Echo Chamber

A sliding glass door and breezy cross ventilation make Louis Molina’s modest living room appear more generous than its actual dimensions.

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The downstairs office houses the tools of the trade.

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Good Idea Studio redesigned the front facade with a welded tube steel staircase, an aluminum-and-polycarbonate awning, and fiber cement-board paneling painted “Pool Party” blue.

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The bedroom offers just enough space for a bed and nightstand.

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Surrounded by flax, agaves, and a prolific lemon tree, the gravel terrace out front makes an inviting place to eat, work, or party. Molina and Turin fashioned the table from repurposed glass and Unistrut tube steel and the humble chairs from plywood wrapped in sheets of blue foam.

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The architectural office below the living quarters is compact, with just enough space for shared workstations and a bookcase made of plywood and pink Plexiglas.

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Thanks to a skylight and the absence of conventional wall cabinets, the kitchen looks more like an airy extension of the living room than a dedicated space for cooking. With the sink, oven, and storage tucked behind and a long countertop in front, the island serves as a more versatile built-in feature.

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Molina and Turin combined angle and bar aluminum from Industrial Metal Supply Company and wheels from Pro-Fit Cabinet Hardware to design a custom track for a sliding door/projection screen fashioned out of two hollow-core doors from Stock Building Supply Company.

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At $2.75 a square foot (which includes a designer discount), Molina and Turin could afford to extend matte white ceramic tiles from Dal-Tile beyond the conventional shower boundaries to give the bathroom the look of a brighter, more expansive space.

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Red Plexiglas from a previous project was reused as colorful cabinetry accents. The material, purchased in a four-by-ten-foot sheet at Gavrieli Plastics, Metals & Sign Supplies, was cut, painted white on the back (which unexpectedly changed the color to pink-orange), then glued.

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Concrete retaining walls form an outdoor terrace that serves as a dining area, conference room, and workshop. The three-quarter-inch construction gravel from George L. Throop Company allows rain to percolate into the ground and irrigate a lemon tree rather than create polluting runoff.

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