“I remember walking through the house and feeling like there was so much room to put our personalities into it,” says Dun. “Not only was this the first house that we designed together, but it was really the first time that both of us felt the freedom to put our mark on a place.”
A flexible layout, stretched across three stories meant Ryan and Dun could create the sort of home they never had to leave. And they had a lot of ideas: a boxing ring in the basement, a cold-plunge pool on the back porch, a recording studio and screening room. All have been brought to fruition. But perhaps the most impactful element was one of the first things they decided on: a mural by the Australian artist duo DABSMYLA. “As soon as we saw the atrium we knew [putting a mural here] would be the crown jewel of the house,” recalls Ryan. She was right—the smile-inducing landscape the artists created, loosely inspired by the flora at the Franklin Park Conservatory in Columbus, packs a serious visual punch, resembling a surrealist twist on Super Mario.
Another special request fell on the opposite end of the color spectrum: Dun wanted a white couch. It was a somewhat symbolic choice—“being an adult is knowing and accepting the responsibility of cleaning the white couch,” he explains with a laugh. And so a white sofa they got—a soft-spoken foil to the living room’s more curiosity-inducing inhabitants, among them a pair of strawberry-shaped side tables, eye-popping artworks by Pose and R.J. Hohimer, and a bust they commissioned from artist Ronja Kappel of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
But seriously: Everything has a story in this house, from the old-school Blockbuster card framed in acrylic and Dun’s Gameboy, a relic of the 1990s, to the “Dun & Dun” neon sign from their wedding. To build out the narrative, Ryan and Moyer canvased Columbus’s vintage and antiques purveyors for curated retro pieces to blend into the mix—many of them snagged at the local depot, Grandview Mercantile. “Whenever we could shop locally we did,” explains Moyer. “I think it really added soul to the space.”
They added that spirit through art, in particular. Since moving to Columbus, Ryan and Dun have fallen in with the city’s thriving local creative community, and they engaged many of these new friends in the creation of the home. Downstairs, artist Adam Brouillette spray-painted the dining nook in the basement kitchen in an electric magenta, and graffiti artist Justin Withrow tagged the home gym. Meanwhile, they commissioned a work from local artist Dillon Beck specially inspired by the home called Tree House—“it’s sort of like a beautiful rope ladder that we hung opposite the DABSMYLA,” Ryan explains—and a mossy mantel installation from artist Erin Burchwell to bring greenery indoors during the less-green seasons. Even visiting friends get to put their mark on the place—in the treehouse-themed guest bedroom, an easel awaits, where guests are encouraged to paint or draw a little something that will be framed and added to the room’s gallery wall.
This gesture feels fitting for a house that places friends and fun at its core. When Ryan and Dun are both home in Ohio, you might find them boxing in the basement, playing games (Code Names is Ryan’s favorite; Dun prefers Whiplash, the video game), making s’mores, or chilling with friends and Jim in the atrium, where, on a given day, someone might even get a tattoo. They’re showing their friends a side of Ohio they didn’t know existed.
“People often say, ‘What’s in Ohio?’” explains Ryan. “But we’re so inspired by this place. Building this home, inviting people into it…the whole process has created a new sense of us.”