A creative’s home is a window into their most profound influences and personal style. The curation of their most intimate spaces is deeply telling of what makes them tick. There are stories to be told and insights to be gleaned from every nook. The books they read; the family portraits they displayed; and the collections they amassed. Their favourite furniture pieces; the colours they painted their walls and the gardens they cultivated, all speak eloquently about who they were.
Throughout my global travels I have visited homes of artists, musicians, writers and architects. From Bangkok to Paris, here are the ones I recommend. Make sure you bookmark this post and check back from time to time, as I’m always adding to the list.
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Jim Thompson – Bangkok, Thailand
Jim Thompson’s home turned museum in Bangkok, showcases his love of Asian art inside a modified, traditional Thai home. The would-be-architect turned silk merchant, revived a languishing cottage industry. He brought Thai silk to the pages of Vogue and the fashion world beyond.
Thompson’s former home and tropical garden is an oasis in the chaos of Bangkok. It consists of six teak Thai dwellings uniquely strung together to create a large home. The spacious residence has a minimal elegance in its furnishing. It also showcases Jim’s collection of art. This largely consists of Buddhist pieces from different eras in Thai history. See more about Jim Thompson’s home in this post.
Ernest Hemingway – Key West, Florida, U.S.A.
The Key West home of American writer Ernest Hemingway was a wedding gift from the family of his second wife, Pauline Pfeiffer, who was also a writer. Mr and Mrs Hemingway both contributed décor to the Spanish colonial style home. Mrs Hemingway brought her chandelier collection from Europe, and Mr Hemingway added tribal masks and hunting souvenirs from African safaris.
The pair brought Spanish antiques back from trips to Mexico and cultivated a home that reflected their worldly experiences, each piece the centre of an interesting or amusing anecdote. More stories of the Hemingway and their home are just a click away.
Frida Kahlo – Mexico City, Mexico
Mexico’s most famous female artist entered and exited her life in the same azure-hued home in Mexico City’s suburb of Coyoacán. The home built in 1904 by Frida’s father Guillermo Kahlo, was typical of colonial style homes with a central courtyard surrounded by rooms. Frida’s twice-husband, Diego Rivera, purchased the home when the Revolution and Frida’s mounting medical bills threatened Guillermo’s ownership of the property.
Frida and Diego painted the home a vivid shade of cobalt, naming it La Casa Azul. They made other changes to the house including the transformation of a garage into an art studio for the increasingly bed-ridden Frida. The interior is painted white with highlights of acid yellow, and is embellished with folk art, mosaics and souvenirs that reflect the artists’ fascination with their indigenous ancestry.
The garden is filled with maguey, yuccas, jasmine and cacti, among other flora, that provided inspiration to the female artist’s work. Fellow painter, Rivera added a pre-Columbian style pyramid to the garden, to display a collection of Aztec and Toltec artifacts. For more, see this post on La Casa Azul.
Fumio Asakura – Tokyo, Japan
Asakura was unknown to me when I stumbled upon his home in the Yanaka district of Tokyo. The sculptor took up residence in the house in 1908, where he set up a studio. Over time he expanded the home and studio, directing the architecture himself. The tree-storey home has two wings. One is a traditional Japanese-style living space and the second, a Western-style studio with an Art Deco exterior.
Throughout the Asakura Choso Museum (or Asakura Museum of Sculpture) are examples of the artist’s sculptures, even on the roof! The rooftop has a lovely garden which provides 360-degree views of the surrounding district including the Tokyo Skytree. There is also a greenhouse where Asakura grew orchids.
The living space contains various collections curated by Asakura ranging from pottery to calligraphy. The inner rooms of the Japanese-wing have floor to ceiling openings that look upon the beautiful, traditional Japanese, courtyard garden. Unfortunately, photography is generally only permitted in the exterior parts of the Museum. So you’ll have to trust me and go!
TOP TIP: If you get there before 10:30-am you are now allowed to take photos from a select spot in the Studio.
Claude Monet – Giverny, France
Arguably the most famous artist’s home on this list, so far, is that of French Impressionist, Claude Monet. If you want to know what it’s like to walk through a painting, then you must visit his exquisitely cultivated corner of the world.
Monet spent more than 40-years living in the former farmhouse, in the rural town of Giverny, France. He expanded and renovated the home, which still displays his personal belongings including a tidy Japanese woodblock collection.
His garden is heavenly. As Monet’s presence in Giverny drew other artists, he retreated to his own backyard—designing and planting the perfect subject for an Impressionist masterpiece, or several. Learn more about visiting Monet’s Home & Garden from Paris here.
Gustave Moreau – Paris, France
While you’re in France do not hesitate to drop into the home of artist, Gustave Moreau. The painter lived in a spacious, multilevel apartment in the 9th-arrondissement. Moreau commissioned and paid for the building himself and it was completed in 1896, two years before his death.
The lower level was the Moreau family residence and is filled with his personal collection of art and souvenirs. There’s almost not a single square-inch of wall space free! Above the apartment are two well-lit studio spaces interconnected with the most exquisite spiral staircase you will ever set foot on. These rooms are dedicated to Moreau’s creations. They contain just a sampling of the 4,800 drawings and 450 watercolours in the Museum’s collection. Learn more on the Musée National Gustave Moreau website.
Frank Lloyd Wright – Chicago, U.S.A.
One of the top things to do in Chicago is to visit the home and studio of renowned American architect, Frank Lloyd Wright. His Oak Park abode and workspace is where he experimented in the early years of his career. It was there he gave birth to what is now known as the Prairie School of architecture.
Tours of Wright’s home and studio show the emergence of his signature architectural style. They also reveal interesting aspects of his personal life. Allow time to explore beyond the home and studio. There are several other FLW-designed homes in the Oak Park neighbourhood, as well as his prized Unity Temple design. Oak Park is a must-see for architecture enthusiasts. If you want more Frank Lloyd Wright, see my guide to the Frank Lloyd Wright Trail in Wisconsin.
May Gibbs – Sydney, Australia
Beloved Australian children’s book author, illustrator and cartoonist, May Gibbs, is best known for incorporating native Australian flora and fauna in her works. She and husband Bertram James Ossoli Kelly, commissioned their home on the shores of Neutral Bay, Sydney in 1922.
Architect BJ Waterhouse designed the artist’s home and studio under her direction for a compact, convenient and cosy space. The resulting abode is Spanish Colonial on the outside with Arts and Crafts-style interiors. The modest house with beautiful, Sydney Harbour views, was dubbed “Nutcote”.
When Gibbs died in 1969, she had bequeathed her estate to various childrens’ charities. Nutcote was entrusted to the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF). UNICEF sold the very desirable real estate and it became endangered. Fortunately, the May Gibbs Foundation lead a nationwide campaign to preserve this piece of Australia’s heritage and the home opened as a museum in 1994.
The Mackintosh House – Glasgow, Scotland
Scottish architect-designer, Charles Rennie Mackintosh and artist Margaret McDonald, created their Glasgow home in their distinct aesthetic. Though the original terrace house was demolished in the 1970s, preservationists and architects salvaged what they could of the inside. During the 1970s, the Hunterian Museum & Art Gallery located on the site of the University of Glasgow, constructed a new shell.
Within the brutalist building adjoining the Museum, three levels of the home’s interiors were carefully reassembled. The recreation features the couple’s actual art and furnishings. There is also an intorduction gallery that exhibits information, photos and drawings that tell the home’s story. There is no photography allowed inside, so you’ll have to trust me and go take a look!
TOP TIP: For more Mackintosh-McDonald magic, tour the Hill House in Helensburgh Scotland. The home designed for book publisher, Walter Blackie and family is an absolute treasure.
Graceland – Memphis, U.S.A.
Graceland, as if you don’t already know, is Elvis’ mansion located a short drive outside of downtown Memphis. The Greek Revival residence can only be accessed in small groups bused from the Disney-fied complex across the road. Tours are conducted by individual devices, with commentary and accompanying visual media including images and video.
Graceland’s rooms range from slightly dated yet tasteful and elegant, to headache-inducingly outrageous. You won’t know what to expect from one threshold to the next. Be prepared for some Elvis-style showmanship!
Have you visited any artist’s homes in your travels? Please share your favourites with us in the comments below.
Peace, love & inspiring travel,
Madam ZoZo