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Reba, perched on the cushions at left, and Dan, Joseph Papa and John-Stuart Fauquet’s newest rescue pup, relax on a West Elm sofa. “Sometimes they let us sit with them,” Papa jokes. The table lamp is John Derian with a Shades of Light shade. The gallery wall includes pieces by artists Bashar and Roula Jarjour, Frankie Slaughter, Josh Stover, Shelly Klein, and Scott Cooke.
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The gold chairs in the salon are vintage. The coffee table holds a collection of out-of-print etiquette and entertaining books. Artwork includes the Lucy Gillis sculpture over the fireplace and pieces by Susie Ganch, Alyssa Block, Kat Thompson, Morgan Slade, Ben Lenovitz, Elizabeth Graeber and Sami Cronk.
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Papa designed the green trellis fabricated by Tech Painting. The vintage chairs are from Sheppard Street Antiques, the green credenza is from West End Antiques, and the pink dog sculpture is from Quirk Gallery.
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The couple hosts an occasional sing-along with Fauquet at the piano, which he painted with blue chalk paint. The painting is by Anne-Louise Ewen.
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Dan is right at home lounging on the bed from The Inside, which is flanked by nightstands from West Elm. The artwork is by Clarissa Potter and Nastasja Martel.
In 2020, Joseph Papa and John-Stuart Fauquet made the decision to move to Richmond, where Papa grew up, after several years of living in New York City.
“It was a decision we made over GChat one day,” Papa says. “Being in New York, seeing the skyline — that used to fill our tanks, give us energy. But that energy started going the other direction.
“We wanted a different lifestyle. We have a good friend group here, we love trees, we wanted to get a dog. We were also getting more political, and it felt like we could have more of an impact in Richmond.”
(From left) John-Stuart Fauquet and Joseph Papa lined the bar cabinet in their bright dining area with Little Greene’s Hencroft Azure wallpaper from Flourish Spaces.
The couple continue to split their time between the two cities, but their house in the Museum District is now the place they call home. It’s also become a gallery of sorts for their growing art collection — much of it by Richmond and Virginia creatives.
When Papa and Fauquet purchased their home in October 2020, the previous owners had recently remodeled in what Papa describes as a “nautical farmhouse” style with white walls and floors.
“It was a blank palette,” Fauquet says. “We both like lots of color, and it was really exciting to be able to put our spin on it.”
The duo are active in Richmond’s creative community, which they say is more accessible than New York’s. They often participate in art auctions hosted by Studio Two Three, the Visual Arts Center of Richmond and 1708 Gallery. Both love to support and showcase local artists and enjoy engaging in bidding wars with friends (and later visiting the pieces they missed out on).
Papa says they’re also regulars at Quirk Gallery.
“Katie [Ukrop, the gallery’s founder, director and co-owner] has done such a great job there,” he says. “Their sensibility really aligns with ours. Sometimes, I feel like she’s picking artists just for me.”
The walls, shelves and other nooks in their home are now filled with paintings and sculptures, many by artists they know personally. Works by Aimee Joyaux and Leigh Suggs hang in the entryway.
A paper-like sculpture by Lucy Gillis floats above the fireplace.
Some works nod to the homeowners’ activist interests, such as Emily Bright’s protest sign from the first Women’s March and a graphite drawing of an empty Monument Avenue plinth by Federico Infante.
“I don’t usually like art that’s evocative of a place, that’s ‘Richmond art,’” Papa says, “but Federico’s piece transcends that.”
Having close relationships with artists also creates an opening for creators to weigh in on how their work is displayed. Papa and Fauquet say they struggled with their parlor, a windowless room in the center of the house between the salon and light-filled dining area Papa calls the orangery.
They wanted to brighten up the space and naturally turned to artwork. But a proper gallery wall felt too traditional — until they attended Richmond artist Scott Csoke’s exhibition at Quirk. After installing their paintings in the gallery, Csoke painted pink trompe l’oeil frames directly onto the walls surrounding each piece.
“We immediately thought, ‘That’s it,’” Papa says. “Scott is a friend, so we asked if they’d do the same thing in our house, and they said, ‘Absolutely.’ It was the missing piece that brought everything together.”
“We have some of Scott’s work hanging inside those frames, which I love,” Fauquet adds.
We do love anything that evokes a mood — happy, bright, a little whimsical.
—Joseph Papa, homeowner
While art is a nod to the couple’s community and relationships, it’s also a vehicle for integrating vibrant color throughout the home. Pink is primary, with accents of green and blue.
Rugs from Anthropologie often served as a starting point. They added a mix of new and vintage furniture, such as a pair of gold chairs from a shop in Florida.
Next, they layered in pops of color, with Fauquet painting his piano a pastel blue and Papa adding a green lattice to their back dining area. Geometric wallpaper and statement light fixtures add boldness, while soft florals bring a nature-inspired touch. Etiquette books, fashion and design titles, and books from Papa’s work in publishing are curated into microcollections and placed throughout the house, almost like merchandise in a gallery shop.
“There’s a fine line between kitsch and grandmillennial,” Papa says. “We’re not leaning into either, but we do love anything that evokes a mood — happy, bright, a little whimsical.”
The end result is a space that reflects their lives — their travels, significant moments, their community and the home they’ve created in Richmond.
“There are very few things that don’t have a connection to the two of us,” Fauquet says of their decor. “Whether it’s a place that’s meaningful, or someone we know personally, it all means something.”
