“I kind of think that art doesn’t have to just hang on the walls.”

Prescott Bailey is standing in the center of his open living space when he makes this assertion. Mind you, this is hardly a home that’s void of the kind of art that hangs on walls—there are colorful pieces from local and international artists on almost every vertical space. But also surrounding Prescott and his family each day are original details that elevate their home’s architecture to an innovative new level, from the black mirror glass covering the vent hood in the kitchen to the sleek sidelights and custom steel frame around the pine front door. “I wanted there to be little elements like that in every room,” he says.

As a real estate developer, Prescott has spent years honing his sense of what works and doesn’t work for a home site and the home itself. So when he and his wife, Victoria, found themselves with the opportunity to build a new home on one of the most picture-perfect streets in the Garden District, they knew they wanted a space infused with creative elements that were far from cookie-cutter.

Prescott had created his previous home—a top-floor residence in a downtown mixed-use building he designed himself—with plenty of unique features as well. But after living downtown for a few years, he and Victoria were ready for something more family- and pet-friendly. On weekends, they jogged through nearby neighborhoods, and they felt drawn to the Garden District, which is home to Victoria’s alma mater, St. Joseph’s Academy, and to hundreds of century-old live oak trees. A lot with a tear-down soon came on the market, giving them the chance to put their own design stamp on their new home.

Prescott drew up the original floor plan himself and then enlisted the help of architect Dwayne Carruth of The Front Door Design Studio to get the design ready for real life. Prescott’s vision was a modern structure with ample natural light and a layout suited for entertaining. “I was very focused on how everything would flow,” he says. “We host a lot of parties, and it was important for every room to be usable and functional.”

It was also essential that the home feel like a respite after a busy day, whether for Prescott with his real estate work or for Victoria, who is an emergency room physician’s assistant. So while this house has a contemporary skeleton, layered upon that are warm wood tones, soft furnishings and lively patterns that make it feel anything but sterile. “I think you’ve got to soften things up,” Prescott says. “If you go too modern, it doesn’t feel livable and comfortable.”

Still, this house is minimalistic—“We’re low on clutter” is how Prescott puts it—but not sparse. That gives the pieces that do fill these rooms special significance, and the couple was keen on customizing every element that they could. A pair of pendant light fixtures over the informal dining table, for example, was repainted from white to black to complement the adjacent black-centric kitchen. Over the kitchen island, a single fixture of hanging cylindrical pendants was separated so that each little light could shine over a larger area. And a custom climate-controlled wine room was tucked into a corner behind the kitchen and next to a copper-tile-adorned bar area.

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Bold color is integral to nearly every room, in many instances through the use of statement-making accent walls in contrasting hues. In other spaces, wallpaper with large-scale patterns does the talking. And in some spots—like the laundry room with its grassy green cabinets and eye-catching wallcovering—both color and pattern are on full display.

Louisiana artists are represented throughout the house, from a pair of Tony Mose paintings and a work by Robert Rector in the informal open dining area to a two-panel alligator gyotaku work by Leslie Charleville just off the living room. But they also selected artworks from artists around the world, including Turkey’s Adviye Bal, who created the multi-figure painting displayed in the living room. And because they are big on sightlines to the outdoors as well as what’s inside, they found an artist on Etsy to create a custom steel sculpture for a spot just outside a tall window in the informal dining space. “I liked the geometric instability of it,” Prescott says.

Windows are another key part of the artistry here, and Prescott intentionally had them placed where they maximized views of the natural environment. A massive picture window in the primary bedroom perfectly frames the Bill Reich-designed rear landscape. Because of the alignment of the en suite bathroom with that bedroom, it’s also easy to see out back while soaking in the tub, and at the same time, one need only look up from there to see the tops of the live oak trees out front through a steel-cased high horizontal window.

Baby daughter Blake’s nursery is a second-story sweet spot with an abstract art-inspired accent wall behind the crib. The second floor is also home to an additional bedroom and living space, but the modular sectional sofa in the living room is a favorite spot for the whole family—including a 6-year-old miniature goldendoodle named Larry—to hang out. Even the home office, where Prescott often works at his built-in standing desk when he’s not at his office, is welcoming to the whole crew, with its leather lounging sofa and aviator chairs surrounded by bright blue walls and whimsical art (including a piece that portrays Larry as a military general). “This is where we put the fun art,” Prescott says.

The Baileys enjoy hosting their friends and family year-round, but they especially love having a big crowd over for the St. Patrick’s Day parade, which passes nearby. The home gym space that’s just off the pool easily transitions into a party spot and was memorably used to house a pianist for a friend’s birthday party, during which they also set up a portable hibachi station on the artificial turf back lawn.

“I spent a lot of time looking at drawings, trying to make the backyard efficient for entertaining without everything feeling jammed in,” Prescott says.

Even when it’s just the three of them at home, they like watching dog walkers and marathon runners pass by. And now, when Prescott and Victoria jog around this neighborhood—or push a stroller, these days—they don’t have to get back in their car to go home.

“We really love this neighborhood,” Prescott says. “You get so much foot traffic here. It’s lively, and that’s just what we wanted.”