The front door of artist Tim Brunn’s house is positioned near two people sitting on a bench.
The woman wears tight curlers rolled up, and the man sports a worn-in hat, his arm warmly placed over the woman’s shoulders. They both wear wedding rings, and neither smiles, but their gaze appears content. The man and woman are Brunn’s parents, and it’s his favorite work that he sculpted himself on the property. There are dozens more inside and out of his for-sale Appleton, Wisconsin, home listed for $349,900.
Brunn likes the sculpture more than the towering butler beside the front door, or the Elvis Presley lounging on a chair with his guitar in the front room, or the Mahatma Gandhi bust in the front yard.
The home has garnered thousands of interactions online for its eclectic, art-filled listing photos after being picked up by an Instagram account with more than 2 million followers.
“I said to my wife, ‘We’re not going to declutter,’” Brunn, also an art teacher of 29 years, said in an interview with Homes.com. “It’s common to have it stripped down, but it depresses me when I see that.”
The home has four bedrooms, two bathrooms and 2,316 square feet. It’s actually a converted barn, Brunn’s dream home, and according to listing agent Jayden Henton of Real Broker, was built in the 1920s.
The structure was converted much later in the 1980s, and it includes original ceiling beams and an ivy-covered silo that’s connected to the garage.
Sculpted heads of Theodore Roosevelt and Benjamin Franklin, and a statue of the Hindu god Ganesh, are visible from the street.
That silo is undeveloped, giving opportunity to new owners to create a unique space. Henton said the unfinished attic and expanding the basement could add extra square footage.
“A lot of people want maintenance-free, cookie-cutter. I look at houses online all the time and everything is gray inside, gray laminate flooring, gray walls, and that’s fine if some people like it, I think it’s gross,” said Brunn, who purchased the home from another homeowner who installed the kitchen and randomly placed windows of varying sizes.
Brunn hopes the next homeowner is someone drawn to the home’s uncommon form and can see past the art-covered walls and funky statues. His favorite addition to the home during his family’s 16-year ownership was adding a large front deck and planting hundreds of hosta plants.
The home has rustic details harking back to the barn days with aged wooden staircases, dark wood flooring and thick stone around a built-in wall fireplace. A new tin roof and gutters were installed in 2022.
The kitchen uses knotty dark wood with mixed square blue tiles and decorative larger format tiles. The primary bedroom has a stone-clad fireplace, wood paneling, and a large full bathroom with a copper tub, high ceilings, and leaded glass windows.
This room of the home is covered top-to-bottom in paintings of Brunn’s wife in various forms: green hair, blue hair, a mohawk, as the Bride of Frankenstein, and as a Japanese geisha.
“I do a lot of artwork. If I don’t, I get down. It's good mental therapy,” said Brunn.
All of the art will be moving with Brunn and his family, but the agent said potential art purchases are up for discussion.
The home is located in a “quieter side of town,” described Henton, and is located 8 miles outside downtown Appleton.
