Lofty Aspirations

Downtown Childress, Texas isn’t the first place that you’d think about when you think of loft apartments and urban style living. New York City style loft apartments typically conjure thoughts of places like, well, New York City. Smack dab in the middle of Childress, Texas overlooking antique brick streets that were laid as part of a grand New Deal project back in the 1940’s, is the home of John and Arica Lott.

John and Arica Lott

Childress is a typical West Texas town - a little bit sleepy with just enough buzz going on to keep the town interesting. Unlike most Texas downtowns, Childress is devoid of a town square. Instead, its 1950’s era art deco style courthouse faces south and overlooks downtown’s two primary streets that each run south away from the courthouse to where downtown proper terminates at the railroad tracks. Each street is lined with buildings from various eras (from the 1890’s to the modern era) and in various conditions from completely razed to completely restored and some that are in between. As such, each downtown street has its own eclectic mix of buildings but are commonly laid with brick streets and aging curbs.

Mid-town is the old WTU building. A sprawling, two-story corner building with an open floorpan and a history of tenants that’s included a utility company, a builder’s supply store, and, originally, a car and agriculture implement dealership. Now, the Lotts call it home.

“We had sold our house with plans of building on some land that we have south of town,” says John, sitting in the kitchen of the immense and open floor plan on the second story of the building. “We were in a 700 square foot house that my sister owns and were waiting to see if we’d be able to get water to our land south of town. It wasn't happening.”

About the same time, John says he was trying to buy a warehouse that was connected to a furniture store he owns. In Childress, the Lott family and the retail sales business are synonymous. For more than a generation they’ve ran retail stores of various iterations over the years. Currently he, along with his wife, owns a number of stores throughout town. They own Lott’s Home Center (a True Value affiliated home and auto store), Gordon's Furniture, Ballyhoo (a home decor, housewares, gift, and coffee shop), and their newest business, The Corner of Inside and Out is located in the immense street level space that’s beneath their home.

“At the time, the warehouse came with the building we are in now,” explains John. “At the time, I didn’t want the WTU building. I just wanted the warehouse."

A local banker convinced the Lotts, however, that the space would fit their needs. With three boys and a growing family, the 700 square feet in which they were living was getting tight.

“We had older boys in a small place. So we decided to give this place a try. We thought that if it doesn't work, we can still build a new house at some point. “

So they bought the entire building including the warehouse next door. The upstairs loft, which had been previously developed and subsequently occupied and developed by the previous owner, was move in ready but didn’t have the couple’s touches on it.

“Living up here took a while to get used to it, “ confides Arica.

“I was looking forward to a farm in the country and raising chickens,” she says. “There are no chickens here. There's no yard. It just seemed kind of different.”

Arica, who was raised in Childress was influenced by the rural town’s sensibilities as well as her father’s involvement in farming and ranching, adores the farmhouse style. If she wasn’t going to live on her own farm ,she surmised, she’s bringing the farm to her new home.

“I really like the farmhouse style,” she says, surrounded by the homey and warm touches of antique wood flooring, shiplap, and galvanized vessels adorned with cotton - the region’s top producing crop. Throughout the 8,000-plus square foot loft, eclectic and unique decor seemingly causes pause through every step of the space. So much of the decor is a conversation piece: including the dining room table. It’s an immense table top that was made from a vintage trailer that was once used to haul cotton from the field to the gin. The trailer was used on her dad’s Oklahoma farm and was sitting in the field when Arica rescued it and gave it new life as an item in which her family communes around.

From the ground floor of the warehouse space you can get to the loft via stairs or in the immense freight elevator that used to move cars up and down to the showroom. In the loft, original flooring is spread throughout the entire space. Overhead, open trusses in the ceiling are painted black to give the ceiling a uniform and less obtrusive look. The whole ceiling and roof structure is supported by brick-wrapped columns that support whitepainted beams to which the ceiling members run perpendicular. In totality, the entire space is a genuine clash of industrial, historic, and farm style that play effortless off one another. The whole experience of the home is delightfully curated by John and Arica.

“When we first got the place, there was carpet through out and more open areas but you could see the potential,” says John.

“I guess we really didn't have a definite idea of what we wanted to do at first,” he says. “But you know we moved in, got settled, and we decided that we wanted to do a little remodeling.”

Once they removed the carpet and found the original floors underneath (complete with the scars from a previous fire), the couple says that find shifted their design focus.

“So we started pulling up the plywood and we saw the floors,” says Arica. “They were very rough and unfinished. They had been painted on, rained on, whatever it may be.” After some sanding by their contractor and a simple coat of polyurethane, the old wood floors came back to life.

Now, the floors and immense ceilings are the ties that bind the whole space together and provides cohesion to the space. Despite the space’s vastness, it feels downright homey. John and Arica say their boys often have people over and the space is ideal for hosting church groups.

“I mean the concept of living above your business is not a new one,” says John. “That's the reason these buildings were built. People lived above their establishments. And so definitely not a new concept just probably more of a restored concept.”

When you are in the Lott home, you’d never know that business is being transacted below. In their newest store, The Corner, John’s sister LeeAnn is busy selling home decor and garden furniture.

Despite not having a yard, Arica says that there are benefits to living in the space.

“You know one thing that is probably my favorite part of the whole house are all those windows. We get to see the sunrise and the sunset every day from up here.”