David Aaron Smith and Katelyn Doherty’s Gonzales bungalow is covered with their artwork and vintage hand-me-downs. Photo by Collin Richie.

Inside a Gonzales cottage adorned with hand-painted murals, heirloom antiques and funky mirrors

Nothing is planned inside David Aaron Smith and Katelyn Doherty’s home.

It’s how Smith makes his paintings, dripping acrylics onto a canvas and then letting the scene evolve subconsciously, spontaneously, organically. And it’s the same way the couple decorates. Furniture is acquired by chance—a dresser they stumbled upon at an antique store, or a 1930s couch passed down by Doherty’s Great Aunt Gigi.

“We work with what’s available,” Smith says. “Our home is always changing based on whatever pieces we found at an estate sale or thrift shop. It’s like—I have to have this rug and then rearrange my life around it.”

Smith and Doherty own Art to Geaux, a mobile boutique stocked with Smith’s paintings, Doherty’s collages and handmade jewelry, and a curated collection of vintage clothing.

The duo met in California, where they lived together for years in the remote Death Valley town of Tecopa. In the early days of the pandemic, they packed their belongings into a 1950s canned-ham-style metal trailer they bought for $600 and returned to Smith’s hometown of Gonzales. They restored the trailer to use for their art shop, which they began taking on the road this spring.

Their next project: turning their house into a maximalist, no-rules space that reflects their life together. Inside the 950-square-foot two-bedroom, nearly every inch is covered with the couple’s art, antique finds or upcycled pieces.

To read more about the unconventional interiors of this artsy abode, check out the full story from 225 magazine.