An Enchanting Minnesota Home Inspired by Ceramist Lucie Rie’s “Button Era”
Prospect Refuge Studio channels the late British luminary’s lesser-known button works to guide a craft-driven renovation of a former convent on Saint Paul’s historic Summit Avenue into a tactile celebration of all things ceramic
Victoria Sass is a self-described “ceramics nerd”—a passion she puts into vivid practice as the founder of Twin Cities firm Prospect Refuge Studio, which crafts enchanting homes awash in craft-forward nods to Midwestern sensibilities of warmth and humility, and its namesake gallery. So when she accepted a local surgeon’s request to rework a turn-of-the-century house on historic Summit Avenue, she was delighted to learn that her client shared an obsession with studio pottery, particularly the measured work of the late Lucie Rie. They soon embarked on a research odyssey together, but instead of swooning over the lauded British ceramist’s hand-thrown pots and cheerfully colored bowls, they fixated on something more obscure.
“Lucie had a whole button era and made ceramic buttons in all these shapes, sizes, and glazes,” Sass explains. “I’ve never really known another prominent ceramist who got into that.” Rie started making buttons in the workshop of her paramour, the industrialist Fritz Lampl, after fleeing Nazi-controlled Austria for London in the late 1930s. Seeking reprieve from the rigorous purism of her past work, she experimented with figurative shapes—flowers, leaves, shells, fossils, stars, knots—and rendered them in an equally eclectic array of clays, lusters, and glazes that created dazzling surface effects. At her peak, Rie’s studio employed 18 artisans, produced over 6,000 buttons a month, and was even nicknamed the “button factory.”
Energized by the discovery, Sass and the client decided to approach the renovation as a tactile celebration of ceramic practice, particularly the warmth of glazed pottery and the depth of earthy pigments. They tapped their extended network of Midwestern artisans to commission a medley of modish objects in the material, from lamps and side tables to hardware and door pulls. “We tried to think of how many different ways we could surround her with ceramics,” Sass recalls. “In a potter’s studio, you’re wrapped in tests, tiles, and glaze samples.” That turned out to be easier than expected considering the well-networked homeowner’s formidable collection—she’s close friends with designer Ryan Lawson, who often provides pointers—but it still required that Sass think creatively to find unexpected places to weave in subtle references.
First, structural interventions were in order. The house, a former convent, was suffocating under an obsolete layout, its rooms skewing narrow and irregular while carrying traces of midcentury updates that included linoleum floors and golden-oak cabinetry. An inconveniently placed wall, for example, separated the galley kitchen from the generous dining and living areas, which otherwise flow seamlessly into one another. Removing it “may have been a crime against old homes,” Sass admits, but ultimately let precious natural light in—no doubt a luxury during Minnesota’s infamously gloomy winters. Unlike most properties on historic Summit Avenue, which boasts the country’s longest stretch of Victorian-era homes, this structure wasn’t beholden to strict historic preservation rules.
That newfound influx of natural light activates the spectacular ceramic details that Sass deployed in the kitchen, particularly the verdigris tiles wrapping the cabinetry and hood, punctuated by subtle reliefs that echo the playful contours of Rie’s buttons. “It looks simple,” Sass says, “but getting everything recessed and aligned required careful planning. Once the tiles were ordered, there was no cutting them down.” Light now dances freely across those glazed surfaces, enhancing their tonal variation throughout the day. The effect extends to custom ceramic refrigerator pulls by Amanda Dobbratz and a countertop lamp by Iowa-born ceramist Christopher Merchant. Brick-set Clé tile in russet, radicchio, and dark chocolate, meanwhile, blankets the floor.
Elsewhere in the home, ceramic inspirations take more measured cues. A speckled, jellyfish-like pendant by Flora Wallace slithers and sings above the wood-clad powder room. In the dining area, a chandelier finished in a creamy glaze offsets a cobalt blue stool by Whale Creek Co. Oceanic shades echo in the bar’s quartzite backsplash before softening to a smooth lavender in the library, where Sass deftly balanced vintage rarities (1950s Italian chairs) with contemporary finds (an amethyst glass table from Design Within Reach). “It’s not every day you find those sweet spots, balancing one-of-a-kind or historical pieces with something ready-made,” she says. “Now, my client can grow her collection in whatever way it develops.” It will no doubt sit proudly on the room’s floor-to-ceiling shelves, where books and ceramics constantly rotate in and out.
Wooden beams span the library and living room ceilings, a gesture Sass views as essential to Midwestern domestic architecture. “When I’m swiping through Instagram, I can spot a Minneapolis home instantly,” she says. “Those beams were designed from the hundreds of houses I’ve been in.” Vintage and contemporary pieces coexist throughout the space, including a patinated steel cocktail table, a Maiden Home sectional, layered rugs, and reupholstered seating retained from the client’s earlier home. That mix extends through the project—aside from ceramics and a sentimental dining table, nearly everything arrived new. Yet the house avoids the impression of a single moment in time. “Balancing older pieces with things you can still buy allows the house to evolve,” Sass notes. “She can keep building her collection.”
Respect for Summit Avenue was the renovation’s guiding principle. While interior walls may have shifted and openings widened, the exterior remained untouched. “People buy these homes as custodians with the intention of living with them, not modifying them,” Sass says. That care outside allowed greater freedom inside and supported her overarching ambition as a designer. She views interiors as a serious artistic medium on par with painting and sculpture, fully capable of carrying and preserving regional narratives. “I want people to see the potential in interior design for telling their stories beyond a vibe or a trend,” she says. This particular story is to be continued—more work remains upstairs, where a second phase will extend the house’s foray into ceramics even further as the homeowner’s collection grows piece by piece.