Now in its second year in Detroit, the Weird Home Tour is a mix of the personal and the professional. So if you like to see other creative offices, homes or a combination of the two, then the Weird Home Tour is for you.
The Weird Homes Tour highlights what it calls “unconventional homes” in select cities around the country. During the self-paced tours, visitors will see some of the most odd, extraordinary, inspirational and “weird” homes that Detroit has to offer. The Detroit edition is set for Saturday, August 24, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Riding off last year’s inaugural wave, WHT Founder David Neff says he is happy to return to Detroit, where weirdness abounds.
“Our first year in Detroit was a smashing success, so much we had to come back,” Neff says. “And the city, with its rich history and big-hearted residents, has welcomed us with open arms.”
With the purchase of a ticket, the Tour provide a map of the homes, and visitors can start and stop when they want, any time throughout the day, viewing the homes in the order of their choice. At each home the owners are onsite, available to answer questions and go in-depth into their design, unique aesthetic and perspectives.
This year’s homes and VIP locations include:
• The Boom Boom Museum – Matt and Sara’s dwelling is anything but your typical Royal Oak apartment, sporting a Tiki Room out of this world. The double decker infinity pool is your first glimpse into what will surely be sensory overload.
• Hamtramck Disneyland – Hamtramck Disneyland is the folk art masterpiece of Dymtro Szlak. Taking nearly 30 years to construct the ‘land’ it is built atop the two garages on the properties that he owned, filling the air with whimsical kinetic structures that light up and play music.
• Ron’s Recycled Roost – Tucked away in a quiet eastside Detroit neighborhood hides Ron’s handmade wonderment of custom woodwork and true Detroit DIY-style skill. Revived from its official condemned status by the city, and once crumbling at nearly all its seams this ‘roost’ is a must see.
• MBAD African Bead Museum – 16 years ago, Olayami Dabls came to the corner of Grand River and West Grand Blvd with a vision. Today, it covers almost an entire city block, and houses 18 outdoor installations, African Bead Gallery, N’kisi House and African Language Wall.
• The David’s Pop Art House – From the outside Judy and John Davids’ home you might think it’s your run of-the-mill modest 1916 bungalow but you would be very, very wrong. Inside it is like a large pop art installation where practically every wall has a bold color or covered with a psychedelic print.
• Detroit Artists’ Test Lab – Glenn’s one part gallery, one part residence, and one part artist incubation space, is a feat of some serious dedication and creativity. A place with bowling alley kitchen counters, lights above made from cheese graters, tool boxes used to hold utensils and car side mirrors act as sconces.
• Fun House of Style – Returning for her second year on the tour, Shanise has decorated her home with what inspires her. The home is bursting with creative style, vintage board games, lunchboxes, autographed posters, and framed magazine covers.
• Detroit Gallery of Metals (VIP home) – The Detroit Gallery of Metals, is not just the home and studio of renowned metal artist, Carlos Nielbock, it is a cultural institution established to celebrate, preserve, and explore the role of metal arts in Detroit and around the world. From his signature ornamental metalworks, such as the legendary “Detroit Sign”, iron elements of the Industrial Revolution, bronze sculptures of West Africa, to Detroit Windmill Sculpture Park, the Detroit Gallery of Metals is a wonderland of metal arts and history. (Available for VIP ticket holders only)
As a company WHT is all about the triple-bottom-line, meaning they wouldn’t be in the game if giving back to communities wasn’t intrinsically part of the work they do around the country. The tour, which partners with a local affordable housing nonprofit each year, has partnered up with Southwest Solutions this year and will be donating 10% of all gross ticket sales from the Detroit tour to aid in the fight for affordable housing.
