Houzz, a website specializing in architecture, interior design and decorating, landscape design and home improvement, features the 1880 Lawrenceville home of mixed-media artist Gavin Benjamin, a native of South America who now lives in Pittsburgh.

In her piece, My Houzz: An 1880 Home Becomes a Live-Work Design Lab, writer Lauren Piasecki takes us on a visual and descriptive tour of the home’s renovation details and design elements, as well as the large collection of art Benjamin has assembled over the past several years while living in New York and Pittsburgh.

The 1,185-square-foot one-bedroom duplex in Lawrenceville boasts tons of natural light, an open layout, large windows and door openings, high ceilings, original hardwood floors and railings, and wide moldings. The bold and bright interior design blends original 1880 building details with Benjamin’s impressive collections of art and design magazines, original paintings, vibrant graphic art, patterned wallpapers and custom wall coverings, and eclectic vintage treasures–all giving the live-work space a gallery-like atmosphere.

“This space is my design lab,” Benjamin says. â€œI think, process, edit and create, and my greatest joy is being able to curate my work within a space.”

See Benjamin’s Lawrenceville home on Houzz.

Jennifer has worked at the Mattress Factory, Brooklyn Museum of Art and Dahesh Museum of Art and is co-author of Pittsburgh Signs Project: 250 Signs of Western Pennsylvania. She also is co-coordinator of Handmade Arcade. Musically, she is in a band called The Garment District and is a founding member of Brooklyn's The Ladybug Transistor.