Paula Brandel Ryder lives in a three-bedroom, one bathroom Cape Cod-style home in Robbinsdale with her husband, Travis, her daughter Ivy, and their elderly pug, Mavis. Their home is a blend of industrial and midcentury modern style, and it’s filled with sculptures, ceramics, paintings, and other art.

Paula and Travis moved to Minneapolis from the St. Cloud area, after Travis got a job working at the Minneapolis radio station, Jazz88.FM. They bought the house in October 2014 and were drawn to it because it had a lot of the original character and hadn’t been updated since probably the late 70s or early 80s. The home also had a great place for Paula’s studio. 

A view of Paula’s art studio in the basement. The cardboard box with the squash and the rock is the inspiration for an in-progress still life painting. Photo by Jon Carnes

Paula is an art instructor at St. Cloud Technical & Community College and has been teaching there since 2012.  She teaches drawing, painting, photography, and art appreciation classes. Her office is on the second floor of their house, along with her art studio in the basement. 

The living room in Paula and Travis’s home has many natural elements, art, inherited furniture, and collections of both daughter and mom. Photo by Jon Carnes

A view from the dining room into the living room. Photo by Jon Carnes

When you think about industrial style, you probably don’t imagine a space that is warm and inviting. And yet, Paula and Travis’s home feels serene, comfortable, and like a great place for their daughter to grow up. 

You can likely attribute that to Paula’s knack for color, proportion, and flow. She is, after all, an artist. Paula has an MFA in painting and drawing from the University of Iowa and studied art history and painting at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. In addition to painting, Paula dabbles in ceramics and stained glass. 

The wall behind the dining room table with a collection of sculptural items, including Paula’s art on the right. Photo by Jon Carnes

On the wall behind their dining room table—a thrift find—a collection of sculptural art and objects hang, including two deer skulls and a branch. The sculptural ceramic piece on the right is Paula’s art. The collection of ceramic pieces hang on blue string, and it almost looks like parts of a person strung together.

The antique pie safe next to Jesse Albrecht‘s sculpture. Photo by Jon Carnes

Nearby sits an antique pie safe. The pie safe is one of the first industrial pieces Paula collected, and it’s one of her favorites. Next to the pie safe is a mortar-shaped, skull and crossbones sculpture. 

“So many things in the house have been scavenged or found, or they have a story or history behind them,” says Paula. 

The mortar-shaped sculpture is one with a story. It was made by a grad school friend of Paula’s, Jesse Albrecht. During grad school, Jesse had to deploy to Iraq. He then returned to art school. It’s hard to imagine a more jarring experience than leaving art school to go to war and then returning to make art. After returning, he started to make mortar-shaped art pieces, like Paula’s sculpture. 

The pie safe and sculpture are in Paula and Travis’s dining room, which is connected to the sunroom. The sunroom has glass-shuttered walls on three sides, making it a cozy, sunny spot. They spend a lot of time in the sunroom, listening to music and reading. 

The sunroom has glass shutters on three of the walls and is open to the kitchen and dining room. It’s an incredibly serene space to listen to music and read. Photo by Jon Carnes

Paula and Travis renovated the sunroom, kitchen, and dining room in 2015, opening up the wall between the dining room and sunroom. They also added more cabinets to the kitchen and dining room, new hardware from Rejuvenation, new lighting, and counters.

The dark cabinets are new, along with the countertops and the appliances. The cabinet pulls with the backplates are from Rejuvenation. Photo by Jon Carnes

The light oak cabinets are original to the kitchen. Photo by Jon Carnes

The kitchen is also connected to the dining room and sunroom. Photo by Jon Carnes

In the sunroom, they removed layers of carpet and found concrete floors underneath, which fit with Paula’s industrial aesthetic. Paula and Travis worked with Route 1 Interiors on the renovation, a design firm based in New Ulm that specializes in kitchens and bathrooms.

A pitcher plant hanging in the kitchen window. Photo by Jon Carnes

The sunroom houses the family’s growing collection of succulents and cacti. The coffee table is from the famed Swedish design company Dux and was another lucky thrift score. Paula found the triangular-shaped armchair on Facebook Marketplace and had it reupholstered.

The triangular chair and part of the sunroom’s plant collection. Photo by Jon Carnes

A shelf in the sunroom holds books, art, Lego flowers, and ceramics. It is adjacent to the doorway into the kitchen. Photo by Jon Carnes

The sunroom is also the favorite spot of their elderly pug, Mavis. She sleeps on a heating pad next to the glass shutters, maximizing her coziness factor. 

Mavis spends nearly all her time snoozing on the heating pad in the sunroom. Photo by Jon Carnes

In the living room, a five-foot-tall wicker giraffe stands next to a collection of Colima dogs on the fireplace mantel. Paula started collecting the Colima dogs on her first trip to Oaxaca, Mexico. Every time she goes back to Oaxaca, she brings one back. 

“The Colima dogs were something I learned about early on my first trip to Oaxaca. Then when I saw one at a black pottery studio we visited, I had to have it,” says Paula.

Paula’s collection of Colima dogs are displayed on the mantle in the living room, along with a pug coin bank, which was a present from Travis and Ivy. Photo by Jon Carnes

According to the National History Museum of Los Angeles County, Colima dogs were often found in “ancient shaft tombs all throughout Mesoamerica, most notably in the western Mexican state of Colima. They usually have short, squat, round bodies with perky ears and are covered in red slip, a mixture of water and fine clay used to intensify the natural red coloration of ceramics.” 

Photo by Jon Carnes

Paula found the wicker giraffe at a community garage sale and paid just $1. She’d gone in search of things for what would become Ivy’s room, as she was pregnant with her at the time. 

The living room holds another sentimental piece, Paula’s great-grandmother’s chair. Her mom refinished the wood on the arms and base, and Paula had reupholstered it in white wool. 

Paula memorialized her living room chairs in this painting, which sits adjacent to her studio in the basement. Photos by Jon Carnes

Like her mom, Ivy is a bit of a collector. The 9-year-old describes herself as a maximalist, and she collects stuffies. Her favorite stuffies are her bunny, Bun Bun, a unicorn named Brucie, and a koala made of alpaca fur. Ivy also loves her two Labubus. 

Ivy collects stuffies, Precious Moments, and also has two Labubus. Photos by Jon Carnes

Of her space, Ivy says, “My room being kind of full makes me feel comfortable.”

Ivy is a self-described maximalist. Photo by Jon Carnes

Ivy also collects Precious Moments figurines, and one sits with other tchotchkes on the hanging macrame table in the living room. Nearby, her in-progress Lego creations sit on the coffee table. She also trades sculptures and other art with her cousins.  

A midcentury modern buffet table with photos, ceramics, and a striking turquoise lamp. The hanging macrame table has one of Ivy’s Precious Moments figurines. Photo by Jon Carnes

Ivy likes to move things around in her room, something she likely picked up from her mom. Paula is always rearranging things in the house. 

In Paula and Travis’s bedroom, they have a dresser and armoire from Paula’s grandparents. Photo by Jon Carnes

“I think more about the space because I work here,” says Paula. “When something doesn’t feel right or needs to change, I make that happen.”

The basement was finished when they moved in. On the opposite side from her studio, there’s a space to watch TV, along with an area for Travis to play piano and the drums. Talk about a truly fun basement. Photos by Jon Carnes

On a typical workday, Paula gets up early to get Ivy ready for school and on the school bus. Then she works out and is typically settled in her home office by 9 or 9:30 a.m. She works at her desk for most of the day, answering student questions and doing assessment work, i.e., grading students’ work. She’s also on a committee at St. Cloud Technical & Community College, and then of course, she creates curriculum for her classes. 

A perfectly curated collection of rocks, bones, skulls, ceramics, wicker, books, and music. Photo by Jon Carnes

The view facing the shelf, which is a cozy nook for watching TV. Photo by Jon Carnes

This semester, she’s teaching almost fully remotely, and her classes are asynchronous, which means she records videos that students can access at their own pace. Most of the students she teaches at the community college are beginning artists. They might sign up for her classes to fill an elective for their associate’s degree. 

Some of Paula’s ceramic work hanging in her studio. Photo by Jon Carnes

“Many of them have not had a lot of experience with art. I like seeing the joy of creation and challenging the students’ critical thinking,” says Paula. 

Paula’s studio has a place for painting and sewing. Photo by Jon Carnes

Paula doesn’t typically get to spend time in her studio until after the workday ends. After Ivy gets home from school, Paula helps her get settled. Then she might have a little bit of time in her studio before dinner, or after Ivy goes to bed. 

Paula’s stained glass making station in her studio. Photo by Jon Carnes

Working in her studio helps Paula stay fresh as an educator.

“Challenging myself helps me relate to the students who are being challenged by the work they’re doing,” says Paula.

Paula’s mom is also an artist. While growing up, her mom had a ceramic studio at home. She also made stained glass objects. This sparked Paula’s interest in these two mediums.

During the pandemic, Paula bought a potter’s wheel and started making ceramics again. In fact, each of her art practices has a corner of her studio. There’s a corner for painting and drawing, a corner for ceramics, and a corner for stained glass. 

Paula’s potter’s wheel in her basement studio. Photo by Jon Carnes

In the painting corner, Paula has a cardboard box with two sides removed and a light clipped to the side. At the time I visited, the box held a squash, a small rock, and a face vessel with a piece of paper rolled up in it. The cardboard box functions as “the set” for Paula to paint still life scenes. She told me her goal was to get the painting finished before the squash went bad, which seems like the most zen deadline ever. 

A collection of Paula’s painting supplies with two glass mushrooms on the left. Photo by Jon Carnes

Along with painting and ceramics, Paula enjoys making stained glass items and has recently been creating plant stakes with mushrooms on them. Fellow artist and shop owner Liz Burwell has been selling the plant stakes and Paula’s ceramics at Arte House MPLS. Though Arte House’s physical store closed, you can still shop the Arte House MPLS wares online.