Barn Board

Across the street from the last blog posting I was asked to do some work with old barn boards. This is a material that in my mind says "1970s basement renos". But when I talked with the customer they had ideas which turned this vision upside down. Instead of my wary concept they saw the board as an interesting decorative material that could be fun. So rather than lining the stairway with plain boards I made frames from vanished "brown boards" and let the grey interiors play out their various shades in differently angled orientations.

Then in the hallway I made a bench with the leftover material to provide a space to sit, store boots and library books, and provide a drop off for keys and gloves.

Across the hall I built a storage unit for the dining room. The customer's suggestion for a patchwork look allowed for more playful use of materials without using the design ideas that had been employed in the stairway.

These details show the richness of the texture shown to advantage by the oblique light from the window.

The fact that there are no handles means the design is unbroken. It may also be a way to deter young infants from discovering the liquor cabinet too soon. But they may be smarter than we think.