Context and Contradictions
Week 27
We are working with a client to furnish a living room. We have laid out all the furniture in CAD, and it all works out well spatially. However, to ensure their confidence, the client wants to lay out masking tape on the floor to see how it “supposedly” works in real life. In CAD, we had the sofas 14” away from the large coffee table, a distance designed to comfortably use the coffee table for eating, because anything more than 14” away means a person has to uncomfortably stretch or stand up to reach their food. Now, with masking tape on the floor, 14” looks too small. "How on earth can we get through this narrow space with a 12” dinner plate with only 1” to spare on each side, and won’t we trip?" they ask. First of all, you are carrying the dinner plate at 36” high, well above the coffee table height or the seat of the sofa. The paradox is that the client wanted to believe the illusion the masking tape created until they had the “Aha moment” when they saw the actual sofa and coffee table in their home.
Using a two-dimensional visual aid (masking tape) to make a three-dimensional decision demonstrates the contradiction between an imagined problem and the physical reality of a space. The takeaway is don’t use masking tape on floors to lay out furniture. Instead, go to a furniture showroom and get permission to move a coffee table around next to a sofa.
Week 28
The Empty Room
A beautiful empty room is a blank canvas; do nothing, and that’s fine. Do something only when you're ready to make the first mark. Sometimes, for an artist, the first mark on the clean white canvas sitting on an easel is the hardest.
The Japanese art of painting a circle is known as Ensō, which translates to "circular form," and is typically hand-drawn in one or two uninhibited brushstrokes, often with black ink on paper. Drawing Ensō is considered a disciplined-creative process in which a fluid stroke reflects the spontaneous and unrestrained nature of the moment. The Ensō can be seen through the wabi-sabi lens, the appreciation of beauty in imperfection and impermanence. The Ensō is said to reflect the artist's character and state of mind at the moment of creation. It’s what I have been referring to as a signature.
In one of my painting techniques, the first mark on the canvas feels like the first step in an unfolding story. What follows the first mark is a series of marks balancing and counterbalancing each other to create harmony. It’s like a flower arrangement. I stop at the point where the new marks are no longer adding to the painting, and I feel accomplished while appreciating imperfection. It's the same experimentation a chef experiences when creating a new dish: the process of adding and subtracting while striving for perfection that keeps the chef going.
In an empty room, something has to come first—the sofa, a painting, a bookshelf. Like the first mark on the painting, something is now known. We are creating a story of deep, imperfect beauty together.
Week 29
Wall Finish: Getting a Space Ready
Part of getting the room right for furnishing is the wall texture. Two default textures in California are Orange Peel and Popcorn, used to hide defects in the wall and taping. These are spayed, lifeless mechanical finishes. I want to emphasize the crucial role wall finishes play in the outcome. Knockdown is a sprayed-on finish that is hand-troweled after the spray. Skip trowel is a random, aggressive, heavy-looking texture designed to hide poor defects. Use one of these four textures if budget is a significant concern.
There are two standard finishes considered smooth (in Northern California). Cat face, or “imperfect smooth,” refers to a hand-troweled wall finish where most of the wall is smooth, but deliberate irregular patches (the cat face) of the underlying wall show through, creating a “relaxed” appearance. Cat face texture is generally considered Level 4. The plasterer's texture signature tends to show through in these applications. Be careful to request sample walls. Start with a closet. Ask the plasterer to be random in creating the cat face.
Level 5 smooth wall is more painstaking. It involves an additional skim coat, resulting in a smoother, more refined finish. This process requires additional sanding to remove imperfections, resulting in a very smooth, uniform surface that is ideal when a flawless finish is desired, for high-gloss paints, and especially in well-lit or direct-sunlight areas.
I often request a finish I call level 4.5, which is less costly than level 5. It has the same material on the wall as level 4, but instead of the plasterer deliberately creating cat faces, they try to make it smooth. The outcome is a smooth wall with random, tiny, well-spaced cat faces. This finish works well for nearly all smooth wall requirements.
A word about the unique signature of each plasterer. Each person has a distinctive way of creating textures and a unique pattern in their work. When approving a large sample, ensure that you also request the same person who made the approved sample. The personal, unique signature also applies to stone masonry work.
Week 30
My Favorite Wall
The “Japanese” carpentry crew at Green Gulch Farm did everything. Almost everything. We milled all the wood, mixed, formed, and poured all the concrete, set the floor tile (a significant task), completed the plumbing, and, of course, all the carpentry and joinery. Additionally, a custom shop in Berkeley crafted the windows using traditional mortise-and-tenon joinery. Working at Green Gulch Farm would be a story by itself.
The main building we were working on was an octagonal two-story guest house called Lindisfarne. After most of Lindisfarne was complete, the walls were ready to be plastered. I was one of the crew members tasked with mixing Tsuchi (earthen walls), a traditional Japanese plaster made of clay, sand, straw, and water. Additionally, I am told that in Japan, animal manure was used as a bonding agent. We dug the clay from around our open-air workshop and passed it through a fine sieve. I can’t remember if we added sand. We cut the straw into one-inch lengths and removed the nodes. Not wanting to use animal manure for guest accommodations, we added white glue, basically the same acrylic medium I used to mix custom colors. A master plasterer, Naito San, was brought over from Japan to do the plastering. The finished walls were exquisite, resembling a mottled cardboard box color, with some of the straw showing through, giving them a fabric-like quality and a profound sense of natural, unpretentious beauty. To say the wall was earthy is an understatement.
Week 31
Stone Wall
Pinnacle of nuance and craft
I had a project in Northern California where the stone size and color, the grout color and texture, and the layout of the exterior stonework had to be precise. There is a nineteenth-century stone winery building, reputedly the first winery building in our county, about one hour away from the project site. The clients loved the look of the stonework. We went together to see the building, and I could see why. I visited the building four more times to gain a deeper understanding of the nuances. Photographs alone did not provide the story. The bottom rows of stone were large, gradually giving way to smaller stones at the top of the wall. We were able to identify the original stone used, but we were unable to find a supplier for it. Our local building material supplier was able to find the right color stone, but not the right size. Our bottom stones needed to be 20 inches tall and up to 30 inches wide. The commonly available ledge stone was only 14 inches high and 1.25 inches thick. Our stone would need to be 3” thick. An out-of-state quarry agreed to mill the stone we required with a three-month lead time.
When the time came, the mason built a mock corner wall, eight feet high and four feet wide at each corner, on the house site to create sample layouts. It took several trial runs before everyone was satisfied. Next was grout testing to achieve the desired color and texture of the aggregate, and they were ready to go. Needless to say, the finished exterior walls are spectacular.
Years later, we used stone walls on a new home I mentioned later in the book. The Morandi home. The narrative was that the building should have a 19th-century impression. Although the stone we wanted was readily available, a nearby brewery had used it, and we did not like the pattern of the final product. We found a second stone of similar color with larger, more organic pieces, which we added to the final mix at a 30% ratio. We requested a mock corner and followed the same trial process as the previous home. The outcome transported us back 150 years. What was evident with both of these homes was that each mason was at the top of their craft and also had a unique signature.
Week 32
Four movements of home: a music metaphor
A framework for considering the various functions and feelings associated with spaces or moments within a dwelling.
Welcome: Instrumental introduction. Arrival [hors d'oeuvres]. A sense of what’s to come. Initial impression, the entry, and the hint of the overall atmosphere.
Gratitude: Lyrics and melody. Breaking bread together, giving thanks. Evoking the communal, nurturing heart of the home, often centered around shared meals and heartfelt connection.
Cherish: Chorus: All in harmony. Conversations. This speaks to the ongoing, deeper connections and activities that foster joy and togetherness.
Dream: Diminuendo, Rest, and rejuvenate. Acknowledging the essential need for private, restorative spaces within the home.
How can we utilize metaphors like this to plan for our own experiences and those of others?