You can embrace your inner potter with a stay at Jim Schatz’s studio and home, located inside a former dye house in Rhode Island.
Schatz and his partner Peter Souza – who run their ceramics studio J.Schatz together – decided to move from LA to Providence after falling in love with the 1880s building. Sited in the Olneyville neighbourhood, it was built for the Weybosset Mills.
![Holiday home of the week: a ceramicists live/work space in Rhode Island](https://cdn.thespaces.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Dye-House-Lofts-2.jpg)
In under a year they’d refurbished the vacant 5,200 sq ft industrial mill structure, which features soaring 20-ft-high trussed ceilings, brick floors and some 160 black-framed windows that flood the studio with natural light.
‘The light is consistent all day and it’s great for our work,’ Schatz told Rhode Island Monthly.
Their colossal live/work space spans an entire block and houses six industrial kilns, as well as workbenches for making the couple’s J. Schatz design pieces, which include birdhouses, tablewares and lighting.
![Holiday home of the week: a ceramicists live/work space in Rhode Island](https://cdn.thespaces.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Schatz-04.jpg)
Rooms at the front of the warehouse have been turned into guest lofts – available to rent starting from $99 per night – which feature exposed brick walls, breakfast bars and tall, raftered ceilings, while their own apartment is at the back of the warehouse. (The couple are adding the finishing touches to a third loft, which they say will be ready by the end of April 2018.)
![Holiday home of the week: a ceramicists live/work space in Rhode Island](https://cdn.thespaces.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Dye-House-Lofts-4.jpg)
Guests can tour Jim and Peter’s studio and the couple regularly host parties and community events inside the building. Beyond the studio, the lofts are a seven-minute drive to downtown Providence. Over in the nearby neighbourhoods of the West End and Federal Hill, there are restaurants, galleries and night spots.
Says the couple: ‘Many of the area’s mill buildings not yet renovated are currently occupied by an array of artists and musicians. Think Soho in the 1980s.’
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