SURFACES
Devoid of extraneous embellishment, the best neo-modern houses derive their character from carefully chosen surface materials. Smooth or textured, cold stone or warm wood, natural or man-made, each type of flooring, countertop, and wall treatment speaks volumes about you and the experience that visitors will have upon entering your home.
You could pack your rooms with five-figure furniture and accessories from Design Within Reach in hopes of creating a haven of minimalism, but the truth is, it’s the negative space—the shapes and silhouettes of furniture and accessories that aren’t there, the items you’ve nobly ejected and rejected—that reveal you to be a person of taste and substance. Only what is left behind matters.
With few furnishings to distract, the eye is drawn to the base elements of the rooms. The best surfaces are utilitarian, hard, and, ideally, monochromatic. A no-fail formula? The winning combination of plywood and concrete. As you’ll learn in the following pages, these two simple yet versatile materials can never be overused.
CASE STUDY #88
“He finally decided to eliminate the one thing that blemished the uninterrupted expanse of concrete and plywood—himself.”
Wooden Expression
Manufactured plywood is a natural choice for walls, floors, ceilings, cabinetry, and custom furniture. The material you’re familiar with is essentially a veneer atop pressed layers of pine, hence the “ply” in plywood. (It is not to be confused with MDF, or medium-density fiberboard, which is a pathetic amalgamation of shredded scrap wood commonly used to make cheap ready-to-assemble furniture.) You’ll find endless finishes with varying colors and textures, including alder, arbutus, ash, Baltic birch, bamboo, cedar, cherry, hickory, mahogany, maple, and redwood. As tempting as the rich tones of mahogany may be, think of your parents and the espresso-stained flooring in their empty-nester condo. Be exceptional, go against the grain—choose the unadulterated natural tones of knotty pine.
You can find three basic types of knotty pine plywood available at lumber yards.
GRADE A is smooth. It can be painted (although we really, really recommend against it) and features jagged patches over particularly blemished areas.
GRADE B is solid and has more wormy knots. The best pieces may even have very minor splits.
FIN-PLY is what manufacturers call Finnish plywood. It is usually more durable and attractive than generic plywood. While many plywood products are inexpensive, Fin-Ply actually costs quite a bit. However, the high cost of Fin-Ply is tempered by the desirability of its origin: Finland.
GRADE A
GRADE B
FIN-PLY
Architecture is the learned game, correct and magnificent, of forms assembled in the light.
LE CORBUSIER (1887–1965)
Charles-Édouard Jeanneret-Gris, a.k.a. Le Corbusier, was a Swiss French artist who came to personify the International style. He formally took on the pseudonym “Le Corbusier” in the 1920s, when it was fashionable to go by a persona; it seems to have been a derogatory nickname that he adopted. He had an affair with Josephine Baker (or at least he sketched her in the nude while they were traveling on an ocean liner, à la Titanic) before marrying a model and taking on an heiress as a mistress. In his later years, he became very involved in conceptual urban planning. At seventy-seven, his body was found in the Mediterranean Sea by bathers, after he suffered an apparent heart attack.
Notable Works: LC4 chaise longue. Villa Savoye, France. LC2 armchair, loveseat, sofa.
CASE STUDY #409
“Such was his loneliness that he’d took to preparing elaborate feasts with the front doors wide open, in hopes that someone— anyone—would happen by.”
Beauty Underfoot
Concrete is endlessly versatile. No other material is so well suited to a modern abode. Not only ideal for flooring and countertops in the kitchen, it’s equally compelling when used in the bath, the backyard, and the bedroom or nursery. Although it can be tinted to any shade, from fire-engine red to Starbucks green, the original grayish concrete is the most desirable and comes in a wide array of subtle hues. Here are a few of the most sought-after colorways. If you can’t find these exact shades, bring these chips to your local concrete mixer for a color match.
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PROLETARIAT GRAY |
TRUE HOAR |
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AUTHENTIC SIDEWALK |
LEADEN SKY |
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CINDER BLOCK |
INDUSTRIAL SLATE |
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MECHANIC’S CHOICE |
ICELANDIC CHILL |
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RAILROAD BALLAST |
COARSE GRAVEL |
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RAW WIND |
WANING OXFORD |
Made from natural clay or ground glass and then, in the case of ceramics, covered with a glossy or matte glaze, tiles are water resistant and easy to wipe clean. For an authentic vintage look you’ll find that using California-based Heath Ceramics’ tiles is essential.
PROS: Inexpensive ceramic subway tile in a bathroom or on a kitchen backsplash creates an antiseptic atmosphere.
CONS: Tile can present as a pre-dictable and unoriginal choice. Plus, anything other than white or puce or pure cyan appears trite.
Cork
The cork tree (Quercus suber) can live up to 250 years, producing its first batch of cork (bark peeled off of the tree) after 25 years and then being harvested every decade or so there-after. It’s possible to find cork flooring made from recycled wine corks, but easy enough to pass virgin cork off as reclaimed. It’s kind of squishy underfoot.
PROS: This renewable resource offers a pleasing irregular pattern and it’s antimicrobial for obsessive compulsive–disordered modernists.
CONS: It’s not plywood.
Bamboo
A fast-growing grass that looks and wears like hardwood, bamboo shoots are harvested and then pressed together to create a striated pattern that can be laid over subflooring. Snap-together models can be placed on top of existing offensive parquetry with minimal difficulty.
PROS: Environmentally friendly bamboo imbues rooms with organic credibility. It comes in a huge variety of stains, from blonde to espresso.
CONS: It’s not plywood.
An all-natural product, linoleum is made from a combination of linseed oil, rosin (pine resin), cork dust, limestone, wood flour, and pigments. Usually the sheets feature a jute backing. Home dwellers get extra points for using Swedish brands such as Forbo and referring to it as “Marmoleum.”
PROS: Linoleum flooring is relatively cheap and easy to clean. Dings and cuts can be resealed, making it a good surface for heavily trafficked rooms.
CONS: Could unironically skew 1940s kitsch.
Stainless Steel
The go-to for an industrial look, stainless steel isn’t actually steel. Instead, it’s made from nickel and chromium. Austenitic steel is more flexible due to a higher nickel content, while ferritic steel is more impervious to corrosion and better suited to interior architecture.
PROS: Shiny and slick, nonporous and nonstaining, stainless steel is an excellent choice for areas where you wouldn’t expect it (the bed of a child’s crib, for example).
CONS: None. (Except you can’t cut food on stain-less steel counters and it is an electrical conduit, so electrocution is always a possibility. It’s also noisy, expensive, and susceptible to dents and scratches. Still, it’s worth the investment.)
Engineered Stone
Composite stone is made using everything from recycled glass to aggregate granite chunks or quartz and held together with resin. Unlike sheets of natural granite, composites are unlikely to off-gas radon—but huffing the sealant will afford a comparable high.
PROS: Composites are incredibly durable and heat resistant, making them ideal for the adventurous cook.
CONS: It can easily be mistaken for cliché spec-home granite.
Adobe
Also known as an earthen floor, this mixture of clay, sand, and straw is laid in three layers, starting with a thick base and ending with a topcoat of perilla oil. Installation can take up to a month. Custom tints range from concrete gray to burnished brown.
PROS: Finding an expert to lay an adobe floor is nearly impossible, lending this technique extra cachet. It’s pleasingly expensive to install and won’t fade in the sun.
CONS: It cracks and blisters, making it unreliable for humid or arid climates, kitchens or bathrooms, and high-traffic areas such as hallways, bedrooms, living rooms, basements, or children’s rooms.
