JULY 2019 // CHARLOTTE 57
T THE START OF 2019, Angela Ruch planned to
return to the racetrack, and she and her husband,
Mike, were ready to welcome a baby girl into their
renovated uptown penthouse. Cameras were there to
capture it all for their upcoming reality show, The Ruch Life. As they say
in motor sports, everything was right on track.
But life happened. Plans changed. In March, Angela made a surprise
switch in NASCAR teams and signed with Niece Motorsports. Then
the couple got a call that the baby they planned to adopt would be
a boy. Designer Summer Tubridy, owner of Onyx Interiors, had just
completed a four-month redesign of the Ruch home, which included
a baby girl’s nursery. It had custom closets lled with baby clothes, a
Lucite crib from Nursery Works, and an accent wall with Schumacher
Pyne Hollyhock Blush Wallpaper. The room combined all the elements
Angela loves: black-and-white, blush pink, and gold accents.
Fortunately, Tubridy didn’t have to undo all of her work. The pent-
house suite at the VUE Charlotte had an extra bedroom, and Tubridy
redesigned it for the baby boy. He arrived on March 9, and the Ruchs
named him King. Angela decided to keep the other nursery as is for the
baby girl they plan to adopt next.
Tubridy had already worked with the Ruchs for ve years, and this
was their second renovation of the penthouse. She’d also designed
Mike’s oce at Industrial Timber, a Charlotte-based company that
manufactures wood furniture frames, where he’s CEO.
With homes in Oxford, Mississippi, and Miami—and two NASCAR
Truck Series races for Angela to prepare for—the Ruchs weren’t always
around to make design choices, so they gave Tubridy complete creative
control. “We really had nothing on our wish list,” Angela says. “We
basically told Summer to furnish our place with everything brand-new,
with the look and colors we loved.”
WHEN THE
Fast Life
COMES HOME
Xfinity NASCAR driver Angela Ruch and her husband,
Mike, have a new reality show, a new baby, and a newly-
renovated penthouse suite overlooking uptownBY TAYLOR BOWLER
PHOTOGRAPHS BY JOEL LASSITER