walls

A ribbed wall made from maple features a hidden door that accesses the primary bedroom, which is located just off the entry.

The entryway has enough storage for the family of four, with spots for guests.

The couple wanted to make sure that their home was distinctive from the other modern properties that were popping up in Venice Beach, thanks to plenty of bespoke features.

Simple brass screws affix the bathroom’s antibacterial copper cladding, reclaimed from a barn roof in Connecticut, to the walls. Bronze screen frames, salvaged from buildings on Shope’s Amenia property and then cut into small decorative strips, line the bathroom door frame.

Local artist John Bisbee created a decorative screen out of nails for the end of the base cabinet. Stuart built the drawers using traditional wood-on-wood slides and proportionally spaced dovetails, which operate differently in summer and winter. “Those idiosyncrasies effect the way you interact with it,” Stuart notes. “The kitchen is experiential in that way.”

The home’s modest size meant Caleb did not have to worry too much about material and labor costs. For example, all the interior walls are done in plaster, which is three-to-four times more expensive than drywall in Maine.

Walls throughout the house, including in the ground-floor hall, are finished with veneer plaster. A custom mix of base and finish coats, tinted with bright-white titanium dioxide, allowed for two textures and three shades of white, all of which Andrew modulated during the troweling.