Nolan Beck-Rivera was ready to move on. The Cleveland loft he had rented since finishing art school had tons of space, but he was tired of its chilly drafts and persistent leaks. After a friend shared plans for a two-story, renovated factory-turned-apartment building in Asiatown, Nolan was quick to put down a deposit on a 570-square-foot studio.

The suggested layout, however, needed adjusting. “The architects had shown a tiny, two-top table in a corner,” says Nolan. “That wasn’t going to work for me, because I love cooking and throwing big dinner parties.” His solution was to forgo a living room altogether and use the open space as a combination dining area and home office for his design practice, The Materialist. “I don’t need a couch or plushy chairs. I like dining with friends. I like working. I can do both of those at a big table,” he says.

“The apartment put me on the path to what I’m doing for a living now, which is so cool.”
—Nolan Beck-Rivera, designer and resident

When a suitable option proved elusive, Nolan went the DIY route. He turned a slab of solid walnut wood, balanced on a steel frame, into a hand-carved table that seats up to 10. Its imperfectly grooved parallel-line pattern added instant texture to the space.

Nolan’s spirit of experimentation continued in the sleeping area. Because he invites clients to his home for work, he needed a way to separate public and private spaces more deliberately, without the bedroom losing the light that comes in through the apartment’s large east-facing windows. His solution was to build a wall of corrugated plastic. “It lets in the light and also gives me more wall space to hang my art,” he says.

All that DIYing didn’t just produce his dream apartment. It also spawned Nolan’s first furniture line. He named the table, now his most popular piece, Penelope, in honor of his 100-pound mastiff.

Project Credits:

Architect of Record: Bialosky Cleveland / @bialoskyarchitects

Interior Designer: Nolan Beck-Rivera / @mterialist

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