Tour a Producer’s Maximalist Minnesota Home Splashed With Chartreuse

Podcaster, improviser and musical creator Maria Bartholdi is a multi-talented creative professional working, entertaining and relaxing from her curated Craftsman home. But her Minnesota pad is anything but a boring, neutral work-from-home retreat — it’s specially designed to fuel more creative work rather than escape from it. “Going out and doing what I do is a lot of giving," Maria explains. "You’re on stage. You’re in front of the camera. You’re constantly giving yourself to the audience. So I wanted to come home and feel like I’m reinvigorated to do more of what I love. That was the vision behind everything being colorful [and] the maximalist style, just wanting to feel an explosion of creativity.”

"My [living room] is a burst of color and hopefully a very happy experience," Maria says with a laugh. "It started probably with the couch because I knew that I wanted to have a chartreuse green, ‘70s-style couch. I think everything else is an offshoot of that — the chartreuse went up onto the walls. It’s my favorite color. And so many things in my life are this color, I just love it so much."

The pets enjoy Maria's creative designs, too. "This is my cathode ray tube TV that has been turned into a cat bed," Maria says. "It's a super easy project. It’s just been gutted and then on the inside I painted a little 'starscape' so the kitties can have nice dreams when they go in there."

The guests and cats have a great view of Maria's favorite wall. "If I could wallpaper every room in a house, you know, I probably would," she says. "I agonized over [this wallpaper] for weeks and weeks ... I eventually landed on this black-and-white mural, which I think is a really cool idea."

The wallpaper inspired Maria to paint the fireplace black. "It’s a nice anchor because there’s so much color in this house, to have a few heavy black elements is really cool," she says. The fireplace is lined with a dozen collectibles that define the maximalist style.

"This is my gallery wall of all my most favorite pieces of art," Maria says. "This is one of those things that I think is such an easy upgrade to make in your house — and I know it might look scary — but all I did was measure the center of the room and put this big unicorn piece here in the middle. Then I just eyeballed everything else."

Retro laser beams flash from the eyes of a cat in one of Maria's many framed paintings in her living room pop art gallery wall.

How does one begin to design a house with maximalist style? "I think it's just a slow accumulation of stuff, honestly," Maria explains. "I’ll be out and I’ll see something. and I’ll just be like, 'Yes. This. This I must acquire and bring to my collection.' It’s like those birds that make a nest and they decorate it with little bits of glass. I’m one of those birds."

Cue the hot pink color change. "The dining room was actually built around this light fixture," Maria says. "I wanted a lot of heavy black elements to match the fireplace [in the living room], and that’s where you get this black granite table, which I absolutely love."

Maria's flair for funky, classic design spills onto the black marble dining table that doubles as a space for extended board game sessions or classy dinner nights with friends.

When there's more than three of anything, it's a collection — and Maria understood the assignment. This cabinet holds her massive board game collection. "It’s one of the premier things that I bought for my home. I needed a place to put my games, but it also displays who I am as a person."

"I have a regular board gaming group," she continues. "And we meet and play games every Monday. Then for my job, we sometimes play board games to review for the YouTube channel."

Fancy a drink? Maria has a robot for that. "This is the pièce de résistance — Lloyd the Robot Bartender," she says. "It’s fun, it’s whimsical and it’s functional — he’s great. [And] he’s named Lloyd after the bartender in 'The Shining.'"

"I’m a huge fan of robots and I love everything about them," Maria adds. "So I looked up a local woodworker who graciously offered to build me one."

A friendly reminder in neon shares Maria's motto on hospitality and sets the tone for more chartreuse artwork and eclectic collectibles. "I have a smart bulb in my lady lamp, and at night this place looks like a disco."

Not many people can bring home a New York tchotchke and claim real-life connections. "Here’s my tribute to my great-great-great-uncle, Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, who designed the Statue of Liberty," Maria says. "Once when I was young, we went to the Statue of Liberty and I was like, 'Do you think they’ll let us in for free if we show them our IDs?' I’m not just a proud American, that’s my family history."

Don't let the cheetah shower curtain fool you. The subway tiled downstairs bath has a real tale to tell. "When they were demoing this bathroom, they found that behind [the] mirror, 'Jan loves Emma' was written on the wall," Maria says. "The fun story with this bathroom is that two owners ago, a pair of nuns left the convent to be together. And they lived together in this house for 25 years. It just makes me so happy to know that this was such a loving home for some people for so long. And it inspired me. That’s the next musical I’m working on right now. It’s called 'Jan Loves Emma,' and it’s a biography of them."

"This house is more than 100 years old," Maria says. "And for its 100th birthday, I thought it would be very cute to get the house a present. So I decided to put in a mural. We did it in the art deco style of the 1920s to honor the house’s creation, and it's the main focal point of the office."

Her prized possessions, "Star Trek" collectibles and framed Dungeons and Dragons cards, are displayed as a reminder of inspiration. "It makes me feel happy to be in [the office]," Maria says. "And whenever you’re doing work, that is a good feeling to have."

White walls, string lights and square windows brighten up Maria's attic bathroom. A modern soaking tub on black-and-white tiled flooring keeps the space feeling design forward, while the houseplants work to create a natural, relaxing environment.

"Anywhere that I am in my house, I want to be thinking, 'This is my favorite spot in the house right now.' That’s how I want to feel in every single room."

Upon exiting the upstairs bathroom, the hallway is filled with Maria's fine art. "This is another example of a gallery wall in my house," Maria says. "Except this one is all my work — and these are some of my watercolor ladies."

"Being a proud feminist and being a champion for women, it was just a subject matter I was drawn to," Maria continues. "I found [watercolor] to be so incredibly healing as a process. It’s so relaxing."