The home of Jane Pitts and partner Tom Baumgartner is in a converted storefront on Sixth Avenue. The two are artists and enjoy collecting items from swap meets to decorate the home.

Photos by david sanders / Arizona Daily Star

More Photos (9):

Construction
Komatsu Equipment Co
Mechanic General
CORT
WAREHOUSE/DRIVER Health Care
Rio Salado College
PA's/Online Instructors General
CORT
Warehouse Supervisor Education
Assessment Technology, Inc
Social Studies Content Writer

By Gillian Drummond

For an artist, Jane Pitts is unfeasibly organized. And given that her living space is also her work space, the maker of fanciful furniture, signs and murals has to have order.

Pitts and her art director partner, Tom Baumgartner, rent a converted storefront just south of Downtown, a small space that's a meeting of two artistic and well-traveled minds.

Its 850 square feet is cluttered — neatly, mind you — with furniture, ornaments, artwork and books the two have collected over the years.

Pitts has a soft spot for vintage and secondhand; it's there in her work, her wardrobe and, inevitably, her home. She loves nothing better than to poke around swap meets and secondhand stores, or customize a piece of old furniture she's found on the street.

Baumgartner's day job is at a public relations firm. His art — which is displayed on some of their walls — is more modern and abstract, although he "tags along" on the antique hunts and isn't averse to buying, too. On one shelf in the living room is a paperback collection of secondhand nature guides, which he's been accumulating for 15 years.

The couple met while neighbors in Armory Park and moved into their ground-floor space in early 2005.

It's part of a development of 10 loft and warehouse spaces, all of them rented by artists. Ron Schwabe, owner of Peach Properties and one of the general partners behind the development, says there's a "huge demand" for such live/work spaces, due to Tucson's vibrant arts scene.

When Pitts and Baumgartner moved in, the stained and scored concrete floors, exposed trusses, stainless-steel kitchen cabinetry and white walls lent themselves to an industrial, modern setting.

With permission from the landlords, they set about putting their own unique stamp on it. Pitts, 50, has painted the studio/living/kitchen area — which is one open-plan space — in two of her trademark colors of dirty jade green and what she calls "Campbell's cream of tomato soup" red. She achieved the latter with her own at-home mixing.

The two colors are continued in her collection of ceramics and her own hand-painted signs.

Baumgartner, 38, whose past trades include renovation carpenter, has cleverly created a pony wall on wheels that divides the seating area from Pitts' work space and also a "stage" or low platform for Pitts' work.

Despite Pitts' vintage bent, the two are fans of the clean, modern lines found at Swedish furniture store chain IKEA. At the IKEA store in Tempe, they've purchased wood and metal shelving and a couple of wooden barstools. Target is represented, too, with a dark-red bamboo rug and mini kitchen island.

But what spices the space up are the secondhand finds, like a vinyl-covered sofa from the 1940s with cactus and wagon wheels detail. Or the old glass display cabinet, minus the glass ("It makes it easier to grab things," says Pitts, shrugging), that houses secondhand pewter goblets and 1950s cocktail glasses. Or the set of kitchen chairs, found left on the street and re-covered by Pitts in a funky faux fur.

The walls display portraits and illustrations from the 1800s through the mid-20th century. Just for fun, there are ornate gilded frames dotted around, just hanging on their own.

In their bedroom, the couple have chosen to use the built-in closet as a laundry room; their clothes are stored in light wood IKEA wardrobes. Above them, Pitts' beloved collection of more than 100 hats is carefully stored in hatboxes.

Pitts, who moved to Tucson for the second time just after 9/11 (she lived here in the late 1980s and then had a stint in San Francisco), has always worked from home. So she says her living space has to be enjoyable — and inspirational. "I have to be surrounded by beautiful things."

At the back of the residence, a long yard with corrugated-iron walls houses lots of container plants, from basil to rosebushes to cactus to various grasses, which their two dogs nibble on.

Many of the plants were bought at yard sales or swap meets, and they're all carefully maintained by Pitts.

For the stay-at-home artist, the yard is vital to her day. "I have to come out here 10 times a day. It's therapeutic and very necessary," she says.