collection, we wanted to add our own modern twist to the classic aesthetic.

A PASSION FOR FASHION
I think my home and my fashion have a symbiotic relationship; they inspire one another even if it’s not consciously. My love for mixing color, patterns, and textures definitely influenced our design process—a geometric rug with a geometric chair just felt right. I go with my intuition when styling outfits, and I did the same thing with our space. I didn’t overthink it; I just went with my gut.

FAVORITE CHILD
I prefer to buy secondhand and vintage when I can, and after months of searching, I found an amazing glass and brass coffee table from A Day N June, a Baltimore-based vintage concept shop. The glass top helped the room feel open and added depth to the small space.

IN (COLOR) THEORY
The theme of our space is modern mid-century, but every room has its own color palette and personality. As a creative, I get to express myself and my ideas multiple ways. So when you see our living room, you’re not surprised to see color and pattern in other rooms.

WHEELY GREAT
The bike belongs to my partner, James. He curated the bike himself—sourcing the parts from multiple brands. The bike is a functional, built-in decor piece with its yellow frame, turquoise wheels, and oxblood handlebars. It definitely played into the color theory of the space. James picked out our rug to complement the handles.

IN CONCLUSION
As a Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine PhD candidate, I’m a critical thinker and very detail-oriented. I spend a lot of my days looking at data, and, as a result, I’m used to analyzing, evaluating, and changing my thoughts based on what I see. There have been a few iterations of our space over the past nine months, but I’m really happy with it. The space is a comfort during days when my experiments fail, my code doesn’t work, my results don’t make sense, or I need a screen break.

PERFECTLY PRESERVED: My office is very eclectic and vintage-inspired. Is that a thing? LOL! I’m really into mid-century-styled furniture mixed with random accessories that I love, but that don’t really fit that time frame. I might have been obsessed with Mad Men at some point.

IT’S GOOD TO BE HOME: There are things in my office that have come from my travels, my community, my family, and former clients who wanted to contribute to my growth as an artist. Hopefully, it feels like home.

THE WORLD IS MY STUDIO: I’ve never really considered myself to be an office/ studio kind of photographer. The world is my studio, in a way. But after an increase in workload, equipment, and the desire to concentrate on sharpening my skills, the chance to have a space in the center of Mt. Vernon was an opportunity that I couldn’t pass up.

VISION + SOUND: I was 8 years old when my father got me my first camera. I’ve always photographed my family, my classrooms, and travels. I have a background in music, so there’s a whole score/soundtrack playing in my mind when I shoot—so having music in my space is a must. There’s a record player, iHome speakers, and special sheet music from an antique shop in Berlin.

A FEW FAVORITES: Some of the special items in my office are my vintage cameras, antique furniture, film scanner, and paintings inspired by my work, including a flower by artist Charles Mason III—the first piece of art I put in the space. I have pieces from Baltimore, London, Paris, Berlin, Rome, Havana, Arizona, Chicago, New York, and more.

I’LL BE THERE FOR YOU: The couch and scanner and artwork were the first things to really be donated to the space from people I’ve worked with before or have been following my work for years and wanted to encourage me. That’s so special to me. It means my community supports me and my work. I appreciate that so much. I want to be there for my community in the same way, and the way I do that is by teaching at the Youth Art Institute at Morgan State University.

BEST OF BOTH WORLDS
JC: We had advice from the beginning: “Whatever you work in, you should own it.” As a business, we were thinking of buying a place either to work in or to live in, so this worked out.

DAILY COMMUTE
JC: We come here every day, and have our offices upstairs. What I wanted was to create stations so we could work from anywhere—just open a laptop and be comfortable. I love working on the sofa in the living room. It’s kind of my little dream purchase. Even working out on the porch is nice. It’s so quiet, you only hear the occasional dog barking and the wind chimes down the street.

WORK FROM HOME

JC: I had seen this blog where a couple of photographers converted a house into an office where they used the space to shoot, and I thought we could do that, too. We produce video content that focuses on food and styling. So, with the kitchen, the living space, we could do a lot here. It’s a nice space to host clients and talk over strategies. We just did a photoshoot in here, and we turn the house upside down with production equipment.

HIDDEN TREASURE

JC: When we started looking for a place, I was looking for a bungalow and couldn’t find anything architecturally that met this kind of style. Immediately when we walked in, it was just so different from anything we’ve seen in the city.

DB: I love the square floor plan. It’s severe and unusual—all four of the rooms are the same size. It’s different from living in a rowhouse that’s long and skinny.

WORK/LIFE BALANCE

JC: It’s funny going from one house to another house. But in actuality, [living and working in the same house] wouldn’t work. There are always people coming and going, so it’s nice to have it separate from where we live.

DB: We entertain a lot here. We have friends over; we do dinners and drinks. It’s great for that, too.

SIMPLE TOUCH
DB: Editing has come into focus for us after this. Jamie and I moved everything ourselves. We took everything from the old studio. It was cheaper. Once everything was put in its place here, it showed the value of having only things you love. We decorated the first week we were here—partly because of necessity, partly because we just wanted to be moved in. Jamie’s more of the furniture person and I’m more of the art person. I’ve amassed quite a painting collection from trading, buying cheap art, and producing my own stuff.

CURATED
JC: That was super important to us: change the lighting and put art on the walls. I made sure there are dimmers on every switch to get the light just right. Finding the lighting fixtures was fun, and you can do it economically. It’s form meets function, but I try to stick to a certain style or sensibility. We love California modern: a mix of mid-century vintage, that feeling of being lived in, but still fresh. We decorate with things we find in nature, and we’ve traveled a lot, so if I see something I’ll always bring it home.

BLAST FROM THE PAST: We bought a hand-blown chandelier and two sconces maybe 35 years ago in Murano, Italy, and we thought one day we’d have a house to put them in. We actually hadn’t taken them out of the box since we got back from that trip. The chandelier is a more traditional fixture but we put it in this room and mixed it up with some modern stuff. 

SET THE TABLE: For the table, we found this company that handles hand-blown Murano glass tripods, and then we just cut a glass top to fit them, making it more clear, neutral, and modern. 

HAPPY ACCIDENT: I found the installation in the window by accident. I’m a collector of antique cars and motorcycles and while I was online looking up auctions, I saw one by a guy in Minnesota who went into bankruptcy. I had a car in mind, but when I checked the catalog, there was also a mention of this glass piece, and they had a picture of it. I did some research on the artist, and I thought since it was a car auction, no one would be paying attention to this glass piece. And of course there were three or four more people who knew exactly what it was and bid against me. But I was still able to buy it for less than 15 percent of what he paid for it 30 years ago. 

SINCEREST FORM OF FLATTERY: The gold and brown artwork on the right was actually painted by my daughter, Emily, who is an artist that lives in Portland, OR now. When she painted it, it got a little press and someone stole it and started making productions from it. My daughter got a few calls from friends saying they had seen her work in other places, so she found the guy that copied it. And interestingly enough, he started an internet fight with her, saying he painted it and Emily stole it from him. However, she blew up a portion of the picture and you can see her name woven into the geometric design.

CENTER OF ATTENTION: I was at a doctor’s appointment in D.C. and just came down the stairs in the office building and there was an art gallery on the first floor. The rhino we have on the table was in the window. It’s a cast acrylic piece by an artist in North Carolina, and I thought it would be a great touch of color.   

COLOR GUARD: I think in general I tend to gravitate toward color. If you were to look at the rest of our house you would see it’s a pretty wide color palette. 

SHORT STORY: We get a lot of compliments on the picture hanging in the dining room and I wish I had a better story for it. My husband always tells me we need to make up interesting stories for things that we don’t have good stories for. The reality of that picture is that it was on clearance at CB2, but he likes to tell people that it is our aunt and uncle and then people always do a double take and are like, “Wait, really?” 

TABLE TALK: We’ve had the table since 2004. It’s a Heywood-Wakefield table and I found it while browsing eBay. That mid-century modern trend was just coming into vogue with the popularity of Mad Men and all of that stuff, but I was really drawn to the clean lines and natural materials. 

SPECIAL MEASURES: There is a guy in Hagerstown who owns a place called Strictly Hey-Wake and all he does is refinish Heywood-Wakefield furniture. He does a really beautiful job and he refinished our dining room table for us, as well as another record cabinet and king-sized bed. 

TRIAL AND ERROR: I picked the chairs up on sale at Anthropologie for like $40 apiece, which was a great find. However, it’s one of those lessons in buying furniture online before actually seeing it. The way the chairs are built, the center of gravity is slightly off, so if you lean forward a little bit you end up on the floor. My chairs always come with a warning. 

AHEAD OF ITS TIME: The clock on the wall is by an Italian designer and we picked it up from a shop in Philly years ago. It was one of those things we were drawn to immediately but we didn’t really have a place to put it. When we finally finished the kitchen we found a spot where we think it worked well. 

GIVE THE GREEN LIGHT: I find lighting really hard to wrap my head around, and I just really love light fixtures. The pendants over the bar and the sconces over the stove are from Schoolhouse Electric, and the dining room fixture is from Rejuvenation. 

OPEN HOUSE: The kitchen was originally closed off and there was a doorway on the left where the clock is now. With our kids getting a little bit older, it was important for us to renovate the kitchen because we wanted to open it up and get as much use out of it as possible. I think the only downside is that we used to use the dining room table a lot more and now, because we have that bar area, we don’t as much. 

FIRST THINGS FIRST: DD: We’ve lived here for just about 40 years. A girl Vince knew through MICA had bought a 200-year-old wooden house—it was adorable. She eventually sold us the building for $2,500 and that was our first piece of this property and we kept adding on from there. The reason we kept buying these properties was that they were so cheap, it was worth it just to not have neighbors! 

SAFE SPACE: DD: We bought the final building during the time that Vince was working on the show Homicide. It wasn’t like we walked in with a plan like all of these developers and rehabbers now. We were just saving buildings, quite frankly. 

TEAMWORK: VP: We worked with a lot of film carpenters and painters that we knew because, when a feature would end, there would often be a hiatus and we would hire them to do the work. That is why we say this is the house that Homicide built, both financially and physically. 

TABLE TALK: VP: I had a company called Props and Sets, which did sets for commercials and films, and we had a 20,000-square-foot warehouse, which was in Fells Point proper. The table came from the pilot of the TV show Oz. It was made as a table for the prison library and was painted gray and it ended up in the warehouse. It seemed to be the right size, so we stripped it down to wood again. 

FAIR TRADE: VP: The movie 12 Monkeys was filmed in Philadelphia and Baltimore. While they were here, they had rented some props from us. However, at the end of filming they didn’t have the money to pay me and instead gave me some of their leftover props, which are the two oversized prints of Thomas Eakins paintings. 

SMOKE AND MIRRORS: VP: We love the darkness of the paintings. They almost work as a mirror so, instead of having a big flat beige wall, we had not only a painting, but also a reflection of the garden. 

COMING OF AGE: DD: We basically got all of this together so we could watch it deteriorate because, to us, that’s the best part. Once it gets the patina, we can stand it. We never liked anything looking new. It just wasn’t us. 

SUNDAY SALONS: DD: We entertained a lot. Every Sunday, we would have orphans from the film industry. We still have “Wisteria Sunday” when the wisteria is in bloom. It only blooms for one week so we try to predict the best Sunday and call everyone to come over. 

OPEN TO THE PUBLIC: VP: Every Mother’s Day we do a tour for the Fells Point Preservation Society. We’ve done that for 20 years. DD: We also have benefits, events, photoshoots, and some bridal first looks here. We want to keep it special. And no, you can’t bring your own decorations.

HAPPY PLACE: The vision for the room was to create a refuge from the hustle and bustle of the city. Our goal was to find warm and comfortable pieces to create a place where we could relax. 

COMFORT ZONE: The space was pretty bare when we got it. Normally, we tend to gravitate towards mid-century modern stuff but it’s typically not the coziest style, so we went with things that were cozier to lounge in. It’s definitely a touch bohemian, and then the plan was to add a lot of greenery to bring in more color. 

LIFE CHANGING: We wanted there to be some life in the room so we got hanging plants from B. Willow in Remington. We also found this vintage birdcage that we stuck a fern into and it’s since thrived so we’ve kept it there. 

UNDER THE INFLUENCE: We follow local stores like Wishbone Reserve in Mt. Washington, Cedar and Cotton in Southwest Baltimore, and Off Main in Catonsville on Instagram. They are always inspiring us with different pieces and design ideas. 

SITTING PRETTY: The rocking chair is an old Eames rocking chair. We aren’t sure how old it is but my guess would be that it was made in the sixties. We found it at Home Anthology in Catonsville! 

CUT A RUG: The carpet is a hundred-year-old Kazak rug from Wishbone Reserve. We loved how vibrant it was and how the pattern had blues and greens in it, which is hard to find. It’s more geometric and tribal, which makes it unique from all of the floral patterns you typically see. However, when we got it, it had some tears and a hole in it. The excellent folks at Main Street Oriental in Ellicott City did an absolutely wonderful job of repairing it. They even matched the pattern and workmanship and their work probably doubled the value of the piece. 

TABLE IT: The table (also from Wishbone Reserve—Julie has a great eye!) is pretty unusual. It’s stone with little pebbles encased on a resin top, so it’s really earthy and free-flowing as far as shapes. We don’t like anything that has lines that are too rigid. 

SHED LIGHT ON: We recently put curtains up in the room to keep it cooler during the summer months. Finding curtains that had a little texture and were sheer enough to diffuse light through was difficult. We ended up going with a Belgian flax fabric from Pottery Barn. 

THE CITY THAT READS: Originally this plot of land in Jonestown was six rowhouses. When the city was looking to build another library they ended up choosing this spot. This was Branch 11 of Enoch Pratt Free Library, built about 100 years ago. 

GRUNT WORK: I used to work IT for Fannie Mae so I’ve always kind of been around real estate. Now I just manage my own real estate. I’ve spent a lot of years peeling wallpaper while everyone else was at the music festival. It’s been a lot of work, but it’s paying off.  

BLANK SLATE: I just fell in love with this property—I’ve owned it for three years. When I bought this place, I had no idea what I was going to do with it. It was a distressed property and had been vandalized at one point and someone had cut out all of the copper piping. 

SHELF LIFE: There are no windows on the first floor of this building because, when it was a library, the walls were lined with bookcases, and what is now the kitchen was a lecture room. 

MELTING POT: A century ago, this neighborhood was mostly Eastern European immigrants. In fact, the third oldest synagogue in the country is in this land block. Most of the books in this library weren’t in English—they were in German, and Polish. 

OLD SCHOOL: I was told that after it was a library, it was an overflow elementary school that they used for years. I still have people who walk by and tell me stories about when they went to school here. 

MIX AND MATCH: I’m very eclectic. I like new stuff, I like old stuff, and I am really attracted to Asian-inspired things and primitive work. 

SEA WORLD: The antique globes hanging in the living room are from different places. The white one is from Norway and the others are Korean and Japanese. Before they had Styrofoam, buoys were made out of glass and wrapped in rope, so those are just old fishing buoys. They used to get caught in the current and would wash up onshore along the beaches in Washington and Oregon. 

PIER PRESSURE: The painting above the couch is by a local artist and is of the Moran tugboats, which used to be based where the new Sagamore Pendry Hotel is now. 

SUN DIAL: It’s a neat property because every corner of this place is a little different. The sun comes in the different windows throughout the day. My dogs—Banjo and Kazooie—love being here. They’ll spend the day moving around to wherever the sun is coming in. 

SKY HIGH: My favorite part is being upstairs in the top section during the sunrise because you can see several of the Baltimore steeples and the sky is pink at that time. Sunset is also pretty with the backdrop of downtown. 

EASY BREEZY: The top room I had as my bedroom, but occasionally I switch it out. Right now it is a sitting room because I wanted it to be something everyone could enjoy. It gets so much sun that it basically heats itself. And all of the windows open so you get a great breeze.  

SWEET SERENDIPITY: I found Fells Point through pure luck. I knew nothing about Baltimore and just happened to come down 83 and made a left. 

ANCIENT HISTORY: The building is unique because of its size and larger front windows. It used to be a Polish bakery. Before that, someone once told me that his parents owned it at one time and it was some sort of delicatessen. 

PARTY OF TWO: I’ve had people even walk in thinking it’s a store or a restaurant. One time, a nice couple came in and sat down on the couch, and my [late] wife was making sauce and they had smelled it and thought they would come for dinner. They did not have dinner with us, but they did have drinks. 

BLANK CANVAS: When we bought the property it had just been rehabbed and everything was white—the trim, the walls, and the doors. And then my wife got a hold of it. 

EYE FOR DESIGN: My wife had eclectic taste. She knew what she liked and she had a ball decorating this house. We would get a minimum of 30 catalogs a week and she just searched until she found stuff that she wanted. The chandeliers were a part of this process. The deal was that it was her job to do it and my job to pay for it. 

PERSONAL RENAISSANCE: The wallpaper has the Creation of Adam by Michelangelo on it. Now that was one of the things I really had to pay for. 

FURNITURE FUSION: Some of the furniture is antique. I have an older chestnut ice chest in the room, but then there is leather furniture that my wife and I  purchased in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, that is not antique. But everything does have one thing in common—they are big. 

SPACE OUT: When they first started showing me houses in the area, they were showing me different rowhomes and every time I walked in I would tell them, “It’s nice, but what happens when I put furniture in here?” And so luckily my Realtor said, “Okay, well I’m going to show you one of the biggest places in Fells Point,” and we walked in and bought it. 

TRICK OR TREAT: I have a chandelier in the room that is all candles. It’s lit seldomly, like around certain holidays. On Halloween, I light it and I open up both front doors and I bring a casket in. I lay in the casket as Dracula with the candy on my stomach, so the kids come in and get it. Most of the neighbors are also over with their candy so when the kids come it’s a bonanza. 

ALL IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD: I just love living here. My kids come down and we bar hop. We like to go to Ale Mary’s, 1919, and Canton Liquor House.

RARE FIND: We were living in the Mill No. 1 but we saw this house listed and we loved it and how unique it was, so we made an offer. 

THE REST IS HISTORY: We only know the history of the property by what we have been told by our neighbor so I am not sure if it is accurate, but the rumor is that our house and our neighbor’s house used to be one home and it was called The Farmhouse on Keswick. Our entry and hall are where a large wraparound porch used to be, which adds an extra 8 feet to the width of the house, making it very distinctive. 

IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD: We love Hampden. You are able to walk to a lot of places and there are very diverse groups of people in this area. It’s nice to not be downtown but to be an Uber ride away, and now that we have Dylan’s Oyster Cellar in the neighborhood we don’t have to go too far. Our other favorite restaurant is Arômes on Chestnut. 

MODERN MIX: Our design aesthetic is contemporary modern mixed with refurbished vintage pieces. We call it Tribeca meets Hampden. 

MOD SQUAD: A lot of our furniture and décor is from AllModern.com. James found AllModern while browsing online. There are many items to choose from that fit our more modern style and also that make us think outside the box. Plus, their app is pretty amazing—yet dangerous! 

FURNITURE FACTS: The sofa is from Value City and the coffee table was actually custom-made for us by my friend from high school who is with Free State Millworks. 

PILLOW TALK: I bought the cow pillows from Whitney J Decor on Etsy, the gold and silver sequins pillows from HomeGoods, the black and white sequin one from Amazon, and the colorful pillows from AllModern. I bought the cow pillows to tie in with the cow rug, but overall we love mixing different colors and textures to add perspective and depth. 

PAGE TURNER: We have Christopher Wolf’s screen-printing book, a book from Hartwood Restaurant, which is in Tulum, Mexico, and a book on modern British posters that we got at The Baltimore Museum of Art on the table for friends to flip through when visiting. 

HAVE THE FLOOR: We had the floors here redone because when the house was rehabbed they weren’t done properly and were a really dark mahogany color. So we hired Matt from Matt’s Professional Flooring to come in and redo them, and we decided to go with gray color so you could really see the grains in the flooring. 

QUITE A COMBO: I really love the combination of our chairs and the table together. That was James’ idea and I don’t think I would’ve thought of that combination. He has a really great eye for design, and I am actually quite jealous of that.

CLOSE ENCOUNTER: I’ve been in this building for two years. I started out in another apartment and then met my girlfriend, Fiona [that’s Dr. Fiona Vismans to her dental patients]. When I moved back to Baltimore from New Orleans, the apartment I lived in was [number] 335 and she lived in 334. Our first encounter was when she came knocking on my door asking me to turn my music down. We moved into this apartment together in August.

COMFORT ZONE: When we moved in, the first thing I thought was that we needed to make it comfortable. When I was growing up, my family had a space where everyone would go and you were able to watch TV and jump around on the sofa or whatever in the back of the house. But in the front of the house, there was the nice living room where everything was wrapped in plastic and fragile. For me, it was important that anything in my space is completely yours for the taking.

FLORA FIXATION: I grew up in the City of Baltimore having not much greenery around at all, but I have always taken to certain types of plant life. So I think this obsession, which now is an appropriate term, started about six years ago. I really like having them as a part of my interior styling. You need that sort of life to open up the space, to clean the air, and to make it feel like home.

GOING GREEN: I would say that I have about 120 plants in this house. The real mission is to eventually live in a greenhouse.

FAIR SHARE: We wanted to do a living wall, but, once we looked into it, budget-wise, it was way out of our realm. The inspiration for the wall in the hallway actually came from a trip to IKEA. I saw these spice racks and I thought they would be good for propagation. Now, not only are we filling the wall and making it green, but also we are able to take what’s in it and either re-pot it or give it out as gifts.

GREEN LIGHT: I knew I wanted to make a neon sign but wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted it to say. My girlfriend suggested that I do “house.” So I decided to do that in green so it represents the whole idea of a greenhouse.

MIX AND MATCH: A lot of my furniture is from West Elm, mixed with stuff from thrift stores and flea markets. Most of the pieces on the walls are things from films of mine or pieces done by friends.

ALONG FOR THE RIDE: The bike is now just art, but kind of has a funny story. My dad spent his entire summer working to save money to buy that bike in 1976. He tells me that because of that bike, he sold my mom on going out with him.

NEW LEAF: The plant canopy over the bed was an idea that I sketched out and my girlfriend was immediately onboard with. She is killer at macramé and so she created the hammock that the plant is in. It worked perfectly.

FAMILIAR TERRITORY: I’ve lived in the house next door for eight years now and I bought this property right next door two years ago.

FOREIGN EXCHANGE: I am a D.C. native but I grew up all around the world because my parents are diplomats. I’ve lived in Europe and Asia, places like Paris, Tokyo, Manila, and Kuala Lumpur. Living in very design-oriented cities and spending time in museums growing up, my aesthetic is ancient-meets-modern. I like the combination of the very old with modernist sensibilities, which is different than contemporary.

LIFE OF THE PARTY: Tyson Street has a really amazing history. In the 1960s, it was sort of the Haight-Ashbury of the area so I have hippies come by and tell me stories about “Mama Cass” Elliot, Janis Joplin, and Frank Zappa partying here.

FIXER UPPER: People always fall in love with this street, but it’s another thing to take on one of these houses. It takes a certain amount of stewardship—they’re small, they’re funky, they’re old, and things go wrong.

PATIENCE IS A VIRTUE: Really, from a design standpoint, the house dictates the design and you can’t impose a suburban vision on it. You have to work with what you got and that takes a certain kind of temperament.

KEEP IT LIGHT: Often the design instinct with a 230-year-old house such as this is to fill it with period or heavy furniture. My goal was to demonstrate through editing and selecting bright appropriately scaled statement furniture that the ancient and modern can work in harmony and be functional for the 21st century lifestyle.

ROOM AND HOARD: The running joke amongst family and friends is that I needed two houses to hold all of my “proclivities,” as my dad terms it. I’ve been collecting art, crafts, and furniture since I was a child and definitely needed the extra basement space.

MIX AND MATCH: I made the side table myself from the leftover parts area of IKEA. I chose bright lithographs from an Ellsworth Kelly folio and framed and mounted them in white to pull a controlled graphic punch.

TRICKS OF THE TRADE: I’ve definitely applied “tricks” I’ve learned as a graphic designer. The modernist screen concealing the fridge was cut out of PVC and allows light to flow and adds a graphic element.

A LITTLE GOES A LONG WAY: I have good design karma and a particular eye and will not pass up an opportunity. My most important rule of thumb is to only acquire objects I personally respond to and ones that tell a story. A small hand-crafted ceramic vase can go for miles.

CHEAP DREAMS: I have lived here for about four years, starting out as a tenant. I loved it so much I managed to buy the whole building. This is the closest thing to me living my New York loft fantasy with less zeros in the price tag.

IT TAKES A VILLAGE: We hold the SoWeBo Arts and Music Festival here each year and we have a very active community association. We certainly have our issues, but I’ve found that this neighborhood has the strongest sense of community over any other place I have ever lived.

HEAVY LIFTING: I bought the motorcycle from a place in Staten Island. The original intent was to work on it during the winter and then be able to ride it in the summer. I had five friends help me carry it up the stairs, which was incredibly foolish. Now everyone refuses to ever touch it again so it’s been stuck in my apartment ever since.

LEFT HANGING: My family spends a lot of time in Mexico and my sister brought me back the hammock. All I really need is a palm tree and I’m set.

INTO THE BLUE: The blue sofa is one of the first pieces of furniture I ever bought when I got my first real job. I’ve been carrying it with me ever since. It’s nice to finally now have a space where it fits properly.

ACQUIRED TASTE: It took me quite a while to collect all of my artwork. I lived in Argentina for a while so some of it comes from there. Some of it comes from New York City, but much of it is from Baltimore, which has a lot of very talented artists and a fantastic art scene.

PICTURE PERFECT: My favorite piece is over in the dining area by a New York artist named John Copeland. Space wise, it was made for this apartment.

SHOP LOCAL: There are two local pieces I really love, one by Pablo Machioli, who is originally from South America, and some others by Bat Favitsou Boulandi.

HIDDEN GEM: I have many pieces from Umri Siki, the African art store on the ground floor of this building. It’s run by Robert Williams, who has amazing stuff from places like Congo and Benin.

SHELF LIFE: I knew I needed a bookcase and after thinking about it for over a year and having my books scattered all over the place, I had the metal framework manufactured down in Pigtown. I bought old planks of wood from Second Chance for the shelves and now I have a bookcase. I stained the wood to match the existing wood. What I like about it most is that it looks like it was always there.

WHEEL OF FORTUNE: Our property dates back to the 1850s or earlier. This is a mill town and all of the houses in this area are relative to that mill. What we have as a garden now was originally a part of a wheelwright house where they would fix wagon wheels.

ROYAL TREATMENT: I’m very fascinated with British gardens because they often look very natural but are actually very manicured.

WATERING HOLE: On the first-level terrace there is an old artisan spring box. It always stays full of water and was actually the original well for this property. I have a pump in there and just pump it out to water the vegetable garden.

GARDEN VARIETY: Our vegetable garden is about 1,600 square feet and we grow everything from corn and tomatoes to broccoli and Brussels sprouts. We eat very well out of the garden for a good part of the year.

THROWING SHADE: In the north side of the yard we have a seating area that doesn’t get a lot of sunlight, so we have to use all shade plants like impatiens and begonias. I taught ceramics and sculpture for 42 years so I made the ceramic faces.

WORDS OF WISDOM: My whole philosophy about gardening is never let it get ahead of you. If you don’t do things in a timely fashion according to the weather and the time of year, than all you are doing is playing catch up. I try to stay on top of everything and keep the pruning at the right time so it never gets to be one big effort.

ONE OF A KIND: This is a very unusual space with the terrace lawn. I don’t think anyone in Baltimore has a yard like this. It was in the 1840s or 1850s when they built it and they just carved it out of the hillside. We are declared historic. I think we are hysterical, but they are calling us historic.

South of the Boarder: I think my roommate and I have agreed that we’re kind of going for a Southwest-rustic-chic vibe. There wasn’t much we could do about the all the beige paint since we’re renting and we have this super tall vaulted ceiling, so we just went with it and wanted to incorporate bold colors and interesting wood textures to offset that.

Simple Living: I wish I could say we got our furniture from some super trendy local furniture store, but we aren’t quite in that tax bracket. I’m pretty sure my couches are the cheapest ones from Value City, and our coffee table and TV cabinet are from Wayfair.com—who I would 100-percent recommend for their customer service alone!

Favorite Find: My favorite piece is definitely the TV stand. We waited about a month and a half for it to come and it was completely worth the wait. The color is insanely beautiful. Honorable mention goes to the gilded deer bust.

Shared Space: A lot of the art came from my roommate Elisabeth. She got the masks from Costa Rica, the Orthodox Christian art from her church, and has some of her own original, gorgeous paintings hanging. Some little decor pieces I’ve gotten from World Market, Sweet Elizabeth Jane in Ellicott City, and antique stores.

Head Games: We have a few skulls: The deer is most prominent, but we also have a goat. Elisabeth’s brother’s girlfriend is a hunter and was generous enough to donate some of the skulls she’s . . . acquired. We like to put a Rudolph nose on the deer skull around Christmas time. Really gets us in the spirit.

Instagram Inspiration: Plants give the space such a natural feel and the ledge in front of the fireplace is a perfect place to showcase them. I recently discovered Justina Blakeney’s Instagram and her aesthetic is a dream come true, and going to be a huge inspiration in how our room evolves. I want to live in her world.

Relaxation Station: I love hosting in this room. I frequently go overboard when I have people over and cook six days worth of food for, like, three people, but it’s super fun for me to cook for my friends and have everyone relax in our space. My roommate reads and writes a lot, and we all like to cuddle with Gretchen, Elisabeth’s super cute border collie, in here.

For cooking tips and recipes, visit Parker’s website The Anti Al Dente.

START FROM SCRATCH: My husband, Bruce [Willen], and I moved into the house in 2010 and had to do everything. There was no electricity, plumbing, or heating, so we did about a year of renovation before we could really move in.

MIX AND MATCH: Some of the furniture we got from Home Anthology, a store in Catonsville. We also have a lot of family pieces. It’s a real mix of things we have acquired along the way.

IN HOUSE: The couch is an old midcentury modern hand-me-down that’s usually covered in a quilt or two. The back cushion is upholstered with my screen-printed Radica fabric. We also have some curtains and an armchair upholstered with my fabric as well.

DESIGN DREAM: In the living room, we have vintage theater posters from Poland, which just seems to have exceptional graphic designers doing these posters.

WALL OF FACES: In the dining room, we have a portrait wall, which contains mostly portraits that friends and family have made for us. A friend of ours had a wedding and, instead of having a photographer, he had someone doing drawings of all of the guests, so we have one of them. The portrait wall is constantly evolving.

FROM CATHEDRAL TO CUPBOARD: The cabinets in the kitchen were all custom-made for us by Emmanuel Nikolaidis, who is a cabinetmaker here in town. The darker wood ones were actually made out of demolished church pews that we found.

IDIOSYNCRATIC ILLUMINATION: One year for Thanksgiving, all of the family came over but my grandfather was unable to get up the three sets of the stairs to get into the house, so we ended up moving the whole Thanksgiving dinner into my parents’ garage. We made these impromptu chandeliers out of garden supplies. One of them is now hanging in our dining room. It’s just one of those iron planters with Christmas lights thrown into piles in it.

I SAW THE SIGN: Bruce does a lot of hand lettering for his company, Post Typography, and we are really into the look of old grocery-store signs, so I got this sign painter in the neighborhood to make those signs above the record player for Bruce’s birthday. The hand painted “J. Mayer Willen” sign in the bathroom is from the law office of Bruce’s grandfather, who practiced law in Baltimore until the age of 97 when his last client died.

FACE THE MUSIC: We have a lot of records from our friends’ bands or that we found at thrift stores. We have a nice speaker system that is throughout the entire first floor, so we often have music playing.

NOW PLAYING: Lately, I’ve been really into Paranoid, the old Black Sabbath album. But also the new Peals album—Bruce’s band—that is about to come out.

Spacial Awareness: Finding a house with a studio space is what completely drove our housing search. Since my husband is also an artist, we weren’t just looking for a home with one studio; we were looking for one with two.

Suburban Switch: This neighborhood is really suburban and along with that comes people who have more time to take care of their gardens than I do. I find people’s old hydrangeas and have those around because they make great shapes. I like to keep stuff around that I want to look at and draw.

Blank Space: Since it is a small room, I do need the white space so I can focus. My drawings can be really busy and crowded so the white space is really important to me.

Sentimental Value: My favorite items on my wall are definitely things that are more emotional to me. There is a little picture of my grandmother and a Mother’s Day card from my daughter as well as a drawing she made for me.

Hoard No More: I’m kind of a “stuff” person. Our first Hampden house had bride and groom cake toppers going up the open staircase and I’d say I’ve toned it down a lot. The Christine of 2016 is far stronger than the Christine of the year 2000 as far as my ability to not hold onto everything.

Once Upon A Time: Before being a parent I was in the studio at least five days a week and now if I can get an hour in it’s great. There have been a lot of weeks where that doesn’t happen because the birthday party schedule was just too hectic, but the advantage of a home studio is that I can do 15 minutes here or there.

Mirror Image: My daughter just started spending time with me in the studio in the last three or four months. I can set her up on the floor while I paint and she also will want to paint. It’s great, if I am painting stripes, she will want to paint stripes, too.

HEIRLOOM HOARDER: I feel like a lot of people would describe my style as vintage bohemian, but I would just describe it as nostalgic. I like things that have a story with them.

GLOBETROTTER: There are a fair amount of things in my apartment from when I traveled across Asia. I try to collect little things along the way.

FORTUNATE FIND: I love the hutch piece against the wall that I actually bought off eBay. It was luckily located a couple of hours away and, at the time, I was driving a minivan, which was the only reason I was able to get it back here. It was awesome because, typically, if you find vintage furniture online, the shipping is astronomical.

WONDER WALL: The two things on the hangers are a scarf and collar that I bought in Laos when I was traveling. The portrait is actually just a print I bought off of Etsy, and it’s supposed to be a picture of a mannequin in the 1920s.

GREEN ELEMENT: I really love having plants around. They are supposed to purify the air, and I think they are a nice sculptural way to decorate—and they are pretty inexpensive. I am kind of an accidental plant killer. I replace my plants often when they start to look too pitiful. The fire escape is the graveyard of all of my almost-dead plants. When I feel too guilty to look at them anymore, they have to go on the fire escape. I always think deep down that they are going to magically flourish out there, but they don’t.

SUBTLE CUES: I look to old movies, magazines, and books for inspiration. I have some books of 1930s interiors and, a lot of the time, I won’t literally translate ideas from them, but I will definitely find inspiration.

TRENDSETTER: I have a lot of friends who get their own place say to me, “I don’t know what I want my style to be,” and that doesn’t really ever occur to me. I’m just someone who collects whatever I really love.