Robert and Angela Natt’s downtown-Roanoke condo combines convenience for both their jobs with whimsy and fun generated by both the condo and the pieces they’ve put in it.
A sense of humor and comfort set the tone for decorating at the downtown-Roanoke, 111 Campbell Avenue condo of Robert and Angela Natt.
A black tufted leather sofa, circa 1960s and given to them by Robert’s grandparents, provides a centerpiece for the living room. It rests in front of a wall that used to be the exterior of the building, which explains why it contains a 1907 advertisement from Coca-Cola: “Five Cents Relieves Fatigue.”
The exposed brick and concrete floors become part of the art in the 1,326-square-foot second floor residence. The “used look” of the wall makes it a perfect backdrop for the expansion dining table handmade by a family friend and given to the couple when they were first married. The table came with the marks of use, and the couple has left it that way.
“It’s naturally distressed,” Angela says. A finishing touch for this area is a small statue of Butler Henri holding a tray. It was given to the couple as a joke wedding present and now stands in a corner near the table.
The young couple, both natives of the Roanoke Valley who began dating as teens and married after studies at James Madison University, moved to downtown from a duplex in southwest city. Their priority was to get Robert’s commercial photography business established and to live as close to work as possible. He took the lead in planning their move with Angela’s blessing.
“He’s the artist in the family,” she says.
“My goal was to eliminate the daily commute and spend as much time at home as possible,” Robert says. He often returns from a shoot with photographs that will take hours to process, but much of that time does not require his full attention. He might spend 30 minutes doing color-correction on the computer and then have to wait more than an hour before he needs to push more buttons to complete the next phase of post-production. With the offices of Robert Natt Productions next door, the processing can continue while Robert and Angela spend time together at home.
Angela, a former youth minister, has a short walking commute to work as business manager for Blue 5 restaurant just up the block.
Robert Natt Productions fronts on Campbell Avenue with the street level serving as a studio. Robert accesses the loft level just down the hall from the front door of his second-floor condo. The building houses two commercial offices and six residences.
Robert found the space while the building was still being developed, which meant he was able to help plan their quarters. What was to have been a one-bedroom, one and a half bath condo with a large living room and a large walk-in closet was redesigned into a two-bedroom home with two full baths. Robert also added a small music studio where he teaches private guitar and bass lessons.
Entrance to the condo is into a large living/dining-room that also features a kitchen separated from the rest of the room by a bar with seating. Under-cabinet lighting and track lighting that features decorative pendulum lights – all on dimmers – make it possible to match the amount of lighting in the room to the mood of the activities.
Except for the hand-me-downs from family, most of the other furnishings came from IKEA.
“We both have loved IKEA, and we needed affordable,” Angela says. They already owned several pieces from the Scandinavian manufacturer. As soon as they bought the condo, they made a trip to IKEA in northern Virginia where they looked at cabinets and tables and dressers and picked up a catalog to return home and measure for what they wanted to buy.
They settled on entertainment units, a coffee table and chairs for the living room, and a bedroom dresser, bookshelves, mirror and large dressing table for the master bedroom. Here too, sense of humor has played a part in decorating. The easy chair now placed under the back window beside the dressing table might work better in some other spot. Here, though, it provides access to the window for Scofield, the couple’s Schnauzer.
Scofield was not happy about urban living at first, they say, because he was used to being able to see outdoors. Now, with the chair strategically placed, downtown regulars refer to him as the “statue” in the back window.
