It was Leon’s idea to reuse the old window. thick troweled-on layer of plaster provides the hand-worked texture.Ī recycled window overlooks the backyard in a bay window bump-out. The blue board gives the plaster its strength, and a single 1/4in. Blue board is essentially drywall with a porous paper surface designed to grip plaster. The ceilings of the kitchen and dining room were made with blue board and skim-coated plaster. This product ensured that the new plaster bonded thoroughly to the painted surface of the old plaster. Before applying a skim coat of plaster to the old walls, they primed the walls with Plaster-Weld®, a bonding agent made by Larsen Products Corp. The crew used a modern, timesaving bonding agent to speed the plastering of the dining room walls. this traditional way of applying plaster is labor intensive, but it’s the best method for matching original work and for creating curved surfaces. This process requires a solid substrate followed by a layer of expanded metal lath and then three applications of plaster. To patch the original plaster in the living room and to create the arched passageway, they used traditional three coat plaster. What’s not apparent in this remodel is that our contractor, Bashland Builders, used a variety of plaster techniques to achieve the wall finish. Like the original builders, we made the new wall out of studs, sheathing and plaster. A wall this thick gives the impression of adobe masonry, which was the intent of the original builders of the house. thick, providing us with ample room for plastered niches within the new arch. They provided us with a rich heritage of detail to duplicate in the remodeled rooms.įor example, the wall between the dining room and the living room includes an arched passage that echoes the original archway in the entry hall. Architectural features such as the rounded corbels in hand-tooled plaster occur throughout the house. It’s there to stake out the border between the rooms and to provide a prominent stage for the curved plaster corbels that tie the beam to the walls. To emphasize this division, we placed a beam across the ceiling at the imaginary boundary between the kitchen and the dining room. The layout of the new kitchen/dining room divides the former study almost exactly in half lengthwise. Plaster detailing ties the new work to the old house. And we could add a shower to the little half-bath off the old kitchen, creating a guest suite without altering the footprint of the original house. The space even had a pair of French doors leading to the backyard patio.įreeing the space occupied by the original kitchen would make a perfect place for a guest bedroom. ![]() Dimly lit and awkwardly proportioned, the study was a kitchen/dining room just waiting to happen. The two rooms were isolated from one another by a wall of bookcases in the study. With the ascent of cooking as a social activity, contemporary couples almost always want the kitchen, the dining area, and the living room closely connected.Īs if to punctuate the irony of the misplaced kitchen, a long narrow study occupied the space adjacent to the to the living room. ![]() The kitchen and dining room were separate, connected only by a doorway, and they were a half-floor level below the living room. ![]() Unfortunately, the house had a befuddled floor plan.įirst, the 20s floor plan reflected 20s activities, when meals were prepared in virtual seclusion behind closed doors. Its original flavor was intact, with wrought-iron work, leaded windows, a painted wood beam ceiling and a third floor veranda. Built in the 20s, their new home is a well-preserved example of the eclectic Spanish style that flourished in California during the 20s and 30s. Their search turned up the almost perfect house. They liked the charm of older homes, and they wanted to be in a part of town that still had its landscaping in tact. My clients, Lauren Leimbach and Leon Sompolinsky, decided that this approach was right for them. Some folks chose to take the insurance money and but older places in nearby neighborhoods. But not everybody who lost a home built a new one. ![]() The great Oakland, California, fire of 1991 started a mini building boom in the Bay Area. Reprinted with permission of Fine Homebuilding, September 1996. Plaster detailing seamlessly blends new and old as an architect resolves a poorly organized floor plan.
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