Collection by Mike Muldoon
Guest House
The compact rental features plenty of wooden ledges, nooks, and shelves for keeping belongings organized. In the living room, a low white wall is capped with fir wood salvaged from the garage’s former posts. On the east wall, a half-door made of reclaimed cedar looks out on a garden. “It looks and lives a lot bigger than it is,” Schaer says.
BEFORE
After being used as an auto repair shop, the garage had been subdivided to include a dark storage area with an unsettingly low ceiling. Schaer opened up the space, replacing the collar ties in the rafters with a sloping triangular plane that Schaer says “draws the eye from one end of the space to the other, increasing its perceived size.” It’s also utilitarian, providing natural ventilation by funneling hot air up through a triangular vent window.