rails

The restoration of Marcel Breuer's House in a Museum Garden is an exercise in balancing the Bauhaus architect's original intent with the realities of everyday living. Photograph by Diana Budds.

The wide plywood stairs have a built-in bookcase. Behind the stairs is a 5 x 30-foot corridor to store his bigger paintings.

Main stair

Eileen Gray’s 1935 Bonaparte armchair and Petite Coiffeuse occasional table from 1929 form a stair landing tableau.

Fabricated by Stocklin Iron Works and designed by Nebolon, the orange staircase features steel railings and treads made from IKEA wood butcher blocks. “We designed the open staircase to make the trip to the second floor fun,” the architect says.

One of the most challenging aspects of the build was incorporating the residents' request for a diverse material palette. The flooring is ash and the cabinetry is Mahogany. Cash Barnes custom fabricated the steel railing as well as the bridge and insect screens.

The two upstairs bedrooms are equal in size and open to the living room below (the metal railing is repeated from the entryway). In a 1958 interview Richard Opdahl commented that, “The only criticism is that there is little aural privacy in a house of this size.”

Interior Windows, Steel Stairs, Steel Railing

The collection of neck-ties Lloyd-Butler and Zelen have amassed is on permanent display draped over an upstairs railing.