The Coral Gables Times

16 CORAL GABLES TIMES Thursday, November 8, 196?

BOB & BETTE RELAX IN THEIR STUDIO

BEADS BETTE MADE IN OWN KILN

BOB'S LION HUNTER

EVERYTHING ABOUT THESE GABLEITES IS CARE FREE AND EASY

THIS IS Bob and Bette's living room. Behind Bob is fireplace and rows of books. In foreground is table he made from trailer door.

2 Folks & Coral Rock Livin'

There is no home quite like Bob and Bette Richey's. STAFF PHOTOS BY RAY LANG It's a two-story coral rock affair nestled so far behind a jungle-thick wall of shrubbery you're likely to pass it before you see it at 330 Menores Ave. Bob, a designer and advertising artist, bought it in the early '40's and added a studio to it. He and Bette married three years ago. For material to make his studio, Bob hauled away rocks left behind in a Tamiami Trail cemetery after fresh graves were dug. The cathedral windows look into the studio and lend it an air of solidity and contrast its elegance with the jagged coral rock. Inside the studio, everywhere the eye wanders, canvas' which spring to life with color and sculptured figures look down from their perches on rows of shelves. A single floodlight attached half-way up the stair case beams down, lending a warmth. Bette, a blonde-haired legal secretary, has in the next room her kiln to dry ceramics she makes. Near it, a hot plate and tiny refrigerator so she and Bob, who spend a lot of time in the studio, don't have to run upstairs to the kitchen for coffee and snacks. In the bedroom, behind the bed, Bob placed a fiberglass screen and back-lighted it so he could read in bed. Along the walls as in the living room upstairs, there are Bob's paintings. The living room is highlighted by a long sofa whose surface is puffed up with a half-dozen scatter pillows. Rows of books and a fireplace add solidity. There's a coffee table Bob made from a trailer door. He painted the table's surface to look like sand, embedded shells from Matheson Hammock in it and covered it with hazy fiberglass. The table top looks like the sea shore. There are lamps whose shades are straw and whose bases are rock. Bette's kitchen shelves are also of the shell-sand-fiberglass pattern. Clearly, this is a home that bears the personality of the people who live in it almost as though it had been poured into the very foundation itself.