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house of a different color

Did you ever look at the color scheme on a house and say “What in hell were they thinking”? I’m currently working on a renovation of an older house and am considering an offbeat color scheme.

This particular house is a late 1800s Victorian in an historic designated district. This means we can change very little, architecturally, on the house’s exterior. The outside color scheme, however, is fair game. Therefore, it’s our sole exterior opportunity to make a design mark. I’ve become curious about doing an almost-black gray house with stark white trim. My research (pictured above) has produced some lovely examples of this combination; oddly traditional yet refreshingly contemporary. A perfect color storm.

This led me to recall some of our other projects which boasted more unusual color schemes -the creasote-blackened farm utility shed with cherry-red trim, the fire-engine-red red farm house and the dirt-brown lake cabin with sickly green window sashes. The owners of these projects allowed us to bravely go out on the paint-chart limb. The results were strikingly daring.

We’ll see how my black and white pitch goes….

staff postcards

Every April, staff designer Charlie Caldwell (you may remember him from my blog post about architectural model building) joins his partner, Scott Finn, in Italy where Scott heads up Auburn University’s Department of Architecture Study Abroad Program. On his sojourn this year, Charlie’s painterly eye was caught by some of Rome’s more deceitful architectural masterpieces. Here are a few of his correspondences:

18 April 2013

Good Morning!

“Virtual Reality”

One of the most intriguing aspects of Roman architecture is it’s theatricality. The line between reality and illusion is constantly shifting.

One of the best places to see that in all its glory is at the Church of Saint Ignatius just a stone’s throw from the Pantheon. The nave of the church has one of the grandest painted ceilings of the Baroque painted by Andrea Pozzo. It gives the illusion that the architecture of the church continues up into a painted infinity in which all the inhabitants of heaven have turned out to welcome the arrival of St. Ignatius who is floating up from the very space in which we stand. Meanwhile, personifications of the continents to which the Jesuits have brought the gospel sit on the cornice with their feet dangling over the edge. (Its simultaneously exhilarating and terrifying especially if you have any fear of heights.)

At the crossing of the nave we are presented with a different sort of illusion. What appears to be a view up into the dome of the church is actually a meticulously constructed perspective rendering painted on the flat ceiling. I asked a Roman architecture professor why the dome was never built, “Did they run out of money?” “The Jesuits,” he replied, “do not run out of money!” The generally accepted explanation that he offered was that a powerful aristocrat in the neighborhood objected to the proposed dome because it would block the views from his palazzo. He persuaded the Jesuit Brothers, by means of a generous contribution, to alter their plan.

I said that I thought it a shame to lose the dome, a model of which is displayed prominently within the church. “Well, it might not have been such a loss for the Jesuits as we might imagine. To the Baroque mind the painted illusion was considered a kind of wonder and an acceptable substitute. For them, if you could represent architectural space convincingly on a painted wall – then it was accepted as real. Sort of like the way we accept CGI in films. For them seeing was believing.”

Now that I think about it that could have been the motto for the artists of the Counter Reformation – “Seeing is Believing.”

Your correspondent in Rome, Charlie

2 May, 2013

Why Won’t Someone Open Up A Window?”

That’s the first song in the Broadway Musical “1776.” The chorus answers that question by singing, “No, no, no, too many flies, but it’s hot as hell in Philadelphia!” Rome in summer is just as uncomfortable, but the answer to that same question might be, “Because that window is only painted on the wall.”

Rome is a city full of painted windows, inside and out. They are frescoed onto the walls of churches and palazzi to complete the design where a real window is not feasible. Sometimes the functions of the rooms behind the façade don’t correspond with the need for symmetry and regularity on the outside. Sometimes the need for a window on the inside is blocked by some obstruction on the outside. It’s all part of the Roman process of building and rebuilding and building new buildings on top of old buildings. The solution to the problem -paint it!

Roman painters are so skillful that most of the time I don’t even notice the trick, but when I begin to look closely painted windows begin to show up everywhere.

Your correspondent in Rome, Charlie

wall to wall

Recently, I’ve written posts examining the important roles of ceilings and floors in the well appointed room. Today, walls get their due spotlight. The wall plane is by far the most beheld of all room elements (it’s is at eye level, after all). Dressing the wall, however, can go far beyond the drab frock of sheetrock. Here are some examples of where we took the concept of “wall paper” to whole new levels.

Inherently colored plasters (often called “Venetian plaster”) can add a rich, earthiness to a room. It’s surface is polished to a slightly reflective sheen and, since the color the integral to the material, does not require paint.

We like to use flush wood planking in relaxed, casual settings. The nature of the material innately calls out to used for beach cottages, mountain shacks and lake cabins. Whether painted (shown pictured, left) or stained, this masculine treatment almost makes you feel like you’re lounging in a cigar box.

Mention the word “library” and the mind conjures images of a dark, smoky, paneled gentleman’s room. In this library, we desired that atmosphere but we wanted to try to create it in a completely different fashion. We paneled the walls with tobacco colored fabric thus creating an upholstered sanctuary. The sound quality in a quilted room is unlike all others; a hush occurs almost immediately upon entering.

Heavy fabric provides excellent sound attenuation and lives well in screening rooms. This minute, two person TV lounge is enveloped in lush mohair drapery. Thick, heavy curtains were a staple in the cavernous volumes of old Hollywood movie houses. Why couldn’t they add equal drama in a little space? Add a bit of gilt (as in the picture frames) and you’ve got a bit of Bijou right at home.

Often, when we do wood paneled walls, we use them sparingly; they become a backdrop to vignettes. Whether stained or painted, wood paneling can act as a beautiful foil to present staged compositions.

Most traditional wood paneling and wainscoting is of the raised or recessed variety. In our office, we designed a wood wainscot with a fluted texture, like the face of an architectural column. Used in this fashion, this traditional surface method comes across as very modern.

To convey a mood or tell a story, we’ll often bring exterior materials inside. We wanted this breakfast room solarium to feel like an outdoor courtyard so the same rock veneer that clads the outside of this house was invited indoors. A continuous copper water trough at the top of the focal wall creates an intentionally leaky feature.

In a penultimate case of wall adornment, we commissioned artist David Braly to create a mural for the walls in this Italian-inspired dining room. David employed an inspired graphite method that created a subtle, faded, tattoo-like environment.

I hope we’ve inspired you to look at walls in a different way. Save them from the doldrums of the gypsum wall bored.

underfoot

A few weeks ago, I did a blog post extolling the virtues of the adorned ceiling. This week, I thought I would give an equal nod to the floor surface. The following four categories pictorially illustrate some of our favorite floor finishes: wood, natural tile, concrete tile and concrete. All offer durable, beautiful richness and each were carefully selected for appropriateness in their respective design. These may be underfoot but the impact of gorgeous flooring should never be underrated.

WOOD

Wood comes in many species, finishes and sizes. It’s literally as varied as trees in the forest. These are some of our favorites:

Picture 1: wide plank antique oak w/ an antique face*

Picture 2: wide plank heart pine w/ an antique face

Picture 3: random width antique oak

Picture 4: random width heart pine

Picture 5: wide plank heart pine w/ an antique face

*Note: ”antique face” means that these boards were cut from the outside face of reclaimed antique beams so circular saw marks, rough surfaces form age, etc. show. These are not traditionally sanded and finished as the surface patina is desired.

NATURAL TILE

Materials hewn from the earth provide validation in any style interior. The spectrum is endless. One of our favorite sources is Marmi Natural Stone in Atanta.

Picture 1: Antique, reclaimed jerusalem stone in an ashlar pattern

Picture 2: Square, filled limestone in an offset running bond pattern

Picture 3: Rectangular , filled limestone in an offset running bond pattern

Picture 4: Square filled silver travertine in an offset running bond pattern

Picture 4: Square, unfilled limestone in a diagonal pattern

CONCRETE TILE

These pavers are cast concrete and are available from Peacock Pavers. The color is buff and the pattern is ashlar. We’ve been using these beautiful pavers for over 25 years now (when we first started specifying them, they were being hand cast by a bunch of guys in a little roadside shed in Atmore, Alabama). They have a lovely, aged finished and almost look like reclaimed antique castle stone.

CONCRETE

Polished concrete is an inexpensive (structurally, it’s often already in place) and contemporary feeling material. We typically saw cut a pattern into the surface, acid etch it with a stain and finish with a special wax. The result almost looks like time-worn leather. It’s virtually indestructible at home or work.

welcome friends

Over the years, we’ve been honored with invitations into many lives. The process of designing and building a house is an intimate affair and one we don’t take lightly. Occasionally, those relationships continue long after the last box is unpacked. Such is the case with our partnerships with Cindy Smith and Jane Schwab, the wonderfully talented women who make up the interior design firm Circa. Based in Charlotte, North Carolina (they also have a satellite store in Birmingham, AL), this powerhouse duo has literally defined the cordial Southern interior.

Now, Jane and Cindy have a brand new book of their own to add to their immaculately chosen coffee tables. The premier publishing house of Rizzoli Books has just released The Welcoming House, a compendium of these ladies’ work. Included in this beautiful book are Cindy and Jane’s own personal residences (both of which we designed). These two lovely homes were previously published in the long-gone and oft-missed Southern Accents magazine. As a matter of fact, Cindy’s 28-foot-wide French stucco townhouse (published in 1993) was so popular in print, it was instrumental in providing our office with many phone calls and new jobs for most of the 1990s. Jane’s extensive renovation of a colonial farmhouse was featured in all its holiday finery in a 2005 Christmas issue. Reprints of their articles are included in this post.

Congratulations ladies on your new published accomplishment! May its pages spread the grace and style you both so grandly possess.

above and beyond

The ceiling plain. It’s often the ignored facet in a room. Floors get clothed with lavish tiles and rugs, walls are festooned with panelling and decorative papers. And what of ceilings? They’re considered such a step child. There even exists a bland paint color called simply “ceiling white”. Poor, distant and untended ceilings. The Cinderella of surfaces, never invited to the ball. Being so far above the visual scope of our experience, why should one bother slathering it with expense or foster aplomb?

We, on the other hand, feel just the opposite. The ceiling is the culminating acme of any room and should be given its due. That’s why we often forsake wall adornments and choose instead to lavish our design attentions above. What with windows, drapery and artwork, walls are busy enough. Ceilings can be beamed, planked, groin or barrel vaulted, trussed or lacquered – the architectural palate is endless. These surfaces are elevated and should be treated as such. Look upward. Heaven awaits.

mirror, mirror on the window

Everyone loves a pleasant, luminous bathroom. In the morning, nothing brushes away the cobwebs of sleep from the brain like a bright, sunlit room. It’s a shining precursor to the day’s first cup of coffee. With this in mind, one time-honored Southern room-type makes a perfect model for the design of a bathroom – the sleeping porch. In historic Southern houses, the sleeping porch was traditionally located off a major bedroom and served as an escape from the oppressive heat of humid summer nights. These airy refuges were conventionally glazed by a band of operable windows. When the windows were all opened, the terrarium basically became a breezy cricket cage for sweaty, sleepy somnambulists. One functional problem arises, however, with transforming these little solariums into dressing rooms – the lack of wall space to hang vanity mirrors. One solution we’ve come up with is to actually hang or suspend a mirror in front of the window wall. With the abundance of light inherent in a design of this type, a little blockage is not a detriment and the “make-do” look adds to the retrofit feel of these rooms. Thus, the traditional sleeping room becomes a “waking room”, perfectly set up for the secret exhibitionist that dwells in all of us.

cuba libre

For me, the notion of visiting Cuba is akin to sneaking into Boo Radley’s home – forbidden, possibly dangerous and alluringly exotic. Therefore, I jumped at the chance when a friend of mine told me he was putting together a group of architects and designers to visit our long-snubbed neighbor. Though only 90 miles away from the US, it’s like visiting another faraway planet. Some preconceptions I had of Havana were true, most were not. Yes, the ancient American automobiles still hulk along the city streets looking like props from a zombie production of Grease. What I was not expecting was the distinct European loveliness that permeates the city. As far as Latin American cities go, it is much more Buenos Aires than Mexico City. Apply to that the decay and neglect from poverty and harsh tropical climate and the result is a bewitching faded gem; a tattered sequined gown still worn with dignity and glory. And the people – wonderful spirits living daily, ever hopeful, loving and ever prideful of their homeland. We could not have felt more welcomed into their realm. This is but a brief album of our journey. We returned from our fantastic waking dream with full eyes and replete hearts.

Various scenes from around the city (I often felt just like the peeking tourist in the last photo).

Grand plaza scenes ever witnessed by humble tenement dwellings.

A vist to the massive stone fort Castillo de la Real Fuerza that sternly protected Havana from foreign invaders (Bobby McAlpine, however, was granted full entry).

The ornate Art Deco splendor of the Bacardi building. The palace that rum built.

Richard Neutra’s design for a Swiss-born family’s vacation home. It serves now as the Swiss ambassador’s official house.

We visited a privately-owned restaurant set amidst the ruin of a dilapidated ancestral home. With its crumbling plasterwork, spiderwebs of exposed wiring and complete absence of window glass, this place took our breath away. Bobby said this kind of beauty could never exist in the US. If a city inspector set foot on the property and enforced one code violation or a health restriction, the magic would be forever ruined.

The buildings of Havana University. We fell in love with the classical courtyard lovingly holding an enormous Banyan tree.

The vaults at the enormous cemetery Colon represented all sorts of architectural styles.

Greg Tankersley and his wife Mary Robin Jurkiewicz

Alejandro Alonso, an architect and scholar of Art Deco in Havana, gave us a guided tour of some of the splendid examples of this ornate style. Alejandro is the author of Havana Deco.

A whimsical Tim Burton-esque home rendered entirely in mosaics. The artistry of a Cuban imagination run wild.

Eduardo Luis Rodriguez, the premier specialist of the Modern style and the author of The Havana Guide: Modern Architecture, led us on a tour of the Instituto Superior de Arte, where Cuba’s leading artists are educated. A portion of this school (Dance and Theatre) was abandoned mid-construction in the 1960s and now sits a bucolic Modern ruin.

The ragged mutts that freely roam the city of Havana are tagged by a small piece of paper that proclaims protection by the Historical Commission. Socialism at its best.

be my guest

Last week I spoke about the romance and charm that is the unencumbered outbuilding. To continue this thread of thought, I thought I’d concentrate on a specific type of accessory structure: the guest house. To have a guest cottage on the property is true luxury indeed. It’s like having your own little motor court lodge. Toss the keys to your guest and point to the path. These miniature houses sit picturesque in the landscape. They beckon and welcome, offering grand hospitality but under their own humble roofs.

shed a little light

Potting sheds. Carriage houses. Pigeonniers. Thunder Houses. These little architectural gems exude such charm, hold such romance and whisper greatly. I think its because they need so little program; their uncomplicated jobs are simple and intelligible. Standing as the quiet witnesses of the property, they offer shelter to the humble. A refuge to yard tools, a roof to the automobile, harborage to birds or an umbrella in the storm, these outbuildings hold safe the accessory members of the estate. I think that’s why they’re so fun to design. They come to us, free of burden, bearing no great requirements. No complicated programs. No code issues. No kitchen triangles. Like a child, they ask only for simple things. Walls. A roof. Sanctuary. A bit of window might be nice. Simply they sit but nobly they stand, the curios of the premises.

The winner of last week’s giveaway is Sherri Robinson. Congratulations! Your autographed copy of The Home Within Us is on its way. Thanks to all who stopped by to enter.

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