Bringing It All Back Home
-
Lauren Ewing’s stylish but unassuming shotgun-style house in Vincennes, Indiana, is set into a hill overlooking a field she has known since childhood.Photo by: Kyoko Hamada -
Ewing used Canadian maple for the hallway and living-room floors, giving them a bright, clean look. A built-in shelving system borders the hearth, creating functional and decorative storage spaces for firewood collected on-site.Photo by: Kyoko Hamada -
The floor-to-ceiling living-room window was inspired by Philip Johnson’s Glass House.Photo by: Kyoko Hamada -
A leaf-green countertop adds a splash of color to the kitchen.Photo by: Kyoko Hamada -
The living-room sofa is by the New York–based designer Stanley Jay Friedman.Photo by: Kyoko Hamada -
The surfaces of both decks—–including the small one off Ewing’s bedroom—–were fashioned from recycled plastic fibers.Photo by: Kyoko Hamada -
Ewing designed a floor-to-ceiling window to provide an expansive view while bathing her living room in natural light. She hired D & H Glass, a local company that makes plate-glass windows for grocery stores, to join three standard-size windows, filling the 9-by-18-foot space for under $4,000.Photo by: Kyoko Hamada -
Ewing’s builder, John Lane, used a front-end loader to stack slabs of Indiana limestone for the house’s front steps. Each slab rested atop a layer of ice cubes, creating just enough clearance for the nylon straps to be pulled free. The slabs settled into place as the ice melted in the summer sun.Photo by: Kyoko Hamada -
For the exterior and roof, Ewing chose Una-Clad corrugated-steel siding. The material, more commonly found on commercial buildings, is lightweight, durable, easy to maintain, and recyclable.Photo by: Kyoko Hamada -
The cabinets in Ewing’s bedroom were made from wild cherry trees harvested from the property. The enormous trunks were too big to fit into the portable sawmill that her brother, Mark, brought to the property, so he blew them apart with dynamite and fed the pieces into the mill. The cabinets were made by Ewing’s friend Paul Keller.Photo by: Kyoko Hamada
Categories:
More
Way Out West
Leaving the bustle of Washington, D.C., architect Joe Day and his wife return to California and discover that life in a single-family dwelling isn't as isolated as they had feared.
Taking His Own Advice
When Greg Reitz was ten years old, he was already so worried about the state of the planet that, without prompting from his parents, he spent his allowance to join Greenpeace.
10 Modern Gables
You'll never tear us away from the flat-roof modernism so prevalent in Dwell's pages over the last 12 years; nor would we try to eschew touting the glory of mid-century housing typologies.
Sweet Nothing
We’re heading into an uncertain future, but two things are clear: Technology is getting better and the environment is getting worse.
Add comment