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If you ever happen to visit Scott Weaver's one-bedroom rental apartment in Plaza Midwood, watch out for the coffee table in the front room — otherwise, you'll be sure to trip over it. And not just because the glass-surfaced table seems to float above the hard-wood floor. No, you'll be distracted by the lemon-colored walls in the next room.
"I've never liked yellow," Weaver says. "I just had this idea one day where I walked in and decided, I need one room that forces me to be happy."
Weaver, who dabbles in several different areas of the art world, has lived in the two-story, brick quadplex for more than six years. (His is the bottom right.) Considering the self-described "gypsy vibe" of his life, Weaver says it's been "unique" to have been there as long as he has.
"I've worked as a buyer for clothing stores, I've done party promotions, I've done makeup, I've done interior design work for spaces — all of these different things are creative things," he says. "I don't want to sound pretentious and say I live as an artist, but that's kind of the goal, it's what I went to school for. For a while, I moved from place to place. I didn't have any sort of stability."
That unsettled lifestyle influences the décor of Weaver's home. He has wide-ranging tastes, and the feel of each room centers on pieces he's collected over the years — some given to him, some he found on the sides of roads and others purchased at thrift stores.
"The way I've done it here is not to go out and buy things that match. The real inspirations are my finds, my treasures," he says. "And then I can build a room that creates a dialogue."
As a result, one of his two sitting rooms boasts a colorful language. The coffee table edged with yellow, playing off the bright yellow walls; curved, Eames-style lounge chairs upholstered blue; and a red lamp — a roadside treasure he found in NoDa — complete the rainbow. He has a number of abstract paintings and pieces of pop art, including a glitter work by local artist Corrie Throckmorton. Opposite the main window is a canvas splashed with shapes of greens, browns and blues, courtesy of his mother.
"She always did really pretty still lifes and island scenes and things like that, and this is the one single crazy abstract piece that she did," he explains. "And this was almost full-term pregnancy with me, so I always say it's a very telling piece about me. When my mom gave birth to me, I came out a whole different aesthetic. I call this 'The Hormone Painting.'"
In contrast to the sitting room, Weaver's bedroom is dark, ideal for a musician who works late nights and needs to sleep in. The room is outfitted with dark wood and stone colors — a tall dresser you might find in Charles Ingalls' bedroom in Little House on the Prairie stands resolutely to the immediate left of the entry. A set of antlers, a large mirrored work that could be what a disco ball would look like ironed flat, and smaller black-accent pieces fill the spaces on the walls that are not taken up by prints, such as a movie poster from the James Bond flick Goldfinger.
"I always kind of feel like the bedroom turns out to be the most feminine-looking room in the home," he says. "But for me, it's probably the most masculine."
Weaver says he likes some things vibrant and showy and others textural and dark. He's also influenced by period, as the '60s and '70s are prevalent in the sitting rooms. His kitchen, filled with vintage toys, is more '50s-esque and what he calls "Southern and unapologetically tacky."
"If I'm [doing interior design] for a client, I'd want to understand their style and then introduce them to a broader vision," he says. "But the great thing about your own space is that, since there are no rules, I don't have to appease anyone else. I'm able to go room by room and sort of create a different environment in each space."
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