There are 18 colors on the façade of Tonya Gatt's tiny house, and she can recite the names of all of them — as well she should, because she chose them and painted them on.
“Sometimes, I feel like a flamingo (amid) a flock of seagulls,” Gatt said, referring to the fact that her brilliantly hued home is surrounded by houses that are painted all white, the color scheme that’s trending Uptown. Besides the glow-in-the-dark shutters, her home is adorned with jigsaw cut outs, scalloped edging and blue and white tiles that add dimension to the façade.
“The colors and other things just sort of evolved and keep developing,” she said. “I am pretty good with a jigsaw because my late father taught me carpentry, and before Hurricane Katrina, I led an all-female carpentry crew,” Gatt said.
A prominent example of her carpentry skills is the fanciful turret that rises from the ground on the left side of the house. It’s surprising to find a turret on a small single shotgun, but that’s Gatt’s style.
“My turret is inspired by the Victorian mansion that was torn down on St. Charles at Melpomene,” she said. “My mother and I would ride the streetcar downtown, and I just loved that place and to get to look at all the dolls (when well-known collector Bonnie Broel had her extensive display there) was so exciting. That was when I decided I really wanted to live in a doll house with a turret one day, and it’s what inspired pretty much everything about my house.”
It’s easy to feel that you have been transported to a fantasy world when you enter the home. There are glittering chandeliers and mirrors in every space, along with white floors and walls, and white stars made of wood applied on the vaulted ceiling. Color comes from the objects that Gatt has installed — a dark purple velvet ottoman, blue velvet cornices above the windows and door, a gilded alligator as a table centerpiece, and Chinese export ware blue-and-white vases and lidded jars.
In the dining room, a “Ken and Barbie in Paris” photographic mural stretches from one wall to other and from the floor to the ceiling.
“We just felt that Barbie and Ken in Paris with the Eiffel Tower was sort of representative of me and Ben,” she said, referring to Benjamin Farrar, her husband of one year. “We were college sweethearts, but then he moved up to New York and we lost touch. A few years ago, a friend of his recommended he call me when he was in town and one thing led to another.”
Farrar is a compliance officer for a Japanese company and can work from any place in the world, so he does it from his dining table in New Orleans. Gatt is in finance. While she seeks a full-time position, she’s a day trader in the stock market. For additional income, she collects pieces of furniture, often modifies them, then resells them.
“I’m great with white paint and it can make almost anything look good,” she said. An example is the 1960s-era console that fits snugly against the mural at the bottom. “I painted it white, changed out the door knobs, and installed mirrored glass in the doors.”
An antique china cabinet — painted white — serves as her desk, and another white-painted cabinet shows off her collection of Chinoiserie ceramics.
She has other tricks as well. “It’s surprising how much a seat can change the looks of a chair,” she said. “I had this Duncan Phyfe-style dining table and chairs that I wanted to use, but they didn’t really go with everything else.
"So I took the seats off the chairs and replaced them with new seats I had painted white. For the table, I made a simple shoebox frame to go over the top of it and I scalloped the skirt with a jigsaw. They’re really simple changes that make a big difference.”
A self-proclaimed fashionista, Gatt added a dressing room/closet onto the back of her house to accommodate the outfits, shoes and earrings that make the looks she likes. Wide but shallow, the space is bursting at the seams with glamorous gowns, glittering pumps and slingbacks.
“Sometimes I will find designer fashion online or in a shop at a great price and I’ll buy it, wear it once, then sell it,” she said. “That way my wardrobe keeps evolving.”
The closet/dressing room leads to the back door and a mini paradise outside.
“Before the mosquitoes attacked, I would work outside and have online meetings with staff in New York,” Farrar said. “They were incredibly jealous of my working conditions.”
Small wonder, seeing how the back yard feels like a lush French Quarter courtyard in miniature, with ferns and potted plants providing the green backdrop and a white wire table and chairs serving as seating. And if work gets a bit stressful, Farrar can nap on the white cushioned chaise, with string lights above him sparkling and shimmering.
Life isn't all storybook-quality for Gatt. She added the turret after a neighbor’s tree came crashing through the house and took off the roof during Katrina. But she made the best of it, researching how to do it so that everything fit together perfectly, preventing leaks.
“I decided to extend the 6 or 8 feet width of the turret to the back two rooms to get a little extra space on that side of the house,” she said.
That space is home to her white leather sofa with its fluffy white pillows, a white bonnet chair, the purple ottomans and a few mirrored pieces including a table where the turret rises. Abundant mirrors fool the eye into thinking the space is bigger than it is.
Farrar is proud of Gatt's accomplishments. “Tonya did it all,” he said. “She sewed the curtains, made the velvet cornices and did all the carpentry work.
"When people visit for the first time, they want to know what my contribution was, and I tell them the truth. I’ll say, ‘Sometimes, I held the ladder.’”
